Tag Archives: Georgia Forestry

Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-17:
Videos: Millage Public Hearing @ LCC 2024-10-15.

Only in the Work Session this morning, and if you weren’t there, only in these LAKE videos:

8.a. Reports – Georgia Forestry Presentation (Work Session) by Chief Ranger
Kenneth M. Wells
8.b. Reports – EMA Director Ashley Tye on Hurricane Helene

Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024

In regular items,
County Planner JD Dillard recommended tabling the

ULDC Text Amendments until stakeholders have more time to comment.
He referred to the copy Commissioners had in their packet.
We the taxpayers and voters do not have a copy.

He also recommended tabling

5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer
until the Planning Commission can review it.
Which indicates that GLPC did not meet last month,
even though there was no announcement that it had been cancelled.

Finance Director Stephanie Black said there would be a

Millage Public Hearing
at 5PM tomorrow, Tuesday, October 15, before the 5:30 PM Regular Session.

There was discussion in

7.a. Sprayfield Expansion Phase I. Continue reading →

Videos: GA Forestry, $3 million, redoing 2 rezonings, 3 extraterritorial water and sewer @ LCC 2022-09-12

Update 2022-09-26:

Videos: Redo rezonings and a citizen paving request @ LCC 2022-09-13.

Update 2022-09-21:
Videos: 6 Remerton, 4 Valdosta, 1 Hahira, 1 Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2022-08-29.

Other than the seven-minute not-on-the-agenda Georgia Forestry presentation by
Lowndes County Chief Ranger Mike Williford,
the highest-dollar item got the most discussion:
Griner Park, at the corner of Webster and Ashley Street.

There was no discussion of the items about redoing their botched rezoning decision.

They did kvetch about each of the extraterritorial jurisdiction items
for water and sewer, alleging it was all somebody else’s fault.
But why did the county not catch these earlier?

That was at the Work Session yesterday morning.
The Lowndes County Commission voted this evening at their Regular Session.

Videos and a picture

Some Commissioners seemed unclear on why they were spending so much on Griner Park.
Here’s Gretchen’s take: Continue reading →

Public Facilities Authority, Water tank, dump trucks, VOCA, VAWA, road abandonment @ LCC 2020-10-26

This morning the Lowndes County Commission will discuss
abandoning a driveway, er road, a couple of grants for legal purposes,
relining a drinking water tank for a fancy subdivision, dump trucks for Public Works,
and
reappointing Michael Walker, Crawford Powell, and Scott Purvis to the
Public Facilities Authority,
plus a vacant seat.
They will vote Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM.

What does PFA do?

Created via Resolution 05-1130, the general purpose of the authority
is declared to be that of providing through the acquisition,
construction, installation, renovation, expansion, modification or
rehabilitation, any buildings, structure, facilities, improvements,
furnishings, fixtures, machinery, equipment and services for the
citizens in the county. Members are appointed to three year terms
and meet as needed. For more information, contact the Office of the
County Clerk, 229-671-2400, or email the County Clerk.

Map: Road to be Abandoned

Cost	What
$464,196.00	Bid for Four 10-Wheel Dump Trucks for the Public Works Department
$148,000.00	Stone Creek Elevated Tank Coating
$17,326.00	Solicitor-General’s Office 2021 VAWA Competitive Application
$6,000.00	Solicitor-General’s VOCA Continuation Grant
$635,522.00	Total

How the
Abandonment of Artherman Lane
can be considered not to affect the budget is mysterious,
since Public Works will no longer need to spend to maintain that driveway.

On the
Solicitor-General's VOCA Continuation Grant,
VOCA is the
Victims of Crime Act.
The $6,000 cost is health insurance premiums for the two Victim Advocates ($3,000 each).

On the
Solicitor-General's Office 2021 VAWA Competitive Application,
VAWA is the

Violence Against Women Act.
The $17,326 is for Cash Match, about $2,000 lower than last time.
Lowndes County funnels grant money for five counties,
by delegating the District Attorney (DA) to receive and distribute the funds.

