Category Archives: Transportation

Drinking, driving, and air conditioning @ LCC 2015-03-23

Is the county changing the speed limit on your road?

Maybe, but they didn’t publish the list, so this is all you know:

The Georgia DOT is in the process of updating the existing Speed
Zone Ordinance for Lowndes County. Attached is a copy of the updated
Speed Zone Ordinance with the changes that were requested by Lowndes
County. With the execution of this Ordinance, the speed limits on
these roads wili be updated. A signed copy of the Ordinance will be
forwarded to the Department of Public Safety for the updated radar
permit for Lowndes County.

Also on
the agenda are
a

presentation by Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful, a

GEMA grant application, a

proposal for engineering services for Exits 22 and 29,

HVAC for county buildings, and a

liquor license.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Leadership Lowndes, rezonings approved, one citizen about a Water Trail @ LCC 2015-03-10

Leadership Lowndes Class of 2015 was there,
and Gretchen Quarterman spoke about

the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference.
Everything else went as predicted
with the rezonings and pretty much everything else unanimously approved,
at the Tuesday 10 October 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Continue reading →

Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
and they’re voting right now on

the annual grant paperwork
for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc.,
on a

commercial and a

subdivision rezoning, both previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission.
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two

Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the

hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC),
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a

Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for

each agenda item,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke yesterday about the

Courthouse Preservation Committee; see
LAKE videos of its public meetings.

Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the
agenda.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic
on nearby roads, unlike

back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to

regular routes on the bus system.

Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and
they’re doing

the annual grant paperwork.

Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak this morning about the

Courthouse Preservation Committee; see
LAKE videos of its public meetings.
Tuesday the County Commission will decide
the rezonings, one

commercial and one

subdivision, previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission:
will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission?
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two
Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the

hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC),
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a
Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for

each agenda item,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic
on nearby roads, unlike

back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to

regular routes on the bus system. Continue reading →

Renewables outcompete oil –National Bank of Abu Dhabi

A Middle East bank says:

Renewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in
new generation in the period 2000-2013.

And that’s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks
thrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities.
The report recommends aligning policy and finance:

To deliver a sustainable energy system for the long term, the
financial community and policymakers need to work collaboratively:
stimulating and de-risking investment, and developing innovative
structures which can support the financing of future energy.

With that collaboration, the Middle East and North Africa could
see this kind of energy deployment scenario: Continue reading →

REZ-2015-02 Devine packet materials @ LCC 2015-02-24

Gretchen filed an open records request for all the natively-electronic
materials from the board packet,
especially including

the list of the Commission’s own goals,
but

all we got was the one rezoning item,

REZ-2015-02 Devine
for the

23 February 2015 Work Session
of the Lowndes County Commission.
At least they sent that much by email,
but even so it’s missing important information that I wonder if the Commissioners noted wasn’t there before they voted.

New material in here,
different from Continue reading →

Videos: Dr. Grow, Devine, VLPRA @ LCC 2015-02-23

Dr. William R. Grow, District Health Director,

presented about the state of the Health Department,
and County Manager Joe Pritchard

reported revisions to both the county’s Solid Waste Ordinance
and the franchise agreement for solid waste were in progress.
They ended by going into an

executive session to discuss real estate.

For

Parks and Rec Board,
former Lowndes County Commissioner Richard Raines
read a prepared statement, while
Scott Willis, hearing specialist with Hearing Care Resources,
gave an extemporaneous presentation, including that he was
formerly on the VLPRA Advisory Board, and he’s been coaching
children and working with the elderly.
Commissioners had no questions for either applicant.

Tonight they’ll vote on

a list of goals that is in their packet
but they haven’t shown you the taxpayers.

Perhaps coincidentally, Continue reading →

Tesla opening market for home solar batteries

Elon Musk’s recent reminder that Tesla is working on a house-sized battery
has caused quite a stir, but not enough. Tesla alone isn’t the significant part:
Tesla opening a market for inexpensive home solar storage methods is.
And not all those methods will be batteries: also coming are capacitors,
organic vats, compressed air, and water pumped up towers,
for storage to car- and house- size to municipal- and utility-scale,
all of which will drive solar and wind deployment even faster.

John McDuling, QZ, 30 July 2014,

How solar energy storage could make Tesla much more than an automaker,

How lucrative could the solar energy storage business be for Tesla?
Almost as lucrative as selling cars.

That’s according to Morgan Stanley, which this week Continue reading →

Maps for Naylor Boat Ramp, Frank’s Creek Bridge, and Deloach Road @ LCC 2015-02-10

The three maps arrived by email for the engineering items in
the Lowndes County Commission
Monday Work Session and Tuesday Regular Session.
The rest of the response to that Open Records request did not,
so I’ll have to go back again to pick up the rest of it on paper.
And the other Open Records request, for Continue reading →

Videos: Devine tabled, Naylor boat ramp, no HB 170 or animals @ LCC 2015-02-10

Nothing was said about the
GA HB 170 state tax grab from local governments,
even though both school boards and the Valdosta City Council
already passed resolutions against it.
No citizens spoke about animals, or about anything else,
not even in the Public Hearings,
except for

me thanking the Commission about the Naylor Boat Ramp.

The
Devine Subdivision at Tillman Crossing
was tabled at request of applicant to try to sort out continuing
concerns about safety and congestion,
while
REZ-2015-01 Gramercy 2
and
REZ-2015-03 Scurry Property,
were unanimously approved.
No citizens spoke for or against any of them.

You the taxpaying public didn’t get to see any of the materials
in the board packet
beyond the one-page agenda item forms, before the Commission voted last night,
unless you were in the Commission Chambers or watched the LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session.
The open records request for those rezonings came back with
paper maps, despite my request for electronic format;
at least the paper maps were in color this time.
I asked again for electronic format, and will post them
soon even if I have to scan them.
The other open records request, for maps and materials for the
engineering agenda items, came back with no maps at all, so I sent
it back to be satisfied.
Both County Planner Jason Davenport and County Engineer Mike Fletcher
said they had never seen those open records requests,
and they’d both be happy to email electronic copy if they
were authorized to do so by the County Clerk.

All the other items were unanimously approved: Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange