County Manager Joe Pritchard said Finance Director Stephanie Black has received a millage report from the Tax Commissioner. He and she will prepare something from it for the Lowndes County Commissioners for a later meeting.
The board packet is on the LAKE website, in response to a LAKE open records request.
Below are Continue reading
The resolution to reimpose the SPLOST tax as SPLOST VIII, was not included with the agenda for the tax-paying public to see. LAKE has filed an open records request for the entire board packet. Perhaps the county will supply it before they vote tomorrow.
Four bids were received for LAS and Pump Station Improvements with the high bid at $3.3 million, and the low at $2.5 million, but apparently the county negotiated the low bidder, Doyle Hancock & Sons, down to $1,520,858.00. This is “for improvements to the LAS [Land Application Site, aka wastewater spray field], Bevel Creek, Francis Lake, and Coleman Road lift stations.” The LAS is between Grassy Pond and Pike Pond, a few thousand feet from the GA-FL line, in the Withlacoochee River watershed. Continue reading
You got a notice about this meeting two days in advance, if you signed up for the county’s alerts, which is twice as long as they usually do. Special Called Meeting,
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
A special called meeting will be held to adopt the amended SPLOST VIII Agreement.Date: July 31, 2019
Time: 8:30 AM
Location: Board of Commissioners
Administration BuildingAddress: 327 N. Ashley Street
2nd Floor
Valdosta, GA 31601
Here is Lowndes County’s SPLOST VIII Project List. The biggest items are water and sewer at $23 million and sports at $13,274,912, followed by the historic Courthouse at $12 million. Note nothing about Continue reading
News about the Naylor Boat Ramp in an Engineering Projects Report! Chad McLeod also reported about the 911 center, the North Lowndes Soccer Complex, the fire warehouse classroom, the animal shelter, and the courthouse renovation project, all still to be completed from SPLOST VII funds, which run out next year. Even with that three-and-a-half-minute special engineering report, the whole meeting took ten minutes Monday morning.
Also not on the agenda, HR has a new employee. Also there will be a new traffic signal.
Should the County Manager and the Finance Director be able to approve Continue reading
These videos are for those of you who have jobs, or responsibilities, which prevent you from taking random days or hours off at a time. Commissioner Marshall was absent from the second day of the retreat because he has a job which does not allow him the flexibility of daytime hours off. (The first day of the retreat was on Presidents Day.)
The topics of discussion ranged from the ever popular litter and trash collection, to special tax districts, fire and emergency response, animal control and the animal shelter, and one of my favorites, electronic records. Most presentations were made either by the county manager or clerk but the current Deep South Solid Waste Authority Chairman Kevin Beals was first up to talk trash.
Below are links to each LAKE video of Day 2, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of Day 1 and Continue reading
They
welcomed
Ross Berry,
the new CEO of South Georgia Medical Center,
and he spoke briefly.
Last minute agenda addition:
6.f. Lowndes County Accountability Court Grant and Match
Citzen Judy Havercamp
spoke about the animal shelter.
Citizen Shirley Garlan spoke for her neighborhood,
asking to connect to county water.
They spent by far the longest time (almost 20 minutes including public participation) on the New Statenville Highway rezoning for a Dollar General, which they finally approved with conditions, including what County Planner Jason Davenport said was an unprecedented condition on lighting. For this item, see also the the LAKE videos of the preceding Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting.
Second longest at more than five minutes was Continue reading
We learned why Lowndes County has gotten religion about Internet access and speed:
Moody AFB wants it.
Commissioner Scottie Orenstein made the case for board packets and agendas in electronic form instead of the paper packets they currently use. Maybe they’ll even reveal them to the public before their meetings, like real MSAs do. Meanwhile, Community Engagement means marketing, as in telling people what the county did, not listening to the citizens.
They talked about interconnecting (almost) all of the county’s water systems, about routes to get trucks out of downtown Valdosta. The water-sewer ordinance is in ten or twelve pieces, and the county is all for expanding water and sewer throughout the county as long as it doesn’t cost developers money.
There’s a regional T-SPLOST meeting in Waycross by SGRC Feb 28 2017, but Lowndes commissioners and staff said nothing Continue reading
Most controversial and not on the agenda:
Zika and mosquito control in the County Manager’s report.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.
The county wants to operate and maintain water treatment, wastewater, and three swimming pools at Moody AFB. Are they changing the speed limit on your road? And the county is re-evaluating its job descriptions.
Also on the agenda: Continue reading
In a very unusual move, they tabled
trust deed or a well system
that a developer wants because he does not want to have property annexed into the city of Valdosta. Valdosta services are across the street.
The Chairman said he asked the Engineer who asked the developer first.
Citizens Lawrence and Helen Williams expressed concern about dogs and a gun at a neighbor’s house.
They unanimously approved everything else Continue reading
The
reading of the Animal Welfare Ordinance
drew two citizen speakers:
Jim Sharpe
and
Dr. Amanda Hall.
Chairman Bill Slaughter remarked on the 5 March 2016 death of former Lowndes County Coroner Charles Exum.
See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and the agenda for that meeting and this Regular Session for the three board appointments, the two Copeland Road items related to water, sewer, pavement, and Lowndes Middle School students, the two Tax Assessor items, others, and, last but not least, the four alcohol items. See also Continue reading
![[Land Application Site]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-08-12--lcc-packet/map-las.jpg)
![[Lowndes Project List]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-07-22--lcc-packet/Agenda-Packet-72219-and-72319-0080.jpg)