Tag Archives: County Clerk

Education, Extension, Prisoners, Fire, Water, Sewer, Nelson Hill, Wages, Taxes, Clerk @ LCC 2020-08-24

A busy
agenda for 8:30 AM Monday morning, with voting 5:30 PM Tuesday,
includes
especially taxes, and

alcohol,

sewer,
twice,

education,

extension agents,

Prison Work Details,
and
Architectural Services for Lowndes County Fire Station #5 – Bemiss Road Fire Station Alterations and Additions.

Aerial Map for Uncle Carlo’s Italian Ristorante, 1024 Lakes Blvd., Lake Park, GA.

Plus appointment of a new
County Clerk, Belinda Lovern,
and Deputy Clerk, Sabrina Denson.
No posting of the positions is mentioned.

Cost	What
$147,954.00	Annual Contract Renewal, Georgia Department of Corrections – Prison Work Details
$141,841.00	Contract for Extension Agents and Staff
$110,000.00	Peterson Road Lift Station Emergency Repair
$44,400.00	Architectural Services for Lowndes County Fire Station #5 – Bemiss Road Fire Station Alterations and Additions
$41,840.00	Nelson Hill Discharge Manhole
$5,699.35	Tax Commissioners’ Back Wage Settlement with Department of Labor
$-32,000.00	USDA Building Lease Amendment No. 4
$459,734.35	Total

The Lowndes County Commission is

Repealing Approvals Authorizing the Tax Commissioner to Waive Penalties and Interest,
apparently because of a
Tax Commissioners' Back Wage Settlement with Department of Labor.

After last year’s vote of the people to ask the Georgia legislature to make
the Tax Assessors appointed, not elected, the legislature did that.
Now the County Commission is
setting
the number of Assessors at three, with initial staggered
terms of 3, 4, and 5 years, and after that 3 years for each.

This is after two weeks ago the Lowndes County Commission

rolled back the tax millage rate slightly.

Here is the agenda.
The entire board packet, together with the Minutes of the meetings of two weeks ago (Work Session, Millage Hearing, and Regular Session) is on LAKE website.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2020, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Maybe revisit lowering millage rate @ LCC 2020-08-10

There was pushback on

lowering the millage rate at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session yesterday morning.
They will decide this evening at 5:30 PM at the Regular Session.

The Commissioners, like some of the public, also wanted to know when there will be a new County Clerk.
Answer, from the former County Clerk, Paige Dukes, who is now the County Manager:
not yet; maybe next meeting (two weeks from now).

The $0.9 million low bid from Reames for road paving and a box culvert got no discussion from Commissioners.

The

Scruggs Company was offered a special exception to the Comprehensive Plan;
one that actually makes sense.

Yes, the
Copeland property
backs up to PCA.

The

Verizon tower got no questions from Commissioners.

Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the

agenda and board packet,
and the
millage rate hearing at 5PM today (Tuesday).

More Lowndes County news reported on an individual facebook page: US41N

It’s great that the Lowndes County Comissioner for District 2

is reporting about a highway in his district,
but why isn’t the county reporting it on its own facebook page,
website, twitter account, etc.?
While the county doesn’t have facebook account (why not?) it does
have those other things and there’s nothing on them about

this news: Continue reading →

$9.40 for a mound of paper @ LCC 2015-08-10

Gretchen made an Open Records request Monday morning and

it was available Tuesday 4:37 PM: mostly on paper and less than
an hour before the Commission voted.

The rezoning material from the Planning office was sent by electronic mail.
The rest cost $9.40 to retrieve on paper.
Nevermind in the email earlier Tuesday of the

old ordinance from 1992 the county staff demonstrated they can
put a paper document on their copier and produce a PDF.
They could have done that with the rest of the board packet.
Why didn’t they?

The Work Session was

Monday morning at 8:30 AM 10 Aug 2015.
Gretchen was notified by telephone about 4:30 PM Tuesday 11 Aug 2015.
The County Palace closes at 5PM.
The Commission met at 5:30 PM Tuesday to vote.
So none Continue reading →

County and news media digging deeper on Shiloh sinkhole story

Will nearby buildings fall into this 120-foot sinkhole?

