The invocation didn’t match what the Commission did
at
the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013,
or at many another session, for that matter.
The invocation included this:
…we can gather here and not have to face the fear arrest or threat. That we can express our opinions openly.
I guess Minister Commissioner John Page hasn’t heard of Ashley Paulk’s Greatest Hits which include a not-so-veiled threat of arrest right there in that same chamber Continue reading
The big surprise in the eleven-minute meeting
was they called up former
County Engineer Charlie Clark to explain the Utility Director’s
comment about making a profit on wastewater to Lake Park Elementary School.
Yes,
the SPLOST VII Resolution is to put it on the ballot in November,
“to reimpose the tax”.
So much for those
town halls that never happened.
Yep, it’s Mac McCall for
reappointment to ZBOA.
No Proclamation this morning, so
it could still be for
South Georgia Pride
like
Valdosta Mayor John Gayle refused to proclaim last year.
And they vote tomorrow night at 5:30 PM.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Same agenda as usual, local governance: Water (sinkholes, aquifer recharge,
runoff,
drinking water, and wastewater), trash (how about that Exclusive Franchise!),
and money (no-bid contracts and plus SPLOST VII).
If you want to help, we have a little list of tasks you can do.
| What: | Monthly LAKE Meeting |
| When: |
about 6:30PM Tuesday
(after the County Commission meeting) 10 September 2013 |
| Where: |
Michael’s Deli
1307 N Ashley St. Valdosta, GA 31601 |
If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.
-jsq
Presumably the SPLOST VII Resolution is to put it on the ballot in November.
So much for those
town halls that never happened.
I’m guessing the ZBOA appointment is for the finally-expired term
of Dave Kirk;
they appointed
John “Mac” McCall last December to the unexpired part of Kirk’s term,
so McCall would be the odds-on reappointment.
Maybe the Proclamation is for
South Georgia Pride
like
Valdosta Mayor John Gayle refused to proclaim last year.
Why do we have to guess what all those items are for, anyway?
Why don’t they just make the agenda items descriptive,
or, even better,
link the board packet items in with the agenda?
The two
For Consideration
items are more intelligible, but would still make more sense
with those board packet materials.
Here’s the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Flood control to keep water out of houses seems like a good idea,
but it turns out that it causes the flood control measures to keep
needing to be raised higher, and it encourages people to build
too close to flooding areas, plus
“rare and catastrophic events take place”.
Like the 2009 “700 year flood” and the
four or more floods this year
that have overflowed the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In our case, there are also the issues of widespread clearcutting
and buildings and streets with impervious cover.
The local runoff containment requirements in the various local government zoning codes may be
like levees: “flood control
structures might even increase flood risk as protection from
frequent flooding reduces perceptions of risk”.
This encourages human settlements in floodplain areas, which are then vulnerable to high-consequence and low-probability events.Much simpler just not to give out building permits for flood zones. Or we could put medical buildings right next to a creek, assuming because it’s never flooded it never will….
Socio-hydrology: conceptualising human-flood interactions, G. Di Baldassarre, A. Viglione, G. Carr, L. Kuil, J. L. Salinas, and G. Bloschl, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3295–3303, 2013 doi:10.5194/hess-17-3295-2013, © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License.
Abstract. Over history, humankind has tended to settle near streams Continue reading
Where is the Alapaha Water Treatment Plant that has had 20 violations in the past 10 years, for which the Lowndes County Commission had Lovell Engineering write a letter to GA EPD and then approved a no-bid contract to the same firm? April Huntley supplied this pictorial answer. -jsq
Take Highway 84 east from Valdosta GA:
After passing through Naylor GA look for this neighborhood on your right (Lake Alapaha Hidden Cove):
Continue reading
GBI finally released video of prisoners being beaten with hammers by guards
after the
2010 prisoner strikes
for wages
instead of working for free for things like
call centers and building weapons.
Two guards
pled guilty in 2012
to conspiracy, assault with injury, and coverup.
But GBI mysteriously hasn’t been able to identify
the guard seen in this video beating handcuffed prisoner Kelvin Stevenson
with a hammer.
Mary Ratcliff 29 August 2013, Video released of Georgia guards beating prisoners with hammer,
At the beginning of this video, you hear a prison guard shouting, “”Get down! Just get down! Get down! Get down!” presumably to the other prisoners. That exclamation is followed by, “Oh (inaudible) guy over there with his hands hitting him … and a damn hammer!”
The deplorable beatings you’re witnessing occurred Continue reading
The
Moody Family Housing just rezoned is in a recharge zone for
our drinking water supply, the Floridan Aquifer.
What will keep runoff from this subdivision from feeding through
the wetlands and sinkhole into the aquifer?
Should we depend on county engineering, which never put in
the traffic calming measures
required for nearby Nelson Hill, or other county staff,
who gave waivers for other required items there, or just didn’t
require them to be implemented?
What assurances can we get from our county government that Moody Family
Housing won’t pollute our drinking water?
The above map is a detail from
Lowndes County’s own
Water Resource Protection Districts
Ordinance (WRPDO) overlay Map.
Here’s an even more detailed view courtesy
VALOR GIS (turn on Streams and Waterbodies, NWI Wetlands, Muncipal Boundaries, and Groundwater Rechard Areas): Continue reading
In a recharge zone for
our drinking water supply, the Floridan Aquifer,
is the Pecan Row Landfill
with its
PCBs and
coal ash.
That proposed
landfill pipeline requiring cutting through the vegetative buffer
along an unnamed tributary to Spring Branch?
Also at least partly in the recharge zone. Continue reading
Apparently
ADS’s landfill gas project
wants to take in methane from the closed old landfill, as well,
according to a public notice today that proposes
a pipeline from the old
Evergreen Landfill
to the
Pecan Row Landfill that has the natural gas turbine.
Nevermind
the
$27,500 fine for PCBs or
that
coal ash in the landfill that nobody on the Lowndes County Commission
or Valdosta City Council or Deep South Solid Waste Authority (SWA) can be bothered to check on.
Nevermind the
unaccounted for tipping fees
or
host fees.
I wonder if cutting through that vegetative buffer will let the coal ash and PCBs reach the Withlacoochee River more easily?
The yellow path indicated for the pipeline is just a guess.
In the VDT today, PUBLIC ADVISORY NOTICE,
The proposed project located west of Valdosta, in Lowndes County, GA along Wetherington Lane near the Pecan Row Landfill facility (2995 Wetherington Lane, Valdosta, GA, 31601) involves buffer encroachments necessary to install a 30-inch gas pipeline. This pipeline will Continue reading