Category Archives: Military

Valdosta Airfield 1941, Moody Field, Moody Army Airfield, Moody Air Force Base

I did not know that Moody AFB was a local project from the beginning.
It’s still about the only thing everybody near Valdosta
and Lowndes County, Georgia, can all unite around.
Many local people learned to fly at Moody Airfield,
some who went into the military, and others who did not.
Let us remember them all on this Memorial Day.
They also serve who only stand and wait.


Aerial-View-Moody-during-WWII, Pictures


Aerial View Moody During WWII,
in

Lowndes County Historical Society and Museum, Valdosta, Georgia

Moody Air Force Base, retrieved 28 May 2018, Moody Air Force Base History:

Moody Field began as an Army Air Corps pilot training base during
World War II. The concept of an Army Air Field in Valdosta
originated with Valdosta and Lowndes County citizens in 1940. Local
leaders faced Continue reading →

Videos: No Opioid No Probation Military Utility @ LCC 2018-04-24

They would have managed less than four minutes,
even with

chatting with Leadership Lowndes in the audience,
including 45 seconds on the only substantial
agenda item,

6 a. Grant Of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons
(aka Moody Family Housing).


2013-07-29 GLPC Packet-007 REZ-2013-09 Moody Family Housing


2013-07-29 GLPC Packet-007 REZ-2013-09 Moody Family Housing

Note the big sinkhole in Phase 2.

But

citizen Jacinta Howell talked about traffic safety.
Let’s remember the immortal words of

former Chairman Ashley Paulk
during a rezoning near Bemiss Road:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Opioid Vaginal Mesh, Military Utility, No Probation @ LCC 2018-04-23

Yesterday morning Chairman Bill Slaughter

looked straight at the LAKE video camera and said:
“We’ll have a record-setting short meeting tomorrow, with one agenda item.”
Then he chuckled.



The Work Session was 17 minutes and 35 seconds, because of 12 minutes on the

Special Presentation by Andrew Hill on Opioid Litigation (Work Session).

The longest other item was 3 minutes on

6 b. Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution,
which wasn’t ready yet, and is what the Chairman removed from the agenda for tonight.

Indeed it didn’t take five minutes, not even half a minute, for them not to discuss

6 a. Grant Of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons.

Below are Continue reading →

Opioid Military Utility Probation @ LCC 2018-04-23

Maybe 15 minutes because of the
Special Presentation by Andrew Hill on Opioid Litigation (Work Session).

It won’t take them five minutes to discuss

a water and sewer easement
for the sinkhole-prone recently-renamed

Moody Family Housing Housing,
now called Azalea Commons,
which is
in a recharge zone for the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink.
That subdivision only has water and sewer lines running by it up Val Del Road
because
the county ran those lines to enable
the Nelson Hill subdivision,
for which the county permitted razing wetlands, and
which then mysteriously

got staff variances to avoid building condominiums,
mixed elevations, or becoming a gated community.


WRPDO Site Map, Moody Family Housing, REZ-2013-09


WRPDO Site Map, Moody Family Housing, REZ-2013-09.

It’s unlikely to take longer for them to discuss the
Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution.

Here’s

the agenda.
Gretchen is on her way there with the LAKE video camera.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2018, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

  1. Call to Order

  2. Invocation

  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

  4. Special Presentation by Andrew Hill on Opioid Litigation (Work Session)

  5. Minutes for Approval

    1. Work Session- April 9, 2018

    2. Regular Session- April 10, 2018
  6. For Consideration

    1. Grant Of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons

      ACC Group Housing, LLC desires to Grant Lowndes county an easement and right of way to provide access to service and maintain the water and sewer lines serving the Azalea Commons residential area.

      Documents:Grant of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons.pdf

    2. Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution

      Approval of probation plan and resolution

      Documents:Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution.pdf

  7. Reports – County Manager

  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard-Please State Your Name and Address

  9. Adjournment

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

Videos: Litigation Executive Session, Lighting Ordinance, Drainage, Well, Trash, Software, Trucks @ LCC 2018-03-26



An

Executive Session for pending or potential litigation:
are they going to sue Deep South Sanitation again?
Some of them sure seem to want to find any excuse
not to re-approve

DSS’s franchise, which was the longest item at three minutes.

Second longest was two minutes for the

Bid for Mini Excavator for the Utilities Department.
Slow morning at the County Commission.

Below are links to each LAKE video with a very few notes,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also
agenda.
They vote this evening at 5:30 PM. Continue reading →

Lighting Ordinance, Drainage, Well, Trash, Software, Trucks @ LCC 2018-02-26

The
Street Lighting Ordinance
on
the agenda for this morning and tomorrow evening
is not among those on the

County Ordinances web page.
How are we to
“Know the Laws”, as the link from the county’s front page says,
when unknown ordinances keep popping up?
Ah, it’s currently
a resolution and they want to make it an ordinance.


Lighting-ordinance-agenda-sheet-0001,

The

agenda sheet says
“For
reference, copies of maps Continue reading →

Videos: Day 2, Planning, Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2018-02-20



These videos are for those of you who have jobs, or responsibilities, which prevent you from taking random days or hours off at a time. Commissioner Marshall was absent from the second day of the retreat because he has a job which does not allow him the flexibility of daytime hours off. (The first day of the retreat was on Presidents Day.)

The topics of discussion ranged from the ever popular litter and trash collection, to special tax districts, fire and emergency response, animal control and the animal shelter, and one of my favorites, electronic records. Most presentations were made either by the county manager or clerk but the current Deep South Solid Waste Authority Chairman Kevin Beals was first up to talk trash.

Below are links to each LAKE video of Day 2, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also
the LAKE videos of Day 1
and Continue reading →

Videos: Emergency road repair bids! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-22



The added agenda item

6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road
got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their
usual no-bid emergencies) passed.
The Chamber sent

Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page)
apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers
did not get to see) of
transportation projects to help “the business community”,
apparently including the truck bypass.

They only appointed six of the seven members of the

Development Authority of Lowndes County,
although a Commissioner did ask about that.
It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then,
since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already
expired in December 2016.
Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots
that expired in December 2016 until eight months later,
and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.

Below are links to Continue reading →

Hurricane Andrew was record-breaking, Irma is much worse

Seth Borenstein, NBC Miami, 8 September 2017,

Hurricane Andrew Was a Monster; Irma Could Blow It Out of the Water:
Andrew, “an incredible buzz saw giant tornado of a hurricane,” killed 65 people; Irma is much larger,




Satellite imagery of Hurricane Andrew (inset, at left) from Aug. 23, 1992, is digitally superimposed, to scale, over imagery of Hurricane Irma on Sept. 7, 2017.

Photo credit: NOAA

At the time, Andrew was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with
damages of $26.5 billion in 1992 dollars (about $50 billion in
current dollars), according to the National Weather Service.

“The effect of Irma on the state of Florida is going to be much
greater than Andrew’s effect,” said Continue reading →

Videos: Appointments to Hospital Authority and Parks and Rec + well pump @ LCC 2017-07-11



Two Regular Sessions back,
they started with a moment of silence for Mike Everett, recently deceased employee
of the Public Works department.
The

obituary in the VDT, 14 July 2014,

Michael Thomas Everett, a senior heavy equipment operator with
Lowndes county and long time resident of Berrien County, GA, died
unexpectedly on July 9, 2017 at the age of 58 at his home. Mike was
born in Miami, Florida on December 29, 1958 to Hermon J. Everett and
Mary C. Everett both deceased and is survived by his loving
Step-Mother Nora N. Everett. Mike also known as Mr. Mike to many of
his close friends and co-workers was an avid race car fan, loved
cooking, enjoyed tending to his many gardens. He also loved music
and often played guitar with family and friends. He was a magnet for
all dogs taking great care of any that showed up on his doorstep.
Mike was a very kind and generous man who will be deeply missed by
his family, close neighbors, friends, co-workers and all who knew
him. There is no service scheduled at this time.

No surprise on the

pump or
for the

Hospital Authority,
but news about Ashley Paulk and

VLPRA.
They approved everything else unanimously, as they usually do.

Below are links to each LAKE video, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the agenda.
There are no LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session,
because, they moved it half an hour early and didn’t send a notification.
But there is a blog post about one Commissioner’s response to that.
The county apparently does video its work sessions, but not that one,
and not this Regular Session, either.

Continue reading →