Tag Archives: GEFA

Videos: Emergency road repair, grandfathered business, water, and Rural Land Agricultural Improvement Schedules @ LCC 2014-10-27

More detail and issues with Bailey REZ-2014-16 after much discussion last time. Almost ten minutes on 6a. Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention. Numerous things incomplete or just FYI such as drug seizures in the financial report, none of which the citizens could see. This was in the Work Session Monday morning. They vote Tuesday 5:30 PM in the Regular Session.

They actually named the multiple bids for a water item, unlike the single-source price-not-quoted pump replacement last time. And they’re buying some property (at some place unnamed) for a booster pump.

The Rural Land Agricultural Improvement Schedules was actually for Commercial land. We learned why Shiloh Road needs emergency repairs. Nothing about that on the new county Lowndes411 twitter account, and the county still doesn’t publish its own board packets.

I can understand why the Commission needs to approve a juvenile justice grant, a GEFA loan application, to accept quit claim deeds for a subdivision’s detention ponds, and to accept infrastructure for a subdivision, not to mention a CDBG agreement. But to replace batteries in a UPS?

See the agenda. Here are links to the videos of the items as they transpired this morning. Continue reading →

Emergency road repair, grandfathered business, water, and Rural Land Agricultural Improvement Schedules @ LCC 2014-10-27

Bailey’s back after much discussion last time. This time they’re actually going for multiple bids for a water item, unlike the single-source price-not-quoted pump replacement last time. And they’re buying some property (at some place unnamed) for a booster pump.

What’s this mysterious Rural Land Agricultural Improvement Schedules? Why does Shiloh Road need emergency repairs? Nothing about that on the new county Lowndes411 twitter account, and the county still doesn’t publish its own board packets.

I can understand why the Commission needs to approve a juvenile justice grant, a GEFA loan application, to accept quit claim deeds for a subdivision’s detention ponds, and to accept infrastructure for a subdivision, not to mention a CDBG agreement. But to replace batteries in a UPS?

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Valdosta sewage PR reaches Florida

Valdosta sure has an effective PR mechanism, famous all the way to Florida again, for the second time this month. Most cities wouldn’t think to dump stuff into the river to get in the news! But Valdosta buried the solution at the end of a traditional press release:

“The city has planned, designed and bid a force main project and will award a $32 million contract in May that will prevent the majority of these overflows from occurring in the future.”

That would be one of the projects Valdosta will use the $36.7 million GEFA loan to fund. Other projects are related to the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), which wasn’t the culprit this time. This sewer spill came from manholes overflowing.

Winnie Wright wrote for WCTV yesterday, Over 1 Million Gallons Of Wastewater Spills Into Local Waterways,

The Florida Department of Public Health is warning residents to avoid contact with water from the Withlacoochee River.

Continue reading →

GA Senator Tim Golden not running

This makes state Senate district 8 an open seat. Qualifying is al this week, Monday through Friday.

Dated 2 March 2014, STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM GOLDEN:

Today, I am announcing that I will not be a candidate for re-election to the Georgia State Senate, District 8, in 2014. After 34 years in public service—more than half of what will soon be my 60 years on this earth—and having gone through many difficult yet successful campaigns during that time, I have decided that this is the right time to devote more time to my business career and to my family during the remainder of our son’s high school years before he goes on to college.

I’m familiar with at least one of Sen. Golden’s campaigns, but he has also spoken up for solar power in Georgia, although neither he nor his buddy Gov. Deal got it that doubling GEFA’s solar state tax rebate fund once in 2011 wasn’t enough when solar deployments increase 65% every year. Witness we installed 12KW more of solar panels at the end of 2012 and we’re finally on the list for rebate for 2014 because state funds for 2012 and 2013 were already used up.

Maybe we can elect a state senator who will Continue reading →

Two appointments, a Presidio, a library, and a highway @ LCC 2014-01-27

What’s a “Presidio Change Order”? (Not like those change orders in DeKalb County, let’s hope.) A GEFA loan application for what? What’s going on with the Moody AFB Library?

Apparently Nottinghill is going to have a community water system, since it’s on the agenda for a trust deed, but you wouldn’t know that unless you’d followed other trust deeds, such as the one for Raisin’ Cane approved in December.

At least we know they’ve been itching to turn Cat Creek Road into a highway at least since they put widening it on their T-SPLOST list in 2012, and on this agenda is replacing the old bridge on Cat Creek Road.

