Tag Archives: Ashley Tye

A presentation and some rubberstamping @ LCC 2014-08-26



Congratulations to Ashley Tye for being

only the third in the state to attain
a certificate as a professional emergency manager.

“I was trying to break a record,”
bragged County Chairman Bill Slaughter as several people reminded
him not to skip approving the minutes,
presumably referring to

the previous morning’s three-minute Work Session.
After the six-minute presentation,
they took less than a minute on each of the remaining items,
except they did find time for an

Executive Session for Attorney-Client Privilege.
Who are they suing this time?
Crawford Powell had to remind the Chairman not to skip

Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, but “There are none,”
said the Chairman, with satisfaction.

This time the contractor

had magically finished punchlist for Nottinghill that
the previous morning the County Engineer said would take a week,
but had not finished the work.
What does this rubberstamp punchlist mean, then?
They approved the

Davidson Road drainage easement quit claim from the county back to the landowner.

Here’s

the agenda with links into the videos and a few notes,
followed by a video playlist.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Lowndes County Emergency Management Workshop May 5



Received today via the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce.
I added a few links from
posts in this blog featuring Ashley Tye.
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Lowndes County Emergency Management
Continuity of Business Workshop,

You Are Invited to attend the

Lowndes County Emergency Management

Continuity of Business Workshop




On Monday, May 5, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., Lowndes County Emergency
Management will host a Continuity of Business Workshop on the second
floor of the Lowndes County Administrative Building, 327 North
Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia. The session will be led by

Lowndes County Emergency Management Director, Ashley Tye.

Attendees will receive Continue reading →

Weather report by Ashley Tye, Emergency Management Director @ LCC 2014-01-28



Lowndes County’s

Emergency Management Director
reported yesterday on projected icy roads today.

Here’s

the video:



Weather report by Ashley Tye, Emergency Management Director

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2014.

All the local schools are closed, public and private, K-12 and college,
so the best thing to to is to stay home.

Commissioner John Page said a constituent had just asked him
if Lowndes County owned any snow plows.
Answer: no, but the county can get access to them if needed.

County Clerk Paige Dukes enumerated ways she had tried to get the word out,
including

this information on the county’s front web page,
which will probably disappear without trace in a day or so,
so I’ve copied it below. Continue reading →

New judge, river gauge, park deed, personnel costs, and pest control @ LCC 2013-08-26



The
request for a new State Court Judge
by Judge John Kent Edwards Jr. took 27 and a half minutes,
plus his

eight minute explanation of fines moving from Sheriff to State Court.
More people might have showed up to hear if anybody had known about
these items.
Commissioners asked a surprising number of questions about them
and about
the
Little River stream gauge
and the
opaque pest control bids.
Of course, then people might have seen

the proposed third no-bid contract to the same firm this month.
They vote tonight.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor


  1. Call to Order

  2. Invocation

  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag



  4. Special Presentation

    See

    separate post    .

  5. Minutes for Approval

    As is his custom, Chairman Bill Slaughter directed Commissioners
    to tell the Clerk of any changes, so we don’t know what they are.
    Then he introduced the special presentation
    out of agenda order.

    1. Work Session — August 12, 2013

    2. Regular Session — August 13, 2013
  6. For Consideration



    1. Environmental Engineering Services for GDOT Land Deed for Parks and Recreation

      Invisible Engineer proposed a third no-bid contract for same firm proposed this month;
      see

      separate post      .




    2. USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge

      This time Emergency Director Ashley Tye said it’s on the Little River,
      why it’s there, how it’s maintained, etc.
      See

      separate post      .




    3. Budget Adjustment — Personnel Costs

      Judge John Kent Edwards Jr. explained that many of the people
      going through his court or paying fines in Lowndes County
      don’t live here; they come off of I-75,
      and now the fine-collecting needs to move from the Sheriff’s office
      to the Clerk of Court;
      see

      separate post      .



  7. Bid-Pest Control Service

    Pest control for an unannounced amount with no bond from one of two
    unannounced bids.
    See

    separate post    .


  8. Reports-County Manager

    County Manager Joe Pritchard requested an Executive Session
    for pending litigation and they adjourned into that.

  9. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

Here’s

a video playlist:



Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC)

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 August 2013.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Gauging the Little River west of Hahira @ LCC 2013-08-26



After the 2009 floods, Lowndes County agreed to help USGS fund a stream
gauge on the Little River west of Hahira.
It’s time to renew that.
They vote tonight about what was proposed
at the

26 August 2013 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

6.b. USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge

This time Emergency Director Ashley Tye said it’s on the Little River.



