Allen Lane is one of the two Democrats running for the new County Commission District 4 for the east half of Lowndes County. He spoke at a baseball reunion in Naylor, 14 July 2012.
When you cry, I'm gonna cry; when you laugh, I laugh —Allen Lane for Lowndes County Commission District 4 1st Annual Reunion, South Georgia Semi-Pro Baseball & Softball League (Baseball), Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Naylor, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 July 2012.
Demarcus Marshall is one of two Democrats running for the new County Commission District 4 that covers the eastern half of Lowndes County. He spoke at a baseball reunion in Naylor, 14 July 2012.
Invest in our future now or watch our kids leave —Demarcus Marshall for Lowndes County Commission District 4 1st Annual Reunion, South Georgia Semi-Pro Baseball & Softball League (Baseball), Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Naylor, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 July 2012.
At the Monday morning Work Session, County Manager Joe Pritchard reiterated that there would be a Public Hearing on Millage 5PM 24 July 2012. He added that the millage is “less than calculated rollback”, Two weeks before, at the previous Work Sessioni and Regular Session, he already said staff did not anticipate any increases in millage.
This time he added these details:
Millage
Recipient
7.31
Lowndes County
1.00
Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
1.25
Parks and Recreation (VLPRA)
9.56
Total
Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know whether the school board was only the unincorporated area. He got two answers: “yes”, and “it’s not the city of Valdosta.” Those are not the same answer, since people from some of the cities, such as Hahira, Lake Park, and I think Dasher, go to county schools and are taxed for that. I don’t know about Remerton. Valdosta has its own school system and its own school tax. All the school taxes are separate (and greater than) the county taxes in the table above.
Announcement of Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012 Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.
Somebody finally set the invisible clock in front of the Lowndes County Commission Chairman: for the first time in recent memory, they started on time, instead of four or five minutes before the announced start time. Even the old dog on the phone was surprised.
The whole meeting took about seven minutes long.
Note the Millage Hearing announced for just before the
next Regular Session.
7. Approved bid for CDBG construction. First County Manager Joe Pritchard clarified that the initial low bid exceeded the budgeted funds for the contract, and
as allowed by the Georgia statutory law for public works construction projects, the county negotiated with Quillian Powell Construction [the low bidder] to obtain the contract price that Lisa [Burton] has listed.
8. Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012 –Joe Pritchard. The County Manager reiterated what he said in the Work Session that there would be a millage public hearing just before the next County Commission Regular Session, and staff did not anticipate any increases in the millage.
The Lowndes County Commission appointed people to four boards, approved a budget for next fiscal year, made some unspecified changes to this year’s budget, and demonstrated they could both stop speeding traffic on a rural road and put a cap on a construction contract! All this in one meeting, their Regular Session of 26 June 2012.
Budget, boards, and abandonment Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 June 2012.
Gretchen arrived early, but they started even earlier. That’s right, once again the Lowndes County Commission started a meeting before the advertised time. None of the names of prospective appointees to four different boards were listed in the agenda, and many of them didn’t bother to show up. Nor do we know what’s in the budget amendments.
So we have videos starting in the middle of the appointments.
6.a. Valdosta/Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) Nope, they already discussed that before the announced start time, so there’s no video.
6.d. Appointments to Lowndes County Library Board. If the Library Board has its members listed somewhere online, I can’t find it. Nobody showed up to speak. County Manager Joe Pritchard said Edward Rawls and Rabbi Elbaz(?) asked not to be reappointed, and Kay Harris is asking to be reappointed. (They didn’t mention that Harris is also the chairman of the library board and the editor of the VDT.) Names under consideration are [clatter, bang]. It’s impressive the ways Pritchard finds to be unintelligible even with his microphone adjusted correctly.
Our high schools and college graduates mostly have to go somewhere else, because jobs here are few and many of them don’t pay enough for a decent living. Should we not care enough about our families and our community to come up with strategies that grow existing businesses and attract new ones that will employ local people?
We need discussions and strategies that involve the whole community, going beyond just the usual planning professionals, to include all groups and individuals with information or opinions, whether they got here generations ago or last week: for fairness and for freedom.
The Industrial Authority focus group meeting I attended Wednesday was refreshing, because their consultants asked the opinions of people some of whom previously had to picket outside. The previous day, VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland said this strategic planning process was a long time coming. I agree, and while nobody can say what will come of it at this point, I hope it does produce a real Economic Development Strategy.
Budget amendments on the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday at 8:30 AM 25 June 2012 and Regular Session 5:30 PM Tuesday 26 June 2012. See if you can find some clues to what those amendments might be in the the videos of last week’s budget hearing.
Also this week: appointments to four boards (Parks & Rec, Construction, KLVB, and Library), a public hearing on a road abandonment (Brinson Drive), and the County Manager has something to say about FY 2010 Community Development Block Grant. Plus a bunch of service contracts. Here’s the agenda for tomorrow and Tuesday.
-jsq
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012, 8:30 a.m. REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012, 5:30 p.m. 327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Ankle monitoring is fully funded this coming fiscal year, with a 2% increase,
and the Sheriff’s office accounts for 35% of the county’s budget,
yet the Public Defender had to beg for more funds. The state-imposed property tax assessment cap has expired, but no increases in the tax digest are yet expected. Sales tax revenues are gradually increasing. The state is fiddling with motor vehicle license fees, and nobody can predict the effect of that. The Industrial Authority and Parks and Rec are now shown in the Lowndes County budget; they and other transfers out account for about 15% of the budget, specifically about 6% VLCIA and 7% VLPRA. All that and more at Tuesday’s budget hearing.
Chairman Ashley Paulk was not there. Commissioner Crawford Powell chaired the meeting instead.
Parks and Rec’s 1.25 mil and
Industrial Authority’s 1 mil
are now shown along with the county’s 7.31 mils of property tax
and integrated into the budget charts.
They and other transfers out account for about
15% of general fund expenditures.
Oddly, the City of Valdosta doesn’t seem to have such a map anywhere on its web pages, nor does the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA).
Allen Lane is one of the two Democrats running for the new County Commission District 4 for the east half of Lowndes County. He spoke at a baseball reunion in Naylor, 14 July 2012.
