This is at least the second time this month; here another tornado warning for Lowndes County, from 5 April 2011: Continue reading
At the Lowndes County Commission meeting last night, Chairman Paulk discussed the biomass plant with Dr. Noll, and said:
There’s more in the video.Certain people won’t share it with you, and I don’t think it’s fair.
We were approached … almost three weeks ago by the Industrial Authority and we were asked to … ask them not to extend the contract. Well, it’s not our contract; we could do that, but … we didn’t.
And then last week the Tuesday of their meeting, I received a call … on my way back fromm Atlanta and they had gone up there to talk to Wiregrass Power, because they’d written a letter asking for an extension.
My understanding was that they asked Wiregrass to write another letter to remove that extension request.
These are things, I think should be public knowledge.
Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 April 2011
Video by Alex Rowell for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
He told me several weeks ago about the commission being asked to vote not to extend. Continue reading
| How Much | To Whom | From | For What |
|---|---|---|---|
| $7,200.00 | Lovell Engineering Associates | Valdosta | Design of Culvert |
| $48,010.00 | Doyle Hancock & Sons Construc. | Doerun | Clearing and Grubbing |
| $1,357,887.92 | The Scruggs Company | Valdosta | Paving |
| $1,413,097.92 | All contractors | Total |
This financial information comes from an open records request filed by Carolyn Selby more than a year ago and finally fulfilled 17 March 2011. Copies of all the pages received are in the flickr set.
How many other roads could have been paved for $1.4 million?
If this road had been paved like a local rural road,
instead of like a state highway (literally according to
state highway standards) it would not have cost nearly
as much and probably another shorter road could have been paved, too.
And if other roads were paved like local roads instead of state
highways, how many more of them could be paved?
They still wait while this one got paved to the tune of $1.4 million.
-jsq
Even a light agenda includes a water item.
It’s a very light agenda for the Lowndes County Commission; so light the work session was cancelled. However, the regular session is scheduled as usual for Tuesday evening.
They’ve moved Citizens Wishing to be Heard back to the middle of the meeting. Historically, it’s been here and it’s been there in different places in the agenda. I still think at the end is a fine place for it, since then more people may stay for the entire meeting. I posted my other thoughts on CWTBH back when they changed to their current policy on that.
Groundwater sampling near a landfill is an item. The same item was on the agenda last time, but didn’t get resolved. Water is an issue throughout the region.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION CANCELLED
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Downtown Valdosta Farm Days begin two weeks from tomorrow:
Bringing the best of the country to the heart of the City!There’s a calendar on their website, along with how to become a vendor.Downtown Valdosta Farm Days is a bi-weekly farmers’ market featuring local farmers and artisans and also serves to educate the community about eating local, nutrition and food choices.
Downtown Farmers Market
First and Third Saturdays from May to September
9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Lowndes County Courthouse Square, Downtown Valdosta
More on this story as it develops.
-jsq
One of LAKE’s intrepid investigative teams managed to get an appointment
to visit the Lowndes County Courthouse Owl.
John S. Quarterman answers the question: how much does the owl weigh?
Here’s
the video.
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Mara Register came to the Lowndes County Commission regular meeting
to talk about Downtown Valdosta Farm Days,
following up from the
Farm Days organizational meeting Monday.
I think her main points were:
Where? The parking spaces around the historic courthouse.
No livestock. Local produce. Here’s video of the first part of what she said.
Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Logistics, such as no cooking, because Continue reading
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.
Is this normal practice? Let’s compare. Continue reading
First, an excerpt from the paper paper story by David Rodock, “Farmers market proposal discussed by commission”, Tuesday, April 12, 2011, page 3A (it’s not online): Continue reading
| At the Lowndes County Commission work session on Monday morning, County Manager Joe Pritchard distributed a map to the Commissioners from the Valdosta Main Street Manager, Amanda Peacock, detailing a proposal for a Farmer’s Market on the sidewalk of the old County Courthouse. |
proactive: serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an expected occurrence or situation; anticipatory |
Lowndes County Commission work session, 12 April 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
While apparently supportive of the initiative, the process could have Continue reading