Category Archives: Water

Videos: Attorneys v Carter Way tar baby, Appointment, big subdivision, Hwy 84 lift station @ LCC 2016-05-10

Multiple attorneys (ka-ching!) were needed

to negotiate access for the county to fix private Carter Way,
which the Lowndes County Commission approved unanimously at its 10 May 2016
Regular Session.
This is the same Commission that signed an easement with Sabal Trail
because they didn’t want to spend attorney fees to defend a lawsuit.
The same Sabal Trail that wants to put its three-foot pipe only three feet deep

just downhill from where Carter Way washed out.

County Planner Jason Davenport showed an updated site plan for

6.a. REZ-2016-10 Freedom Heights, 4301 Bemiss Rd, C-H to P-D,
but as usual it’s not posted on the county’s website, and you had no way
of seeing it before the meeting unless you filed an open records request
three days before.

Commissioner Clay Griner remembered flooding, fence, and forgot the third thing
a constituent asked him for about

6.b. REZ-2016-11 Creekside West Subdivision, 7551 GA Hwy 122 W.
Developer Young Tillman said the changes were because Continue reading →

Videos: Carter Way tar baby, Appointment, big subdivision, Hwy 84 lift station @ LCC 2016-05-09

The County Manager asked for Carter Way to be on the agenda for tonight’s
5:30 PM Regular Session.
At yesterday morning’s Work Session
the County Attorney reminded us that

in a previous episode (March 25th Work Session) we learned
that the Loretta B. Moore irrevocable living trust owns half of the access
to the damaged part of the road.
Since then he’s learned that the trustee is
the Loretta Anne Ruth, who lives in Panama City, Florida.
He has contacted her, and has a copy of the trust formation document.
He says Ms. Ruth has signed an agreement with the county, and
he expected Charles Cowart of Cowart and Sons to sign an agreement that same morning.

Below are LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session, followed by a video playlist.
See also
the agenda and
the
LAKE videos of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting at which
the two rezoning cases were discussed.
The County Commission votes tonight at 5:30PM. Continue reading →

Videos: Hambrick Road paving and traffic and Bevel Creek bridge @ LCC 2016-04-26

Thanks to County Engineer Mike Fletcher for doing almost

what Gretchen asked

at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 26 April 2016.

They rattled through
the agenda
with almost no questions, unanimously approving everything, including
the $89,005 in emergency no-bid repairs.
You’d have little idea why they were doing anything if you weren’t at the
previous morning’s Work Session or you didn’t view the

LAKE videos of the Work Session,
in which we discovered for example
it’s not

Beatty Creek Bridge, rather Bevel Creek Bridge.
Nonetheless, the County Engineer still said the creek name wrong.

Here are links to each of the LAKE videos of the Regular Session of April 26th 2016, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also the

LAKE videos of the Work Session of April 25th 2016,
and the agenda.

They meet again this morning at 8:30 AM. Continue reading →

Appointment, big subdivision w of Hahira, Hwy 84 lift station pump @ LCC 2016-05-09

This morning, coyly considering appointing “an elected official” (I’d bet Joyce Evans) to the
South Georgia Community Service Board

and reappointing Mr. Shamb Purohit,
at the Lowndes County Commission, 9 May 2016.
A 7-acre subdivision
REZ-2016-10 Freedom Heights, 4301 Bemiss Rd
and a 173-acre subdivision
west of Hahira on Franks creek,
and a
pump fo the
Hwy. 84 Lift Station,
all also
on
the agenda
to be voted on tomorrow evening. Continue reading →

Videos: Emergency no-bid repairs, a bridge where, and unnecessary resurfacing @ LCC 2016-04-25

The

FY 2017 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant was a popular topic yesterday morning, and
some Commissioners showed a little bit of scepticism about that
$89,005 in

emergency no-bid

repairs
on

the agenda for yesterday morning and for voting 5:30PM this evening.

Also

$634,800 for a bridge we can’t tell where, and

some unknown fraction of
$1,663,888.78 to resurface a road that shouldn’t be used as a highway in the first place.
Who’s in charge of budget planning for the county?

At the end, there was

more from the County Manager about private road Carter Way:
they discovered another property owner (“at least one”) after they

agreed to spend $67,822 to fix a private road.

Here are links to each of the LAKE videos, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Halliburton says fossil fuels unsustainable, lays off a third worldwide, including management

You know things are bad for fossil fuels when the biggest profiteer of them all takes an axe to itself.
The fewer fossil fuel boondoggles
(including

more pipeline projects going belly-up),
the faster investment will keep moving to

renewable sun, wind, and water power,
for profits, and we get clean air and water and less global warming.

“Tyler Durden”, Zerohedge, 22 April 2016,

Halliburton Fires One Third Of Global Staff: “What We Are Experiencing Today Is Unsustainable”,

In a brutally frank and painfully honest first quarter operational update, Halliburton president Jeff Miller poured freezing cold water all over the “oil is stabilizing, and everything is going to be awesome” narrative. After explaining that the firm has laid off one-third of its global employees, and pointing to the collapse in sequential revenues across every business unit, Miller exclaimed: “What we are experiencing today is far beyond headwinds; it is
unsustainable.”

Due to the deadline of its merger agreement with Baker Hughes Halliburtion has delayed its earnings conference call until May 3rd and so gave an operational update. The healdlines were horrific:

*HAL SEES OVER 30% DROP IN YR GLOBAL DRILLING, COMPLETION SPEND

Continue reading →

Road paving and Alapaha BoatRamp in Naylor Town Hall @ LCC 2016-04-14 @ LCC 2016-04-14

Most people wanted to know which roads would be paved when,
in Bemiss, to Alapaha Subdivision, and next to the new Civic Center.

They did also talk about the
planned new civic center and the

Alapaha Boatramp they’re building.

I thank

the Chairman for clarifying his

remark about paving every road in the county.
He and other county officials also went on about safety being a big concern,
which is news to me, on my road the county insisted on paving that became
a drag race track.
And what’s this about Continue reading →

Emergency no-bid repairs, a bridge where, and unnecessary resurfacing @ LCC 2016-04-25

$89,005 in emergency no-bid repairs on the agenda for Monday morning and voting Tuesday evening.

Also $634,800 for a bridge we can’t tell where, and some unknown fraction of $1,663,888.78 to resurface a road that shouldn’t be used as a highway in the first place.
Who’s in charge of budget planning for the county?

Why is replacing the fiber optic data cable that connects the South Lowndes Data Center and the E911 Center an
emergency repair for $61,020,
when apparently the problem has been going on for years?
Meanwhile, it’s good that it’s not an emergency that the 911 Center
Core Network Equipment
needs replacing for $38,621.
Planning ahead is good.
Is one of these items in the budget and the other not?

Another emergency not marked as such in the agenda is Continue reading →

Carter Way Correction by Bill Slaughter @ LCC 2016-04-12

Thanks to Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, here’s a correction to

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

From: Bill Slaughter

Subject: Carter Way

Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 21:04:14 +0000

John,

I got a call today regarding comments that have been made about
Agenda Item 7.h on your blog page, for clarification COWART & Sons
was not awarded a contract for this emergency repair the contractor
was Rountree Construction!

We requested a temporary easement from property owner Cowart & Sons
to allow Rountree Construction to perform the work on a private road Continue reading →

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

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 →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange