Tag Archives: Dasher

Candidates Forum by Chamber of Commerce

Today from 5 to 7 PM at the Rainwater Conference Center is the 2011 Meet the Candidates Forum organized by the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber’s Meet the Candidates Reception provides an opportunity for Chamber members to meet and hear from candidates running in the Nov. 8 general election. All Chamber members and guests are invited to attend this event at the Rainwater Conference Center. There is no cost to Chamber members to attend.
Here’s the link to RSVP or if you need directions.

Here’s a list of who qualifed to run. As you can see, most local incumbents are running unopposed. Maybe they’ll show up anyway, and there are at least a few contested positions (Valdosta Mayor and Council At Large, Hahira Council 3, Dasher Post 3, and Lake Park Council At Large. This being an odd year, there are no county-wide posts up for election, but the municipal elections affect everyone around here, even people like me who do not live in any of the cities. Whether at this event or elsewhere, you may want to ask the candidates their platforms and positions on local issues.

Usually there’s also an AAUW Lowndes County Political Forum; I don’t know what’s up with that this year. Usually it’s immediately after the Chamber thing, and the AAUW Forum is open to all.

-jsq

Qualifying is finished: here’s the list

A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below, in this latest information from Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections; * indicates incumbent.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Council 2 Bruce Cain *
Council 3 Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown

Dasher

Post 2
special election
Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew !
Becky Rogers
(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3 Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4 Anita Armstrong *

Lake Park

Walker Keith Sandlin *
Mayor
City Council At Large (Vote for 4) Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter *
Paul Mulkey *
Cathi Brown !
Russell Lane !
Sandy Sherrill !
Special election
voting now
Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill
Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.

Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5) Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !
Steven Koffler !
Jasen L. Tatum *
Bill Wetherington *

Valdosta Board of Education

District 4 Dean R. Rexroth *
District 5 Julian Carol Sherwood III *
District 6 Bill Love *

Qualifying is finished: here’s the list

A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below, in this latest information from Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections; * indicates incumbent.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Council 2 Bruce Cain *
Council 3 Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown

Dasher

Post 2
special election
Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew !
Becky Rogers
(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3 Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4 Anita Armstrong *

Lake Park

Walker Keith Sandlin *
Mayor
City Council At Large (Vote for 4) Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter *
Paul Mulkey *
Cathi Brown !
Russell Lane !
Sandy Sherrill !
Special election
voting now
Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill
Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.

Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5) Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !
Steven Koffler !
Jasen L. Tatum *
Bill Wetherington *

Valdosta Board of Education

District 4 Dean R. Rexroth *
District 5 Julian Carol Sherwood III *
District 6 Bill Love *

Who qualified by the end of Thursday, per Deb Cox

There’s one new qualifier since the last post. If you want to run, you’ve got you’ve got today to qualify.

This post includes an update on who has qualified for the end of the day Thursday September 1st from Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections; * indicates incumbent. This is basically the same as the list I posted yesterday afternoon, with a few corrections: the Dasher candidates (except for Post 2) are now correctly marked as incumbents; Lake Park Mayor candidate Keith Sandlin is listed; Lake Park and Dasher Council At Large elections are described correctly; Paul Mulkey has also qualified for Lake Park; various names are filled out more completely. This morning’s post is taken from a text document sent by Deb Cox, so it’s probably more accurate than yesterday’s writing it down from her telling it to me on the telephone.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Continue reading

Who’s qualified so far, according to Deb Cox

I called Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections, and asked her who has qualified so far. Here’s the answer, where * indicates incumbent. This data also pretty much answers the question of why we keep seeing the same people in office: because hardly anybody else runs. If you want to run, you’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow to do qualify. -jsq

Valdosta

Mayor John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1 James Wright *
Council 3 Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Continue reading

Planning Commission meets tonight

The organization that considers every rezoning request for Lowndes County or any of the cities of Valdosta, Dasher, Hahira, or Lake Park, the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, meets tonight, 5:30 PM, 29 August 2011. This appointed body decides nothing, but it does make recommendations to the elected governing body of the appropriate county or city, which does take those recommendations into account before deciding. If you want to rezone, or if there’s rezoning near you, you would do well to go to the Planning Commission meeting before it gets to your local elected body.