The agenda actually says the final item is only in the Work Session. Maybe this will avoid the kind of confusion that happened with the Sabal Trail pipeline presentation in November and December.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Valdosta force main GEFA loan awarded

Valdosta city PR today, City Receives $36.7 million GEFA Loan to Move Forward with Force Main Project,

The City of Valdosta was awarded a $36.7 million Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) loan by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA), on Nov. 14, 2013.

The city will use the low-interest loan to finance the construction of two major pump stations, two minor pump stations, a 6-mile 32-inch and 40-inch force main, a headworks structure with grit removal and bar screens, and a 6-million gallon equalization basin. Wastewater will be gravity fed to the existing site of the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) for final treatment and discharged utilizing the existing plant outfall, until the relocation of the plant is completed in November 2015.

Easement Exhibit Context

This project will Continue reading →

Valdosta and Army Corps of Engineers in Flood Risk Management Study

First public update since May: Valdosta has had several recent meetings with other governmental groups and has agreed to co-fund a flooding study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

WCTV has also picked up Valdosta PR 23 July 2013, City Enters Agreement with USACE for Flood Risk Management Study,

The City of Valdosta hosted a Regional Flood Preparedness meeting with the Georgia Silver Jackets on June 25—a continuation of discussions that began earlier in the year focused on regional interests and on maximizing area resources.

Representatives from the cities of Moultrie, Sylvester, Tifton and Valdosta and from the counties of Lowndes and Turner attended the meeting to discuss current and future flood monitoring and forecasting issues throughout the Little River and Withlacoochee River watersheds. These two watersheds are part of the overall Suwannee Basin that is approximately 10,000 square miles in Georgia and Florida.

Among other information shared, Continue reading →

Valdosta Plans Flooding Discussions

Valdosta is finally announcing the 11 April 2013 watershed-wide flooding meeting organized by the Army Corps of Engineers.

WCTV yesterday carried a press release from the City of Valdosta; PR which, oddly, does not appear to be on the city’s website. I have added a few links. Prominently missing from the PR is any mention of water quality, the Floridan Aquifer, or sinkholes. -jsq

The City of Valdosta initiated planning discussions recently that brought together representatives from key local, state and federal agencies to seek solutions to a regional flood issue.

The 50-year flood event that occurred in late February, early March 2013 was a vivid reminder of the 2009 flood event that significantly impacted south Georgia. Since 2009, the city has worked to help identify potential causes and the scope and area of the regional flooding that occurred. This information has been shared with various state and federal officials and agencies in the hopes of gaining their interest and support to work together to address the regional flooding. Since Valdosta is located

Continue reading →

Watershed meeting organized by Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) didn’t know there was a large water problem hereabouts, but now they do, and they want to take a watershed-wide approach, from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico, including both surface water and aquifer issues, perhaps starting with redrawing FEMA’s flood maps, and maybe even including once again funding the state water council.

Thursday 11 April 2013 there was a rather large governmental meeting organized by USACE in response to the City of Valdosta’s request of 11 March 2103. Yesterday, Valdosta City Council District 5 Tim Carroll sent the appended list of attendees, augmented by a conversation with him on the phone 13 April and a blog comment by him later that same day on the original post on the WWALS blog, in which he also remarked:

Very good preliminary meeting that hopefully will yield real action on our region wide water issues. Thanks for sharing this info with WWALS.
We know little else, because no media or private citizens were invited.

  • USACE Savannah office: Jeff Morris, Georgia Silver Jackets Coordinator and Beth Williams, Hydraulic Engineer
  • USACE Jacksonville office: David Apple, Chief, Watershed and Restoration Planning Section
  • GADNR: Christopher Hill and Tom Shillock, GAEPD Floodplain Management Unit
  • GEMA: Dee Langley, Planning Program Manager and Terry Lunn, Director, Hazard Mitigation Division
  • GEMA: Gary Rice – Regional Field Coordinator
  • USGS: Brian McCallum, Supv. Hydrologist/ADir and Keith McFadden, Physical Scientist
  • FEMA Region 4: Susan Wilson, CFM, Floodplain Management and Insurance Branch Chief and Janice Mitchell, Insurance Specialist and Lender Compliance

Those state and national agencies were brought by:

Continue reading →

Council Comments @ Hahira 2012-08-02

Here are the rest of the videos from the Hahira City Council meeting of 2 August 2012, including the very interesting scheduled agenda items in which each Council member, the City Manager, and the Mayor give their thoughts on issues relevant to the City of Hahira.

Here’s a video playlist of the entire meeting:

Regular Session, Hahira City Council (Hahira),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 August 2012.

Other city employees present included Continue reading →