In its last meeting of calendar year 2019, the Lowndes County Commission had many items to wrap up, as you can see in the board packet, on the LAKE website. We don’t know why the county sent this packet in black and white.
LAKE videos of the Work Session and Regular Session will follow.
LAKE sent an open records request Continue reading
Longest at four and a half minutes on November 12, 2019, was 6.e. Grant Re-Application for the Rural (5311)Transportation Program, in other words, the MIDS on-demand bus system; follow the link for more notes, including a question about where have the county funds for this been coming from.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall about the MIDS bus system.
Let’s hope the Arglass project doesn’t turn out like the James Road project a decade ago, with massive road paving and road and utilities rerouting, and nothing else, given that the county just approved a grant and VLDA match of more than a million dollars for road repaving for Arglass.
The truck bypass through downtown Valdosta had some discussion about when the bypass would happen and why the county is passing an ordinance now.
Um, it’s actually a generator for emergency management that took two minutes. 6.j. Hart Road Lift Station Pump took half a minute.
And another big item at three minutes: Continue reading
Unusual on the Valdosta City Council agenda for Thursday are an award to Valdosta Main Street and a request by WWALS Watershed Coalition for support for its Troupville River Camp project; see also WWALS blog post.
Photo: via Valdosta Today.
Possibly controversial is the item to allow Sunday Alcohol Sales to begin at 11:00 a.m. Business as usual includes a rezoning several road widening and other traffic improvement items.
Here is the agenda.
AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, December 5, 2019
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
- Opening Ceremonies
- Awards and Presentations
- Special Recognition of the Valdosta Main Street Program as a Georgia Exceptional Main Street (GEMS) by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Office of Downtown Development.
- Consideration of a request for a Special Presentation at the December 5, 2019 Regular City Council Meeting.
- Consideration of the December, 2019 Employee of the Month Award (Sergeant Heather Willis, Valdosta Police Department).
- Minutes Approval
- Public Hearings
- Consideration of an Ordinance to rezone 6.70 acres from Planned Mixed Use Development (PMD) to Highway-Commercial (C-H) by Quick Trip Corporation (File No. VA-2019-08). The property is located at 1394 North St. Augustine Road. The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission reviewed this request at their November Regular Meeting and recommended approval (8-0 Vote).
- Consideration of an Ordinance for Text Amendments to Chapter 102 – General Provisions, Chapter 106 – Definitions, Chapter 242 – Zoning Procedures, Chapter 302 – Subdivision and Site Development Standards, and Chapter 332 – Infrastructure and Site Improvements of the City of Valdosta Land Development Regulations (File No. VA-2019-09). The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission reviewed this request at their November Regular Meeting and recommended approval (8-0 Vote).
- Ordinances and Resolutions
- Consideration of an Ordinance to amend the City of Valdosta’s Alcohol Ordinance to allow Sunday Alcohol Sales to begin at 11:00 a.m.
- Consideration of a Resolution authorizing the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Revenue to provide sales tax information to the City of Valdosta’s Finance Director.
- Consideration of a Resolution authorizing the acceptance of a Contract with the Georgia Department of Transportation for the Eager Road/Jerry Jones Widening Project.
- Bids, Contracts, Agreements and Expenditures
- Local Funding and Requests
- City Manager’s Report
- Council Comments
- Citizens to be Heard
- Adjournment
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The longest item at yesterday morning’s Work Session was the unscheduled 8. Reports County Manager – Recognition of Fire Safety. The whole thing took less than nine minutes. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.
Second longest was the Solicitor General combining the two items on Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Third longest was 7.a.Judicial and Administrative Complex Roof Cleaning
Below are Continue reading
In a session of house-cleaning (including literally), Lowndes County is updating its Revision of the County Occupation Tax Ordinance,
with detailed definitions and tax classifications for every occupation in the county.
The mysterious Joint Ordinance the Planning Commission keeps cryptically alluding to turns out to be about revising the charter of the Planning Commission to add Remerton, to note Lowndes County now handles GLPC’s budget, and other updates.
The county is applying for a Georgia Department of Transportation Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant (LMIG) for resurfacing roads, many of them in subdivisions.
And a GDOT grant for the MIDS on-call bus system.
