Category Archives: Transportation

Videos: Pipeline, health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-22



The big event was that
citizens speaking about the pipeline got
four of five Commissioners to come down and listen afterwards.
And
in a surprise addition to the agenda
D.A. J. David Miller asked for and got approval for a victim assistance program.
All this and

insurance plan,
health plan,
a

road closing,
a grant proposal to renovate the
Library (did the Commissioners get the whole
board packet this time?)
and let’s not forget a special performance on fire by
Chairman Bill Slaughter,
plus apparently
the County Commission is in charge of rain
like it’s in charge of
alcohol.

Here’s

the agenda with links to the videos, and a few notes.
See also
the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: VLMPO Policy Committee @ VLMPO 2013-10-29



I commend VLMPO for addressing real issues and getting a broad variety of organizations to show up.
However, map after map on
the consultant’s slides
showed a straight-line highway going from Moody’s
front gate to Hahira:


Highway straight line from Moody AFB to Hahira?

There is no such road.
There better not be, since it would go straight through my property
and would drive development right through agricultural and forestry
areas that the Comprehensive Plan says aren’t supposed to be developed,.
not to mention the Moody MAZ.
I’m told the consultant is going to fix this.

I have my doubts, because Continue reading →

Open House at Mildred Hunter on Common Community Vision @ VLMPO 2013-10-23

“We have broadband”, said Bill Slaughter, while other people had
different opinions on that and other topics Wednesday night at
the Mildred Hunter Community Center.



Corey Hull introduced the session and a small but vocal group of citizens
discussed all

the main topic headings.
He noted that there are more than twelve plans already in place
in the various cities and counties in the Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan
Planning Area.
Yet there were many common themes in those plans, and VLMPO was looking
for other common areas in these meetings and online,
and more specifically strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
If you have a community group of any size, VLMPO can come talk to it.
They’ve been to the Chamber, to Rotary, to churches, etc.
They expect to wrap this process up in December,
with common vision and goals for the next ten or twenty years.


Matt Martin
Local officials present included Matt Martin,

Planning and Zoning Administrator for the City of Valdosta,
and Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter.
Martin didn’t say much, but Bill Slaughter was quite vocal.
I thanked him for speaking up, even though I didn’t agree with everything he said.
He helped clarify current county codes for stormwater retention,
and Martin helped clarify the city’s codes.

As a long-time participant in
local development (he’s CEO of Waller Heating and Air)
Slaughter said when people are buying houses all they look at is Continue reading →

Videos: Health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-21



Vice Chair Richard Raines ran the work session, calling the meeting to
order and moving briskly through the first item (minutes for approval).
Commissioners asked questions on most of the other items.
-gretchen

In the Library item Commissioners discovered even they
didn’t get the whole board packet.
After the meeting,
Gretchen filed an open records request for the agenda packet,
but if the county runs true to form she won’t get it until after
they vote in the Regular Session tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM.

Insurance plan
and
health plan
took more than 20 minutes, with many questions from Commissioners.

Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-21

The county is considering
an

insurance plan
(
Section 125 or cafeteria or flexible benefit),
presumably related to the
health plan
they’re also considering.


They may



abandon Green Lane.
The only family living on Green Lane appears to be

Alphonso Simmons Jr.

Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Exits 11, 22, and 29 right of way funding, public open house and comments –VLMPO

Update 2017-08-27: Fix some links that have changed and one broken one. See also
GDOT construction on I-75 Exit 29 2017-08-28.



You can comment on
road improvements at I-75 and
exit 11 onto GA 31
Madison Highway towards Clyattville,
exit 22 onto
US 41 North Valdosta Road, and

Exit 29 onto GA 122 at Hahira,
at the
Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO),
the one board around here that goes out of its way to ask for
public input, with
information in many public offices,
with an open house at their office,
and with details of their
projects on

VALOR GIS
(select interactive map, then More in the upper right Layers, then MPO Transportation Improvements),
including links to project sheets/ GDOT Project Search (GeoPI) is similarly useless for finding the project sheets
(which I’ve linked into the public notice below; well one of them is correct).


Public Notice of a Public Comment Period and Public Open House,

In accordance with requirements set forth in the adopted FY2014-2017
Transportation Improvement Program and in 23 CFR 450 and other laws
and regulations; the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning
Organization (VLMPO) proposes to amend its Transportation
Improvement Program for Fiscal Years 2014-2017 (TIP) for the
Valdosta Metropolitan Planning Area which includes all of Lowndes
County and portions of Berrien,
Brooks and Lanier Counties.

The proposed projects in the amendment are as follows: Continue reading →

Common Community Vision for Lowndes County



What do you the citizens want Lowndes County to be?
Here’s a chance to speak up, so when somebody asks where were you when
the decisions were being made, you don’t have to answer “lying on the couch
watching television.” (Thanks to Nolen Cox for that phrase.)

Corey Hull wrote on facebook today,

Help Spread the Word for the Future of Lowndes County,

My office is conducting a survey and gathering public input on
Facebook (go to

www.facebook.com/valdostalowndesmpo) about what they
want the Lowndes County Common Community Vision to be


(
www.bit.ly/LowndesCCV). So far our participation has been low. I am
calling on all of you to encourage your friends, family and
colleagues to spread the word and let us know what you think about
the future of Lowndes County and its cities.

Over the next two months there will be future opportunities for
public input so stay tuned.

Thanks for your help.

On the Southern Georgia Regional Commission’s website,

Lowndes County Common Community Vision, Continue reading →

Videos: SPLOST VII Resolution, child proclamation, and appointment @ LCC 2013-09-10



They voted to put the

SPLOST VII Resolution on the ballot in November,

“to reimpose the tax”, with not even a hint of those

town halls that never happened.
They reappointed

Mac McCall to ZBOA.
The Proclamation
was for a boy who called 911 to help an old neighbor
who was trapped under a refrigerator
(nope, not for

South Georgia Pride).
And we learned that nobody has to fear arrest or threat
and everybody can speak their mind
in the Commission chambers; nevermind recent history to the contrary.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES 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

Continue reading →

Gaines Lane into county road system? Little chance for ordinary citizens @ LCC 2013-09-10



Citizen Anita L. Armstrong wants help with Gaines Lane,
but it’s a private road, and it would have to be paved to state
highway standards to get accepted into the county’s road system.
She spoke at

the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013.

I come before you again asking to see if we can get some help with our road.
It is so bad and we don’t have the money.
If we could get just a little help, maybe we could get it kind of
straightened out so we could get in and out.
The last bad weather that we had, we had to be pulled out of the road
for at least five times.
And each time that we pulled out, we have to pay someone to do it….
And we are asking your help.

Her problem is that Gaines Lane is a private road, not county maintained.
To get it into the county road system, right of way would have to be
donated to the county, because some years ago the county made a policy
(try to find it in writing) that it would no longer pay for rights of way.
Some of the landowners on Gaines Road have not agreed to donate.
And even if they do, the county also has a policy (try to find that one
in writing, while you’re at it) that it only accepts roads that are
up to county standards, which means already paved to state highway standards.
So basically unless you’re a developer, you’re not going to get a road
into the county road system.

Ms. Armstrong spoke in the previous session, 13 August 2013, about

garbage trucks damaging her road.

A Bess Armstrong
11 May 2010

according to the minutes:

Bess Armstrong, Gaines Lane, thanked the Commission for their help in
assisting with road improvements made on Gaines Lane. Mr. Armstrong
added that he needed some guidance on how to maintain the road in the
future. Chairman Paulk stated that the credit should be given to Reames
Construction, since the county was unable to work on the private road.

There was extensive discussion in the 23 February 2010 meeting,

according to the minutes: Continue reading →

Where is the Alapaha Water Treatment Plant?

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:


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 →