Received today, and I saw the owl chortling with glee at the prospect
of reports on another local council. -jsq
The LAKE blog has been doing an excellent job of publishing what
is happening in various Valdosta and Lowndes County public meetings. I
have been attending the Hahira City Council meetings for several months
now and decided I would start posting a monthly blog summary of council
meetings so Hahira residents will be aware of what is happening in
their city. This is not intended to be an official documentation and
citizens should depend on the
official meeting minutes and/or discuss
issues with
city officials.
It was announced that a hearing had been advertised to discuss
changing the millage rate for the city and it was decided the mileage
rate would remain the same with no increase.
The review of bills/budget overages were approved by the council.
Lowndes County wants $8 million T-SPLOST to widen Old US 41 North from
North Valdosta Road to Union Road, and the map shows the entire road
to the center of Hahira as part of the plan.
Hahira Market Days Part 1 of 3:
Hahira Market Days,
Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Ensuring that people who will
engage in dialog and seek the benefit of the entire community are
appointed to boards lies in the hands of the elected officials.
Electing people who engage in dialog and seek the benefit of the
Continue reading →
Hahira, GA – After a lengthy search, the City of Hahira recently hired a new
Special Event Coordinator. Sherri Burgess will work with the Hahira City
Council and Hahira business owners to enhance economic development
opportunities in Downtown Hahira. She will coordinate special events and
implement new ideas for the citizens of the City of Hahira.
Mrs. Burgess has experience with event planning and retail business
management. A long-time resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, she and her husband,
Paul, are newcomers to the Hahira area. Paul recently retired as Chief
Master Sergeant with the United States Air Force. “We are tremendously
pleased to have Sherri join our team,” stated Hahira Mayor Wayne Bullard.
“Her talents will only enhance the quality service that citizens of Hahira
and the surrounding area have come to know and love in our City.”
Many events are currently in planning for 2011 in Hahira. However, because
of the transition, Third Thursday will not have the traditional activities
that patrons have come to know and love.
For Further Information, Please Contact:
Jonathan Sumner
City Manager
City of Hahira
(229) 794-2330
How much should it cost for a citizen to get access to agendas
and minutes of a tax-funded board?
How does about $2 per meeting strike you?
Bobbi Anne Hancock filed an open records request for the
agendas and minutes of all regularly scheduled and called
meetings of the
VLCIA letter asking $125.09 for copies of agendas and minutes
of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
from 2006 to the present, and got this letter back:
So at 12 meetings per year for five years plus another 3 months,
that would be about 63 meetings, divided into $125.09 gets
about $1.99 per meeting.
The 75% pot of T-SPLOST funds is what the project lists recently
submitted by Lowndes County
and the City of Valdosta are about,
according to
Corey Hull, continuing his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting.
Those are projects of regional significance
that the local jurisdictions want the voters to actually
vote on that project.
The other 25% goes to local jurisdictions, like this:
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Such publicly owned networks can offer services that incumbents don’t,
such as the 1Gbps fiber network in Chattanooga, Tennessee, run by the
government-owned electric power board. And they sometimes have more
incentive to reach every resident, even in surrounding rural areas,
in ways that might not make sense for a profit-focused company.
According to this map of
Community Broadband Networks
by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance,
quite a few small cities in south Georgia have municipal cable networks:
It’s an opportunity for those of us who are not currently
searching for our next meal to help those who need jobs,
and thereby to help ourselves, so they don’t turn to crime.
Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession
greener than ever, if we choose wisely.
Switchgrass seemed like a good idea five or ten years ago,
but there is still no market for it.
Not just strictly organic by Georgia’s ridiculously
restrictive standards for that, but also less pesticides
for healthier foods, pioneered as nearby as Tifton.
That’s two markets: one for farmers, stores, and farmers’ markets
in growing and distributing healthy food, and one for local
banks in financing farmers converting from their overlarge
pesticide spraying machinery to plows and cultivators.
Similarly, biomass may have seemed like a good idea years ago,
but with Adage backing out of both of its Florida biomass plants
just across the state line, having never built any such plant ever,
the biomass boom never happened.
Meanwhile, our own Wesley Langdale has demonstrated to the state
that
The LAKE blog has been doing an excellent job of publishing what is happening in various Valdosta and Lowndes County public meetings. I have been attending the Hahira City Council meetings for several months now and decided I would start posting a monthly blog summary of council meetings so Hahira residents will be aware of what is happening in their city. This is not intended to be an official documentation and citizens should depend on the official meeting minutes and/or discuss issues with city officials.
Addendum to the summary – Per history records, on Feb. 15, 2011 the Valdosta Daily Times printed an article about a special meeting of concerned citizens and Hahira city officials which discussed several agenda items relating to the city’s trash services. During the meeting citizens were not allowed to speak. Mayer Wayne Bullard recused himself after stating he was employed by All Green Services which could be a
It’s an opportunity for those of us who are not currently
searching for our next meal to help those who need jobs,
and thereby to help ourselves, so they don’t turn to crime.
Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession
greener than ever, if we choose wisely.
