Tag Archives: 12 August 2013

No-bid contract for Alapaha Water Treatment Plant @ LCC 2013-08-13



A no-bid contract for the engineering firm that already wrote a letter
to GA EPD on behalf of the county, this one for upgrading the
Alapaha Plantation Water Treatment Plant, at the

13 August 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

7.b.

Engineering for the Alapaha Water Treatment Upgrade


Alapaha Water Treatment Plant Parcel 0261 057


Timeline --Demarcus Marshall
Utilities Director Mike Allen said the
engineering agreement with Lovell Engineering

(presented at the previous morning’s Work Session
was ready for the board to approve in a no-bid agreement with Lovell Engineering.

County Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know Continue reading →

Traffic study? –John Page; Who pays? Richard Raines; Tax exemption –Demarcus Marshall @ LCC 2013-08-13

Traffic and taxes were discussed by Commissioners about REZ-2013-09 Moody Family
Housing on Val Del Road,


but none of them thought those topics important enough to make them conditions,
and they didn’t even discuss

use of local contractors
or

sinkholes

like the one in the Phase II site,
or the missing

geotechnical study
mentioned in the

USAF Draft Environmental Assessment whose comment period wasn’t even ended
when they voted
at

the 13 August 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.


Traffic study? --John Page
As he had at the previous morning’s

Work Session,
Commissioner John Page wanted to know if that traffic study
was going to be required before the development could start.
Planning Commissioner Tommy Willis had also asked about that

back in July.
This time Page didn’t ask about GA 122 or anywhere other than
“Val Del and that area”.

Answer from County Engineer Mike Fletcher: Continue reading →

USAF Environmental Assessment for Moody Housing on Val Del Road (REZ-2013-09) @ LCC 2013-08-13

No geotechnical study was seen from the developer before
drawing the sinkhole buffers shown in the

the Air Force Draft Environmental Assessment
for

the proposed Moody Housing on Val Del Road,
just rezoned as

REZ-2013-09, PDF
courtesy of Prof. Michael Noll of VSU.
You can see sinkholes and wetlands in its maps:


Most of the site area, including all of the Phase I area subject of REZ-2013-09,
is colored for

medium wetland habitat quality: Continue reading →

Not botched like the old Moody housing –Tim Coombs @ LCC 2013-08-13



“Officers can’t even entertain guests at the houses they are living in”
said a Hahira business man,
at

the 13 August 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session,
speaking in favor of

REZ-2013-09 for proposed new Moody Housing on Val Del Road.

Previously at the Planning Commission Coombs had

asked for use of local contractors
at this new Moody Family Housing project.


Both at GLPC and at this County Commission meeting Coombs
expressed concern about what he called that “botched” previous housing
project.
(Much more detail on Magnolia Grove
here.)
This time he said he thought the new project would be
“of great economic impact in a time when it is really needed”.
What happened to his concerns about use of local contractors?

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Sinkholes at proposed Moody Family Housing? –Scott Rafshoon @ LCC 2013-08-13

All about public-private partnerships (PPP) and military rank waterfalls
by an Atlanta and K Street lawyer
at

the 13 August 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
about

REZ-2013-09,
introduced by

local lawyer Tom Kurrie
to answer a question by

Commissioner John Page.


Scott Rafshoon

G. Scott Rafshoon of

McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP
of Atlanta and K Street in DC spoke for.
His law firm bio says in part:

G. Scott Rafshoon has a diverse legal practice that includes
corporate law, government affairs and project finance. Combining
these disciplines, Mr. Rafshoon is a leader in the Firm’s
public-private partnership (“P3”) practice….



Manages the Firm’s representation of Balfour Beatty Communities, a
subsidiary of Balfour Beatty plc, in the privatization of family and
unaccompanied personnel housing at military installations around the
country. To-date, Mr. Rafshoon has assisted Balfour Beatty with
privatizing facilities at 48 Army, Navy and Air Force installations
in 23 states and the District of Columbia, in separate transactions
valued at more than $4 billion.

This is apparently the same Continue reading →

Phase II of Moody Family Housing already has a sinkhole –Tom Kurrie @ LCC 2013-08-13

Tom Kurrie said Phase I has a structural issue and Phase II of
the proposed Moody Housing has a sinkhole,
at

the 13 August 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.


Existing Sinkhole in Phase II of REZ-2013-09

Tom Kurrie spoke for
the rezoning for Phase I,

REZ-2013-09,
first giving something unknown to the County Clerk,
and then saying:

Bill Holland and I are the applicants,
we represent the owner of the property, the Howard Dasher Company,
as well as the developers of the property, Balfour Beatty Communities.

The ubiquitous Bill Holland had spoken the previous morning

in the Work Session.


Tom Kurrie

This time, Kurrie
said the project had been in the makings for over two years.
(Funny how the county didn’t tell us about it until they were ready
to rush it through.)
He said it was for “prestige housing” for base personnel.
He said it was unusual in being 8 miles west of Moody AFB.
He introduced Ron Nestor, Senior Vice President of Balfour Beatty,
and said it was a public-private partnership.
And use would be restricted to Air Force personnel.
We’d already heard about such restrictions at

the Planning Commission.
He said it would be a “gated community”.
We’ll see if that actually happens this time, unlike at
Nelson Hill just up Val Del Road;
you can see both locations on this map:


Kurrie also mentioned professor Noll and geotechnical issues such
as sinkholes, Continue reading →

Sinkholes at proposed Moody Family Housing? –Jason Davenport @ LCC 2013-08-13



County Planner Jason Davenport said he had heard concerns there could be
sinkholes under the proposed new military housing on Val Del Road,
but he recommended approval anyway,
at

the 13 August 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

6.a.

REZ-2013-09 Moody Housing, Val Del Rd R-1 to Residential PD, LC Water & Sewer, ~64 acres

See

Work Session video
for context.


This time, County Planner Jason Davenport said “we have an updated copy on the screen” of the site plan.
He mentioned:



…there has been some communications between the applicant’s
agents and really professor Noll and possibly some other
colleagues at VSU about some of the geotechnical aspects of this site plan
I believe they might speak on the soils and possibly the

karst features
in this area or the sinkholes or potential for that.

Pictured here is the older site plan,
because County Clerk still hadn’t responded to Gretchen’s
Open Records Request of the previous morning.
State law says the county can take three days to respond,
which is great for developers, but not so good for the public.

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Nelson Hill waivers by staff @ LCC 2013-08-13

Before

tonight’s vote on Moody Housing on Val Del Road,


maybe somebody should review
these administrative waivers from county staff for Nelson Hill,
one for the minimum lot size, and the other for setbacks for the lots along the “lake”.
I haven’t yet found who waived

the requirement for condominiums,
or for their fronts to be staggered,
or for them to be at least 1800 square feet,
or the traffic calming measures,
or how all this fits the submitted site plans,
nor for that matter what happened to
the gate or guards or the road connecting to Grove Point.
Maybe you can find those things in

the materials about Nelson Hill received in response to
an Open Records Request.
If staff can waive all these things without any of them coming up
again for a vote before the elected Commission in a public hearing,
why do we have the elected Commissioners vote in the first place?



Here’s a waiver for lot setbacks next to the pond

by Joe Pritchard “In my official capacity as County Manager”,
22 September 2009, for AAW-2009-06.

Here’s a waiver for minimum lot sizes

by Jason Davenport, County Planner, 18 July 2011, for AAW-2011-16:

Good afternoon. Based on recent questions from multiple parties
regarding Nelson Hill we thought it best to respond in writing to all.
For us the question is “Will the County require a minimum lot size in
Nelson Hill?” and our answer is Continue reading →

What happened at Nelson Hill on Val Del Road? @ LCC 2013-08-12

Staff promises evaporated, many of 13 conditions voted by elected Commissioners
didn’t get implemented: what happened at
Nelson Hill, the subdivision

County Planner Jason Davenport referred to
as the neighborhood on Val Del Road for
REZ-2013-09 Moody Housing?
Well, it has a reputation, as

someone nearby said in
opposing another development:

And we’re certainly not interested in what they built out on Val Del Road.

What happened at Nelson Hill?



As

Gretchen Quarterman mentioned to the Planning Commission,
there were supposed to be condominiums and a gated community there, but:

if you go out to Nelson Hill now you don’t find anything resembling a gated condominium community; you find ticky-tacky houses where they cut down the swamp.

So what was supposed to be there?
In the
Minutes for the Work Session of 12 February 2007 condominiums are mentioned: Continue reading →

Videos: Moody, Moody, acre, water, and SPLOST VI @ LCC 2013-08-12 @ LCC 2013-08-12



The “SPLOST VII Agreement” has been drafted among the county and the local
cities, but it isn’t quite done yet,
you can’t see what they’re still considering,
and there was no mention of any public hearings.
A local engineering firm is apparently going to get two no-bid contracts,
one for the
Alapaha Water Treatment Plant
and one for
the county’s Land Application Site.
A local attorney represented both

a bond refinancing
and

Moody Housing.
Many renewal contracts were presented, and the long-running
juvenile justice item saw some progress.
They ended with an Executive Session
but didn’t say what for.
Chummy lot, those Commissioners and staff and attorneys and engineers.

Here’s

the agenda,
with links to the videos and a few notes, including a few links to related posts.



LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor


  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation

    That’s only in the Regular Session, which is 5:30 PM Tuesday 13 August 2013.

  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

    That’s only in the Regular Session, which is 5:30 PM Tuesday 13 August 2013.

  4. Minutes for Approval

    Chairman Bill Slaughter said:
    “Please take a look at those before tomorrow night.”

    Continue reading →