Category Archives: Community

Lowndes County doesn’t do what it says —Ernest McDonald @ LCC 8 August 2011



County resident Ernest McDonald laid out a list of issues he said the
county hasn’t addressed correctly.
He said it wasn’t anything personal.
He wasn’t mad.
He just thought there were some issues that needed to be addressed.

For example, regarding moving a power line from one side of the
road to another as agreed:

We met every person involved.
The state, the high pressure gasline….
The telephone buried cable people, they came.


The county engineer came…. And we all agreed….
Put stakes in the ground….
The stakes had rotted down.

It’s been so long the stakes rotted down, and nothing ever got done.
As Ernest McDonald said:

That’s not right.

The County Engineer was missing from the meeting.
It’s a bit hard to see in the picture, but there are only two heads
in front of the glaring window, and the Engineer would
be the third head in the middle.

In another issue, Ernest McDonald paid $650 to find a sewer line,
marked it, and the county tore up

Continue reading →

Lowndes County isn’t the only one with a trash problem

Curbside pick up for $196 per year. Mandatory.

Jerry Askin wrote for WCTV 2 August 2011,

Wakulla County Soon To Have Mandatory Curbside Trash Pickup?
Folks in Wakulla County could soon be forced to pay mandatory fees for curbside trash pickup.



“It’s going to provide our residents a way to easily dispose of their
garbage. And it will provide recycling opportunities for the citizens
of Wakulla County,” says Wakulla County Commissioner Alan Brock.

“I personally don’t want to spend the expense of having

Continue reading →

Locals speaks to Senators

Two local Lowndes County people spoke to
Georgia’s Senators
at their town hall meeting in Fitzgerald about the recent debt ceiling legislation.

J.D. Sumner wrote for the Albany Herald 9 August 2011,

U.S. senators meet with public about concerns:



Gretchen Quarterman, a Lowndes County Democrat who drove from Valdosta to
participate in the meeting, asked both senators if they were committed
to bringing U.S. armed forces abroad home, thereby saving money; money,
she said, that could be spent on much-needed domestic programs like
infrastructure improvements here.

“Everything has got to be on the table, and yes, defense has got to
be on the table as well,” Isakson said. “But we have to make sure
that we don’t slight the veterans who are coming home and will need
proper care.”

Then he grossly underestimated the military budget and said Congress
wouldn’t tell the Pentagon what to do.

George Boston Rhynes spoke:

Continue reading →

Ill-conceived to contaminate our air —Barry Z. Hyatt @ VLCIA 19 April 2011



Every protester has a story:

We’re here to protest the building of the biomass plant.
We think it’s ill-conceived to contaminate our air.
Our children, retirees, all sorts of folks….

Here’s

the video:




Ill-conceived to contaminate our air –Barry Z. Hyatt @ VLCIA 19 April 2011

Biomass protesters,

Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,

Brad Lofton Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 April 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Community Calendar —Jane F. Osborn 9 August 2011



The latest update (9 August 2011) is online for the

community calendar
produced by

Jane F. Osborn
who organizes the

Valdosta Civic Roundtable.
She says:

…the calendar is not
produced for civic roundtable, it is just a project of mine for the many
counties that lost a source of information when 2-1-1 was discontinued.

LAKE will attempt to remember to update new ones in

this web page
as Miss Jane sends them.
We hope you, dear readers, will remind us if we don’t.

-jsq

Your children’s education at stake —Sam Allen, FVCS, 7 July 2011

Good question:



“Are you willing to put your children’s education at stake
because somebody has promised you something they can’t deliver?
I for one am not willing.”

Here’s

the video:




Your children’s education at stake —Sam Allen, FVCS, 7 July 2011

No school consolidation,

Press Conference, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

You can’t get rid of the War on Drugs unless you end Prohibition

Video from the NAACP Criminal Justice Summit in Chicago,

thanks to LEAP:



We cannot duck this issue.
I couldn’t duck it any more.
I couldn’t sleep, if I wasn’t out advocating
getting rid of the War on Drugs.
You can’t get to end the War on Drugs
that the whole bureaucratic
institution of the United States of America
has declared, unless you end prohibtion.
They couldn’t do it with alcohol, and you can’t do it with drugs.

—Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP

Here’s the video:

Continue reading →

No inhumane treatment issues other than the pot belly pig?

Received Sunday a PDF of a letter from
Joe Pritchard, County Manager, to Mary Greene, GA Dep. of Ag.
together with the appended
cover letter from Susan Leavens. -jsq

Mr. Prichard has made many comments
in reference to several of his employees; in recent news paper
articles and on the evening news indirectly of course that “they”
had bios opinions and even questioned my character in one article.

Mr. Prichard also informed everyone
there were no inhumane treatment issues other than the pot belly pig.
Well I believe in this document from County Manager Joe Prichard to
Ms. Mary Green with Department of Agriculture animal protection says
otherwise. I believe Mr. Prichard’s recent statement to the media
was though our investigation we found no wrong doing… lets list
them here.

Continue reading →

All authority to law enforcement and/or an Animal Services Officer?

More interesting discussion in the comments on

Let the Humane Society train animal control officers
including this one this morning. -jsq

In reading over the Lowndes Co. Animal Ordinance, it appears to give
all authority to law enforcement and/or an Animal Services Officer –
for enforcing the provisions of the Animal article. The only thing I can
see that the Animal Services Officer isn’t legally authorized to do is
to arrest an individual. – IF I’m reading/interpreting correctly.

-An Outsider Looking In

This is one of the few ordinances actually linked from the Lowndes County
web pages, so you can read it for yourself.

-jsq

There is more than one option —Sam Allen @ FVCS 7 July 2011



Sam Allen of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) tells us
what CUEE didn’t.

“You can read the billboards, you can look at the pretty brochures,
but that’s all your going to get.”

So what haven’t we been told?

Continue reading →