Will Shiloh Road have to be moved like Snake Nation Road was?
What about sinkhole insurance?
If there are “fault lines” causing sinkholes heading westwards in Lowndes County,
wouldn’t they cross the proposed path of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?
What will Lowndes County do if that thing goes in and a sinkhole opens under it?
What if Sabal Trail declares such a sinkhole force majeure and doesn’t pay?

More on

the usual detour on Shiloh Road.
Joe Adgie, VDT, 6 August 2015,

Sinkhole threat to Shiloh Road, Continue reading →

The usual detour around Shiloh Road sinkhole

LAKE learned about this because the County Clerk shared it on facebook
to her friends some of whom happen to be Gretchen’s friends.
Maybe mighty Lowndes County can afford its own facebook page?

PLEASE SHARE. Lowndes County Engineering has closed Shiloh Road
at Franks Creek due to a very large sinkhole.
Citizens will need to take the usual detour.
Please do not visit the area, this is not a photo opportunity.
Sinkholes are unpre…

That personal Paige Dukes facebook post did not seem to have
any corresponding information on lowndescounty.com last night.

The VDT took it as a photo opportunity.
Adam Floyd, VDT, 7:27 am 5 August 2015,

Large sinkhole swallows pond, closes Shiloh Rd., Continue reading →

Videos: Solid Waste Special Called Meeting @ LCC Waste 2015-01-26

Videos of the 9:15 AM 26 January 2015

Special Called Meeting on Solid Waste Management
by the Lowndes County Commission.
There’s another such meeting
today 2-4 PM.

Both
ADS
and

Deep South Sanitation spoke Monday morning,
which is a welcome change from

the county suing the one on behalf of the other.
Rather than give ADS the raise it wants,

let’s not forget there is a termination clause in that exclusive franchise. Continue reading →

Solid Waste Special Called Meeting @ LCC Waste 2015-01-26

Check it out the notification thingy from the county actually works.
We got notified of a special called meeting.

From: listserv@civicplus.com

Date: 22 Jan 2015 13:52:48 -0600

Subject: New Event Special Called Meeting For cp-stcity2.civicplus.com

A new Event now appears on our site. Please click on the link below to go dir
ectly to the new posting.

here.

A link under “News Flash” on the county’s front page leads to
this
slightly different version: Continue reading →

No contract and no bids for County Attorney, yet 20% raise to $300,000

In response to (a second) open records request, County Clerk Paige Dukes
stated in writing that Lowndes County does not have a contract with the person
referred to in numerous minutes as “County Attorney”, and that
no bids have been entertained for legal services for the county.
According to the budget documents the Clerk referred to,
the county raised the County Attorney’s budget 20% to $300,000 for 2013.
Illustrations below (some with links) were added by me. -jsq

From: pdukes@lowndescounty.com

To: b-ahuntley@hotmail.com

CC: asmith@lowndescounty.com; JPritchard@lowndescounty.com;
bswaller@bellsouth.net

Subject: Open Records Request

Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:22:08 +0000

Good Morning Mrs. Huntley,

In response to your open records request Continue reading →

Now with sound! @ LCC 2013-06-10

After the soundless

10 June 2013 Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
Gretchen requested,
County Clerk Paige Dukes promised and a few days later delivered,
sound recordings on CDs of both that meeting and the next day’s

Regular Session.
LAKE thanks the County Clerk for those recordings.
Gretchen has integrated the county sound with the LAKE video recordings
and I have updated

the Work Session blog post. But what about state open records law?

These CDs demonstrate the county does make recordings
of the Commission meetings, at least of sound.
The County Clerk told Gretchen the recordings are erased after the Clerk
is finished with them.
Hm, since such recordings are records of public meetings, wouldn’t
that make them public open records?
And if they are, wouldn’t destroying them be illegal?

According to

state law on the GA Secretary of State’s website:

Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange