Category Archives: Trash

Tipping fees: no contract, no list of fees, no details of expenses

No copy of the contract for
tipping fees from the landfill it privatized some years ago,
no list of what those fees were,
and no detailed accounting of what they were used for:
that was the answer from Lowndes County’s Open Records Officer.
She also took more than 3 days to produce this non-information, answering
the day after the recent County Commission meeting.
Here’s her answer:

From: pdukes@lowndescounty.com

Subject: Open records requests

Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:42:16 +0000

Good Afternoon,

In response to your open records requests of June 6, 2013, please
find the following:

For the contract or agreement addressing tipping fees, you may
contact Regional Commission Representative, Julia ShewChuk, at
229-333-5277. Lowndes County is not the custodian of this
information. You many find fee amounts in Lowndes Countys
Comprehensive Annual Reports located on the countys website,
www.lowndescounty.com.
To access these reports, go to the
Government tab at the top of the homepage, then County Manager,
then Finance, then Financial Reports. Fees are located on page 38
for 2008, page 38 for 2009, page 38 for 2010, page 39 for 2011 and
page 36 for 2012.

To be clear, Continue reading →

National Garbage Man Day 2013-06-17

Today is

Garbage Man Day,

at least as proposed by

“John D. Arwood, second generation garbage man and CEO of Arwood Waste”.

Hm, what does that
remind me of?
Let

me think….

Well, anyway, here’s

a local garbage man.

-jsq

Lowndes County vs. Deep South Sanitation this morning

The county government’s attempt to put a local business out of business
is this 9:30 AM at the county palace this morning 14 June 2013.

Physical Address:

Courtroom 5D, Fifth Floor

Lowndes County Judicial Complex

327 N. Ashley Street

Valdosta, GA 31601

WALB’s earlier story said June 4th, but now it’s June 14th (today),
because Lowndes County Attorney Walter Elliott is also an attorney
for Turner County in the
LOST case before the GA Supreme Court,
and he was going to be
in Atlanta arguing before the Supreme Court
on June 4th.
Funny how everything is done for the convenience of the county
government, and not for its citizens.

Maybe we should change that.

-jsq

A metropolitan area needs better than trash government –John S. Quarterman

My LTE in the VDT Thursday.
I’ve added links to some of my inspirations. -jsq

Local leaders worked hard to get the

Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area declared.
Why now are they acting like a Ludowici
speed trap for local businesses?

The Lowndes County Commission shouldn’t act like a private business
trying to exclude anybody it doesn’t like. State law says local
governments are supposed to have open bids and public hearings. A
promise (in the VDT) in

March 2013 of a non-exclusive contract for
trash collection turned into

exclusive in October; at least two of
the five bidders are now the same company; and the county

is suing

a

local business to the profit of

a company owned by investors in New York City.
Meanwhile,

no public accounting has ever been seen of the

former waste collection sites and

no public hearing was held before
they closed, despite state law.

Business exists to make a profit. Government exists to provide
public services like law enforcement, water, sewers, roads, and yes,
trash collection. Sure, balanced books are good. But money isn’t the
main point of government: providing what the people need is, and

the people didn’t ask the county to exchange the waste collection
centers for lower prices

that won’t last.

Businesses (except monopolies)
have to Continue reading →

You’re losing the democratic process –Gary Wright @ LCC 2013-06-11

“I hope you’ll consider a democratic process working into your rules,”
remarked a military veteran at
Tuesday night’s

Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

After saying he was also concerned about how Deep South Sanitation
is being treated,
Gary Wright said:

There is a little bit of a lack of democratic process in your meeting
groundrules.
On your website I don’t know anything in there that said
you have only thirty minute meetings for the entire thing.
I don’t know if this happens whenever you have a meeting
that’s only thirty minutes long; I’ve never been to one.

Their rules

don’t say that,
but it’s not surprising there is confusion, given Continue reading →

Do the right thing –Steve Parker @ LCC 2013-06-11

The right thing is not letting one company take all the money to New York
while putting another out of business, said a local resident
at Tuesday night’s

Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

When you get a company like Veolia or Advanced that’s taking
all the money to New York, and then they come to my house
and they leave, I put garbage bags beside my can and they
won’t pick it up.

And then my guy, Cary Scarborough, comes
and picks up everything,
and you know what else he does guys? Continue reading →

I want a choice in who I use –Jerome Tucker @ LCC 2013-06-11

“Let me decide who I want to haul my waste,”

said a former Chairman of the Industrial Authority
at Tuesday night’s

Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Jerome Tucker thanked

Commissioner John Page for bringing up the topic of freedom,
since that was his main topic, too.

I’m here to talk about… where I have a choice who handles my waste…

Cary didn’t come to me looking for business.
I saw his truck come along and Continue reading →

Thanks to the community, and I don’t understand –Cary Scarborough @ LCC 2013-06-11

The owner of Deep South Sanitation thanked the community and his family
and said he didn’t understand what was going on.
The Commission offered no explanation.

Cary Scarborough handed in a petition and sat down.
The crowd applauded.

That rapidly turned into a standing ovation. Continue reading →

What if we only had one hardware store –Duane Roark @ LCC 2013-06-11

Does the Commission already has reputation problems when
it’s being compared unfavorably to Lester Maddox?
A citizen canceled a business trip to ask “what if we only had one hardware store”
at last night’s

Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Our prices we pay would be through the roof; we would not have a choice.

And you’re welcome, Duane Roark:
it was LAKE who

put you on YouTube last month.

He also quoted a headline from the Fayetteville Observer,

Operation Tarnished Badge: Years later, tarnish remains.

A corruption investigation that sent the Sheriff and 21 others to prison
still casts a shadow over law enforcement in Robeson County.

If we put Deep South Sanitation out of business, it’s gonna give
Lowndes County a black eye.
People are to say, Continue reading →

A few Citizens to be heard for a few minutes only @ LCC 2013-06-11

Only fifteen minutes on any topic, said Chairman Bill Slaughter,
even though 8 people wanted to speak about trash
at last night’s

Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
But there is no such rule in the county’s relevant ordinance.

He was enforcing an odd mashup of the county’s 25 January 2013 ordinance about
Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.
It does have these two rules: Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange