Category Archives: Health Care

Audit, Crime Lab Hydrogen Generator, 2 ARPA Grant Selection Committees @ VCC 2022-05-19

Update 2022-05-20: Videos: Mayor announces first trash trap, committees for ARPA funds @ VCC 2022-05-19.

In a very light agenda for tomorrow evening’s meeting, the Valdosta City Council nonetheless will contemplate $1,978,502.40 in spending. They will also hear an audit report.

Amount	What
$33,502.40	Consideration of a request to purchase a Hydrogen Generator for the Valdosta-Lowndes Regional Crime Laboratory.
$945,000.00	Consideration of appointments for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Non-Profit Grant Selection Committee.
$1,000,000.00	Consideration of appointments for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Small Business Grant Selection Committee.
$1,978,502.40	Total

The Hydrogen Generator for the Crime Lab will come out of $36,000 from the General Fund. “This is the equipment that is used for drug identification and blood alcohol testing.”

The two Grant Selection Committees will dispense funds from the $16,254,692 allocated to Valdosta by the federal government in an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant, of which $8,127,346 has been received to date. The City Council previously allocated $945,000 for nonprofits and $1,000,000 for small businesses. These Committees will decide which organizations get the funds. You probably recognize many of the names on the committee candidate lists.

Selection Committees

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

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, May 19, 2022
CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS
Continue reading →

Videos: Camelot Crossing subdivision tabled for two weeks @ LCC 2022-04-12

The Camelot Crossing subdivision, with no currently-planned outlet on Val Del Road, was tabled for two weeks at the request of the opponents, who filled the room. The county also still has an issue with a chokepoint through which both exits route, as mentioned by Commissioner Clay Griner, who made the motion to table, seconded by Demarcus Marshall. Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker said there was an outlet onto Old US 41 North, and he voted against tabling.

Presentation and rezonings

Commissioner Scott Orenstein mentioned that the YMCA still plans to build “an aquatic center” on its nearby property.

The other two subdivision rezonings were approved unanimously, as were all the other voting items.

Below are links to Continue reading →

Videos: Turn lanes and EV charging @ LCC 2022-04-11

Videos: Camelot Crossing subdivision tabled for two weeks @ LCC 2022-04-12.

An updated plan that no longer has any egress onto Val Del Road arrived Friday for 6.b. REZ-2022-07 Hayden Park. Nonetheless, the turn lanes on Val Del Road were already scheduled as a T-SPLOST project, expected to be completed in 2023. Not clear whether there are two egress points in the current plan.

Rezoning, EV, VAWA, Quit claim

The county’s sound system is working, so the LAKE video camera was plugged into it at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading →

Subdivisions subsidized by roads, EV charging, VAWA, Soccer complex, Courtroom AV @ LCC 2022-04-11

Update 2022-04-12: Videos.

Thanks to Joe Brownlee of Georgia Power for getting Lowndes County to agree to Electric Vehicle Charging Stations at the county palace.

REZ-2022-06 Kinderlou Forest aims to go pretty close to Spring Branch and the Withlacoochee River.

Rezonings, Val Del Road traffic, Electric Vehicle Charging

The agenda item for REZ-2022-07 Hayden Park, Camelot Crossing & Val Del Rd says “BUDGET IMPACT: N/A” for “a mixture of residential and commercial sites for development in various stages.” Yet the Lowndes County Commission board packet contains 52 pages of traffic study for the intersection of Val Del Road and North Valdosta Road. Staff notes “Plans for two left-turn lanes from Val Del to North Valdosta Road are anticipated to be complete by 2023.” The applicant’s Letter of intent says, “Lowndes County has been wise to pro-actively invest in infrastructure here, anticipating and preparing for new growth.” Continue reading →

Finances and Okefenokee Swamp @ SGRC 2021-12-09

Here are LAKE videos of (most of) yesterday’s Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) Council meeting yesterday in Pearson, Georgia.

For some of the items, I have included photographs of the first sheet of the relevant handout(s). For the rest of each handout, please contact SGRC.

Thanks to SGRC Council Chair Joyce Evans and Assistant Director Chris Strom for inviting me to come speak about the Okefenokee Swamp in my other hat as Suwannee Riverkeeper; see the WWALS blog post.

Collage: Audit; New member John Clayton (Nashville); DCA Small Cities Conference; Okefenokee Swamp Resolutions –Suwannee Riverkeeper; Jody Redding, GA Gov. Field Rep.

Here is the complete agenda. Continue reading →

Okefenokee resolution, Planning Commission, Airport, Sewer system, Road renaming moratorium @ VCC 2021-11-11

With a packed agenda, the Valdosta City Council passed eight resolutions, approved five bids or purchases, and appointed people to four boards, yet the longest discussion was after all that.

Mayor, Howard, Gibbs, WWTP, Manager & Tooley, Suwannee Riverkeeper

Perhaps the most far-reaching item was one of the briefest, presented by Mayor Scott James Matheson: 3.f. Resolution in Opposition to a proposed strip mine near the Okefenokee Swamp, opposing the proposed Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) strip mine or any others within ten miles of the Swamp, asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reverse its abdication of oversight, asking GA-EPD for a moratorium on all mining permits until effects are settled of the recent court overruling of 2020 Clean Water Act changes, as well as to reject the TPM permits, or at least to review those applications as thoroughly as the Army Corps would, and asking the Georgia legislature to prevent such strip mines near the Swamp or any blackwater rivers in the Suwannee River Basin. Continue reading →

Videos: River gauges, Lowndes County Extension Office @ LCC Work 2021-10-25

By far the longest item was the informative 7.a. Lowndes County Extension Office Presentation, at the Lownndes County Commission Work Session yesterday morning.

River Gauges, Beer and Wine, Reports, Extension Agent

The river gauges and the beer and wine license took not much longer than to read the agenda items.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda and board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request and on the LAKE website. Continue reading →

Videos: Church, Personal Care Home, RV vendor, Lake Park Zoning Ordinance @ GLPC 2021-08-30

Almost half an hour on the church on Woodlawn Drive (sidewalks and building size), eleven minutes on the personal care home on Slater Street, and three minutes each on the RV sales expansion and the Lake Park Zoning Ordinance amendments. That was a slack evening for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), at 47 minutes total.

Welcome, Lake Park, RV expansion, Board

GLPC recommends. The Lowndes County Commission is already meeting about its items. Lake Park and Valdosta Mayor and Council will decide their items.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. Continue reading →

Lake Park Zoning Ordinance, LAR Properties, Valdosta Personal Care & Church @ GLPC 2021-08-30

Update 2021-09-13: LAKE videos.

For Monday evening it’s a light agenda for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission.

Map, Sales, Business, Agenda

One curious item is REZ-2021-14 LAR Properties of Lake Park, 5359 Mill Store Rd., 0200 292A, ±12.76 ac., P-D to C-H, County Utilities. That appears to be a vacant lot behind an RV store.

Map: LAR Properties, Lowndes County Tax Assessors

Google maps thinks the RV store is Day Bros RV, and their own website agrees. But if you go to google streetview, the sign out front says Alliance Coach RV Sales & Service.

According to the Lowndes County Tax Assessors, Day Bros RV Sales LLC sold both lots 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

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 →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange