Videos: HEAT on Sheriff finances @ LCC 2016-09-13

Half the meeting (11 1/2 minutes) Tuesday was Commissioners grilling

Sheriff Chief Deputy Joe Crow
about
the cost of

High Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (Heat):


how less funding is provided the more successful the program is,
and federal funding may go away, leaving the county to foot the bill.
Chairman asked for monthly statistical updates.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall moved to approve continuation of the grant,
plus a statement in favor of the grant including a disclaimer that the county would “work to preserve” as much of the grant as possible if state funding goes away.

They approved

finally fixing the railroad bridge over Old Quitman Highway.
and

similar but less complicated (no railroad) for the Jumping Gulley Road bridge.
Nobody mentioned that the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline proposes to cross Jumping Gulley Road half a mile west of that bridge, and then to open cut through Jumping Gulley Creek just south of the state line.

Snake Nation Road is getting

an emergency $168,928 box culvert repair,
which isn’t fast enough for former Commissioner Richard Lee,

who Continue reading →

3 Lowndes including wetlands, 2 Valdosta @ ZBOA 2016-09-13

Mostly setbacks, plus lot width, and

one about wetlands at the decision-making Zoning Board of Appeals
2:30 PM today.



That wetlands one is about Union Springs Subdivision,
which came before ZBOA previously in June 2016 about wells, wastewater, and wetlands,
when ZBOA approved a variance 6:0.

Here’s the agenda for today. Continue reading →

Videos: Finally, Wright Road RR Bridge @ LCC 2016-09-12



They vote 5:30 PM this evening on

finally fixing the railroad bridge over Old Quitman Highway.
As you can see in the videos below of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
County Engineer Mike Fletcher said it’s taken long negotiations with CSC and GDOT,
ending up with realigning the road to go across the railroad at 90 degrees.

Way back in 2011 this Old Quitman Road bridge was on the
T-SPLOST list.
Old Quitman Road itself was announced on a striping and citing list 2013-10-08 and on an LMIG resurfacing list 2014-03-24 and 2014-03-25.
It was said to be the only road for which the speed limit is being changed 2015-03-23 and
2015-03-24.
And they fixed a culvert on private Carter Way
before they got to this RR bridge on Old Quitman Road.
But now they’re doing it, and they didn’t need T-SPLOST for that after all.

See also Continue reading →

Two subdivisions, 3 road abandonments, 2 bridges, MIDS @ LCC 2016-09-12

This morning at 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission, the two subdivisions from the previous Planning Commission meeting,


REZ-2016-16 Livingston Properties, Bemiss Knights Academy Rd and Merriman Ct.

What’s with all the road abandonments these past many months?
REZ-2016-17 Grove Pointe Ph 6, Dasher Grove Rd,
a public hearing on
Abandonment of Strong Road,
probably scheduling of one for
Abandonment of Unopened Right of Way off of Pikes Pond Road,
and finishing up with a
Quit Claim Deed for Abandoned Right of Way on Old Miller Concrete Property.

Surveying and engineering for two bridge replacements, on
Old Quitman Road
and
Jumping Gully Road.
And the annual renewal of
Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Capital Contract, which is the MIDS on-call bus service, in case you can’t tell from the obscure agenda item.

Plus lots more on
the agenda.
Will they speed through it all in their usual 15 minutes?
They vote tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 5:30 PM.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2016, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: More northern subdivision rezonings + 6 Valdosta @ GLPC 2016-08-29

A third Lowndes County Case in west Valdosta near James Road,


REZ-2016-15, was pulled from the agenda until next month
to be sure it will be ready for review (but not withdrawn).
One Valdosta case,
CU-2016-02, was announced as withdrawn
at the beginning of the meeting.
The

stormwater LDR changes apparently were mostly to
remove description of very old previous material and various housekeeping
including reflecting a rate increase the Valdosta City Council already approved
back in June after a series of public hearings.
Expect the Comprehensive Plan back next month: they didn’t examine it this time because
the agenda was already very long. Continue reading →

More northern subdivision rezonings + 6 Valdosta @ GLPC 2016-08-29

Still more subdivisions planned in what the county calls


Central Lowndes County
and near Hahira,
and a bunch of stuff in Valdosta.
including

stormwater revisions to the LDR.
Here’s

the agenda,
and see the
LAKE videos of the meeting.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park


REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA


Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue


Monday, August 29, 2016 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Many same investors in Sabal Trail and Dakota Access Pipeline

DAPL and Sabal Trail are more intertwined than we thought.

But first, who are the institutional investors in the three Sabal Trail partners?

Three Banks

NASDAQ makes this easy to discover, and the answer is in
the first table below: among banks State Street and Bank of America stand out.

Let’s not forget Williams Company, of the Transco Hillabee Expansion Project
from which Sabal Trail wants to get its fracked methane; see
the second table, which State Street clearly wins, and there’s Goldman Sachs.

We learned this week that
Enbridge of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota: that Enbridge is buying Spectra Energy of Sabal Trail.

But there’s more!
Last year Williams was bought by Energy Transfer Equity,
which is the main backer of DAPL.

Update 2016-09-26: Actually, Energy Transfer backed out of buying Williams Co..

See the third table, which shows banks bought into at least five of the partner entities: Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

Opponents of Sabal Trail are not just fighting the same industry as DAPL:
they’re fighting many of the same companies and the same investors.

Investors in Sabal Trail partners (Spectra Energy, NextEra Energy, Duke Energy)

Continue reading →