Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Videos: GP Investments and Hahira’s Extraterritorial Request @ LCC 2014-09-08

Update 2014-09-09: Board packet via LAKE open records request.

Twelve minutes. When do they actually talk about things? They vote Tuesday at 5:30 PM. “Hahira’s Extraterritorial Request” is for water and sewer for John Bailey. “Rezoning case REZ-2014-15” is also about water and sewer. The other obscure public hearing is to fix something county staff didn’t do correctly back in June.

Yes, it’s the old white guy to replace the young black woman on the Planning Commission, and it’s Commissioner Joyce Evans for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. And yes, it’s the annual renewal of hiring prisoners from Valdosta State Prison.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and some notes.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

What are REZ-2014-15 and Hahira’s Extraterritorial Request? @ LCC 2014-09-08

300x268 Location map, in GP Investments, by John S. Quarterman, 8 September 2014 Public hearings with no details: how is the public to know to show up? Why no description at all for “Rezoning case REZ-2014-15”? And no identifying number for the next case? And why the extra obscurity about “Hahira’s Extraterritorial Request”? This agenda goes beyond brief into opaque. LAKE can answer two of these questions because Gretchen went to the Planning Commission meeting and photographed that agenda that Lowndes County refuses to even publish. But why should the taxpayers be left guessing about what their only elected county-wide government is doing?

Also two appointments: the Planning Commission’s recommendation to replace its departing young black woman member with an old white man and somebody unnamed to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Plus the annual renewal of hiring prisoners from Valdosta State Prison.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Nova Scotia banned fracking; will southeast U.S. ban fracked methane pipelines?

Yesterday Nova Scotia announced a ban on fracking. Will local or state governments in the southeast, now threatened by the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, ban such pipelines? Especially since FERC has now directed Sabal Trail to examine routes through Americus, Cordele, Ashburn, Tifton, Adel, Valdosta, and even Thomasville, in addition to the ones it already proposed through Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties?

Sierra Club Canada wrote about public meetings in its Media Release of 28 August 2014, Government of Nova Scotia Needs to Ban Fracking,

“Public meetings held by the panel were attended by an overwhelming majority of well-informed citizens who had deep concerns about fracking,” according to [Gretchen] Fitzgerald, “Those concerns should be met with the type of leadership they deserve: an immediate, legally binding ban.”

And the Nova Scotia government listened. Bruce Erskine wrote for The Herald Business 3 September 2014, Nova Scotia to ban fracking, posting a video in which you can hear Energy Minister Andrew Younger say: Continue reading →

A presentation and some rubberstamping @ LCC 2014-08-26

Congratulations to Ashley Tye for being only the third in the state to attain a certificate as a professional emergency manager.

“I was trying to break a record,” bragged County Chairman Bill Slaughter as several people reminded him not to skip approving the minutes, presumably referring to the previous morning’s three-minute Work Session. After the six-minute presentation, they took less than a minute on each of the remaining items, except they did find time for an Executive Session for Attorney-Client Privilege. Who are they suing this time? Crawford Powell had to remind the Chairman not to skip Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, but “There are none,” said the Chairman, with satisfaction.

This time the contractor had magically finished punchlist for Nottinghill that the previous morning the County Engineer said would take a week, but had not finished the work. What does this rubberstamp punchlist mean, then? They approved the Davidson Road drainage easement quit claim from the county back to the landowner.

Here’s the agenda with links into the videos and a few notes, followed by a video playlist.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Three minutes, three items @ LCC 2014-08-25

The contractor hasn’t finished the punchlist for Nottinghill but the County Engineer wants the Commission to accept that infrastucture anyway. The Davidson Road drainage easement quit claim is from the county back to the landowner. The third item must be for tomorrow evening. Three minutes total for only two items from the agenda, but that’s probably a record. Normally we post videos of each item separately, but this time, why bother? They vote Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM.

Here’s the video, followed by the agenda with a few notes, and links to the individual items inside the one video.


Three minutes, three items
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2014.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Construction appointed, Family Dollar bermed @ LCC 2014-08-12

They appointed the Chairman’s personal pick to the Construction Board of Appeals. The Nelson Hill unknown tinkerings to the code were finally withdrawn. In the unedited video you can see the few speakers the Chairman allowed to speak about the Roger Budd and Leninco Francis Lake rezoning for Family Dollar, and that there was actually some rationale for why the approved the rezoning.

Thanks to Toma Hawk for this video of both the Work Session and the Regular Session.

Here’s the agenda with a few notes.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: developer property rights and effects on neighbors, Leninco, Roger Budd, Lake Park @ LCC 2014-08-12

There was at least some reason for the Commission’s approval of the Family Dollar and other use rezoning for Roger Budd Jr. and Leninco out of the Francis Lake golf course in Lake Park: because it would include a condition of a berm that would continue with the property regardless of who owned it. The applicant’s attorney had made it clear that applicant considered the berm too expensive and it, along with other conditions, might make the project unfeasible. Perhaps the Commission should apply the same technique to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. This was in the 23 August 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission; thanks to Toma Hawk for the video.

6.b. REZ-2014-14 Roger Budd Jr, Lakes Blvd (SR 376), R-10 to C-G, Water/Sewer, ~4.2 acres

[Work Session Start 1 minute 48 seconds.] County Planner Jason Davenport said this was a repeat of a request from 2009 “that Continue reading →

Emergency, Nottinghill, Drainage @ LCC 2014-08-25

Last December Chairman Slaughter wanted relatives of those selling land for Nottinghill to come forward and state their names the day after he didn’t ask Spectra Energy reps to do that during their sales pitch for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline? Well, the county is now pondering accepting infrastructure for that subdivision. Maybe the won’t accept that pipeline, which they could prevent by passing or enforcing local land use zoning ordinances. There’s also a Quit Claim Deed for Drainage Easement on Davidson Road and an Emergency Management Certificate Presentation, and that’s it, on the lightest agenda in recent memory.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Francis Lake opposition and 3:2 vote for anyway @ LCC 2014-08-12

Update 2014-08-25: There was some rationale for why the Commission voted to approve. See Videos: developer property rights and effects on neighbors, Leninco, Roger Budd, Lake Park @ LCC 2014-08-12.

With little notice local citizens didn’t have time to organize opposition to a rezoning for three companies domiciled outside Lowndes County on behalf of a developer who doesn’t even own the property next to them. Yet again no agenda was posted for the Planning Commission last month so few people showed up. More spoke at the Lowndes County Commission this month. But with so little time, only 38 people signed a petition, and there were no citizen-organized meetings, unlike for the Brookhaven rezoning back in March and April. Unlike the Lake Park City Council, which held a special public hearing, the Lowndes County Commission plowed ahead on its usual schedule and voted on a bare majority to approve anyway for a developer on which they are on a first-name basis, while local neighbors went un-named and unheeded. Does this seem right to you?

Toma Hawk videoed and edited together the Work Session of 11 August 2014 and the Regular Session of 12 August 2014 to emphasize this item from the agenda: Continue reading →

Toxic Waste? Coal ash in Alabama and Georgia landfills

Oregon denying a permit for a coal dock on the Columbia River Monday may seem far away, but the effects of coal ash are right here in Lowndes County. Effects that an Alabama county is calling a toxic chemical civil rights violation in the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown.

AP reported 14 August 2014, EPA investigating claims west Alabama landfill violates civil rights of black property owners,

It’s not the first time that the Arrowhead has been in the news. In 2009, an estimated 3.9 million tons of coal ash was dumped at the landfill. It was brought in after a Tennessee Valley Authority dam breached in east Tennessee, spilling toxic ash into a river and damaging about 300 acres. To date, it’s the largest coal ash spill in U.S. history.

Much of that ash ended up being dumped at the landfill in Perry County, which in return received Continue reading →