Category Archives: Water

Fixing private road Carter Way next to proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane path @ LCC 2016-04-12

Cowart & Son, Carter Way If heavy rains washed out culverts on Carter Way, why would we not expect them to wash up the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, aimed barely 500 feet to the west, downstream on Tiger Creek? And why didn’t the county mention that the company to which they just awarded an emergency no-bid contract to fix a private road owns extensive properties on that same private road? Actually, no: see correction.

The Lowndes County Tax Assessors online database shows Cowart & Son own Parcel 0017 024 of 13.09 acres on Carter Way. Yet the item 7.h. Carter Way agenda sheet for yesterday’s 12 April 2016 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. mentions “Over 10 residences and a telecommunications tower” on Carter Way, but never mentions that the contractor, Cowart & Sons, just awarded that emergency no-bid contract for $67,822 to fix culverts on Carter Way, is also located on Carter Way. Actually, Rountree Construction got the contract; see correction. It’s still an emergency no-bid contract for a private road.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM Continue reading →

Videos: Sabal Trail and no-bid private Carter Way, no-bid Old US 41 N, Animals, VLMPO, Bemiss Road * 2, sewer, safety, and incarceration @ LCC 2016-04-12

In these LAKE videos you can see the Commissioners and staff didn’t mention the contractor for the emergency no-bid $67,822 to fix the Carter Way Culverts owns property on Carter Way. They never said how much the no-bid Old US 41N paving project would cost. Citizen Judy Havercamp thanked the Commission for the recent animal ordinance. She clapped, but did not get shouted down by the deputy; I guess his instructions only apply to people not complimenting the Commission. Citizen John S. Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., asked for wastewater spills to be posted on the county’s website and sent out by their alert system, and with a written letter updated the Commission on many recent pipeline developments and asked them to rescind their recent Sabal Trail easement or to help in other ways to stop that boondoggle.

See also Continue reading →

Videos: No-bid Old US 41 N, private Carter Way, VLMPO, Bemiss Road * 2, sewer, safety, and incarceration @ LCC 2016-04-11

The Old US 41N paving project is no-bid. If they bid, they would actually know which was the most cost-effective….

In his Report, County Manager Joe Pritchard asked them to add to the agenda an item about fixing a private road off US 84, Carter Way. Most of the Commissioners previously seemed to be unfamiliar with this issue, although we had seen Chairman Bill Slaughter and Commissioner Joyce Evans listen to what seemed to be a request for this same road at the Lowndes County Democratic Party Meet the Candidates meeting the previous Monday.

See also Continue reading →

VLMPO appointment, Bemiss Road * 2, sewer, safety, and incarceration @ LCC 2016-04-11

A very busy agenda, for Monday morning’s Work Session and Tuesday evening’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. See also the LAKE videos of the three county cases from the recent Planning Commission meeting.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016,  8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016,  5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Project Max and more at Development Authority @ VLCIA 2016-02-16

They said almost nothing last month about Project Max, so we don’t know for sure if for example it is really a glass container company. They meet again tonight. Actually, that one is cancelled; they meet next April 19th.

At the end, Gretchen spoke about:

  1. Ham and Eggs Show 2016-02-17
  2. the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Workshop at VSU 2016-02-27
  3. the South Georgia Growing Local food conference went well, and led to a planning session led by Charlie Barnes about local food planning 2016-03-31.

Dr. Noll of WACE said he was there to “harrass” Continue reading →

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: 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 →

Radioactive tritium leak at Indian Point nuke stopped, but still in groundwater

Papers forged, fire and oil leak into the Hudson River, fracked methane pipeline planned next door, oh, yet built on a fault line, and people are surprised there’s radioactive tritium leaking from Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear plant? Just like at Plant Farley on the Chattahoochee River, Plant Hatch on the Altamaha River and Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River? How about surprised if there are any nukes that don’t leak tritium?

AP, 6 February 2016, Radioactive Material Found in Groundwater Below Nuke Plant, Continue reading →

Cemetery, residence, parking, housing, appointments to 5 boards @ VCC 2016-02-11

For the Valdosta four public hearings tonight at 5:30 PM, see first the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session. That cemetery rezoning is quite controversial.

The housing resolution may be related to proposed joint city-county nonprofit for rehab housing in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity.

Also, Valdosta has a new website, apparently as of yesterday; follow this link for more about that and an online survey.

Here’s the agenda. Continue reading →

Videos: Sold out to Sabal Trail @ LCC 2016-01-26

Thank you Commissioner Demarcus Marshall for voting no. Calling it “a good business decision”, the CEO of Waller Heating and Air lauded the others for voting to sell county land for a pittance to a company from Houston, Texas, nevermind their resolution of a year ago. We thought we elected them to represent the people of Lowndes County, and we thought they did back in December 2014 when they unanimously voted “the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners opposes the construction of the Sabal Trail pipeline in any portion of Lowndes County.” But at least one of them (“Wisenbaker) didn’t even remember that the county voted to oppose Sabal Trail. Apparently most of them concur with what the County Engineer said about landowners who have not taken Sabal Trail’s money, “I don’t know who they are.”

Update 2016-01-28: WCTV report, plus Gret chen’s question: “Is less than 50 cents per person in Lowndes County enough to risk drinking water for all?”

Landowners who did take the money mostly did not have Continue reading →