Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

County and landowners still paying for failed 2007 James Road mega-mall boondoggle @ LCC 2015-06-22



Back again: the James Road subsidy for a failed mega-mall that we just keep on paying,
eight years later!

Five companies showed up at the May 27th pre-bid meeting, but only one bid for
$71,192 was received from Rountree Construction for the
Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road,
said County Engineer Mike Fletcher at the

22 June 2015 Lowndes County Work Session.
The Commission
at their 23 June 2015 Regular Session
approved that yet another fix-up payment caused by
the county’s

2009 widening of James Road “from a two-lane local road with ditches to a five-lane road with curb and gutter” for the never-happened

Market Street mall and subdivision project.
And local elected officials say bus systems need subsidies?
Every road and bridge is a subsidy for private developers.
And James Road is a subsidy we just keep on paying year after year.

The county spent SPLOST VI funds and $587,000 in GDOT funds on this subsidy
for private developers,

some of them from Tampa,
while requiring local James Road property owners to Continue reading →

Videos: Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-23



$16,915

to upgrade a water main to subsidize a developer,
but no approval of

$15,957 to study public transportation and truck routing.

Speaking of subsidizing private developers,
there’s yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.

And the Chairman

gave an excellent demonstration of why elected officials would benefit
by interacting and even debating with citizens, instead of
jumping to conclusions and preaching at them.

Here’s the agenda,
and the
LAKE videos of

the previous morning’s Work Session
and
the budget hearing immediately before the Regular Session.
Below are the Regular Session LAKE videos with a few comments,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: Budget Public Hearing #2, Lowndes County @ LCC Budget 2015-06-23



Only one citizen spoke at the second Budget Hearing 5PM 23 June 2015:
Gretchen Quarterman asking for approval of the VLMPO request
for funding for a public transportation study.
The Chairman said they weren’t going to, and shortly afterwards
at their Regular Session they didn’t, although they did approve more than that for a water main subsidy for
private developers.

The 5PM meeting was billed on
the county’s website as

Budget Adoption Meeting
and the previous morning by the Chairman as

a presentation by the Finance Director.
Is it a public hearing if it’s never advertised as a public hearing?

At least the proposed budget is on the county’s website,
just not where Continue reading →

Videos: Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-22



The Chairman said the Finance Director would make a presentation
about the

Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget
Tuesday before they voted; he said nothing about that presentation
being the second Public Budget Hearing.
See LAKE videos of the first Budget Hearing
and of
the second budget hearing.

The

Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road.
is yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.
Also five pre-bidders but only one bid, this one from Scruggs Co., for

Widening of a Portion of Old US 41 N.

Why is the county paying the cost to

Upgrade Water Main at Lake Alapaha Subdivision
from 2 inches to 6 inches?
At least we found out where and why for the

Engineering and Surveying Services for Water and Sewer.

Here’s the agenda.
Below are the LAKE videos of the Work Session with a few comments,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Chamber goes to bat for Moody

Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, says the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce

300x243 MAZ resolution --VLCoC, in Chamber goes to bat for Moody, by Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce, 26 June 2015
about the county-proposed

changes to the Moody Activities Zone (MAZ),
in a resolution
mailed to its members Friday.

Chamber Board of Directors action:

While
the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce is extremely supportive of
property rights and wary of intrusion upon those rights, we are also
extremely supportive of Moody Air Force Base and its continued and
varied missions in our community. Moody, for more than 70 years, has Continue reading →

Moody MAZ, Agriculture, Church @ GLPC 2015-06-29

This evening, the notorious

TXT-2015-01 Moody Activity Zoning Districts (MAZ) ULDC text amendments


are back on the agenda, for decision by the Lowndes County Commission
a month later.
Usually reliable sources say the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce
will be opposing some of these changes.
Meanwhile, LAKE has laid out the board packet item from last time so you can get an idea of what’s going on and why, including links to the LAKE videos of the previous GLPC and Lowndes County Commission meetings where these MAZ changes were discussed.


REZ-2015-12 Martha Russ
wants to zone to less density while

REZ-2015-13 Clementine Miller
wants more density.
And in Valdosta

CU-2015-02 Kelly Barcol
wants a church in a Single-Family Residential (R-10) district.

Here’s the agenda. Continue reading →

Budget Adoption Meeting, Lowndes County @ LCC Budget 2015-06-23

A Budget Adoption Meeting 5PM before the 5:30 PM Regular Session,


as alluded to at
yesterday morning’s Work Session.
Is this a second Budget Hearing?
Does it count if it’s not advertised as a Hearing?
And it turns out the proposed budget is on the county’s website,
just not where they previously said it would be.


Budget Adoption Meeting,

[5:00-5:30PM] Tuesday, June 23 Continue reading →

Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-22


Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget to be considered Monday
morning and voted on Tuesday evening (see LAKE videos of Budget Hearing of two weeks ago), plus
a

300x298 Parcel 0043 016, in Buck Cato Road, by John S. Quarterman, 22 June 2015
GEFA Loan Modification
(thought they approved that 26 May 2015 for the Alapaha Water Treatment Plant),
a
Justice Assistance Grant,
a

SCADA lease-purchase agreement,
and the annual controversial
Mosquito Contract.

Two appointees each to
KLVB
and the
Library Board.
We don’t know who, because the county
posted the agenda only in PDF, with no item sheets.

Public Hearing
approved last month for the

Abandonment of Buck Cato Road: what’s causing all of these in the last couple years?
And they’ve found an excuse for their long-desired Continue reading →

Videos: Budget Public Hearing @ LCC Budget 2015-06-09



For the budget they will vote on Tuesday June 23rd,
two weeks ago
Finance Director Stephanie Black said:

“This is the public hearing”

What happened to the requirement for two budget public hearings?

The County Chairman said they had $7 million in requests above the expected
revenue, so they had had a difficult time coming up with a budget.
For (some of) how they did that, see the
LAKE videos of the 18 May 2015 Budget Work Session.

Half of this budget hearing consisted of the same presentation from
that previous meeting.
Then County Manager Joe Pritchard

added Continue reading →

Videos: Deep South Sanitation litigation resolution, Animals, MAZ, Water, School @ LCC 2015-06-09



Not on the agenda for the 9 June 2015 Regular Session:

settlement agreement for the county’s unnecessary
lawsuit against Deep South Sanitation.
Commissioners had no questions, but I have two:

  1. how much did the county spend on the lawsuit?
  2. how much did the county end up paying DSS?

Also unscheduled:

Recognition of Leadership Lowndes Attendees.

Citizen

Billy Rowland
had some comments about road grading and wondered how Animal Control
could come take his dog from his posted property yet not do anything
when he reported barking dogs.

They approved a Scruggs Co. contract for

Paving on Coppage Road, which includes curb and gutter to
save some of the tree canopy.
They approved a

Bid for Bemiss Road Mowing even though it’s a state highway, plus
a

Bid for a Zero-Turn Mower for the Public Works Department from Nashville Tractor.
They
approved the

Bid for a Fire Pumper for Lowndes County Fire Rescue
and the

LCSO Patrol Car Laptops Lease Purchase and
tabled the

Lowndes Middle School Utility Service from Valdosta utilities.

Via LAKE open records request,
see the

board packet item
for the complicated

Moody Activity Zones
Text Amendments to the Unified Land Development Code
that were tabled for more time at the Tuesday June 9th 2015 Regular Session
of the Lowndes County Commission.
See the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission
meeting that considered the MAZ and the rezonings on this agenda.
The

Shiver
and

Kinsey
rezonings were
were approved unanimously
with no speakers from the public and no Commissioner comments.
The

Orchard at Stone Creek
rezoning discussion about a retirement home lasted for 14 minutes, including updated maps
that were only provided to LAKE on paper, despite a request for
electronic copy.
See also the
agenda
and the
LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

Continue reading →