The county is approving Approval of the Submittal Resolution for the CDBG-EIP Grant Application for Street Paving and Drainage Improvements to Support the Arglass Project, with $750,000 to come from CDBG-EIP funds, and the remainder of $325,591 from the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority. The county also has A Resolution to Support Eliminating Through Tractor Trailer Truck Traffic Downtown Valdosta. And it is fixing a misfiling of the deed for Chitty Park by transfering it to VLPRA for VLPRA to then transfer back to Lowndes County.
Sewage will be aided by a new Hart Road Lift Station Pump, and safety by Bids for a New Generator for 911.
Plus Bids for Lowndes County Judicial and Administrative Complex Roof Cleaning.
There are two Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) items, for the Solicitor General and for the District Attorney, and one Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) item for the Solicitor General.
Received 3:48 PM, Friday, November 8, 2019, “The agenda packet for next week’s meetings is attached. The October 21 & 22, 2019, minutes will be available Monday.” That Lowndes County Commission in response to a LAKE open records request is now on the LAKE website.
Here is the agenda. Continue reading
County Manager Joe Pritchard said Finance Director Stephanie Black has received a millage report from the Tax Commissioner. He and she will prepare something from it for the Lowndes County Commissioners for a later meeting.
The board packet is on the LAKE website, in response to a LAKE open records request.
Below are Continue reading
The resolution to reimpose the SPLOST tax as SPLOST VIII, was not included with the agenda for the tax-paying public to see. LAKE has filed an open records request for the entire board packet. Perhaps the county will supply it before they vote tomorrow.
Four bids were received for LAS and Pump Station Improvements with the high bid at $3.3 million, and the low at $2.5 million, but apparently the county negotiated the low bidder, Doyle Hancock & Sons, down to $1,520,858.00. This is “for improvements to the LAS [Land Application Site, aka wastewater spray field], Bevel Creek, Francis Lake, and Coleman Road lift stations.” The LAS is between Grassy Pond and Pike Pond, a few thousand feet from the GA-FL line, in the Withlacoochee River watershed. Continue reading
Animal welfare was the topic of the one Citizen wished to be Heard: Ed Barr, a former VSU faculty member, who said he spoke for a group of people who want a better-designed animal shelter, with better accessibility, as in closer to a residential area, or maybe redesigned like Miss Kitty Feline Sanctuary in Thomasville; he never said quite what features that meant.
The Regular Session was double-booked at the same time as the Planning Commission, so Gretchen went to the Planning Commission. The county’s own video was not available yesterday, but it appeared after I inquired.
They appointed Continue reading
The Work Session was at 4PM on Tuesday. The longest item was 7d. Corrections Software Solutions Probation Tracking System.
On the 6 a. TWR-2019-01 US Hwy 84 E. E-A, New 300′ Telecommunications Tower, tabled last time, staff did hear from Moody AFB that the tower was no problem for helicopter pilots, and the FAA has said no hazard. But they didn’t say whether Moody had issued its TERPS report.
Berinda Nwakamma did introduce herself very briefly as an applicant for the 5a. Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD). County Manager Joe Pritchard said “her information is in your agenda,” but it was not among the board packet documents the county sent LAKE in response to an open records request. What we dug up about her is below.
The Chairman had to speak for the one applicant for the 5b. Appointment – Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging, since Commissioner Joyce Evans declined to say anything.
They had an Executive Session to discuss pending litigation.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading
Received in response to an open records request by LAKE. The county supplied it onto the same USB drive with the documents from the previous County Commission packet. The county charged LAKE $6.65 for that USB stick.
![[Page 1]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-05-28--lcc-packet/Lowndes--Lowndes-County_PE-Agreement-Cover-letter-undated-0001.jpg)
GDOT to Lowndes County, Actual Cost Preliminary Engineering Agreement, Cover Letter
These documents are on the LAKE website.
LAKE looks forward to the county putting all these packet documents on the county’s own website, along with the agenda and agenda sheets.
Missing from what the county sent: Continue reading
![[WRPDO Site Map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-12-09--lcc-packet/December-9--10-2019-Commission-Meeting-Packet-0025.jpg)
![[2020 LMIG Project Report]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0040.jpg)
![[Electrical Demolition Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0125.jpg)
![[Electrical New Work Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0126.jpg)
![[Land Application Site]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-08-12--lcc-packet/map-las.jpg)