The Planning Commission’s remit is not just rezoning cases. According to the City of Valdosta’s writeup:

The mission of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) is to look beyond short-term solutions in planning for the future of the Greater Lowndes community; to improve the public health, safety, convenience and welfare; and to provide for the social, economic and physical development of communities on a sound and orderly basis, within a governmental framework and economic environment which fosters constructive growth and efficient administration.

The Planning Commission meets at the old Lowndes County Commission offices: Continue reading

Qualifying for local city elections is next week

The VDT editorialized yesterday:
On Monday, qualifying week begins for candidates interested in running in the November election for Valdosta Mayor, City Council At Large and Council Districts 1, 3, and 5; Hahira City Council Districts 2 and 3; City of Dasher Post 3 and 4; City of Lake Park Mayor and four council positions; Remerton Mayor and five council seats; Valdosta School Board Districts 4, 5, and 6.
The VDT points out that city elections usually don’t get much turnout, but this year there are two referendum questions on the ballot that may cause record turnout. They are: Continue reading

Comprehensive Plan Update Due

Hm, does Lowndes County also have to provide an update for the Comprehensive Plan? If so, where is it? And how are we to find out about it?

Found in the August Valdosta Planners Post:

STWP Update Due Fall 2011

The five‐year Short Term Work Plan (STWP) for the 2030 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan is due for an update later this year. The STWP is a key implementation tool that reflects the activities and strategies to support the Comprehensive Plan goals, which the City of Valdosta has undertaken for the past five years (2007‐2011). It also sets future activities and strategies for the next five years (2012‐2017). A ‘report of accomplishments’ that identifies the current status of each activity in the current STWP must be submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. A local public hearing must be held and a local resolution passed in order to adopt a the STWP update. Please check our website at www.valdostacity.com/planning for news and meeting schedules related to the STWP update.
According to the FAQ for the 2030 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan: Continue reading

VLCIA charging for access to agendas and minutes

How much should it cost for a citizen to get access to agendas and minutes of a tax-funded board? How does about $2 per meeting strike you?

Bobbi Anne Hancock filed an open records request for the agendas and minutes of all regularly scheduled and called meetings of the VLCIA letter asking $125.09 for copies of agendas and minutes of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) from 2006 to the present, and got this letter back:

So at 12 meetings per year for five years plus another 3 months, that would be about 63 meetings, divided into $125.09 gets about $1.99 per meeting.

Is this normal practice? Let’s compare. Continue reading

Communities watching boards

Susan Hall Hardy says that in most places industrial authority executives don’t interact with their communities. Well, paraphrasing what Yakov Smirnoff used to say, in Lowndes County, community interact with officials!

Here is her comment from 15 March 2011 on this blog:

Not to be rude, although honesty is very often perceived that way these days, but, the industrial authority executives rarely thank their communities. In the six states I’m most familiar with, these fellows see themselves as beholden only to their employers. After all, they work with their directors, elected officials, a few bankers and city/county department heads. Rarely do they come in direct contact with the average voter, employee or homeowner, although all those people often pay a large part of their salaries and office operating expenses. Despite the public funding, these groups are usually tight lipped about how they do business and rarely provide the public with records or audits. We’ve all put up with that manner of doing business for so long we now see it as just that — the way you do business. We’d never accept that from a nonprofit organization, a charity group or most elected officials. Shame on us all.
Susan, you’re helping by reading, and you’re helping more by posting. Many local officials have noticed LAKE and this blog because they know people read it.

Anyone who wants to help still more, you, too, can go to a meeting. The Industrial Authority is a good one to attend, but I hear the Tree Commission isn’t trying as hard to enforce things, and does anybody know anything the Hospital Authority does? The Airport Authority? Continue reading