The city of Valdosta was approved for a CWSRF loan of $18,500,000 to
finance phase two of the Mud Creek Water Pollution Control Plant
project, which includes increasing capacity from 3.2 million gallons
per day (GPD) to 5.7 million GPD, and additional improvements and
modifications to the facility. Valdosta will also design a new
solids treatment system. The city of Valdosta will pay 3 percent
interest on the 20-year loan for $18,500,000.
So why is the County of Lowndes having to float bonds?
And are bonds on the commercial
bond market really a better financial deal for the county?
A surprising amount of discussion at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
on ZBOA appointment, alcohol Sunday sales, rezoning next to Moody,
and more.
They said nothing about the solid waste ordinance, however;
maybe they’ll table that loser again.
They vote tonight:
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Here’s
a video playlist of the Work Session,
followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.
Here’s
the agenda,
this time with links to the videos and some notes.
More than a million dollars will be saved by refinancing county bonds,
the Chairman and staff indicated at
yesterday morning’s
Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
Congratulations!
But who is this shadowy Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority
that is responsible for that?
8.i. Refunding Revenue Bonds
County Manager Joe Pritchard said
the county was refinancing two bond packages, for the
Public Facilities Authority
and for the
Central Valdosta Development Authority.
County Attorney Walter Elliott said the
Public Facilities Authority was meeting 4PM tomorrow (now today 11 Dec 2012)
to approve an ordinance similar to what the County Commission was
being asked to approve Tuesday night.
There’s also a purchase agreement with the underwriter,
in the packet only the board gets to see.
Chairman Ashley Paulk said he spoke Friday to somebody named Mr.
Bucky Kensey(?) who wouldn’t tell him a number but said the
bond market had moved in the county’s favor.
The Chairman also said:
I want the public to understand these are not new bonds
these are old bonds that are at a higher interest rate
that are going to be refinanced at a lower rate,
and I believe the last savings was close to a million dollars.
The Chairman indicated Mr. Kensey(?) thought there would be a pleasant
surprise with even more savings than that.
The Commissioners reappointed Antonio Henderson and Harry Sullivan
to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority. Their terms will
expire May 31, 2010. Joseph Stevens was appointed, and his term will
expire May 31, 2009.
The primary purpose of the meeting is for the Authority to consider
a Bond Resolution to provide for the issuance of Refunding Revenue
Bonds for the purpose of refunding in part Public Facilities Authority
Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project), Series 2005,
and Central Valdosta Development Authority Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County
Judicial/Administrative Complex), Series 2003, to authorize and approve
the execution and delivery of an Intergovernmental Contract with Lowndes
County, and related purposes. The meeting will be open to the public in
accordance with the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
NEW YORK, November 15, 2012 —Moody’s Investors Service has
assigned a Aa2 rating and a stable outlook to Lowndes County’s (GA)
$9.1 million Refunding Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County
Judicial/Administration Complex), Series 2012 and $7.2 million
Refunding Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project),
Series 2013, both issued by the
Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority.
At this time, Moody’s has also affirmed the Aa2 ratings
to $15.5 million of general obligation bonds and $193.7 million of
bonds issued through the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes
County, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, the
Central Valdosta Development Authority and the Lowndes County Public
Facilities Authority…
You know, the county could just tell us all this stuff, so we wouldn’t
have to try to google it.
It is our tax money they are spending, after all.
Scoring for library architect selection seems more rigorous now,
at yesterday morning’s
Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
But where are the scores?
And what are the names of the two finalists?
They vote or table tonight at 5:30 PM.
8.h. New Main Library — Construction Manager At Risk Selection
Project Manager Chad McCleod said
proposals had been received from nine firms,
and “using a score sheet with certain grading criteria”
staff narrowed them down to three offers.
Each firm gave a one-hour presentation last Friday to
the selection committee which again
“used certain grading criteria to score each firm”.
The top two scorers were Coffee[?] Construction and
Quillian Powell Construction.
Will the County Commission table trash again,
or will they make a hasty decision to privatize,
granting a monopoly in a public-private partnership,
and leaving many people in the unincorporated parts
of Lowndes County to burn their trash, probably including
materials that the rest of us don’t want to breathe?
We can’t tell from yesterday morning’s
Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
They vote or table tonight at 5:30 PM.
Why should businesses have to pay an additional license fee
for Sunday alcohol sales, if the only justification is
to raise money to pay for administering that license?
That was a topic at yesterday morning's
Lowndes County Commission Work Session
for agenda item
6.a.
Revision to the Lowndes County Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance.
Finance Director Stephanie Black mentioned the things
we already heard from the staff,
brown bagging,
social hosts (serving alcohol at private events to underage drinkers),
and the
Sunday package sales.
She said for the
voter-approved Sunday alcohol sales
the license fee would be $250,
plus a requirement for an immigration affidavit.
Commissioner Powell took exception to that additional license fee,
which would be on top of a license fee already necessary for the
rest of the week.
Black and Chairman Paulk defended it as necessary to collect
money to administer the license fee.
Powell wondered if they'd need the money if they didn't
have the license fee.
Paulk said the city of Valdosta charges $1000 for a Sunday license.
Powell said he disagreed with that, too.
The applicants have mentioned
trying to do a Dollar General at this site.
We believe that’s what they’re going to do,
but however whatever uses are allowed in C-G
would of course be allowed if it is approved
without any conditions.
He said they had the recommendations from the TRC and the
Planning Commission, but he didn’t say what they were.
The Planning Commission
recommended for,
apparently with the understanding that it was
for a Dollar General.
Davenport said there had been no further input since the Planning
Commission meeting.
The Commission could have staff submit written reports that
go in the agenda and minutes, like the Library Board does,
and then put those online as PDF or HTML linked to an HTML agenda,
like Glynn County
and Richmond County do, and we wouldn’t have to guess the
names of applicants or the details of rezoning requests.
County Engineer Mike Fletcher said
Lowndes County was receiving from GDOT a Local Maintenance
and Improvement Grant (LMIG) of $746,984.75 for FY “two thirteen”.
Because T-SPLOST didn’t pass, the county has to come up with a
30% match, which is $224,095.43.
He said there was a work sheet and project list in the board
packet (which the rest of us don’t get to see).
County Manager Joe Pritchard said with change from LARP
(Local Assistance Road Projects, primarily for resurfacing) to LMIG
the county could now use these funds for any purpose,
and had planned to use LMIG for
He also mentioned the TRC (the Technical Review Committee
composed mainly of Lowndes County and Valdosta staff) had a split vote
on this item, although
he didn’t say how it was split.
And he said the Commissioners had the Planning Commission recommendation
before them,
although he didn’t mention the Planning Commission recommended against.
Commissioner Crawford Powell brought up a good point:
The fire department and the TRC say in the notes
that it fails to comply with fire rescue ingress-egress requirements.
Fire Chief Guyton appeared to confirm that was the case,
although since he wasn’t at a microphone, it’s hard to hear.
Commissioner Powell continued:
Lowndes County Commissioners had a small amount of open discussion about
the proposed changes to the zoning code related to Moody Air Force Base
at
their Work Session this morning.
However, most of the discussion was not about the changes currently proposed,
which the County Planner once again explicitly linked to a rezoning case
on the same agenda.
At least they discussed tabling the zoning code changes
until there could be more discussion.
They did not, however, say they would make drafts available to the public
or invite the public to discuss those drafts.
County Planner Jason Davenport introduced agenda item
7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density:
This text amendment is part of the response to
some of the questions that were raised with the additional rezoning.
At the end of the day what this text amendment is going to do
is to take that very outer blue color, the lightest color,
which is the MAZ-3, and recommend change the zoning to 1 acre.
Currently it’s 2 and a half acres.
He mentioned they missed the 30 day requirement to inform Moody AFB
by about a week, but Moody responded anyway.
Hm, that’s not what he said to the Planning Commission;
there he said
they had allowed 31 days.
Commissioner Richard Raines said he’d prefer to table this amendment
until next year, because:
I think there are other issues that we’ve discussed related to MAZ.
If you have a mobile home and it becomes unlivable,
under the restrictions you can’t replace it….
Chairman Ashley Paulk responded that he didn’t have a problem with that, and:
