Category Archives: SPLOST

Candidates ready @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Here’s a picture of candidates waiting to speak at last night’s
AUUW forum.
None of the incumbent state legislators showed up.
All of the challengers did,
along with all the candidates for local offices.


Front row: John Gates,
J. Glenn Gregory, Gretchen Quarterman, Teresa Lawrence, J.D.
Yeager, Justin Cabral
Second row: Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Bill Slaughter,
Chris Prine, Jason Cain
Third row: Bikram Mohanty, J.C. Cunningham, AAUW organizer
Missing: Tim Golden, Amy Carter, Ellis Black
Picture by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge
Exchange
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012

The videos should be up later today. are up now.

-jsq

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 →