Tag Archives: Economy

Construction board appointment, Budget, DUI Court, water and sewer, TIA, and cyber security @ LCC 2022-06-27

Update 2022-06-28:
Videos: DUI Court, Cyber Security, Road Paving, Water and Sewer, and Budget @ LCC 2022-06-27.

No rezonings this week, but a board appointment,
budget adoption, money shuffling for the DUI Court,
and two water and sewer infrastructure adoptions that,
as usual,
Lowndes County pretends will not cost the taxpayers money.
Plus a mower for Public Works and some cyber security stuff.
All at the Monday morning Work Session
and the Tuesday 5:30 PM Regular Session.

Both pages of the agenda

Here is
the agenda.
A LAKE open records request has gone in for the board packet.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2022, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2022, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27

The Valdosta meeting about grants to non-profits from American Rescue Program Act (ARPA) funds consisted of
a five-minute welcome by Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber,
and a summary of the application process by Mike Smith of Valdosta United Way,
followed by a half hour of questions and answers.

Chuck Dinkins, Valdosta Finance Director, and Mike Smith, Valdosta United Way

The actual
application
is thirteen pages, yet is pretty straightforward.

Below are links to LAKE videos of those three segments,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also Continue reading →

Videos: 4 long Lowndes County cases + 2 long Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-14: Agenda,
4 rezonings, 2 xourts, 1 appointment, and a big ARPA-funded water project @ LCC 2022-06-16

An overflow crowd, some in the lobby, came for the four Lowndes County cases
at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, May 23, 2022.
Two of the Valdosta cases were also contentious.
The whole meeting took more than three hours, so long there was griping about people getting hungry.
The door alarm went off at 8 o’clock, but they plowed ahead with three remaining cases.
When they adjourned at 8:52 PM, nobody was left in the audience but Gretchen Quarterman with the LAKE video camera.

Flannigan, Campus, Makesh, Pittman

One

county and one

city case were on James Road.
The county case got a unanimous recommendation to deny,
moved by famously pro-development Franklin Bailey.
The Commissioners really did not seem to like “speculative commercial use on the subject property.” Continue reading →

Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27

Update 2022-06-23:

LAKE videos.

Posted yesterday on facebook and twitter, one of the committees announced
a week ago
is having a presentation this morning:

City of Valdosta

@CityofValdosta

Join the City of Valdosta tomorrow at 9 a.m. as we present to the community our Non-Profit Committee application process from the ARPA allocation.
@greatervaldostaunitedway
@valdostachamber

Flyer, Committee members

When:
9 AM, Friday, May 27, 2022

Where:
Women’s Building, 1409 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA Continue reading →

Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23

No citizens showed up other than Gretchen Quarterman, behind the LAKE video camera.
Commissioners did not vote, because this is presumably the first of several Budget Hearings.
Or is it? It was billed as a Work Session.
Anyway, it took seventeen minutes.

Executives and Revenue

County Manager Paige Dukes said Continue reading →

5 Valdosta rezonings, 1 Hahira ordinance amendment, 4 Lowndes County rezonings with without packets @ GLPC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-03:
4 long Lowndes County cases + 2 long Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2022-05-23, including the board packet materials for the county cases and the minutes for the previous meeting.

Everything from a pair of personal care homes to a fraternity to a church to the Salvation Army wants rezoning or variances at
this evening’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting.

The board packet materials for the Hahira and Valdosta items are

on the LAKE website,
thanks to City Planner Matt Martin.

Maps

LAKE has no materials for the Lowndes County items, and no copy of the draft minutes from the previous meeting, because Lowndes County has not yet sent them in response to a LAKE open records request.

Here is the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~

~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, May 16, 2022 5:30 P.M. Work Session

Monday, May 23, 2022 5:30 P.M. Regular Session

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →

Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23

Update 2022-05-23:
Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23.

Appeared on

lowndescounty.com/calendar a few days ago:

Budget Work Session Notice

No agenda.
No draft budget on the
Finance Department web pages (the most recent is

the one about to expire).

The budget meeting is after the
8:30 AM Work Session. Continue reading →

Videos: Mayor announces first trash trap, committees for ARPA funds @ VCC 2022-05-19

Update 2022-06-23:

Videos: Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27.

Update 2022-06-21:

Valdosta Watergoat installed in Sugar Creek 2022-06-21.

Council Sonny Vickers was
welcomed back warmly
after abscence due to illness (I welcomed him before the meeting).
Later, he
thanked staff and council for their assistance.

Collage

Mayor Scott James added two council members each as observers to each of the
ARPA fund disbursment committees, for
non-profits
and for
for-profit businesses.

After

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman asked for action about trash,
Council Andy Gibbs and Mayor James vied for who would get to announce
what the city had already done.
Mayor James in Council Comments

announced the city had ordered Continue reading →

Audit, Crime Lab Hydrogen Generator, 2 ARPA Grant Selection Committees @ VCC 2022-05-19

Update 2022-05-20:
Videos: Mayor announces first trash trap, committees for ARPA funds @ VCC 2022-05-19.

In a very light agenda for tomorrow evening’s meeting, the Valdosta City Council nonetheless will contemplate $1,978,502.40 in spending.
They will also hear an audit report.

Amount	What
$33,502.40	Consideration of a request to purchase a Hydrogen Generator for the Valdosta-Lowndes Regional Crime Laboratory.
$945,000.00	Consideration of appointments for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Non-Profit Grant Selection Committee.
$1,000,000.00	Consideration of appointments for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Small Business Grant Selection Committee.
$1,978,502.40	Total

The

Hydrogen Generator for the Crime Lab
will come out of $36,000 from the General Fund.
“This is the equipment that is used for drug
identification and blood alcohol testing.”

The two Grant Selection Committees will dispense funds from the
$16,254,692 allocated to Valdosta by the federal government
in an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant, of which $8,127,346 has been received to date.
The City Council previously allocated

$945,000 for nonprofits
and

$1,000,000 for small businesses.
These Committees will decide which organizations get the funds.
You probably recognize many of the names on the committee candidate lists.

Selection Committees

Here is the agenda.
The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request,
is

on the LAKE website.

AGENDA

REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL

5:30 PM Thursday, May 19, 2022

CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS

Continue reading →

Roads, Wastewater, and Trash @ VCC 2022-02-24

A twelve-foot alligator surfaced twice at the briefest Valdosta City Council meeting of recent memory, in
Special Recognitions
and
Citizens to Be Heard, related to the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle organized by WWALS,
with Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman as a speaker.

Valdosta City Council, Staff, and Citizens

Four from Leadership Lowndes where there,
and there’s a New Neighborhood Development and Community Protections Manager, Anetra Riley.
The Mayor recognized WWALS, which is a first.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange