Author Archives: John S. Quarterman

Alcohol, Public Defender, ULDC, Whitewater Road Lift Station Pump @ LCC 2021-02-08

Why does the county need

a consultant to help revise its Unified Land Development Code (ULDC), to the tune of $39,370.00?
On the agenda for discussion Monday morning 8:30 AM and voting Tuesday 5:30 PM
by the Lowndes County Commission, February 8 and 9, 2021.

The Utilities Department wants

a pump for its Whitewater Road Lift Station
before it fails, which is a good thing: preventive maintenance.

Public Works wants to

buy a lift instead of renting one.
Probably this will reduce overall expenditures for “building maintenance, maintaining banners in the parking lots and for Christmas decorating.”

Cost What
$39,370.00
ULDC Revision – Agreement with Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC)
$39,261.63
Bid for a Lift for the Public Works Department
$39,158.7.00
Whitewater Road Lift Station Pump
$117,790.33 Total

The annual
2021 Public Defender Contracts
are up for renewal.
While this is a good thing, it’s curious that it’s listed as having no effect on the budget, despite costing money.

And there are two alcohol licenses to vote on.
Curious that those show no effect on the budget.
Is there no fee for an alcohol license?

The entire board packet is

on the LAKE website, received Friday in response to a LAKE open records request.
Here is
the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2021, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

  1. Call to Order

  2. Invocation

  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

  4. Minutes for Approval

    1. Work Session – January 25, 2021 & Regular Session – January 26, 2021
  5. Public Hearing

    1. Beer, Wine, and Liquor License – Lucila Parker of Restaurante Mexicano San Judas Tadeo, Inc., DBA Restaurante Mexicano San Judas Tadeo, Inc. – 4333 Bemiss Rd. Suite 12, Valdosta, GA

      Documents:Beer, Wine, and Liquor License – Lucila Parker of Restaurante Mexicano San Judas Tadeo, Inc., DBA Restaurante Mexicano San Judas Tadeo, Inc.pdf

  6. For Consideration

    1. Wine License – Manishaben Patel of Sai Krupa 2018 LLC, DBA JP Foods #2 – 3663 New Statenville Hwy., Valdosta, GA

      Documents:Wine License – Manishaben Patel of Sai Krupa 2018 LLC, DBA JP Foods 2.pdf

    2. 2021 Public Defender Contracts

      Documents:2021 Public Defender Contracts.pdf

    3. ULDC Revision – Agreement with Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC)

      Documents:ULDC Revision – Agreement with Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC).pdf

    4. Whitewater Road Lift Station Pump

      Documents:Whitewater Road Lift Station Pump.pdf

  7. Bid

    1. Bid for a Lift for the Public Works Department

      Documents:Bid for a Lift for the Public Works Department.pdf

  8. Reports – County Manager

  9. Citizens Wishing to be Heard-Please State Your Name and Address

  10. Adjournment

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

Packet: Clyattstone Road rezoning yet again, Decorative lighting, Transportation, Alcohol, Taxes, Law, Cybersecurity, Pandemic @ LCC 2021-01-25

After discussion Monday morning, on Tuesday evening the Lowndes County Commission will approve spending $2 million tax dollars, mostly in $1.6 million on

Lake Park Bellville Road, including relocating water and sewer lines.
There’s another $90,000 on
Hightower Road and Cooper Road NE, Right of Way Purchases.

Cost What
$1,655,975.00 Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Contract Item Agreement/Memorandum of Understanding Lake Park Bellville Road
$280,193.75 FY 2020 Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant Application
$90,670.31 Approval of Hightower Road and Cooper Road NE, Right of Way Purchases
$29,400.00 Cybersecurity Maturity Tier 1
$12,500.00 Agreement with SGRC to Develop 2021 Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan Update
$20,000.00 FY 2020 Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Grant (to be fully reimbursed)
$2,068,739.06 Total

REZ-2020-20 Ballyntyne 6712 Clyattstone Road
is back yet again, this time probably to be improved.
The agenda sheet says no cost for that rezoning,
but remember last time we added up more than $3 million the county
has already spent on Clyattstone Road and water and sewer infrastructure.

The least expensive item with dollars listed is
FY 2020 Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Grant, because it will be fully reimbursed.

Also inexpensive and probably cost-effective is
Agreement with SGRC to Develop 2021 Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan Update.

[Subdivisions in northwest Lowndes County, GA]

Subdivisions in northwest Lowndes County, GA

Listed at no cost to the county is
Addition to Basic Decorative Street Lighting District – Creekside West, Ph. 6 & 7 and Val Del Villas,
which includes maps of subdivisions in northwest Lowndes County,
allowing you to see the extent of sprawl so far in that direction.

The board packet is on the LAKE website, received Friday in response to a LAKE open records request.


http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-01-25–lcc-packet/

We look forward to board packets being on the county’s own website along with

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Grinding by Valdosta and Nashville, FInances, Audit, Officers Election DSSWA 2021-01-20

Should be interesting.

