Lowndes County Commission Goals @ LCC 2017-03-27

No agenda, but on their
calendar for this morning 9:30-10:30 AM Monday March 27, 2017:


“Lowndes County Commission Goals”.

We can guess this is 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.

-jsq

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Regional T-SPLOST agenda 2017-02-28

Even though Lowndes County voted 2 to 1

against T-SPLOST in 2012,
and Southern Georgia Region 11 voted it down by

38,731 no votes (58%) to 28,217 Yes (42%) votes, a few counties in the region voted for it
(Clinch, Atkinson, Coffee, Bacon, and Irwin).
Also, Lowndes County had
lots of transportation items ready to trot in case it passed.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that five years later local governments
in the region are considering rolling their own.
It’s on this morning’s Lowndes County Commission agenda for voting Tuesday evening.


No, except Clinch, Atkinson, Coffee, Bacon, and Irwin

After hearing of it in the videos Gretchen took of the Lowndes County Planning Session Day 2 back in February,
I asked the South Georgia Regional Commission and got this email from Corey Hull: Continue reading →

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


Regional T-SPLOST is on the agenda this morning.


Back in 2012 we all voted down a statewide T-SPLOST (Transportation Special Sales Tax).

As we learned at the

February Lowndes County Commission Planning Session Day 2,
on 28 February 2017 in Waycross there was a “public hearing” about a possible regional T-SPLOST.
When I asked SGRC about that, they sent the Waycross agenda, saying
“This is
not a public meeting and was not advertised as such, however it is open
to the public.”
Apparently something happened at that meeting, since T-SPLOST is on the
Lowndes County Commission agenda now, with this in the attached document:

HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: According to House Bill 170, counties within a Regional
Commission District have the option to institute a Regional T-SPLOST. The Georgia
Department of Transportation is requesting action to be taken by April 1, 2017, either in
favor of or opposed to a Regional T-SPLOSI’. If ten (10) of the eighteen (18) regional
counties fail to get support for a Regional T-SPLOST, then individual counties can initiate an
independent T-SPLOST’.

.

After Lowndes County spent unknown hundreds of thousands of dollars suing Continue reading →

Videos: Coal ash, Calles, Val North PD Water Sewer, Habitat CDBG, Sewage Valves, Stone Creek Antenna, Sheriff, Alcohol @ LCC 2017-03-14



Not on the agenda:
Coal Ash
and

Y-Lead from Hahira Middle School and Teen Explosion.
Also

Stone Creek train quiet hours.

In a fifteen minute item, the Commission approved a split rezoning for
REZ-2017-02 Calles,
and they approved the removal of conditions from
REZ-2017-03 Val North Dr, Stewart Circle.
They approved the
CDBG Grant preparation,
but they didn’t mention they can’t actually apply until the resolve
their feud with the local cities about tax allocation.

Below are links to each LAKE video of the 14 March 2017 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also Continue reading →

Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority after privatized landfill

Local counties and cities
sold off one landfill in Lowndes County in the late 1990s,
and a second one in 2005 through the Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority.
Yet in 2007 the


Deep South Municipal Regional Solid Waste Management Authority (WMA),
with the same county and city member governments,
was still active, discussing a regional recycling station.
And it is still active today, including some of the same board members
the entire time since 2005,
such as

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson.
Hanson was not present last week

when Valdosta Mayor John Gayle said
Valdosta does not control the landfill, or perhaps he would have
mentioned that Valdosta through its longterm seat on the WMA board
does have some degree of control over the landfill’s operations.

I notice quite a few of the Valdosta City Council’s own minutes

record discussions and votes related to that WMA
including this item from

their Regular meeting of 4 October 2014, which was called to order by Mayor Gayle:


  1. Boards, Commissions, Authorities, and Advisory Committees

    1. Consideration of an appointment to the Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste
      Management Authority. — Appointed Richard Hardy, Public Works Director (7-0 Vote).

There must be some advantage to the City of Valdosta to have two members
(Hanson and Hardy) on the WMA board.
Certainly the average citizen or organization does not have that.

Bill Roberts, VDT, 5 December 2005,

Authority closes on landfill deal, Continue reading →

Videos: Sewage, Coal Ash, Historic Preservation, a dead cat, and turkeys @ VCC 2016-03-09

The Valdosta City Council heard from citizens about

coal ash,

wastewater,
and

toxic waste in the landfill.
Mayor John Gayle

offered to answer later in his office Eric Howard’s
question about wastewater in his yard.
The Mayor expressed his opinion that he and the council

couldn’t do anything about the landfill,
and read for yourself what he said about

the Florida county resolutions about Valdosta wastewater.
George Boston Rhynes

told a droll tale about a dead cat and turkeys.

The

Historic Preservation appeal was long and contentious,
with the Mayor twice breaking a tie because only four City Council members
were there: the appeal was approved.
A citizen

spoke about that afterwards, as did

Council Tim Carroll.

Council Robert Yost recommended

all the Hospital Authority Board should resign.

They unanimously approved

both
of the

rezoning items; ditto the

right of way maintenance bids.

And

Firefighter Michael Penland is employee of the month.

Below are links to the LAKE video of each item, with a few notes (some drawn from Valdosta’s own
SUMMARY OF ACTIONS),
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the agenda.

Videos: Calles back again for Alexandria Street + another County + 2 Valdosta @ GLPC 2017-02-27



Here are the LAKE videos for the 27 February 2017 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission,
with

Wilmer Calles on behalf of Rosa Calles
again about
going “backwards” to agricultural zoning (the neighbors don’t like it).
See

the agenda.
Plus

another county rezoning
(the county votes on those two tonight).
There were also to
Valdosta rezonings,
but Gretchen had to leave with the LAKE camera before
the first one
was finished.
The county or the city could video these Planning Commission meetings themselves. Continue reading →

Videos: Calles again, Val North PD Water Sewer, Habitat CDBG, Sewage Valves, Stone Creek Antenna, Sheriff, Alcohol @ LCC 2017-03-13



Maybe more will show up at 5:30PM today for the Regular Session
than the Chairman and only two Commissioners at yesterday’s Work Session
(Joyce Evans and Mark Wisenbaker).

Chairman Bill Slaughter

revealed why he had been missing from the meetings two weeks before:
he had been attending an America’s Defense Community event in in San Antonio, Texas about Moody AFB.
Follow

the link
for more about this.
He complimented Vice-Chair Joyce Evans for running the meeting better than usual
in his absence.
She did beat his former record of five minutes by holding a
three-minute Work Session.

The returning
REZ-2017-02 Calles rezoning now
wants to split half conservation and half R-A.
Apparently the other rezoning,
REZ-2017-03 Val North Dr, Stewart Circle, PD Amendment and Conditions Removal, Water & Sewer, ~9 acres
had been heard before and was now being reconsidered because
a road had been paved.
Remember that when they try to claim roads don’t drive development.

Below are links to each LAKE video of the 13 March 2017 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also

the agenda, and the LAKE videos of the 27 February 2017 Greater Planning Commission meeting. Continue reading →