No T-SPLOST, Juvenile Youth Action and Justice Incentive, GDOT Exits & Mowing, late subdivision @ LCC 2017-04-10

No T-SPLOST on
the agenda for Monday morning,
despite tabling it two weeks ago
until their next meeting.
That may be because while Lowndes County dithered,
ten other of the 18 counties in the region agreed to put it on the ballot,
so now it doesn’t matter what the Lowndes County Commission decides about that.
Remember, even with it on the ballot, it can still be voted down, like in 2012.
Meanwhile, according to the VDT,

In the coming weeks, a regional roundtable of government
representatives will determine when the public vote will take place,
the projected revenue from the tax and what projects the tax would
fund if passed.

You, the taxpayers, are not invited to those roundtables,
which will be held on unknown dates at unknown locations.

On the agenda for Monday morning and Tuesday evening is
the ironic justaxposition of

Special Proclamation Presentation to the Teen Explosion Youth Action Group
and
FY2018 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Program Request for Proposals (RFP).
There are
two
GDOT
items
and a
late payment by a subdivision,
with its name spelled wrong by the county, or by Trulia, or somebody.


LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2017, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: regional T-SPLOST tabled, Trash disposal renewals, another lift station pump, Dasher Streets @ LCC 2017-03-28

They

tabled T-SPLOST until their next meeting
because they got a complaint from the Chamber about process,
and also from others.
Remember, even if it gets on the ballot, it can still be voted down again, like in 2012.


Meanwhile, John Stephen, VDT, 7 April 2017,
T-SPLOST headed for referendum,

Even though the Lowndes County Commission delayed a vote on the
regional T-SPLOST at its last meeting due to local confusion on the
one-penny sales tax, enough counties in the area now support the tax
(10 out of 18 were needed) to move it forward to a public vote even
without the commission’s approval.

In the coming weeks, a regional roundtable of government
representatives will determine Continue reading →

A county access variance and a Valdosta Country clubhouse variance @ ZBOA 2017-04-04

2:30 PM today:
it looks like Don Brotherton bought a piece of land without enough road access,


and now he wants a
county variance,
while Valdosta Country Club wants
a city variance
for its clubhouse, and city staff don’t agree.
This is a very light

agenda
for the decision-making Zoning Board of Appeals.
Courtesy of ZBOA member Gretchen Quarterman,
the entire board packet is
on the LAKE website.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin,
Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator

300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia

(229) 259-3563

Carmella Braswell,
Lowndes County Zoning Administrator

327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia

(229) 671-2430

AGENDA

April 4, 2017

2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →

Southern Company Shareholder meeting: renewables more than doubled in one year 2017-05-24

While its natural gas percentage remained flat, and coal and nuclear decreased, Southern Company (SO) more than doubled its renewable energy generation percentage in one year.
Maybe I’ll mention that at the annual shareholder meeting in May.

2017 Mix:


2017 Energy Mix

2016 Mix:


2016 Energy Mix

When:
10:00 a.m., ET

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Where:
The Lodge Conference Center

Callaway Gardens

4500 Southern Pine Drive

Pine Mountain, GA 31822-2593

Event:
Annual Southern Company

Shareholder Meeting

Southern Company has all its

SEC filings
online,
including Continue reading →

Videos: City of Valdosta Retreat at Lenox River Ranch 2017-03-17-18


Thanks to
George Boston Rhynes
for tracking the Valdosta City Council to the wilds of Lenox River Ranch
where they meet every year in Colquitt County.
Here are his videos.

The city did publish

an agenda on their website.

Here’s

a LAKE video playlist of George’s videos:

Continue reading →

Videos: Sheriff still wants warrants, elections, judges, EMS coroner, Budget Requests (2 of 3 days) @ LCC 2017-03-28



Sheriff Ashley Paulk

still wants a warrant before he turns anybody over to ICE.
I agree with him that there’s no point in arresting people who are busy
working in the fields.
Georgia already tried that a few years ago, and crops rotted.

These are the LAKE videos from day 2 of 3. They’re back at it this morning,
and Gretchen is there with the LAKE video camera.

The

Board of Elections got the second-longest discussion at 44 minutes,
partly because the Elections Supervisor kept using jargon it’s not clear
the Commissioners understood.
Longest discussion was with

newly-elected Coroner Austin Fiveash,
whose office has been kicked out of Remerton, which used to heavily subsidize it,
and he apparently didn’t know the Coroner doesn’t get a car supplied,
nor any office help.
When asked why he picked an assistant coroner who already had a half-time job,
he said nobody wanted this job.
Well, apparently he did: he ran for it.

And still no agenda
on the county’s website.
Why doesn’t the county want the tax-paying public to know what they’re doing? Continue reading →

Videos: Budget Requests (1 of 3 days) @ LCC 2017-03-27

Still no agenda on the county’s website,
and it wasn’t posted on the front of the building, either,
but a county employee (not the Clerk) did finally get Gretchen a copy,
which you can see here, for the first of three county budget meetings.
The Tax Assessors and Behavioral Health didn’t show up.
All the Superior Court judges did show up, so if you want to see them
and many other public officials and their budget requests,
you can in these LAKE videos.
Very few if any citizens other than Gretchen showed up to watch in person.
They’re back at it today, so you can go see for yourself
whoever they have asking for money today.


Agenda

That was the third public meeting yesterday morning,
10:30 AM to 4:50 PM, Monday, March 27, 2017,
after the
Work Session and the

Goals meeting.
After lunch, County Manager Joe Pritchard supplied a chair
for Gretchen to sit in.

We can guess this is a followup to the Continue reading →

Videos: Lowndes County Commission Goals @ LCC 2017-03-27



The Chairman confirmed that yesterday’s

“Lowndes County Commission Goals”
was a continuation of the rather testy
goals discussion at their February planning session,
in which they disagreed on things such as whether to hold Work Sessions
at times when working people could attend.
And ten days later held a three-minute Work Session.
There’s still no agenda for that 9:30AM to 10:30AM Goals meeting

on the county’s website,
even though it appears they had one.

They declared

Solid Waste Management accomplished,
yet they spent even more time discussing

Litter Control and Beautification and kept that on their short-term goals.
Later they seemed to decide to make a special class of ongoing issues,
including

litter and Moody AFB.

The elephant in the room is that

tax revenue is down and inconsistent.

Below are links to each LAKE video of that Goals meeting,
with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: Trash disposal renewals, regional T-SPLOST, another lift station pump, Dasher Streets @ LCC 2017-03-27



More than four minutes yesterday morning on

Residential Solid Waste Franchise Renewal: maybe it’s still contentious
because they still don’t have a good model.
Maybe not everybody wants to have their trash picked up at the end of their
driveway like they lived in town.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM, and they agreed
add an agenda item amending the ordinance to change insurance requirement from $5 million to $1 million.
As of this writing at 8AM, they have not yet changed their online agenda.
We’ll see how it eventually changes from

the agenda already blogged.

They spent more than three minutes on

Regional T-SPLOST; follow the link for details.
Another
Lift Station Pump

lift station pump
needs replacing
And

Dasher wants the county to maintain a couple of dirt streets.

Below are links to each LAKE video, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also the agenda. Continue reading →

First of three budget meetings @ LCC 2017-03-27

In the third public meeting this morning,
after the Work Session and the

Goals meeting,
the Lowndes County Commission is holding the first
of three daily budget meetings.
This one is 10:30 AM to 4:50 PM, Monday, March 27, 2017.
There’s no agenda, just this calendar notice.

We can guess this is a followup to the

audit report
and
finance
discussions from their February planning session.

Why they didn’t post an agenda is mysterious.
They didn’t post one for the

Goals meeting, either.

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

-jsq