The Deep South Solid Waste Authority (SSWA) Board packet is on the LAKE website:


http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/dsswa/2021-01-20–dsswa-packet/

If you want to attend, which you can do remotely, please contact
Elizabeth Backe, AICP,
Planning Director,
Southern Georgia Regional Commission,
229-333-5277 ext. 146,
ebacke@sgrc.us.

[Attorney Tommy Coleman]

Photo: John S. Quarterman for LAKE of DSSWA 2020-11-18 meeting

Meeting of the Board of Directors

Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste Management Authority

January 20, 2021

6:00 PM

Southern Georgia Regional Commission

Valdosta, Georgia

AGENDA

Continue reading →

COVID-19, Ballyntyne Subdivision, County expenses for Hightower Road, Sewer, Moody AFB, Fire Pumper @ LCC 2021-01-11

The agenda sheet for rezoning
REZ-2020-20 Ballyntyne (back again from last month)
claims no budget impact,
but that ignores the many thousands of county tax dollars already spent on

Clyattstone Road, as well as followup maintenance of roads,
sewer, and water,
not to mention School Board expenses for sending buses, as well as Fire Department and Sheriff Department expenses whenever called.

[WRPDO Site Map]

WRPDO Site Map

This is what I’ve found the Lowndes County Commission has already spent on Clyattstone Road, and I may have missed some.

Cost What When
$1,681,770.84 Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving of Clyattstone Road and Simpson Lane. 2020-09-21
$1,417,333.98 Clyattstone Water Main Extension 2020-09-21
$43,245.50 The stated ROW cost in the agenda 2020-02-24

$23,590.50 Approval of Clyattstone Rd.-Simpson Ln. ROW and Easement Purchases (Parcels 26 and 34) 2020-07-14
$20,000.00
For wetland credits acquisition		 2020-04-28.

$11,535.00 and the other stated ROW cost in the agenda

$2,916.00 Up to that amount for an acre of drainage for Simpson Lane 2020-04-16.

$1,085.00 Approve Purchasing ROW and Drainage Easement for Clyattstone Rd.-Simpson Ln. TSPLOST Paving Project 2020-05-27
$3,201,476.82 County tax dollars so far spent on Clyattstone Road

So that’s more than $3 million tax dollars the county has already spent subsidizing subdivision developers on Clyattstone Road, before getting into maintenance and later School Board and Fire and Sheriff Department expenses.
Remember that when somebody says public transportation has to be subsidized.

Here are the expenses acknowledged in agenda sheets for this coming week’s Commission meetings:

Cost What
$351,115.00 Bid for a Pumper for the Fire Department
$315,557.58 Approval of Railroad Agreement for Hightower Road Project
$96,556.75 Low Pressure Sewer Force Main Upgrade on Old Bemiss and Bemiss Knights Academy Road
$28,000.75 Approval of Hightower Road and Cooper Road NE, Right of Way Purchases
$2,500.00 Moody Water Treatment Plant Emergency Repair
$793,730.08 Total

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request,
is on the LAKE website:

http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-01-11–lcc-packet

Here is

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2021, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Tax Assessors appointed, sworn in, Lowndes County, Georgia 2020-01-05

After many years of rising sentiment,
the voters in November 2019,
approved changing Lowndes County from
being one of only two of 159 Georgia counties that elected its Tax Assessors
to appointing them, and the legislature agreed.
Finally in September 2020 the Lowndes County Commission appointed three new
Assessors, and on January 5, 2021, they were sworn in.
Their first official meeting is tomorrow.

[Vote, Swearing, Judge, Assessors]

Vote, Swearing, Judge, Assessors

Applying for the
Board of Tax Assessors
according to

the agenda for the 21 September, 2020, Work Session and the Tuesday, 22 September Regular Session
were
Mr. Gene Felts and Mrs. Gretchen Quarterman.
The Tuesday voting was a bit more complicated. Continue reading →

Solar power is beating fracked methane like the Internet won over BITNET

Why am I so sure that I will live to see fracked methane pipelines shut down,
along with their tar sands and petroleum partners in crime?
Because I’ve seen it before, a quarter century ago,
when the Internet won over all other networks, including BITNET.


BITNET in the U.S. and Worldwide and the Internet, Matrix News 4.10 October 1994


BITNET in the U.S. and Worldwide and the Internet,
in

Matrix News 4.10 October 1994.

The exponential growth of the Internet sucked users away from all the other networks.
Coal is already crashing so fast that cleaning up coal ash is the biggest issue.
Nukes are closing left and right.
“Natural” gas is still growing, but not as fast as solar and wind, which produced more new electricity than any other source in 2020.
Soon, fracked methane will peak, and then it will fall fast, just like coal did. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Solar, wind, batteries and other storage will continue to soar until almost all electricity comes from them.
A cleaner world, with profit for those who buy in, and lower power charges for everyone: it’s coming fast.

Vote for clean energy and help it arrive faster.

Remember FidoNet?
Probably you’ve never heard of it, and this is why.
Remember BITNET?
Maybe not, but one of its neologisms lingers on: Continue reading →

FFA, Appointments, Liquor, Rezonings, Roads, Forestry, DUI, Holidays, Insurance, Calendar, Trucks @ LCC 2020-12-07

Update 2020-12-15: Board packet is on the LAKE website.

