Category Archives: Transportation

Help fix land revaluation: come to Farm Bureau –Board of Equalization

Come to the Farm Bureau in two weeks to hear
Tax Assessor staff present their updates and provide your input

Contents
for changes to the
rural land revaluation, this time taking into account rivers, aquifer recharge zones, and uniformity.
Maybe the Tax Assessors actually don’t want more flooding in Valdosta;
both the City of Valdosta and GA-EDP have already shown interest in attending
about that point.

At an appeal on my property valuation,
the Board of Equalization stopped short of actually ordering the Tax Assessors to redo last year’s rural land revaluation, because staff volunteered Continue reading →

Videos: CAC on Skipper Bridge, 3 board appointments, lots of alcohol @ LCC 2016-03-07

See also the previous post for
LAKE videos of the preceding Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session.


County Manager Joe Pritchard brought up in

his Report yesterday morning
the annexation request that is part of the
Valdosta proposed rezoning for a development on Bemiss Road;
see the

packet materials for that item obtained by LAKE through open records request.
They heard the long-awaited animal tethering ordinance,
and will vote on it this evening, as part of an
Animal Welfare Ordinance.
See agenda posting
for the three board appointments, the two Copeland Road items
related to water, sewer, pavement, and Lowndes Middle School students,
the two Tax Assessor items,
others, and, last but not least,
the four alcohol items.
See also the previous post for
LAKE videos of the preceding Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session including

the CAC item on Skipper Bridge Road, with a link to the
board packet materials for that item
that LAKE obtained by open records request.

Below are Continue reading →

CAC on Skipper Bridge, 3 board appointments, lots of alcohol @ LCC 2016-03-07

The long-awaited animal tethering ordinance will be heard Monday morning
and voted on Tuesday evening, as part of an
Animal Welfare Ordinance.
They’re going to reappoint Joyce Evans and Frank Morman to the

Landbank Authority.


They last

reappointed those two 27 March 2012,
so apparently they serve four-year terms.

Despite the public not knowing there was an opening on the
Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Board,
they’ve already picked who they’re going to appoint: Chris Yarbrough.
What he sent in his application, we don’t know, but his LinkedIn profile
says he’s a “Community Supervision Officer III Mental Health Specialist,
Georgia Department of Community Supervision,
May 1996 – Present (19 years 11 months) Valdosta, Ga.”

Per LAKE open record request, here are

the packet items for
the Children’s Activity Center (CAC) rezoning
on Skipper Bridge Road,

REZ-2016-06, as sent to the Continue reading →

Comprehensive Plan Update Workshop @ SGRC 2016-03-07

As promised, there is
an updated Work Book online, dated February 29, 2016.

Title page
As Ariel Godwin also promised, the SGRC website says:

The next workshop will be Monday, March 7, 2016, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at
the SGRC office, 327 W. Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA.

It will be interesting to see if this version of the Work Book for the
2016 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan Update
contains any changes about the issues

Greg Odom raised last month (22 February 2016)
about road paving, trees, and reducing expense to the county.
And LAKE will be at the meeting with the video camera.

-jsq

Videos: Rivers and Pipeline, Rehab homes, LAMP Lease, Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-09



Gretchen

thanked them for putting most of the response to her open records request
on CDs, shortly after they had said at their recent planning session that
they wanted to promote interaction with the community.
Still nothing from the county attorney about the Sabal Trail documents, and it’s been well over three days.
I

invited them on behalf of WWALS to a workshop and a movie;
there’s more below.
See also the contested rezoning

5.d. REZ-2016-05 Union Rd Subdivision, E-A to R-A, ~114 acres
for more water issues.

Three citizens spoke explicitly about the pipeline,

Jim Parker,

Michael Noll,
and

Dr. Mario Bartoletti,
as also noted in
Jason Stewart, VDT, 11 February 2016,
Sabal protests continue.
As I noted

in another post,

I go to a lot of county commission meetings in Georgia and Florida. Nowhere but Lowndes County do I see Continue reading →

Videos: Rehab homes, LAMP Lease, Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, and paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-08

They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.



At yesterday’s Work Session, there were two unscheduled reports.

Mark Stalvey of the county Housing Authority
said they’re working together with Habitat for Humanity
to form a nonprofit for collecting funds for rehabilitating
housing, and they’re asking for $5,000 each from Valdosta and Lowndes County
to get the nonprofit up and running, in return for which each would get
to appoint some board members; the rest would be elected by the nonprofit board.

Last,

Tina Folsom with Lowndes Associated Ministries to People (LAMP)
said their executive director left,
so they don’t need their space in the Leila Ellis building.
They’d like to be let out of their lease and have the funds applied
to another county building they’re also renting space in.

See previous post for context
and
the agenda. Below are links to each LAKE video of the Work Session, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, and paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-08

Monday morning 8:30 AM, the Lowndes County Commission


will hear about
(they vote Tuesday evening)
four well and septic rezoning cases,
one of them

from R-10 to E-A,
and another

of 114 acres from E-A to R-A.
The usual wine, beer, and liquor licenses,
a
County Purchasing Card and Credit Card Ordinance,
a
2016 Public Defender Contract Renewal
and
Proposal from Lovell Engineering for Stafford Wright Road Paving Project.
I remember residents of that road asking years ago for it to be paved;
instead the county paved Quarterman Road.
Here’s

the agenda.
See also the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Video: Project Max rezoning public hearing @ LCC 2016-01-12



The secretive Project Max container company
better not be like when the Industrial Authority bragged about a prospect that would bring in 300 clean jobs and it turned out to be

a private prison,
which fortunately (after much public opposition) never happened.
At last Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commissioner Regular Session, nearby landowner Mike Paine said he is afraid of many things, because it’s a rush job
and nobody has told him anything concrete.
The Industrial Authority, now called the Development Authority, says we should
trust them.
It would help if they wouldn’t say things like no emissions but steam,
when burning natural gas produces CO2,
and if they would admit that methane often leaks, and then it’s a far worse
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.


5.a. REZ-2016-01 Project Max, Rocky Ford Rd, E-A to M-2 123 acres

Video.
About the public hearing for rezoning from Estate Agricultural (E-A) to heavy-duty manufacturing (M-2) for the
hush-hush Project Max, the big-fish container manufacturing plant proposed for Rocky Ford Road,
next to the protected watershed of Mud Swamp and near Valdosta Airport,
see Continue reading →

Videos: Why Emergency bridge fixes? Appoint Tax Assessors? Rush Project Max? @ LCC 2016-01-12




Citizen Billy Rowland complained about poor road grading,
his dogs being shot, and misuse of Knights Ferry Landing on the Withlacoochee River.
Maybe the Commission will listen to what he said this time, at last Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commissioner Regular Session.
Apparently G. Norman Bennett wants Hall Web Road paved for the mile to his house at the Little River, but

Julia Bass,

Ralph Niehenke,
and

Diane Guess
spoke up saying they don’t want it paved.
Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker tried to ask them questions,
but Chairman Bill Slaughter cut him off.
Slaugher did have time earlier fo
an extra announcement of a joint governmental meeting Tuesday morning.
It’s not clear citizens will even get to speak there, much less get questions answered.
See
separate post.

They passed

the resolution to ask the legislature to start the proecess
to appoint rather than elect Lowndes County Tax Assessors.

They already did emergency repairs to
Clyattville Nankin Road Bridge (problem discovered by a local citizen)
and
Jumping Gully Road Bridge (found by GDOT),
and the Commissione approved payment after the fact.
So two more no-bid contracts were let, this time without even a Commission vote before the work was done.

They agreed to the

North Lowndes Park Quitclaim and Custodial Agreement
by which Valdosta-Lowndes Parks & Rec. Authority (VLPRA) takes
charge of some land west of I-75 north of Hahira for a soccer field.

A few citizens spoke about rezoning for the mysterious

Project Max, but of course they passed the rezoning anyway,
even though apparently none of the Commissioners know who the prospective tenant is.

The
Lowndes County Commission agenda
contained quite a few other items as the Commission caught up after the holidays.
See also
the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.
Below are links to each LAKE video of the Tuesday evening 12 January 2016 Regular Session, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: Why Emergency bridge fixes? Appoint Tax Assessors? Rush Project Max? @ LCC 2016-01-11



Why did
bridge repairs turn up on the agenda for yesterday morning’s Work Session and tonight’s Regular Session only after problems were reported by citizens (Clyattville Nankin Road) or
GDOT (Jumping Gully Road)?
Also, “>neither GDOT restriping nor county road resurfacing
take into account the complete streets initiative for bike lanes or sidewalks, even though two Commissioners asked about that.
Hm, three Commissioners could vote to require it.

County Clerk didn’t have the

minutes of December’s Work Session ready, so Lowndes County Commissioners will get very little time to review them before voting this evening.

This is the only county in Georgia that does not appoint its Tax Assessors,
and the County Commission is considering
a resolution to ask the General Assembly to start the process to change that.

For hush-hush Project Max, the big-fish container manufacturing plant proposed for Rocky Ford Road,
next to the protected watershed of Mud Swamp and near Valdosta Airport,
see separate post for what little the public (or the Planning Commission) is allowed to know.
Also on
the Lowndes County Commission agenda
for Monday morning and voting Tuesday evening,
are quite a few other items as the Commission catches up after the holidays.

Below are links to each LAKE video of yesterday morning’s Work Session, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →