Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Rairoad, animals, taxes, and a fire truck @ LCC 2012-10-22

Five minutes? Or will they discuss any of the four items on the agenda for Monday morning’s Work Session?

What’s the CSX project? CSX in Lowndes County Is it this item from the T-SPLOST constrained project list?

RC11-000071 Construction of St Augustine Road Overpass

That overpass went from $12,000,000 to $14,627,933.04 during the T-SPLOST selection process. On the ground down there on St. Augustine Road it sure looks like people are preparing for an overpass. Has the county found some non-T-SPLOST way to fund that railroad overpass?

Since it’s CSX, I’d guess it’s not this other T-SPLOST project:

RC11-000077 Georgia and Florida Railway (GFRR) — Valdosta to Willacoochee Rehabilitation

The Commission could just post the proposed agreement along with the agenda, and then we’d all know.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

County clarifies library and parks division in SPLOST VII

SPLOST VII’s $22 million for a new library and parks and rec goes about 2/3 for the library and 1/3 for parks and rec, and the latter doesn’t all go to parks and rec at Five Points, according to a mysterious red-letter note that has sprung up on the Lowndes County website.

The front page of lowndescounty.com has sprouted this undated and unsigned clarification under the SPLOST VII heading:

Exhibit A (Please note that the $22 million proposed by Lowndes County for the Library and Parks & Recreation, represents a division of approximately $14.5 million for the Library and approximately $7.5 million for Parks & Recreation. In addition, the $7.5 million proposed for Parks & Recreation is not allocated for parks and improvements at the 5-Points site. Parks & Recreation will use these funds for improvements in other areas of the county.)

Exhibit A is the list of projects and estimated costs that includes this item:

  • payment of bond debt for acquisition and construction of and equipping a new library facility and parks and recreation facilities
 
$ 22,000,000

Can somebody explain why the new library and Parks and Rec were lumped together in the first place? At least the county is sort of trying to explain the difference now.

They didn’t include the pie chart with their clarification.

Revised SPLOST VII Pie

I made the pie chart; took about Continue reading →

Videos @ HBA 2012-10-18

Here are videos of last night’s Political Forum. The goal of this post is speed, so there’s no fancy format, just a video playlist in which you can find candidates by video title or thumbnail picture. We will probably come back later and use some of these videos in other posts.

Political Forum moderated by Chris Beckham of NewsTalk 105.9 WVGA
The Home Builders Association of South Georgia (HBA), Franklin Bailey President,
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2012.

-jsq

When Can You Vote?

Several recent local elections have been decided by less than 100 votes. Your vote counts. Here’s when and where you can vote.

According to a Word file buried three levels deep in the Board of Elections website, and also according to GA Secretary of state Elections Division:

Early Voting: Deb Cox, Elections Supervisor, Lowndes County, Georgia Monday through Friday,
October 15-26, 2012, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta
Saturday Voting: October 27, 2012, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta
Extended Hours: Your Vote Counts Monday through Friday,
October 29 – November 2, 2012, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta
Vote by Mail: Get the form from the Board of Elections
Election Day: precincts Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Go to your assigned precinct
Find your precinct through My Voter Page by the Georgia Secretary of State.

For a sample ballot, Continue reading →

Record early voting in Lowndes County —WCTV

2,861 Total Votes through Oct 16, 2012 A record 2,861 total votes were cast in Lowndes County by Tuesday 16 October 2012.

Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV yesterday, Early Voting In Lowndes County Sets New Record,

Jessica Cooke, first-time Lowndes Voter Georgia state officials say the pace for early voting is slower this year than for previous presidential elections, but as Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg shows us, you’d never know it in Lowndes County….

Wave of voters Jessica’s not alone. In fact, she was joined by a wave of voters of all ages here in the first week of early voting here in Georgia. Now they’ve actually already set an all-time record here in Lowndes County for the most votes in the first two days of a presidential election, with almost three thousand.

Deb Cox, Supervisor, Lowndes County Board of Elections, and Gregg Gullberg of WCTV:

Continue reading →

Locals weigh in on presidential debate on WCTV

Who would understand base politics better than Jack Kingston?

Jack Kingston's green tongue “I think for base politics, the red meat Democrats, the red meat Republicans, they like to see a good squabble and they saw one.”

Kingston, who lapped up Moody Air Force Base with his green tongue. He left out the rest of Lowndes County, so he’s barely local anymore. But two others on WCTV last night are local.

Eames Yates wrote for WCTV yesterday, Emotions of Local Politicians and Voters Run High After Debate,

Laverne Gaskins Laverne Lewis Gaskins is with Obama For America. She said “it was a decisive victory for President Obama. I think he was clear in his message. He was able to articulate the future that he has for America.”

Congressman Kingston said “I really think it was a tie. I would like to say that Romney won, but I have to say I think Obama won on some questions.”

That’s Jack-speak for he would like to say that, but he can’t, because he knows it’s not true. Laverne was more straightforward. So was Gretchen:

Continue reading →

Candidates Forum today @ HBA 2012-10-18

Candidates Forum, 7-9PM today 18 October 2012, at the Rainwater Conference Center, 1 Meeting Place, Valdosta, GA, organized by the Home Builders Association of South Georgia and NewsTalk105.9 WVGA, moderated by Chris Beckham.

This thing is astonishingly poorly advertised, unless you happen to follow one of the organizing organizations. It’s not in the VDT calendar, it’s not on the conference center’s calendar, and people keep asking when and where is it. Now you know.

Here are videos (from three different cameras) of all the candidate presentations of the 2 October 2012 Meet the Candidates event at VSU. Tonight, if I understand correctly from there being a moderator, they debate. Presumably all the same candidates will be there: Continue reading →

Valdosta: 3rd poorest city

Valdosta #3! Followed by Albany #4! In poorest cities in the country. What can we do about that?

Michael B. Sauter, Alexander E.M. Hess and Samuel Weigley, 24/7 Wall St., wrote for NBC News 14 October 2012, America’s richest and poorest cities,

3. Valdosta, Ga.
  • Median household income: $32,446
  • Population: 140,599 (87th lowest)
  • Unemployment rate: 9.2 percent(140th highest)
  • Percent households below poverty line: 27.6 percent (ninth highest)

From 2007 to 2011, the unemployment rate in Valdosta increased by 130 percent, from 4 percent of workers to 9.2 percent. The number of employed workers declined by more than 6,000 during that time. Those jobs remaining often pay a lower salary. Last year, nearly 17 percent of the work force was employed in the generally low-paying retail industry, the sixth highest percentage of all metro areas. In 2007, just 11.3 percent of the labor force worked in retail. Valdosta, however, has an improving and active housing market. Home prices rose nearly 12 percent between 2007 and 2011. Despite these positives, 14.4 percent of housing units were vacant last year, higher than the national vacancy rate of 13.1 percent. Also, 15.3 percent of homes were worth less than $50,000 versus 8.8 percent nationwide.

The study is actually for “U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs” and this population is not just for Valdosta, it’s for the Valdosta MSA, which includes Brooks, Echols, Lanier, and Lowndes Counties.

Look who’s next on the list:

Continue reading →

See Gretchen Quarterman on the radio

Gretchen Quarterman on Chris Beckham's radio show 11 October 2012 “I think people would be more interested in government if they could see it going on,” said Gretchen Quarterman, candidate for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission, on the Chris Beckham drive-time radio show 11 October 2012, 105.9, WVGA. Here’s video of that interview, followed by some excerpts.

A few excerpts:

Our county government does a lot of stuff really great… but one of the things they don’t do very well don’t advertise themselves; not very transparent; they don’t say what a great job they’re doing; so I thought we could improve in that area.

The County Commission a couple of years ago had two different studies commissioned about growth and planning, and one of them was… Sprawl to ruin, by Prof. Dorfman growth close to existing services. The county already has an urban service area, like how far the water line goes, how far the sewer line goes. And that growth should be infilled, and not expand outside of that area, because that saves resources in terms of how far you have to send the sheriff, how far the school bus has to go. And they also gave an average house price, what it costs in terms of property taxes to support the services that are sent to them, to a development. So I would say close in to existing services is the way to go.

We need to actively seek out manufacturing jobs,

Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-10-09

The big item at Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session was, same as at Monday’s Work Session, the waste management railroad, terminating in a decision. Other topics included citizen Karen Noll speaking against the charter school amendment.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes, or links to separate posts. Apologies for the poor sound on the first videos; we didn’t have the usual camera. Of course, if the Commission did its own videoing and posting, that problem would be unlikely to occur.

  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — September 24, 2012
    2. Regular Session — September 25, 2012
  5. Public Hearing — REZ-2012-15 Glenn O’Neal, Pecan Plantation Rd. & US Hwy 84 W E-A to C-H, County Water & Septic, ~4.5 acres
  6. For Consideration
    1. Bevel Creek Lift Station Pump Repair
    2. Alapaha Waterline size Increase
    3. Beer License — Naylor’s Pantry — 8777 E. Hwy 135
    4. Refunding Revenue Bonds
    5. Solid Waste Management Request for Proposal
  7. Reports
    1. Community Planning Month Proclamation
      Plus recognition of two planners from Moody AFB.
    2. Employee Health Fair
    Chairman Ashley Paulk interjected not on the agenda
    • some comments about recently deceased former VSU president Hugh C. Bailey,
    • and noted the fire chief had a new fire truck, which was parked outside.
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
    • Karen Noll spoke against the charter school amendment, saying it would implement taxation without representation Karen Noll @ LCC 2012-10-09 and would take more tax dollars from our public schools to give twice as much money to special charter school students.
    • Ken Klanicki never actually even approached the podium. After being asked by the chairman to come to the podium or leave the room, he wandered to the back of the room and was escorted out by a deputy sheriff. He called me by name as he left, but I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish. He called me later, but when I asked him that, he had no explanation.

Here’s a video playlist. It shifts from the first camera (good video, poor sound) to the second camera (video with no closeups, good sound) in the middle, when I arrived with the second camera. The rest of the first camera videos are tacked onto the end. Next time we’ll attempt to have the good camera.

Video Playlist
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 October 2012.

-jsq