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
Continue reading
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
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:
Dr. Noll of WACE said he was there to “harrass” Continue reading
Come to the Farm Bureau in two weeks to hear
Tax Assessor staff present their updates and provide your input
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
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
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
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
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
There is no reason our only county-wide elected government should rush to take a pittance from a company from Houston, Texas for an easement through the closed landfill toxic waste site that would risk our drinking water and enable more easement takings from local landowners. On the front page of today’s VDT the County Clerk contradicted what Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter has written repeatedly to FERC, that he and the Commission represent “Citizens of Lowndes County”. She also didn’t mention the GA-EPD permit for any work within that landfill that the Chairman previously demanded from Sabal Trail, nor the multiple state other and federal permits Sabal Trail does not have. Although it’s still not on the published agenda, the Commissioners have an opportunity tonight to vote to support their own unanimous resolution of December 2014 against Sabal Trail.
The County Clerk tried to roll back the clock to Continue reading
The secretive Project Max container company
better not be like when the Industrial Authority bragged about a prospect that would bring in 300 clean jobs and it turned out to be
a private prison,
which fortunately (after much public opposition) never happened.
At last Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commissioner Regular Session, nearby landowner Mike Paine said he is afraid of many things, because it’s a rush job
and nobody has told him anything concrete.
The Industrial Authority, now called the Development Authority, says we should
trust them.
It would help if they wouldn’t say things like no emissions but steam,
when burning natural gas produces CO2,
and if they would admit that methane often leaks, and then it’s a far worse
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
5.a. REZ-2016-01 Project Max, Rocky Ford Rd, E-A to M-2 123 acres
Video. About the public hearing for rezoning from Estate Agricultural (E-A) to heavy-duty manufacturing (M-2) for the hush-hush Project Max, the big-fish container manufacturing plant proposed for Rocky Ford Road, next to the protected watershed of Mud Swamp and near Valdosta Airport, see Continue reading
Citizen Billy Rowland complained about poor road grading,
his dogs being shot, and misuse of Knights Ferry Landing on the Withlacoochee River.
Maybe the Commission will listen to what he said this time, at last Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commissioner Regular Session.
Apparently G. Norman Bennett wants Hall Web Road paved for the mile to his house at the Little River, but
Julia Bass,
Ralph Niehenke,
and
Diane Guess
spoke up saying they don’t want it paved.
Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker tried to ask them questions,
but Chairman Bill Slaughter cut him off.
Slaugher did have time earlier fo
an extra announcement of a joint governmental meeting Tuesday morning.
It’s not clear citizens will even get to speak there, much less get questions answered.
See
separate post.
They passed the resolution to ask the legislature to start the proecess to appoint rather than elect Lowndes County Tax Assessors.
They already did emergency repairs to Clyattville Nankin Road Bridge (problem discovered by a local citizen) and Jumping Gully Road Bridge (found by GDOT), and the Commissione approved payment after the fact. So two more no-bid contracts were let, this time without even a Commission vote before the work was done.
They agreed to the North Lowndes Park Quitclaim and Custodial Agreement by which Valdosta-Lowndes Parks & Rec. Authority (VLPRA) takes charge of some land west of I-75 north of Hahira for a soccer field.
A few citizens spoke about rezoning for the mysterious Project Max, but of course they passed the rezoning anyway, even though apparently none of the Commissioners know who the prospective tenant is.
The Lowndes County Commission agenda contained quite a few other items as the Commission caught up after the holidays. See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session. Below are links to each LAKE video of the Tuesday evening 12 January 2016 Regular Session, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading