Tag Archives: Elsie Napier

Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Regular 2024-05-14

An hour-long Regular Session is very unusual for the Lowndes County Commission. Much of it was taken up by two rezonings: REZ-2024-08 on River Road (10:43) and REZ-2024-09 Dasher Grove Subdivision (12:24). For River Road, the applicant discussed setbacks and fire trucks and answered Commissioner questions about house prices and lot sizes. For Dasher Grove, Commissioner questions were mostly about how many lots and when T-SPLOST road work on Val Del Road would take place. Remember, that road work is your tax dollars going to subsidize subdivisions.

Nobody spoke against those rezonings nor against any of the others. All the rezonings and everything else passed unanimously, including they reappointed Hospital Authority incumbent Shirley Garland as expected.

Collage @ LCC Regular 14 May 2024

There was discussion about the apparent price rise by 8.b. Pronto Consulting for Software as a Service to manage probationers. It is actually just that Pronto started with a discount, and this time is not supplying a discount. The total undiscounted amount was always in the county budget.

In Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, Mark Perkins of Lake Park had some questions about the burn ordinance.

Also, Representative John LaHood (R-175) was recognized by the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) for his work on legislation regarding Service Delivery Strategies.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Work 2024-05-13

Update 2024-05-27: Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Regular 2024-05-14.

This Work Session was long by Lowndes County Commission standards, more than half an hour.

Collage @ LCC 13 May 2024

Almost half of that, 13 and a half minutes, was on 7.c. REZ-2024-08 River Road, 4374 River Road, mostly about spacing between houses and fire risk.

Another five minutes was on 7.d. REZ-2024-09 Dasher Grove, about the timeline for Val Del Road improvements.

Notice the Val Del Road improvements are TIA projects, which means tax-paid road improvements to benefit a private developer. Yet this and other such rezonings appear in the agenda as “BUDGET IMPACT: NA”.

Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker asked if the packet materials could be projected on the screen for 6.a. Appointment – Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County. ITS Director Aaron Kostyu said he did not have the ability to do that.

Well, the County Planner manages to project all the materials for the rezonings. Why can’t the ITS Director project materials for other board agenda items?

Or the County Commissioners can look at the LAKE website, I suppose.

Or county staff could put the board packet on the county’s own website.

Either way, the Commissioners could use the Internet to look at it on their tablets.

The Commissioners could just direct staff to put the packet on the county’s website.

Commissioners also had some questions about why the increases in Continue reading →

Packet: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC 2024-05-13

Update 2024-05-17: Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Work 2024-05-13.

This week the Lowndes County Commission takes on six rezonings and other business, including $1,194,081.20 in 2024 Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) Resurfacing Bids, paid for by your Transportation Improvement Act (TIA) sales tax.

Hospital Authority, 6 rezonings, probationers, paving and resurfacing, subdivision infrastructure, road abandonment @ LCC 2024-04-13

Here is the agenda.

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

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 13, 2024, 8:30 A.M.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2024, 5:30 P.M.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC Regular 2023-06-27

They approved everything unanimously, the Lowndes County Commission two weeks ago, with another surprise presentation in County Manager Reports.

Collage @ LCC 27 June 2023

They approved the Hotel-Motel Budget Plan and the FY 2024 Operating Budget.

They reappointed Elsie Napier to DFACS, Suzan Garnett to VLPRA, and Tripp Howell to the Construction Board.

They passed a stopgap resolution to delay approving changes to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC). So there’s no need to approve any changes at the July 11th County Commission meeting.

Remember, the public has hardly seen any of the proposed ULDC changes, while the County Manager announced two weeks ago that “tomorrow we have the stakeholder meetings at 12:30 and 2 PM that I mentioned to you yesterday, with permits and inspections, and that is all going fantastically well, and I’m interesting in getting the feedback from our development community so we can make any changes that they may need prior to going live July 1.” Curious how the county government is not so solicitous of feedback from the general public as it is of feedback from “our development community”.

In response to a question by Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, Public Works Director Robin Cumbus clarified that the county since COVID has only been paying for one prisoon detail even though the contract says they can use up to three.

About Reports: County Manager, Gretchen Quarterman remarks: Continue reading →

Videos: Surprise One Valdosta-Lowndes presentation, and executive session to discuss personnel @ LCC Work 2023-06-26

Update 2023-07-10: Videos: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC Regular 2023-06-27.

Update 2023-06-29: Slides: One Valdosta-Lowndes @ LCC Work 2023-06-26.

People might have come to see if they knew One Valdosta-Lowndes was going to present at Monday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session. Instead, County Manager Paige Dukes announced it during her County Manager Report, and then OVL Executive Director Mary Beth Brownlee presented. Thanks to Mary Beth for sending LAKE her presentation slides.

Collage @ LCC 26 June 2023

At the end of the meeting, the Commissioners held an executive session to discuss personnel. There is only one personnel directly managed by the Commissioners: the County Manager.

The second longest item at 4 minutes was 5. Fire Officer of the Year – Fire Fighter of the Year Recognition.

Next longest at two and a third minutes was 7.a. Lowndes County Accountability Court Grant Approval and Cash Match.

Everything passed unanimously, including the adoption of the FY 2024 Operating Budget and the reappointments to three boards.

Once the county finishes taking over its own permitting, the 6.c. Valdosta Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals won’t exist, and Lowndes County will have to appoint its own. The new one could have the same county members.

Were you invited to the stakeholder meetings the County Manager announced for “the development community”? Maybe taxpayers and citizens are not stakeholders.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Packet: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC 2023-06-26

Update 2023-06-29: Videos: Suprise One Valdosta-Lowndes presentation, and executive session to discuss personnel @ LCC Work 2023-06-26.

The board packet to go with the agenda for this week’s Lowndes County Commission meetings is on the LAKE website, received in response to a LAKE open records request.

Collage, Board PacketT @ LCC 2023-06-26

LAKE videos of the meetings will follow.

-jsq

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Agenda: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prisoners @ LCC 2023-06-26

Update 2023-06-27: Packet: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC 2023-06-26.

Monday morning at 8:30 AM the Lowndes County Commission will review at its Work Session items that it will vote on in its Regular Session Tuesday at 5:30 PM.

Collage @ LCC Agenda 2023-06-26

Items include the Adoption of Fiscal Year 2024 Operating Budget, and a Budget Plan for Hotel Motel Proceeds for Fiscal Year 2024.

A stopgap resolution is proposed until the changes to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) are ready.

Also on the agenda are re-appointments to three boards,

Plus two items that the agenda says cost money:

Cost	What
$147,954.00	7.b. Annual Contract Renewal with the State of Georgia Department of Corrections
$25,139.00	7.a. Lowndes County Accountability Court Grant Approval and Cash Match
$173,093.00	Total

Here is the agenda.

LAKE has sent an open records request for the board packet. However, when Lowndes County someday puts its board packets on its own website, as many counties larger and smaller, in Georgia and Florida, have been doing for years, nobody will have to play this silly open records game just to get board packets.

Meanwhile, for the ULDC changes, see the Planning Commission board packet.

For the budget, see the LAKE videos from the Budget Work Session, the slides from that meeting, and Videos: Not a Public Hearing, even though advertised as one, Presentation @ LCC Budget 2023-06-20.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2023, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Updated Packet: Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2019-05-14

Lowndes County did supply the items missing from the May 14 and 15, 2019 board packet, on 11 June 2019, and those items are now on the LAKE website.

Letter

LAKE looks forward to the county putting all these packet documents on the county’s own website, along with the agenda and agenda sheets.

-jsq

Packet: Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2019-05-14

Update 2019-07-09: Missing items supplied by the county.

Here’s the mysterious Moody AFB “Helicopter Corridor and Class D Airspace” map from item 6.c. TWR-2019-01 Value Concepts, Inc., US Hwy 84 E. E-A, New 300′ Telecommunications Tower on the May 13 and 14, 2019, Lowndes County Commission agenda.

Page 24

This in the agenda packet, now on the LAKE website, including files returned by the county in response to a LAKE open records request. The county supplied those files on a USB drive, for which it charged LAKE $6.65.

Missing from what the county sent: Continue reading →

Videos: Tower, appointments, sewer main, boat ramp, water trails, Paddle Georgia @ LCC 2019-05-14

All three rezonings breezed through, except slightly the longest was the tabling of the proposed 300′ communications tower off of US 84 East. The tower had the most people: those sitting in the back.

Surprisingly, one of the two Authority appointments was not the incumbent. None of the candidates were introduced, and none spoke.

One Citizen spoke, me, on behalf of WWALS, thanking them and inviting them.

Commissioner Clay Griner was not present. The other four voting Commissioners unanimously approved everything, including the one tabling. At least two staff speakers were not introduced, one not named except by last name, and one never named at all.

Below are Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange