Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

KLVB report —Aaron Strickland @ LCC 2012-09-10



In

the 10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
Aaron Strickland of
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)
said there were two applicants for appointement to the
KLVB board: Emily Preston and Deanna Wagner.
They did not speak;
Emily Macheski-Preston and Deanna Wagner.
Ms. Macheski-Preston spoke (included below); Ms. Wagner did not;
maybe tonight.

He gave a brief verbal report, which he said
was a summary of a report he submitted last week
(which we the taxpayers haven’t seen).
He said at their Rivers Alive event last year
they had a record number of sites cleaned: seven.
Great American Cleanup, KLVB’s signature event
used to be 1 day, but this year was 3 days.

  1. Valdosta asked for help with a creek project.
  2. Helped emergency management after the

    tornadoes,
    through

    Ashley Tye     and a group called Vision 388(?).
  3. Traditional cleanup day in Valdosta, Lowndes County, and Lake Park.

He read some

statistics on numbers of volunteers and things cleaned up.
He listed some

future events.
There’s more in the video.

Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know how much time commitment was involved.
Answer: an hour per board meeting and helping out with events and committees.

Here’s

the video: video of Aaron Strickland’s aural report:

Continue reading →

Open Records Officer at Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2012-09-10

Apparently the Lowndes County Commission has noticed the


new provisions of the Georgia Open Records and Open Meetings laws
that

VLCIA’s lawyer explained to the Industrial Authority back in May,
seeing these two items on the agenda for Monday morning and Tuesday evening:

5.a. Adopt Resolution Appointing an Open Records Officer

5.b. Resolution Regarding Review & Approval of Minutes of Executive Sessions

Plus infrastructure for two subdivsisions,
one of them the famous

Glen Laurel,
several well/septic rezonings,
approval of
USGS Funding Agreement for HWY 122 Stream Gauge
(one of the four that

let us know about river flooding in Lowndes County
less than a month ago),
a beer license, and approval of the

changes to the ULDC that were discussed in the recent Planning Commission meeting,
in the public hearing the public didn’t know about.
And more.



Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

No dumping! Drains to waterways


No dumping

Rainwater only
Seen Saturday near old Pine Grove School.
NPDES is

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System:

Water pollution degrades surface waters making them unsafe for
drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities. As authorized by
the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating
point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United
States. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or
man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal
system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do
not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal, and other
facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to
surface waters. In most cases, the NPDES permit program is
administered by

authorized states.
Since its introduction in 1972, the NPDES permit program is
responsible for significant improvements to our Nation’s water
quality.

Yes, I know Valdosta also does this.
I like it that in a subdivision in an unincorporated part of Lowndes County
that the county does this.

-jsq

Sinkhole under the shed

The sinkholes are not just

in the garage
and

under the front steps,



Michael McCormick walking towards his shed
there’s one
under Michael McCormick’s tool shed.
He already jacked up the shed and put blocks under it
after the ground sunk underneath it.
With all these sinkholes on his lot (and more in the yard),
how are they connected underground?
How will they expand?

Here’s

a video playlist:


Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 August 2012.

-jsq

Sinkholes towards the house

The sinkholes are not just in

Michael McCormick’s garage.

Sinkholes there there and there

Michael McCormick showing ground scans of sinkholes to Gretchen Quarterman
According to groundscan radar by a VSU professor and students,
the sinkholes are also

spreading
under his

front steps and

his house.

The steps are sinking and there’s
a crack on the wall inside the house.

Continue reading →

Sinkhole in garage



In what the County Planner calls “central Lowndes County” there’s
a sinkhole in a garage,

deeper than a hoe handle.





Michael McCormick called me up yesterday and told me about this
sinkhole in his garage at 4326 Norman Hall Road.
Naturally he’s a bit concerned about this problem.
He thinks his insurance may cover it, but he’s looking for other
options in case.
So far, nobody seems to know what to do.
Which can’t be the case:
this isn’t the first sinkhole in Lowndes County.
We’re helping get the word out to help find whoever does know more about
sinkholes and what resources are available to deal with them.

It’s not only straight down and under the carport concrete.

Continue reading →

Changes to Lowndes County’s Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) @ GLPC 2012-08-27

Did you know
last night’s Planning Commission meeting included


a public hearing about changes to the county’s
Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)
related to land disturbances and water quality?
You wouldn’t have found out about that in the agenda,
because

it wasn’t posted anywhere you’d be likely to see it.
(Where does GLPC post the one physical copy of the agenda required by law,
anyway?)


Supposedly it was advertised in the Valdosta Daily Times,
but a search

of Public Notices in Statewide Database of Public Notices from Georgia’s Legal Organ Newspapers
for 1 June 2012 through 27 August 2012 finds nothing.



Here’s what

the agenda item for the 27 August 2012 GLPC meeting
(that we only know about because Gretchen went to that GLPC meeting
and asked County Planner Jason Davenport)
says:

From a procedural standpoint the amendment has been advertised in
the Valdosta Daily Times to fulfill legal requirements. Beyond
legal requirements staff has plans to post this agenda
item and draft ULDC on the Lowndes County Website at
http://www.lowndescounty.com/content.asp?pid=23&id=224. Regarding
staff review of the amendments, the TRC recommended for their approval
at their 08/16 regular meeting.

If you’d happened to look several levels deep on the Lowndes County website
you would have found

that undated announcement:

Continue reading →

LAKE videoing George videoing Gretchen canvassing @ GretchenForLowndes.com 2012-08-25



Gretchen Quarterman

canvassed on Summerlin Street in Valdosta Saturday:

The number one thing we need to do is to make the government
accessible and transparent, so that the business of the people
goes on in public.

Here’s

a video playlist:


LAKE videoing George videoing Gretchen canvassing on Summerlin Street in Valdosta,

Canvassing, Lowndes County Commission (GretchenForLowndes.com),

Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

and by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2012.

Gretchen mentioned she’d been going to County Commission meetings
for about four years now, and thought it was her turn to serve.
George asked why she was canvassing on the west side of Valdosta,
and she answered:



The thing that is important for people to know is that every
single citizen in the county gets to vote,
Whether you live in Valdosta, Hahira, Lake Park, Dasher, Remerton,
or the unincorporated areas.
Every single person who lives in Lowndes County
who is a registered voter gets to vote.



You have until October 8th to register
to vote for the November 6th election.
You can register at the Board of Elections at 2808 North Oak Street,
or there are people going around with forms you can fill in and mail
in or they will hand carry down there.



Participatory media!
Doing what traditional media could do, George Boston Rhynes
interviewed Gretchen Quarterman as she canvassed on
Summerlin Street in Valdosta Saturday.
Doing what traditional media can’t do, I videoed
George videoing Gretchen, and he later videoed me
helping Gretchen canvass.

-jsq

Lowndes County Commission meetings cancelled @ LCC 2012-08-27

Where and when did the preliminary information or discussion happen?
And among whom?
According to
the county's website:

Lowndes County Work & Regular Session Meetings Cancelled (8/28/2012)



Due to lack of agenda items requiring additional information or
discussion, the Lowndes County Work and Regular Session meetings for
August 27-28, 2012, have been cancelled. For more information please
call County Clerk, Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.



According to

Georgia's new sunshine law modifications,
as explained

by VLCIA's attorney in an open meeting,
open meetings now include any time a quorum discusses business,
even if there was no scheduled meeting.

And if you wanted to address the Commission about a matter
of interest to the public?
Not this week.

The scheduled next meetings on
their calendar are
a Work Session on Monday 10 September 2012
and a Regular Session on Tuesday 11 September 2012.

-jsq

 

LOST Lawsuits Ahead?

Looks like history may repeat itself like last decade,
now that LOST negotiations between the cities and the county have failed.
Except this time apparently the law has changed so they can’t sue each
other directly.

Gretchen on LOST
Instead next it goes to

Superior Court “baseball arbitration”.
However, I bet that still involves lawyers at taxpayer expense,
not to mention the Court’s time.

Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV yesterday,

Tax Negotiations Hit Another Dead End In Lowndes County,
and asked Gretchen down at the County Extension, who said,

It’s sort of sad because it is a waste, if you will, of taxpayer dollars.
That the elected officials can’t get together and come to some agreement
to say that they all understand how the money has to be divided up
Yeah, it’s sad that more money has to go to lawyers
insted of being spent on services.


I continue to think the local governments could spend their time together
better

trying to increase the size of the pie instead of squabbling over slices of it.

-jsq