He said during ihe 2009 floods the county only had a gauges on the
Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge and US 84, and no way to
monitor the level of the Little River,
so he contacted USGS, who supplied and installed the equipment.
The county since then pays for the maintenance.
If something breaks, USGS comes and fixes it.
He’s also worked with the National Weather Service to establish flood stages
for better warning for residents.
It’s time to renew the funding.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know how many inspections
were carried out by USGS.



Answer: Continue reading →

River gauge, park deed, personnel costs, pest control, and a special presentation @ LCC 2013-08-26

Five minutes for tomorrow morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session?
The mysterious “Special Presentation” might take longer Tuesday.



The last time the river stream gauge funding came up was I think
10 September 2012.
At that time I thought Emergency Director Ashley Tye was referring
to the Withlacoochee River, but he actually didn’t say which river,
and USGS only lists a gauge on the Little River at GA 122,
not on the Withlacoochee.
If the county put agenda packet information online with the agenda,
that sort of confusion wouldn’t be so easy.

Here’s

the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

County response to 10 inches of rain —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2013-02-26



Emergency Services Director Ashley Tye spoke about Local weather conditions
at the

26 Febuary 2013 Lowndes County Commission meeting.
He said the
Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge Road
was expected to crest at 20 feet within hours.
He didn’t expect Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant to flood.

He said most of the rain fell to the west of Valdosta, so
the Little River actually absorbed more water than the Withlacoochee this time.
Only Shiloh Road and a few other roads were closed.

The boat ramps at Langdale Park were closed in conjunction with Parks and Rec.

A few schools were closed, but all expected to reopen the next day.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked

Continue reading →

Lowndes County continuing funding for USGS HWY 122 Stream Gauge —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2012-09-10



Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye
reported to the Lowndes County Commission at their

Work Session yesterday morning
that
after the floods of 2009, Lowndes County negotiated with USGS to put a
stream level monitor on the Withlacoochee Little River at the GA 122 bridge,
and the county typically renews that funding once a year.
We shall see whether they approve that this evening.

Here's

the video:


Lowndes County continuing funding for USGS HWY 122 Stream Gauge —Ashley Tye

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 September 2012.

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TS Debbie and south Georgia extreme drought —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2012-06-25

Lowndes County Emergency Management Agency Director Ashley Tye correctly predicted no tornadoes and quite a bit of rain for when Tropical Storm Debbie made landfall. He also mentioned our chronic drought, and Commissioner Richard Raines was surprised about that.

Raines asked:

What kind of conditions would it take for us, because you and I talked a couple of weeks ago, and I was I was surprised when you said that. I guess there’s a difference between drought and extreme drought. What kind of rain conditions would we need to get out of that, I guess in terms of inches, for the water table….

Tye answered:

For them to officially declare us out of the drought, the latest numbers I’ve seen were about 15 inches over the next 30 days, or over the next 3 months, it would have to be like 25 to 30 inches. So we still need a lot of rain. But every little bit is going to help. With the rain we’ve got recently we’re better off than we were, but we’re still technically classifed as in extreme drought.

Here’s the video:

TS Debbie and south Georgia extreme drought —Ashley Tye
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 June 2012.

Readers of this blog know we were already in drought more than a year ago. According to U.S. Drought Monitor, we’ve been in a protracted extreme drought since then. According to USGS, our groundwater levels are all red, as in extremely low. Extremely low as in at historically low levels, as in they’ve hardly ever, if ever, been this low.

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The Lowndes-Lanier County EF3 Tornado —NOAA



The tornado was an F2 in Lowndes County and an F3 in Lanier.
It went west to east, wrote the NWS in Tallahassee.
The

pictures we posted that day
were apparently where it first touched down, and even then
it ripped limbs off of trees and broke some off and threw them.

According to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Tallahasse,

Severe Weather & Flooding Event of March 3, 2012; Lowndes-Lanier Co. EF3 Tornado,

The most significant damage of the severe weather event in south
Georgia and north Florida was caused by a tornado that moved from
just northwest of Moody Air Force Base to near Lakeland, Georgia.
The damage was assessed by a survey team from the National Weather
Service in Tallahassee. Most of the damage was consistent with an
EF1 or EF2 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. However, the most
severe damage — near Boyette Road and Highway 122 — was consistent
with an EF3 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Maximum wind speeds
were estimated to be around 140 mph at that location.

As you can see by

NOAA’s map,
the tornado was an EF0, EF1, and EF2 while it was in Lowndes County,
(as Ashley Tye told the Lowndes County Commission
this morning),
rising to an EF3 in Lanier County, peaking at 140 mph winds.


View Larger Map

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