A million and a half dollars, mostly for insurance, on the agenda for the final
Lowndes County Commission session of 2020, and that’s not counting
the many-years-long ramifications of rezoning for new subdivisions
and acquiring right of way for a new road.

[Rezonings: REZ-2020-17 3833 Inner Perimeter Road; REZ-2020-19 3435 Bemiss Knights Academy; REZ-2020-20 6712 Clyattstone Road]

Rezonings: REZ-2020-17 3833 Inner Perimeter Road; REZ-2020-19 3435 Bemiss Knights Academy; REZ-2020-20 6712 Clyattstone Road

Cost What
$1,240,297.00 2021 Stop Loss Insurance Coverage Renewal Through Symetra Life Ins. Company
$174,759.00 2021 ACCG Workers’ Compensation Insurance Renewal
$60,862.00 Bid for 2 – Three Quarter Ton Trucks for the Engineering Department
$27,367.00 Bid for a Sport Utility Vehicle for the 911 Center
$920.50
Georgia Forestry Commission Services [LAS prescribed burns] Agreement
$381.00 Office of the Governor Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Accountability Court Lowndes County DUI Court- State Court
$1,504,586.50 Total

Lowndes County Development Authority
Terms are up for Brooks Akins, Gary Cannon, and Jerome Tucker. Cannon and Tucker want reappointment, and the Commission almost always reappoints.

Resolution Rejection Quitclaim Deed; Affidavit Regarding Title- Branch Point.
The County has laid out the right-of-way for a county road known as Fender Road between Williams School…
Trading a parcel to William Q. Touchton, Jr. for another parcel for the road.

REZ-2020-20 Ballyntyne 6712 Clyattstone Road (0071 008) R-1 to R-10, Water & Sewer, ~40.3 acres .
For 105+ house lots. In 2006, for a more complicated plan on the same site, GLPC recommended denial 7:0, County Commission denied 2:0. What did GLPC vote this time?
And how about factoring in all the costs of paving Clyattstone Road over many previous Commission meetings? Continue reading →

Videos: Finance, WM absorbed ADS, Meetings by zoom, Valdosta assistant manager @ DSSWA 2020-11-18

The most interesting parts were not on the agenda at the

DSSWA meeting Wednesday evening.

[Richard Hardy, Elizabeth Backe, Steve Edwards, DSSWA]

Richard Hardy, Elizabeth Backe, Steve Edwards, DSSWA


Steve Edwards explained that the WM acquisition of Advanced Disposal Services (ADS) Continue reading →

Waste Management bought ADS, finances, officers, DSSWA 2020-11-18

The Deep South Solid Waste Authority (DSSWA) disburses grant money from landfill tipping fees
to participating local governments.

This meeting will be in the new Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) office, 1937 Carlton Adams Dr.,
across from the Lowndes Board of Education and next to the Goo Goo Car Wash.

[Agenda and WM acquisition schedule for ADS]

Agenda and WM acquisition schedule for ADS

I’m of a mind to zoom the meeting.

Here is the agenda.
The entire board packet is

on the LAKE website,
thanks to Elizabeth Backe of SGRC.

DEEP SOUTH

REGIONAL MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY

Meeting of the Board of Directors

Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste Management Authority

November 18, 2020

6:00 PM

Southern Georgia Regional Commission

Valdosta, Georgia

AGENDA

  1. Welcome and Introduction
  2. Minutes of July 15, 2020 Meeting e Draft attached for review
    and motion

  3. Financial Report Jan-September 2020
  4. Financial Audit Engagement Letter
  5. Royalty Disbursement for Period of Jan 1 — June 30, 2020
  6. Grinding Reimbursement Request — City of Valdosta
  7. New application format for future grinding reimbursement
    requests

  8. Appointment of Nominating Committee for Election of Officers in
    January 2021

  9. Other Business e Waste Management letter for review and
    discussion

  10. Adjourn

    Next regular scheduled meeting will be on January 20, 2021 at 6 p.m.

Phone: (229) 333-5277

Fax: (229) 333-5312

1937 Carlton Adams Drive

Valdosta, Georgia 31601

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

2 Appointments, 3 rezonings, MIDS Bus, WM buying ADS, Debris Removal @ LCC 2020-11-09

Waste Management has bought Advanced Disposal Services.

Lowndes County, Georgia, is

buying up three Lee Street lots north of the County Palace,
adding to the county’s holdings between Ashley and Lee Streets south of Webster Street in Valdosta.
They will discuss 8:30 AM Monday and vote 5:30 PM Tuesday.

[3 Lots Map and Agenda Item]

3 Lots Map and Agenda Item

Clint Joyner wants his new roads in Knights Landing Subdivision off of Knights Academy Road to be called Countess Court, Bishop Court, Duke Court, and Duchess Court.

Commissioner Joyce Evans and Michael Smith want to be reappointed to the
Valdosta Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority.
J.D. Rice wants to be appointed to a vacant seat on the
Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority.

Here is
the agenda.
The entire board packet is
on the LAKE website, as a result of a LAKE Open Records request.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2020, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →