Category Archives: Transportation

Wal-mart sign variance on Bemiss Road, and water and storage in Lowndes @ ZBOA 2016-10-04



2:30 PM today:
Wal-mart wants a sign variance on

Bemiss Road at Guest Road (see previous LAKE blog post),
water and sewage on

Bemiss Knights Academy Road,
and a self-storage facility on

Old US Highway 41 North,
make a relatively light
agenda
for the decision-making Zoning Board of Appeals.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator

300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia

(229) 259-3563

Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator

327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia

(229) 671-2430

AGENDA

October 4, 2016

2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →

Videos: HEAT on Sheriff finances @ LCC 2016-09-13

Half the meeting (11 1/2 minutes) Tuesday was Commissioners grilling

Sheriff Chief Deputy Joe Crow
about
the cost of

High Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (Heat):


how less funding is provided the more successful the program is,
and federal funding may go away, leaving the county to foot the bill.
Chairman asked for monthly statistical updates.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall moved to approve continuation of the grant,
plus a statement in favor of the grant including a disclaimer that the county would “work to preserve” as much of the grant as possible if state funding goes away.

They approved

finally fixing the railroad bridge over Old Quitman Highway.
and

similar but less complicated (no railroad) for the Jumping Gulley Road bridge.
Nobody mentioned that the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline proposes to cross Jumping Gulley Road half a mile west of that bridge, and then to open cut through Jumping Gulley Creek just south of the state line.

Snake Nation Road is getting

an emergency $168,928 box culvert repair,
which isn’t fast enough for former Commissioner Richard Lee,

who Continue reading →

3 Lowndes including wetlands, 2 Valdosta @ ZBOA 2016-09-13

Mostly setbacks, plus lot width, and

one about wetlands at the decision-making Zoning Board of Appeals
2:30 PM today.



That wetlands one is about Union Springs Subdivision,
which came before ZBOA previously in June 2016 about wells, wastewater, and wetlands,
when ZBOA approved a variance 6:0.

Here’s the agenda for today. Continue reading →

Videos: Finally, Wright Road RR Bridge @ LCC 2016-09-12



They vote 5:30 PM this evening on

finally fixing the railroad bridge over Old Quitman Highway.
As you can see in the videos below of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
County Engineer Mike Fletcher said it’s taken long negotiations with CSC and GDOT,
ending up with realigning the road to go across the railroad at 90 degrees.

Way back in 2011 this Old Quitman Road bridge was on the
T-SPLOST list.
Old Quitman Road itself was announced on a striping and citing list 2013-10-08 and on an LMIG resurfacing list 2014-03-24 and 2014-03-25.
It was said to be the only road for which the speed limit is being changed 2015-03-23 and
2015-03-24.
And they fixed a culvert on private Carter Way
before they got to this RR bridge on Old Quitman Road.
But now they’re doing it, and they didn’t need T-SPLOST for that after all.

See also Continue reading →

Two subdivisions, 3 road abandonments, 2 bridges, MIDS @ LCC 2016-09-12

This morning at 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission, the two subdivisions from the previous Planning Commission meeting,


REZ-2016-16 Livingston Properties, Bemiss Knights Academy Rd and Merriman Ct.

What’s with all the road abandonments these past many months?
REZ-2016-17 Grove Pointe Ph 6, Dasher Grove Rd,
a public hearing on
Abandonment of Strong Road,
probably scheduling of one for
Abandonment of Unopened Right of Way off of Pikes Pond Road,
and finishing up with a
Quit Claim Deed for Abandoned Right of Way on Old Miller Concrete Property.

Surveying and engineering for two bridge replacements, on
Old Quitman Road
and
Jumping Gully Road.
And the annual renewal of
Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Capital Contract, which is the MIDS on-call bus service, in case you can’t tell from the obscure agenda item.

Plus lots more on
the agenda.
Will they speed through it all in their usual 15 minutes?
They vote tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 5:30 PM.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2016, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Runner Ernie Andrus, Brookwood again, 3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-28



For an authority that gets 1.25 mil of your property tax dollars,
the Commissioners didn’t even know who was wanting to be reappointed,
none of them asked what happened during a year when one of them
was apparently serving on that board without a formal appointment,
not all of the Commissioners were present even voted,
and none of the candidates for any of the board appointments even shhowed up, much less spoke.
The Lowndes County Commission at its June 28th 2016 Regular Session also

unanimously adopted the budget for what the Chairman repeatedly called
“the physical year”, despite only perfunctory public hearings in advance,
and no draft budget available on their website for the public to see.
After they approved the budget to spend the money
(and according to County Manager Joe Pritchard after earlier that same morning the Tourism Authority approved their budget),
the Lowndes County Commissioners

unanimously approved a hotel/motel tax rate increase.
Odd order, eh?

About the 1.25 mil property tax

Parks and Rec Authority,
the Chairman finally got around to saying Continue reading →

Video: Brookwood Place reappears @ LCC 2016-06-27

Not on
the agenda for

Monday morning’s Work Session,
but added back for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session,
the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago
popped up in

Reports.
Where is it? Who owns it? How did they get it? Who’s the developer? No, really, who’s the developer?


8. Reports – County Manager – the reappearance of Brookwood water

8. Reports - County Manager - the reappearance of Brookwood water

Video.
County Manager Joe Pritchard said he was bringing back the trust indenture for “the Brookwood Place subdivision off of Mt. Zion.”
He can’t have meant Mt. Zion Road, which is in the southwest part of the county,
not near the Valdosta City limits, Continue reading →

Videos: Brookwood reappears, 3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-27

County Planner Jason Davenport said at Monday morning’s Work Session that the

Comprehensive Plan Update should be a Public Hearing,


so it needs to be listed as such for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session.
I guess that is more than 24 hours notice, but did they send a notice to the newspaper?
How were people to know, and why was this left to the day before when this
schedule has been known for months to all the local planners?

Not on
the agenda,
the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago
popped up in

Reports.

The county has had

a board member listed for VLPRA for a year after his term actually expired.

Plus a special Continue reading →

3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-27

Sheriff or VLPRA?
Invisible budget, visible Comp Plan Update, 1 road abandonment + apparently another,
and sewage not getting sprayed. All Monday morning 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

The
LAS Pump Control Panel
is for the sewage spray field, aka Land Application Site: cost $18,500.


Lowndes County does not have a wastewater treatment plant, just

an LAS,
east of Moody Air Force Base’s Grassy Pond west of I-75 and Lake Park.

The Update for the
2016 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan
has gone through quite a process of community input, thanks to SGRC.

Can’t say the same for the
Adoption of Fiscal Year 2017 Budget,
for which the county had

a budget meeting with less than 24 hours notice,
followed by two budget hearings that those who attended say lasted fifteen
minutes each with six slides presented.
And the most recent budget document on the county’s website is from 2016.

There’s only one road abandonment listed as such on
the agenda
(a Portion of Beaver Lane),
but Continue reading →

Videos: sidewalk, KLVB, DFCS, SGCSB, LCLB appointments, prisoners, mosquitos, grants, contracts @ LCC 2016-06-14



In a very unusual move, they tabled

trust deed or a well system
that a developer wants because he does not want to have property annexed into the city of Valdosta. Valdosta services are across the street.
The Chairman said he asked the Engineer who asked the developer first.

Citizens

Lawrence and Helen Williams
expressed concern about dogs and a gun at a neighbor’s house.

They unanimously approved everything else Continue reading →