Category Archives: Water

Videos: Runner Ernie Andrus, Brookwood again, 3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-28

For an authority that gets 1.25 mil of your property tax dollars,
the Commissioners didn’t even know who was wanting to be reappointed,
none of them asked what happened during a year when one of them
was apparently serving on that board without a formal appointment,
not all of the Commissioners were present even voted,
and none of the candidates for any of the board appointments even shhowed up, much less spoke.
The Lowndes County Commission at its June 28th 2016 Regular Session also

unanimously adopted the budget for what the Chairman repeatedly called
“the physical year”, despite only perfunctory public hearings in advance,
and no draft budget available on their website for the public to see.
After they approved the budget to spend the money
(and according to County Manager Joe Pritchard after earlier that same morning the Tourism Authority approved their budget),
the Lowndes County Commissioners

unanimously approved a hotel/motel tax rate increase.
Odd order, eh?

About the 1.25 mil property tax

Parks and Rec Authority,
the Chairman finally got around to saying Continue reading →

Video: Brookwood Place reappears @ LCC 2016-06-27

Not on
the agenda for

Monday morning’s Work Session,
but added back for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session,
the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago
popped up in

Reports.
Where is it? Who owns it? How did they get it? Who’s the developer? No, really, who’s the developer?

8. Reports – County Manager – the reappearance of Brookwood water

Video.
County Manager Joe Pritchard said he was bringing back the trust indenture for “the Brookwood Place subdivision off of Mt. Zion.”
He can’t have meant Mt. Zion Road, which is in the southwest part of the county,
not near the Valdosta City limits, Continue reading →

Videos: Brookwood reappears, 3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-27

County Planner Jason Davenport said at Monday morning’s Work Session that the

Comprehensive Plan Update should be a Public Hearing,

so it needs to be listed as such for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session.
I guess that is more than 24 hours notice, but did they send a notice to the newspaper?
How were people to know, and why was this left to the day before when this
schedule has been known for months to all the local planners?

Not on
the agenda,
the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago
popped up in

Reports.

The county has had

a board member listed for VLPRA for a year after his term actually expired.

Plus a special Continue reading →

3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-27

Sheriff or VLPRA?
Invisible budget, visible Comp Plan Update, 1 road abandonment + apparently another,
and sewage not getting sprayed. All Monday morning 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

The
LAS Pump Control Panel
is for the sewage spray field, aka Land Application Site: cost $18,500.

Lowndes County does not have a wastewater treatment plant, just

an LAS,
east of Moody Air Force Base’s Grassy Pond west of I-75 and Lake Park.

The Update for the
2016 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan
has gone through quite a process of community input, thanks to SGRC.

Can’t say the same for the
Adoption of Fiscal Year 2017 Budget,
for which the county had

a budget meeting with less than 24 hours notice,
followed by two budget hearings that those who attended say lasted fifteen
minutes each with six slides presented.
And the most recent budget document on the county’s website is from 2016.

There’s only one road abandonment listed as such on
the agenda
(a Portion of Beaver Lane),
but Continue reading →

Videos: Policies, Workshop #6 @ SGRC 2016-05-09

Educating people upstream about things they could do to reduce flooding,
was among the topics discussed by Gretchen with the small sixth workshop that on Monday May 9th 2016
reviewed the Policies section
(Word,
PDF)
of the 19 April 2016 Workbook
for the Update to the Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan, as

Ariel Godwin said in advance.

Here’s

a video playlist:

Continue reading →

Videos: Abandoned Voting @ LCC 2016-05-24

Record low attendance, not record but very short session time,
even with a full agenda;
at least you can see last month’s last Lowndes County Commission Regular Session in these LAKE videos.
They meet again 8:30 AM this morning.

See also the LAKE videos of the May 23rd Work Session.
In the May 24th Regular Session, there were
still no questions yesterday from Commissioners about that $55,979.00 in

two no-bid
items.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall did ask Continue reading →

Existing and future land use and character area maps @ SGRC 2016-06-06

Received by email today this
Reminder:

The final workshop for the Joint 2016 Lowndes County and Cities of
Dasher, Hahira, Lake Park, Remerton, and Valdosta Comprehensive Plan
Update will be:

Monday, June 6, 2016

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

SGRC office, 327 W. Savannah Avenue, Valdosta

At this workshop we will review the existing land use and future
land use or character area maps.

The entire plan workbook can be downloaded at: Continue reading →

Videos: Abandon Beaver Lane, Aging Development Appointments, Kinderlou Lift Station Pump @ LCC 2016-05-23

Will they take longer to vote this evening at 5:30 PM than the
8 1/2 minutes for yesterday morning’s Work Session with

a full agenda?

No questions yesterday from Commissioners about that $55,979.00 in

two no-bid
items, although the County Manager did say “quotes” about the .
lift station pump.
The

County Manager’s Report
did say he’d received
an annexation request from Hahira for the W. Main St. property and he indicated no grounds for the county to protest.

The only question from a Commissioner was about which one of them
might be picked to serve with

“Ms. Andrea Schuijer”
on the

South Regional Joint Development Authority.
Answer: maybe Clay Griner.
Nobody asked why

the county’s web page on that Joint Authority
says Andrea Schruijer is already on it.
Is this a reappointment?
And which slots are vacant?
Also, what does this Joint Authority do?

For the
Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging,
yes it’s Commissioner Joyce Evans for reappointment.

County Engineer Mike Fletcher said

the Beaver Lane closing
previously came up in 2002 and was denied,
but now some of the opponents from then are for it.
Tonight is not the public hearing: merely a determination on scheduling a public hearing. Continue reading →

Abandon Beaver Lane, Aging Development Appointments, Kinderlou Lift Station Pump @ LCC 2016-05-23

This morning’s 8:30 AM
$45,600.00 for new grounds for four

radio towers:
was it in the budget, or is this another emergency no-bid item?
Ditto the $10,379.00 for the
Kinderlou Lift Station Pump?
Each item names only one company quoting.

After

abandoning Beaver Lane, will the county vote to fix it as a private road,

like they did with

Carter Way?
And from whom did the county receive the abandonment request?
Will the

County Manager’s Report
include
the Hahira W. Main St. annexation?

Also on
the Lowndes County Commission agenda
for discussion Monday morning and vote Tuesday evening,
appointing

“Ms. Andrea Schuijer and a Commissioner”
to the Continue reading →

Hahira rezoning and annexation, W. Park St @ GLPC 2016-05-31

Update 2016-04-23: Fixed date of Hahira City Council Work Session to May 31st per comment from Barbara Stratton.

Josh Thomason wants to combine three parcels and annex one of them into Hahira.

Some people are rightly concerned about whether Hahira’s sewer system can handle it.
Apparently Hahira Mayor and Council have already discussed these three related cases,
and they come up for two Planning Commission meetings and a Hahira vote
in the next few weeks, plus the annexation goes past the Lowndes County Commission.
Oh, and Valdosta is indirectly involved.

Barbara Stratton, facebook, 17 May 2016: Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange