The old store at the corner of GA 122 and Cat Creek Road
was the subject of debate over alcohol at the Planning Commission’s
29 October 2012 Regular Session.
Here’s
a playlist.
This was the rezoning item:
4. REZ-2012-16 Cook County Land Ventures
SW corner of Georgia Highway 122 East and Cat Creek Road, Hahira
Request to rezone ~2 acres from E-A (Estate Agriculture) to C-C (Crossroads Commercial)
County Planner Jason Davenport said the
owner wants commercial zoning for a store, since previous
conditional use had expired, and
there was concern about prohibiting alcohol,
especially if
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The County Commission continues to do the peoples’ business in secret.
The solid waste exclusive franchise agreement was tabled for a month,
due to some mysterious new information,
and two citizens pleaded with the Commission to reconsider the whole thing.
The developer who got to speak at Monday’s Work Session
asked for his development to be tabled for a month, and the Commission did so.
After the meeting, three people from Moody AFB trooped into a side
room with the Chairman.
Also, if it’s a privilege to serve and an honor to be appointed,
why does the Lowndes County Commission not tell us who they are appointing?
In the
Work Session
they muttered some proposed names unintelligbly,
and in the Regular Session they didn’t say anything about who some of the
new appointees are, and none of the appointees spoke.
As near as I could tell, only one bothered to show up: VLCIA
reappointee Mary Gooding.
Update 2012-11-20: Jody Hall reminds me he was there as an appointee. He says he was ready to speak, but nobody asked him to.
Video playlist
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 November 2012.
Here’s
the agenda again,
this time with links to the videos plus a few notes.
I understand … that the county has a responsibility for the solid waste….
I understand we have these big corporations, Advanced Disposal,
Veolia.
I know some of these people at Veolia, good people; they’ve got a good company,
and they pick up several thousand cans every day.
What we do offer the citizens here… we offer just a personal service.
I know a lot of these people first hand….
He told a story about a customer whose husband lost his job.
He stopped billing until the man got another job.
Cary Scarborough’s summation:
Don’t do this to private enterprise, to an individual.
If it’s done to me, it will get easier later down the road
to do it to someone else.
Yes, why is the county taking customers away from a local business
and giving them to a company that isn’t even based here?
County Manager Joe Pritchard,
once again,
was mostly not paying attention.
William Geyer expressed two widespread opinions,
keep the solid waste disposal sites open, and reprioritize SPLOST,
when he spoke at Tuesday’s
Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
County Manager Joe Pritchard, the driving force behind the waste disposal decision,
still wasn’t listening.
Keep the solid waste disposal sites open
Saying he was William Geyer of 5474 Union Road, Hahira,
he asked the Commission to
reconsider their solid waste plan, and to keep the waste disposal sites open.
There’s people out there that can’t afford
what y’all are offering.
And with a budget as large as we got, I know there’s some way
to keep them open.
Not only that, Florida has them, and they don’t even man them.
I talk to a lot of people out there,
they don’t come here,
but I wish you really would reconsider,
because it is a plus for this county,
the elderly,
a lot of people here who are struggling, who can’t afford it.
I’m not saying I can’t; I can afford it,
but there’s a lot of people here who can’t afford it.
Reprioritize SPLOST
Geyer noted SPLOST was supposed to be for paving roads, but
lots of roads hadn’t gotten paved.
At that first SPLOST meeting, it was around 1984 or 5
they did my road, Union Road.
What happened to the rest of the roads that are dirt?
We’ve somehow lost our priorities.
We want a new library, we want a new this or that.
What about these people who live on these dirt roads
that were promised they’d be paved.
County Manager, how many miles of dirt roads do we have in this county?
County Manager Joe Pritchard obviously wasn’t listening,
“Pardon me?” he said, after the Chairman prodded him.
He didn’t know, either; he motioned
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The Lowndes County Commission invited a developer to speak
about his proposed rezoning at a Work Session
without inviting any opposition to speak.
Plus another rezoning, a proposed solid waste ordinance with exclusive franchise
agreement, and proposed appointments to five boards and authorities.
And at the end an animal event report.
Video playlist
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 November 2012.
Here’s
the agenda again,
this time with links to the videos plus a few notes.
Monday morning the Lowndes County Commission considers and
Tuesday evening votes on members of five appointed boards.
Who are the candidates?
The agenda doesn’t say.
The two rezonings are the same ones
the Planning Commission recently considered.
Presumably the solid waste ordinance has something to do with
the recent privatization decision.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →
Hardly-funded insurgents led by Haley Shank put a scare into turncoat south Georgia statehouse
incumbents.
What would happen with well-funded candidates?
Conversely, Jason Shaw (R-176) ran unopposed, perhaps because
he is the least offensive of the incumbents (he voted
against HB 1162
that put
the Atlanta-power-grab “charter school” amendment on the ballot,
although
he did vote for HB 797
that will funnel more of your local tax dollars to charter schools
imposed by Atlanta even if your school board doesn’t want them).
Other south Georgia statehouse incumbents, all Republicans, had
challengers, all Democrats.
All the challengers opposed Amendment 1.
Haley Shank did best, in District 173 against Darlene K. Taylor,
8,324 to 12,048 (40.86% to 59.14%).
Congratulations to Valdosta’s new state rep for District 177
Dexter Sharper who won by 67% to 33% over opponent Glenn Gregory,
who fought a spirited and clean campaign.
I look forward to Representative Sharper
meeting with the governor
and working for our community without compromise under the gold dome in Atlanta.
I’ll come back to the other statehouse races in a separate post.
Ditto the other statewide races.
Meanwhile, congratulations to some local winners below.
Congratulations new Lowndes County Commissioner for District 4
Demarcus Marshall, winning 64.91% to 35.09%
after spirited debate and much agreement
with opponent John Gates.
I look forward to Commissioner Marshall
grappling with education, jobs, tourism, and personnel
down at the county palace.
Congratulations on re-election, Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine!
Challenger J.D. Yeager fought a good fight, but the voters said
63.53% to 36.47% they did not
want to go back to the previous administration.
I look forward to Sheriff Prine continuing to protect the safety of
all the citizens of Lowndes County, including those in the cities.
Congratulations Solicitor General Justin Cabral on retaining your post
51.56% to 48.44%!
Very honorable mention to challenger Jason Cain,
who canvassed himself pretty close to winning.
And it wasn’t even close:
2,152,091 to 1,526,959 (58.50% to 41.50%).
Lowndes County went for the Atlanta-power-grab “charter school” amendment
18,606 to 17,619 (51.36% to 48.64%).
The voters of Georgia just sold their children’s educational
birthright for a mess of slick brochures.
Apparently Georgia voters will vote for any old thing that’s
submitted to them as a constitutional amendment.
Congratulations, ALEC and Wal-Mart!
You’ve demonstrated money talks and
slick brochures sell.
This was even better for you than
ALEC’s so-called anti-immigration law which the legislature passed
and
that actually devastates Georgia agriculture for
the profit of private prison company CCA.
This time you got the people of Georgia to vote directly against
their own best interests to the benefit of school privatizing
corporations in Virginia and Michigan!
There’s an election going on!
Here are some pictures of precincts around Lowndes County today.
I’ve seen no lines, and everything seems to be flowing smoothly.
Except there are multiple reports that when people call the Board of Elections
to ask where they vote they’re getting a “this number disconnected” message.
Apparently there are ten phone lines down there but only three people
answering them, and the phone is not rolling over properly.
Given all the recent changes in precincts, this is a problem.
Around 1PM Sara Crow said she heard at Pine Grove that about 900 people had
already voted there today.
4. REZ-2012-16 Cook County Land Ventures
