Update 2022-05-23: 9:00 AM Budget Work Session.
They propose to approve $1.6 million for resurfacing some roads, it’s not clear which ones, at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday morning and voting Regular Session Tuesday evening.
![[Quarterman Estates, Walkers Crossing Roundabout]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-05-23--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
Quarterman Estates, Walkers Crossing Roundabout
They will also pretend that this will not cost the county money down the road for street maintenance: Continue reading
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.
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
At their Regular Session, Chairman Bill Slaughter pulled 7.a. One Valdosta Lowndes Community-Wide Initiative up front on the Lowndes County Commission agenda, because at least one of the OVL VIPs had another meeting: One Valdosta-Lowndes Co-Chairs VSU President Dr. Richard Carvajal and Georgia Power’s Scott Purvis, as well as Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber President Christie Moore. At least one of them left immediately after the Commissioners approved $200,000 total over five years to the Chamber to support OVL.
The County’s audio feed in the back of the room was again not working, so audio is whatever the LAKE video camera could pick up.
Commissioners discussed the one rezoning, Continue reading
Video has appeared on lowndescounty.com of the May 12, 2020 Regular Session, and the minutes. It is 11:48 long, of which 10:48 was actual business. The video reveals there is a new County Planner, J.D. Dillard. We also learn from the video (but not from the minutes) the extent of the Old US 41 widening.
Below are a few notes with timestamp links into the county’s video. See also the agenda and the board packet. Here again is what they said they spent:
| Cost | What | |
|---|---|---|
| $330,854 | CJCC Funding | FY 2021 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Application Regular Session DATE OF MEETING: May 12, 2020 |
| $20,000.00 | FEMA | Lowndes County Hazard Mitigation Request for Proposal Regular Session DATE OF MEETING: May 12, 2020 |
| $350,854 | Total |
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, May 12, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
*To comply with the guidelines of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in regard to the Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic and social distancing, face coverings (masks) are required for all meeting participants.
- Call to Order
At 0 minutes. Chairman and all five Commissioners were present and sitting up front. Staff, including the County Manager, were sitting in the audience, where they could hardly be heard when they spoke. Portable microphones would be useful for this arrangement. Continue reading
Update 2020-06-05: Lowndes County video has appeared, revealing several things not in the minutes.
LAKE did not video the May 12, 2020, Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission, due to pandemic. There was no telephone dial-in and no facebook live. The last Lowndes County Commission video of its own meeting was February 25, 2020. So the only record will be the Minutes, which we may or may not see before their next meeting, which is this Tuesday.
We get a location map but no indication of future county tax-paid costs of upkeep for the infrastructure for Two Oaks at Bemiss.
Yet we get evaluations by three different people of three proposals for the Lowndes County Hazard Mitigation RFP; winning bid $20,000.
The packet contains only the agenda sheet and a signature page for a resolution for the GDOT TIA Old US 41 Widening; the actual Resolution is missing. Continue reading
Update 2020-06-05: Lowndes County video has appeared, revealing several things not in the minutes.
Update 2020-05-23: Packet: Juvenile Justice, TIA Old US 41, Two Oaks at Bemiss, Hazard Mitigation @ LCC 2020-05-12. There are no videos.
The lightest agenda for Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session that I’ve seen in a while will be voted on Tuesday in the Commission Chambers with masks. No teleconference. Presumably the County will be videoing and putting that on YouTube, as they usually do with Regular Sessions. There is no Work Session.
Also less expensive than most Commission meetings:
| Cost | What | |
|---|---|---|
| $330,854 | CJCC Funding | FY 2021 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Application Regular Session DATE OF MEETING: May 12, 2020 |
| $20,000.00 | FEMA | Lowndes County Hazard Mitigation Request for Proposal Regular Session DATE OF MEETING: May 12, 2020 |
| $350,854 | Total |
Even on the least expensive item this time, Lowndes County Hazard Mitigation Request for Proposal, “Lowndes County recently requested pricing proposals from qualified contractors…” The RFP is on the county’s website.
Unlike the more expensive stream monitoring project of last month’s meeting, for which there was no RFP and no bids.
This item has no cost cited, but will cost the taxpayers for road maintenance in the future: Adopt Resolution accepting Infrastructure for Two Oaks at Bemiss.
![[Case Point (Two Oaks at Bemiss)]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-05-12--lcc-packet/map-case-point.jpg)
Case Point (Two Oaks at Bemiss)
Map:
Lowndes County Tax Assessors
All the agenda sheet says for where is “located on Case Point, off Old Pine Road.” I’m guessing that includes Continue reading
Remerton can’t use SPLOST VI funds for an office building, since the old mill building intended for that has been torn down. That was the longest item in the Lowndes County Commission Work Seesion of December 9, 2019: 7. Reports – County Manager – Remerton SPLOST Resolution.
Then Commissioner Clay Griner moved to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel. Chairman Bill Slaughter reminded him the Commission has only one employee. Griner agreed, and they went into Executive Session. The one employee is the County Manager.
They breezed through everything else their last meeting of calendar year 2019.
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the Continue reading
In its last meeting of calendar year 2019, the Lowndes County Commission had many items to wrap up, as you can see in the board packet, on the LAKE website. We don’t know why the county sent this packet in black and white.
LAKE videos of the Work Session and Regular Session will follow.
LAKE sent an open records request Continue reading
Longest at four and a half minutes on November 12, 2019, was 6.e. Grant Re-Application for the Rural (5311)Transportation Program, in other words, the MIDS on-demand bus system; follow the link for more notes, including a question about where have the county funds for this been coming from.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall about the MIDS bus system.
Let’s hope the Arglass project doesn’t turn out like the James Road project a decade ago, with massive road paving and road and utilities rerouting, and nothing else, given that the county just approved a grant and VLDA match of more than a million dollars for road repaving for Arglass.
The truck bypass through downtown Valdosta had some discussion about when the bypass would happen and why the county is passing an ordinance now.
Um, it’s actually a generator for emergency management that took two minutes. 6.j. Hart Road Lift Station Pump took half a minute.
And another big item at three minutes: Continue reading
The longest item at yesterday morning’s Work Session was the unscheduled 8. Reports County Manager – Recognition of Fire Safety. The whole thing took less than nine minutes. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.
Second longest was the Solicitor General combining the two items on Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Third longest was 7.a.Judicial and Administrative Complex Roof Cleaning
Below are Continue reading
![[Collage]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/valdosta/2022-05-19--vcc-videos/many.jpg)
![[OVL, Hayden Park rezoning]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-04-26--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Location Map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-05-12--lcc-packet/May-12-2020-Meeting-Packet-0042.jpg)
![[WRPDO Site Map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-12-09--lcc-packet/December-9--10-2019-Commission-Meeting-Packet-0025.jpg)