Tag Archives: Berrien County

Packet: Walkers Crossing @ LCC 2022-08-08

The Walkers Crossing Roundabout got pictured in the board packet for the August 8 and 9, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meetings. That’s at the corner of GA 122 and GA 125 (Bemiss Road), where Lowndes, Berrien, and Lanier Counties meet.

Walkers Crossing Preliminary Design and Construction Detail

Looks like the businesses will lose less parking lot space than might have been expected, apparently because the roundabout is shifted southwest onto Billy Walker Jr.’s land. It will be interesting to see big trucks negotiating that small circle. Continue reading →

Videos: Everything unanimously approved in fifteen minutes @ LCC 2022-05-24

The Lowndes County Commission approved everything as fast as they could hear each item read and vote, at their fifteen-minute Regular Session of May 24, 2022.

Some agenda items

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Two Valdosta items, Walkers Crossing Roundabout, Reports @ LCC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-16: Videos: Everything unanimously approved in fifteen minutes @ LCC 2022-05-24.

Not even two minutes on any business item at the most recent Lowndes County Work Session.

Attorney, Utilities, Engineering, Manager

The answer to which roads on the LMIG item is that Continue reading →

$1.6 million road resurfacing, 2 appointments, subdivision streets, Walkers Crossing Roundabout, Valdosta extraterritorial water and sewer @ LCC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-02: Videos: Two Valdosta items, Walkers Crossing Roundabout, Reports @ LCC 2022-05-23.

Update 2022-05-23: 9:00 AM Budget Work Session.

They propose to approve $1.6 million for resurfacing some roads, it’s not clear which ones, at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday morning and voting Regular Session Tuesday evening.

Quarterman Estates, Walkers Crossing Roundabout

They will also pretend that this will not cost the county money down the road for street maintenance: Continue reading →

Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority after privatized landfill

Local counties and cities sold off one landfill in Lowndes County in the late 1990s, and a second one in 2005 through the Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority. Yet in 2007 the Deep South Municipal Regional Solid Waste Management Authority (WMA), with the same county and city member governments, was still active, discussing a regional recycling station. And it is still active today, including some of the same board members the entire time since 2005, such as Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson. Hanson was not present last week when Valdosta Mayor John Gayle said Valdosta does not control the landfill, or perhaps he would have mentioned that Valdosta through its longterm seat on the WMA board does have some degree of control over the landfill’s operations.

I notice quite a few of the Valdosta City Council’s own minutes record discussions and votes related to that WMA including this item from their Regular meeting of 4 October 2014, which was called to order by Mayor Gayle:

Boards, Commissions, Authorities, and Advisory Committees

Consideration of an appointment to the Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste Management Authority. — Appointed Richard Hardy, Public Works Director (7-0 Vote).

There must be some advantage to the City of Valdosta to have two members (Hanson and Hardy) on the WMA board. Certainly the average citizen or organization does not have that.

Bill Roberts, VDT, 5 December 2005, Authority closes on landfill deal, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail newspaper assertions contradicted by Spectra corporate documents and FERC filings –John S. Quarterman to FERC

“I ask you and FERC to stop Sabal Trail from telling newspapers things that Spectra Energy’s own corporate documents refute, and to start paying attention to multiple requests by county commissions and other affected parties.”

Back in December, Spectra’s Andrea Grover and Brian Fahrenthold were “not familiar” with Spectra’s lengthy safety rap sheet (see above picture). Yesterday’s VDT had Sabal Trail: Eminent domain accusation ‘hard to believe’ by Joe Adgie. Meanwhile, the Moultrie Observer has picked up the VDT story. Maybe some newspapers will also publish better information than what trained pipeline PR people seem not to remember or believe, despite copious evidence of the actual facts.

Filed with FERC 19 November 2014 accession Number: 20141119-5232. The attachments are in the PDF, and they’re all in the links in the HTML version below. -jsq Continue reading →

SONAT pipeline break in Berrien County, GA on offshoot of same line Sabal Trail proposes to parallel –John S. Quarterman to FERC

“The SONAT pipeline that broke in Berrien County, Georgia was only a 9- or 10-inch line, I’m told at 800PSI. Sabal Trail proposes a 36-inch line, at much higher pressure. I’m no expert, but that seems like at least twenty times the explosive capacity. I don’t want that risk for any of my neighbors anywhere.”

Filed with FERC 15 November 2014 (PDF), posted by FERC 17 November 2014 as Accession Number: 20141117-5040. Continue reading →

Pipeline neighbor in Berrien County, Georgia on WALB TV

Most of the neighbors were camera-shy, but I found one for Colter Anstaett to interview for WALB.

Dave Miller wrote for WALB TV 7:26 PM EST 6 November 2014, Nashville city clears residential gas use, businesses asked to wait, which apparently was originally entitled “Gas must be conserved in Nashville”, by Colter Anstaett 11:20 AM 6 November 2014,

BERRIEN CO., GA (WALB) — The City of Nashville says residential customers can resume normal natural gas use, after they asked all gas customers to conserve gas in the wake of a ruptured line.

Commercial business customers were still asked to conserve gas use Thursday night, according to Dawn Morrison with the City.

Resident Elizabeth Cherry said Continue reading →

Pipeline break in Berrien County, Georgia

“Like a bomb going off,” said the evacuated neighbor. Like a waterfall, was the sound by the time I got there about 11:20 AM EST, tipped off by a friend with a 911 radio. Several Kinder Morgan trucks were parked on Bradford Road, with KM personnel standing near the leak.

The break in the ditch across from 986 Bradford Road

According to PHMSA’s NPMS Public Map Viewer, the pipeline operator is Continue reading →

Retreat, Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2013-02-22

The Lowndes County Commission has retreated to Berrien County once again this year. So far they’ve talked about budgets and finance, LOST and SPLOST, departmental requests, and the local Land Bank Authority, with the occasional policy interjection. Commissioners and staff were clearly taking their tasks very seriously, although not without humor from John Page’s sneeze. And I congratulate them on going some place that couldn’t have cost much. I wish they’d talk more about policy and strategies for increasing the pie, rather than almost entirely about how to divvy up the existing pie. Video will follow; meanwhile here are a few notes.

On the one hand, it’s great that county staff have pulled together and managed with 30 fewer people, and while Commissioner Page was right that that’s efficiency, I think Chairman Slaughter was even more right in saying it’s beyond that, it’s beyond capacity. County Manager Joe Pritchard noted if there’s no SPLOST, the current Commission will have to decide between cutting some services and raising taxes. That’s no doubt true, and he indicated that Valdosta seemed to be waiting to hear what the County wants to do about SPLOST, while the county is waiting to hear what Valdosta wants to do. Several people remarked that the prior LOST negotiations (which are currently on judicial hold pending one participant returning from the current session of the state legislature) did affect SPLOST losing in the most recent election. I didn’t hear anybody suggest holding public hearings this time, but Commissioner Marshall did say it would be good to say what SPLOST funds would be for in some detail.

On the other hand, the Chairman asserted Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange