Category Archives: SPLOST

SPLOST VII county list @ LCC 2013-07-22

Not quite most of the money for roads, streets, and bridges (none of them named to the public), plus everything from animals to public safety, in the county’s SPLOST VII list. But don’t be alarmed: it contains no new library and no new auditorium, and the Chairman referred to it as a “back to basics” list. It also contains nothing about Internet access; more on that in a separate post. You can be told about this list tomorrow night or at a forthcoming joint county-cities public telling: no town hall meetings have yet been scheduled. These videos and slides are from this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

5. Special Presentation & Consideration — Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax VII

There was something new in what Joe Pritchard said:

Commissioners each had an opportunity for independent review and evaluation.

That’s better than the county tradition of the staff write down the list and Commissioners rubber-stamp it. However, where are those town hall meetings Commissioner Joyce Evans promised? She reminded me afterwards that she had said “hopefully”. Mayor Gayle told me afterwards the problem was they were too close to the deadline for turning in the lists for the election. He indicated that was because the county was late. Remember Valdosta already presented its list 9 July 2013. Rumor has it the delay was in some Commissioners insisting on actually having input. That’s a good thing, but if the county planned ahead, there still would have been time for the rest of us to provide input before the lists were finalized.

The slides presented say they’re also available on the county’s website, but I don’t see them there, so I’m posting stills from the LAKE video here.

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SPLOST, Children’s Appointment, Prisoners, and Water @ LCC 2013-07-22

A SPLOST VII presentation, an appointment to the Department of Family & Children’s Services Board, rehiring prisoners who are cheaper than local labor, and a letter to GA EPD about an upgrade to the Alapaha Water Treatment Plant they’ve been tinkering with since 13 and 14 August 2007 at least. Is this the upgrade Reed Construction Data says is on US 84, was engineered by Lovell Engineering? If so, it’s for:

Water Treatment, Sewage Treatment The Work To Be Done Shall Consist Of Furnishing All Labor Materials & Equipment Necessary To Construct The Project Titled Alapaha Water Treatment Facility As Shown On The Construction Drawings In General Construction Consists Of Approximately 950 LF Of 6 PVC Watermain, Relocation Of 20000 Gallon Hydro-Pneumatic Tank, Valves, Fittings, Controls, Erosion Control Grassing, 2 Submersible Wells, Water Supplies Sulfide Removal Stripper Tank, 2 Booster Pumps, 16′ X 16′ Blcok Masonry Bldg & All Other Associated Apertures Necessary For A Complete Installation

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 22, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
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See what Valdosta wants to spend your SPLOST pennies on @ VCC 2013-07-09

What would you be willing to vote for in SPLOST VII this November?

There will be a presentation on the proposed SPLOST VII projects at the work session.

in Valdosta News posted yesterday Valdosta City Council Holds Work Session and Council Meeting This Week. And as an ad in the VDT Sunday:

SPLOST VII presentation, Valdosta Work Session
Scan by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2013.

-jsq

Valdosta SPLOST ad in the VDT 2013-07-07

Valdosta’s proposed SPLOST list will be presented Tuesday at the city’s Work Session 5:30PM Tuesday 9 July 2013: be there, or be blindsided by what’s on that list.

SPLOST VII presentation, Valdosta Work Session
Scan by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2013.

You know that if you read to the middle of the ad in today’s VDT about the Work Session and Regular Session. That’s in the paper paper; ads in the paper don’t get put online. There’s no agenda online for the Work Session. The agenda for the Regular Session says nothing about SPLOST. There’s nothing on the city’s calendar about SPLOST. There’s no PR about this on the city’s website. There’s nothing about it in any of the city’s TV videos that I can find. Don’t be surprised if nobody shows up….

-jsq

A librarian on the library board! @ LCC 2013-06-25

The political appointee was replaced by a librarian, and the marketing guy by a marketing guy, at the 25 June Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

5.a. Lowndes County Library Board

Back on June 10th Library Director Kelly Lenz brought candidates Jack Hartley, Linda Most, and Matt Lawrence, who spoke, and at the June 24th Work Session County Manager Joe Pritchard not naming candidates for the library board Commissioner Joyce Evans submitted the name of Mr. Robert Jefferson, who did not speak.

This time County Manager Joe Pritchard mumbled behind his monitor and did not deign to name any of the candidates, referring to “a list” that Commissioners could see but the public could not. He did say that the openings were for the board slots previously occupied by Kay Harris and Ray Devery.

Kay Harris Previous political appointee Kay Harris failed to get the new library at Five Points approved in last year’s failed SPLOST VII vote and resigned as Library Board Chair and from that board 15 March 2013. Here are some related points she never seemed to discuss. And while she and the County Commission and the Valdosta City Council and Mayor pointed fingers about who lost SPLOST, Continue reading

Four SPLOST town hall meetings –Joyce Evans @ LCDP 2013-07-02

“Hopefully” there will be four town hall meetings before the final SPLOST lists are settled, said Lowndes County Commissioner Joyce Evans (District 1) at last night’s Lowndes County Democratic Party Annual 4th of July Barbecue.

We’re beginning to put things together for the SPLOST.

Joyce Evans, District 1, Lowndes County Commission Hopefully we’ll be able to do several…. I know the mayor has stated that they were going to do two town hall meetings and the county’s going to do a couple of town hall meetings and then we’re going to come together with the information that we’ve received from the community and go and put together an overall SPLOST for the city and the county.

So please, take time, think about it, and be involved.

We shall see. At least it’s a small change in the old boy backroom behavior so popular among elected officials around here that the famously reclusive commissioner said this in front of a video camera.

Here’s the video:


Four SPLOST town hall meetings –Joyce Evans
July 4th BBQ, Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Dennis Marks (Vice-Chair / Elections), Amanda Hall (Vice-Chair / Membership), Richard Saeger (Vice-Chair / Qualifying), Jerrell Anderson (Secretary), James J. Parker (Treasurer),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 July 2013.

-jsq

Budget Telling Tonight @ LCC 2013-06-25

Tonight you can go be told what the county’s budget will be, 5PM at the county palace. If you want to see the proposed budget, you’ll have to go their beforehand and view the one paper copy they are required by law to show you. They say they’re short of money, so why are they wasting taxpayer funds suing a legitimate business?

On the county’s online calendar: Budget Public Hearing (6/18/2013)

PUBLIC NOTICE
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing for the purpose of considering
the Fiscal Year 2014 proposed budget on the following dates:

June 18, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.

June 25, 2013 at 5:00 p.m.

Location:
Lowndes County Commission Chambers
327 N. Ashley St.
Valdosta, GA

A copy of the proposed budget is available for public review in the office of the County Clerk.
For questions please call 671-2400.

Kay Harris wrote for the VDT 19 June 2013, Lowndes County facing budget woes,

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Internet access lunacy maybe partly corrected by Google Fiber

Slower and more expensive than the rest of the world: U.S. Internet access doesn’t have to be that way. Bob knows about our Internet issues here and is interested in helping.

Chunka Mul wrote for Forbes 26 April 2013, The Lunacy of Our Internet Access, and How Google Fiber Could Provide Needed Shock Therapy,

Imagine you are the world’s largest operator of shopping malls, and shoppers can only get to your malls via the equivalent of dirt paths and country roads. What’s more, those meager routes are all controlled by an oligopoly of private, toll-road operators that focus on their profitability, not on getting consumers to the stores in your malls.

The result would be a mess. The roads would be slow yet expensive. Consumers would limit shopping trips. The stores in your malls would have a hard time generating business, so your malls would languish.

Yet the entire online economy runs on an analogous network. The network could easily be lightning fast, pervasive and cheap (or even free). Instead,

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Valdosta Utilities Department 5-Year Action Plan

Received 26 April 2013. Basically Valdosta is accelerating its plans to do something about wastewater, including adding pumpstations and force mains, as well as relocating the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant uphill. Here are the summary pages; there’s much more detail in the plan. -jsq

Utilities Department 5-Year Action Plan:

Since 1992, the City has received $179 million in SPLOST funding and over the same time period has invested nearly $168 million in capital projects for the Water and Wastewater system. This includes SPLOST funding, system revenues, bonds, and GEFA loans.

Since 2009, the Utilities Department has expended over $49 million on sewer system improvement with approximately $5.6 million spent on the Withlacoochee Treatment Plant. When the projects listed below are completed by December 2018, the City will have invested approximately $230 million in capital projects for its Utilities system from 1992 to 2018, a 26-year period.

PUMP STATION, FORCE MAIN, HEADWORKS AND EQUALIZATION BASIN PROJECT

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Valdosta PR about wastewater issues

The city of Valdosta responds. I have decorated this PR with a few images with links, and a few comments after it. -jsq

Mayor and Council Address Recent Wastewater Issues,

The Valdosta Mayor and City Council are committed to providing quality municipal services that meet the expectations of our citizens. In addition to providing fire and police protection and other beneficial quality of life services, the city leadership is equally committed to providing adequate water and wastewater treatment services to its citizens, maintaining a functioning sewer collection system and discharging treated water in an environmentally responsible manner.

Recently, citizens have been inundated with information about the current state of the city’s wastewater treatment plant and sewer collection system, as well as the decisions made during the recent flood event. The following information is provided to explain the recent event and to help citizens better understand these important issues and the dedicated work of their elected officials and municipal staff.

THE SITUATION

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