This is all we know:
Date:
May 27, 2020
Time:
9:30 AM
Location:
Board of Commissioners Administration Building
Address:
327 N. Ashley Street
2nd Floor—Multipurpose Room
Valdosta, GA 31601
Well, we know they never video these budget meetings.
-jsq
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The longest regular item at 4 minutes on this voting Regular Session agenda was
6.b. Accept Hamm Estates Dr. into the County Road Inventory.
Longer were two Citizens who spoke at the end about
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB).
Here again are the costs found in the agenda sheets for the items,
from most expensive down, with links back into
the agenda.
| Cost | What |
|---|---|
| $290,000.00 | 2020 Administrative Services Agreement with Allied Benefit Systems, Inc. |
| $50,433.00 |
Bid for Repairs to Knights Academy Road; emergency repairs for Culvert Aprons |
| $43,245.50 | Approval of Clyattstone Rd.-Simpson Ln. ROW Purchases |
| $24,613.44 | Microsoft Server 2019 Data Center License |
| $11,535.00 | Approval of Clyattstone Rd.-Simpson Ln. ROW Acquisition |
| $419,826.94 | Total |
The actual cost for the Clyattstone Road-Simpson Lane project is larger;
more like $77,696.50 so far, before grading, base, and paving;
see
the LAKE notes on the preceding morning’s Work Session.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes.
See also Continue reading
Twelve minutes for their
first-ever dial-in Lowndes County Commission meeting.
That’s longer than many of their in-person meetings, maybe because the Chairman
had the Clerk call roll for the Commissioners for each vote.
Both votes were unanimous with no discussion.
Nobody explained why these items were important enough for a Special Called Meeting.
Before the meeting, in the room they had already Continue reading
Update 2020-04-16:
LAKE Notes taken during the conference call.
Something good out of a pandemic:
the first-ever telephone listen-in for a Lowndes County Commission meeting.
I assume listen-in because there is no Citizens To Be Heard on the agenda.
While Madison County, Florida, BOCC, weeks ago had a participatory conference call meeting, I can’t imagine Lowndes County Commission doing that.
The only agenda items
are how to spend the Hotel/Motel Tax (assuming there is any) for Tourism,
and paying for right of way (ROW) for one parcel so TSPLOST paving of Clyattstone Road and Simpson Lane can continue.
I don’t know why that one paving project is so important.
Special Called Meeting
April 16, 2020, 9:30 AM @ In an effort to respect
social distancing, a conference call line has
been set up for this meeting. The call in number
813-769-0500 and the access code is 373-829-614#There are only two items being addressed due to
them needing immediate attention.More Details
That “More Details” link goes to a page that has exactly the same information.
However, unlike most Special Called Meetings, for this one they did post an agenda.
We don’t know whether they will video the meeting.
That would be good, since LAKE can’t go into the building to do that.
See also Continue reading
Postponed from last Thursday due to weather, the Valdosta City Council meets
tonight, to consider some rather contentious cases from the Planning Commission,
and to make a bunch of appointments, plus some bids for equipment.
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE,
CU-2020-02 Natalie Bailey, 4019 Forrest Run Circle – Halfway House @ GLPC 2020-01-27.
This Valdosta City Council bid item is interesting:
4.d) Consideration of bids for a Trailer-Mounted Mobile Televising Unit for the Utilities Department (Bid No. 27-19-20 A).
Maybe with that Valdosta Utilities can see what’s happening with equipment they leave in a park overnight,
for example maybe in McKey Park after
today’s 200-gallon sewage spill.
Here is the agenda.
It says February 6, but the
Valdosta calendar entry for today
says
“RESCHEDULED – Valdosta City Council Meeting,
Monday, February 10, 2020 – 5:30pm”
See also Continue reading
A month ago at the Valdosta City Council we learned
that Valdosta has a $2,410,000 budget surplus.
5b) Presentation of the Municipal Audit for Fiscal Year 2019
Maybe they could spend some of that to help fix the well and river testing costs downstream on the Withlacoochee River of
Valdosta’s record 7.5 million gallons of raw sewage spill into Sugar Creek, which has taken two months to maybe finally get diluted down the Withlacoochee River, twice entering Florida, with three Florida river advisories, and with Georgia warning signs on the Withlacoochee River downstream of Sugar Creek by Lowndes County and by WWALS (but not by Valdosta).
One City Council member tells me that audit doesn’t mean Valdosta has $2 million cash lying around.
But they do have several hundred thousand unspent.
Maybe they could also budget some of that surplus to help fix the stigma,
the decades-long reputational damage to all our rivers,
caused by Valdosta’s chronic sewage spills.
That would involve for example water quality testing or paying for testing downstream on the Withlacoochee River and doing marketing.
Four Citizens spoke at the end of the meeting: Continue reading
Here is the agenda and a few pictures of the first Valdosta City Council meeting of 2020,
including the installation of new Mayor Scott James Matheson and new Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Carroll.
A few City Council members were re-elected and took the oath of office again; none are new.
LAKE videos will follow. Continue reading
Maybe it was “custom fit” that caused Commissioner Clay Griner to ask for
postponement of approval of purchase of firefighting equipment until after the county’s retreat.
All five Commissioners voted for tabling.
More detail
below in the notes on that item.
Bob Dewar has discovered the county wants an 80-foot right of way to pave Clyattstone Road,
“What we do not want is a highway. It’s a quaint county road.”
Well, that’s not why the county paves roads.
More in
the item notes below.
Everything else was passed with little or no discussion.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the Continue reading
Not on the agenda, Chairman Bill Slaughter
at the end of the meeting said Utilities Director Steve Stalvey
had been testing water quality on the Withlacoochee River.
On December 31, bacterial counts were acceptable.
But on January 6, 2020, counts were quite high, so the county made and
posted some warning signs at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line (GA 31) Boat Ramps.
Here is one of the county’s signs, at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp,
with a sign by WWALS Watershed Coalition (Suwannee Riverkeeper)
at the bottom of the other pole with Continue reading
A million dollars for
Paving – Quail Hollow Acres Subdivision
and $0.4 million for
Bid for a 3,000 Gallon Tanker for the Fire Department.
Another million for
2020 Stop Loss Insurance Coverage through Symetra Life Ins. Company.
A quarter million to relocate utilities at I-75 Exit 2 will be paid by GDOT.
And a million in income for a
Lease Agreement with the State Properties Commission for the Division of Family & Children Services (DFACS).
Molly Deese wants to be reappointed to the
Valdosta Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority.
Incumbents almost always get reappointed if they say they want to,
and the chances of them not reappointing the Vice President and General Manager of Wild Adventures is pretty slim.
Ditto
Dr. Frances Brown on the
Lowndes County Board of Health.
They’re setting the
Special Assessment interest rate “for all paving and utilityassessments that are not paid off within the initial 90-day phase. Unpaid assessments revert to installment agreements which are to be paid over a period of up to ten years.”
New rate: 6.75% for 2020, down from 7.50% for 2019.
They’re setting qualifying fees to run for office, primary or general election: Continue reading
![[Notice]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-05-27--lcc-budget/notice.jpg)
![[Only two items]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-04-16--special-called-meeting/2020-04-16--lcc-agenda-0001.jpg)
![[With dialin instructions]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-04-16--special-called-meeting/calendar.jpg)
![[Seldom seen this full]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/valdosta/2020-01-09--vcc-agenda/20200109_173017.jpg)
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