Category Archives: SPLOST

Candidates again tonight @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Will any of our incumbent state legislators show up this time? Their challengers have spoken every time. AAUW logo 7PM tonight is the last time to see all the local candidates in one place: Wednesday 24 October 2012, Performing Arts Center, Valdosta High School, 3101 North Forrest Street, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, AAUW presents a Political Forum. This one, unlike some previous ones, is advertised on the sponsoring organization’s website (although oddly not on its facebook page) and in the VDT calendar.

So far, Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 3, Amy Carter (R 175), 1 of 3, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 3. Challengers Teresa Lawrence (D 174), JC Cunningham (D 175), and Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) all spoke at 3 of 3. Videos of the previous forums:

Candidates at 30 Club forum at Serenity Church
Candidates at Homebuilders Association Forum at Rainwater Conference Center
Meet the Candidates by Chamber of Commerce at VSU

vote Don’t forget to vote, today, tomorrow, Saturday, or on that great election day, November 6th 2012.

-jsq

Videos @ 30Club 2012-10-22

Here's a video playlist of the Candidate Forum last night organized by the 30 Club at Serenity Church. Probably more commentary later; for now, in the interests of speed, just the raw videos.

Candidates Forum, 30 Club, J.D. Rice, President
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2012.

-jsq

County clarifies library and parks division in SPLOST VII

SPLOST VII’s $22 million for a new library and parks and rec goes about 2/3 for the library and 1/3 for parks and rec, and the latter doesn’t all go to parks and rec at Five Points, according to a mysterious red-letter note that has sprung up on the Lowndes County website.

The front page of lowndescounty.com has sprouted this undated and unsigned clarification under the SPLOST VII heading:

Exhibit A (Please note that the $22 million proposed by Lowndes County for the Library and Parks & Recreation, represents a division of approximately $14.5 million for the Library and approximately $7.5 million for Parks & Recreation. In addition, the $7.5 million proposed for Parks & Recreation is not allocated for parks and improvements at the 5-Points site. Parks & Recreation will use these funds for improvements in other areas of the county.)

Exhibit A is the list of projects and estimated costs that includes this item:

  • payment of bond debt for acquisition and construction of and equipping a new library facility and parks and recreation facilities
 
$ 22,000,000

Can somebody explain why the new library and Parks and Rec were lumped together in the first place? At least the county is sort of trying to explain the difference now.

They didn’t include the pie chart with their clarification.

Revised SPLOST VII Pie

I made the pie chart; took about Continue reading →

Videos @ HBA 2012-10-18

Here are videos of last night’s Political Forum. The goal of this post is speed, so there’s no fancy format, just a video playlist in which you can find candidates by video title or thumbnail picture. We will probably come back later and use some of these videos in other posts.

Political Forum moderated by Chris Beckham of NewsTalk 105.9 WVGA
The Home Builders Association of South Georgia (HBA), Franklin Bailey President,
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2012.

-jsq

When Can You Vote?

Several recent local elections have been decided by less than 100 votes. Your vote counts. Here’s when and where you can vote.

According to a Word file buried three levels deep in the Board of Elections website, and also according to GA Secretary of state Elections Division:

Early Voting: Deb Cox, Elections Supervisor, Lowndes County, Georgia Monday through Friday,
October 15-26, 2012, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta
Saturday Voting: October 27, 2012, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta
Extended Hours: Your Vote Counts Monday through Friday,
October 29 – November 2, 2012, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta
Vote by Mail: Get the form from the Board of Elections
Election Day: precincts Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Go to your assigned precinct
Find your precinct through My Voter Page by the Georgia Secretary of State.

For a sample ballot, Continue reading →

Record early voting in Lowndes County —WCTV

2,861 Total Votes through Oct 16, 2012 A record 2,861 total votes were cast in Lowndes County by Tuesday 16 October 2012.

Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV yesterday, Early Voting In Lowndes County Sets New Record,

Jessica Cooke, first-time Lowndes Voter Georgia state officials say the pace for early voting is slower this year than for previous presidential elections, but as Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg shows us, you’d never know it in Lowndes County….

Wave of voters Jessica’s not alone. In fact, she was joined by a wave of voters of all ages here in the first week of early voting here in Georgia. Now they’ve actually already set an all-time record here in Lowndes County for the most votes in the first two days of a presidential election, with almost three thousand.

Deb Cox, Supervisor, Lowndes County Board of Elections, and Gregg Gullberg of WCTV:

Continue reading →

Candidates Forum today @ HBA 2012-10-18

Candidates Forum, 7-9PM today 18 October 2012, at the Rainwater Conference Center, 1 Meeting Place, Valdosta, GA, organized by the Home Builders Association of South Georgia and NewsTalk105.9 WVGA, moderated by Chris Beckham.

This thing is astonishingly poorly advertised, unless you happen to follow one of the organizing organizations. It’s not in the VDT calendar, it’s not on the conference center’s calendar, and people keep asking when and where is it. Now you know.

Here are videos (from three different cameras) of all the candidate presentations of the 2 October 2012 Meet the Candidates event at VSU. Tonight, if I understand correctly from there being a moderator, they debate. Presumably all the same candidates will be there: Continue reading →

Tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Bees in the library —VDT -jsq

Thanks for bringing up the question of selling the current library to SGMC. I tried to follow your link & did not see any reference on the page it brought up. I personally have been wondering why the taxpayers are not privy to any discussions of SGMC purchasing the property. Since SGMC has already purchased the adjoining properties, effectively land locking the current library, I would think the library board would have quite a bit of leverage toward negotiating price & we the taxpayers have a right to know what is transpiring between them. Everyone I have questioned states they cannot find out any information about proposed SGMC/library negotiations or discussions.

Thankfully LAKE does a lot to solicit transparency within local government entities & boards. I for one am tired of seeing said transparency be a constant source of tension. No one should have to constantly work to elicit information that should be readily available. I personally will not vote for SPLOST VII or any other proposed tax until I see local government become more accountable to taxpayers. SPLOST VII needs to die so a more responsible proposal can be presented. We complain about the federal government not balancing the budget, yet local government entities seem intent on devising lists littered with wants instead of focusing on needs as if the economy is thriving. I am an avid library supporter, but I'm not willing to blindly accept the current library board (or boards) opaque tax payer liability assignments.

-Barbara Stratton

-jsq

Bees in the library —VDT

As its closing argument for SPLOST VII, library bookshelves the VDT argued that the library has bees in its brick walls. Sure and we need a new library. But they didn’t address any of the questions about the Five Points out-of-state architect plan for a new library or about the process by which that plan was produced.

Jason Schaefer write for the VDT 14 October 2012, SPLOST to solve aging library’s problems with modern building,

Plainly speaking, the South Georgia Regional Library is in bad shape. Half of the red-brick building was constructed in 1966, and the other in 1995.

Walking in, the atmosphere seems stuffy and archaic — stained ceiling tiles and old carpet, color-neutral walls and little decoration.

The wiring intended to service the computers is buried in the floor and unable to meet current internet standards, and the machines—35 to process 7,000 logins a month—are all clustered together in one area.

The HVAC system is antiquated, riddled with patches and still slowly disintegrating, and replacement of the system would cost upward of $2 million.

This and their other points are all true, and although I haven’t seen them, I have no doubt this is true, too:

Continue reading →

Library process transparency —John S. Quarterman

John S. Quarterman videoing SPLOST VII Kickoff Speeches It’s good to see that someone responsible for allocating millions of dollars of taxpayer money is willing to answer questions about related decisions, as Kay Harris is doing! It would be even better if there were a regular process by which the taxpaying and voting and library-using public could ask such questions and get answers.

If there were such a process, it’s pretty likely Ms. Harris or the Library Board or the County Commission would have been asked about the architect selection, considering I wasn’t even involved in that selection and my ear was scorched with complaints as soon as it was announced. Maybe Ms. Harris can suggest a way to produce such a process.

Let me take Ms. Harris’ points in order.

“First, they were the only one of the four finalists who did a full cost evaluation of the project, estimating $16 million while others were more than content to use the state’s estimate of $21 million.”

That’s very interesting news, which clarifies for me what she was getting at in the VDT writeup on that selection:

Continue reading →