Here is
the agenda.
The board packet is

on the LAKE website
due to a LAKE open records request. Continue reading →

Videos: County paying for road right of way @ LCC 2019-01-08

They added two items to the agenda they didn’t even mention
in the previous morning’s Work Session:

purchase of some real estate on Davidson Road near Moody Air Force Base,
and

“just compensation” for right of way on Simpson Road.

Wait a minute!
For ten years we’ve been told the county no longer buys rights of way:
if you want your road paved, you have to donate the right of way.
So why this exception?
And why sneak it in like this?

Will

Kamisha Martin
get paid for right of way if the county paves Black Road?
Will

Rev. Berlinda Hart Love
get paid for right of way if the county paves
Williams School Road?
They were the two citizens who were heard.

Not on the agenda were Continue reading →

Videos: Retreat! Appointment to Development Authority, Abandon Reed Road, Ed Hay Lease, Forestry Speaks @ LCC 2019-01-07

Longest Monday morning was

Chief Ranger Stephen Spradley’s Georgia Forestry report,
a copy of which, scanned by Gretchen, is

on the LAKE website.

Second longest was

Chairman Bill Slaughter’s comments,
in which he listed four upcoming events: Continue reading →

Appointment to Development Authority, Abandon Reed Road, End Hay Lease, Forestry Speaks @ LCC 2019-01-07

It’s the end of an era at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
excuse me, the Development Authority,
now that Roy Copeland declined to be reappointed.
To his joint-appointment position,
Valdosta appointed Aneesha Johnson, and

the Lowndes County Commission may confirm Tuesday.

DuPont Valdosta Plant Names Johnson New Plant Manager,
Valdosta Today, 29 June 2015.

In Monday morning’s Work Session, they will also consider

abandoning the end of Reed Road
(presumably the part that runs down to the Withlacoochee River),
and

ending the hay lease
(presumably on the county’s Land Application Site).
Chief Ranger Stephen Spradley
of Georgia Forestry will say a few words.
They vote Tuesday at 5:30 PM.

Here’s
the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2018, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Forestry, river gage, abandon two roads, dedicate another @ LCC 2015-09-21

They vote this evening, about right now.
Here are videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session.
The
Forestry report referred to a report that the public can’t see.
What the forestry rep reported was mostly numbers of burn permits.

County Manager Joe Pritchard had to

stop Chairman Bill Slaughter from
adjourning so he could say:
“Friday afternoon we received a request for electronic signalling at highway 41.”
County Engineer Mike Fletcher elaborated that it was a
railroad pre-empt that would not allow for left turns onto Tillman Crossing
when there’s a train.
Request came from Norfolk Southern.
Chairman agreed to add it to the agenda, then they adjourned.

The annual continued funding for the Little River USGS stream gage at GA 122
costs $400 more this year.
Commissioner Marshall wanted to know what happened with the automated gage reporting system he thought they voted for previously, that would send reports
when the gage was high.
County Manager Joe Pritchard said that was actually the SCADA system for the county’s wells and sewage lift stations.
Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker wanted to know how this gage operates.
Box on bridge, tube down into river, monitors height and flow,
reported through a cell phone,

real time data on the web.
It’s been there long enough to establish flood stages and advanced warning levels
so people can protect their property.

The
Abandonment of a portion of Spain Ferry Road and Kinderlou Clyattville Road turns out to be from Continue reading →

River gage, abandon two roads, dedicate another @ LCC 2015-09-21

This morning at 8:30 AM,
USGS Funding Agreement for HWY 122 Stream Gauge
continue funding for Little River USGS stream gage at GA 122,

Abandonment of a portion of Spain Ferry Road and Kinderlou Clyattville Road because “the county has received a request” from whom wasn’t said,
Dedicate a portion of Shiloh Road to whom or what wasn’t said.
Plus
GEMA Sheltering Memorandum of Agreement
“for the sheltering of evacuees from Coastal Georgia and/or Florida in the event those areas are threatened by a hurricane”.
Plus
Declaration of Surplus Items and Authorization to Sell on GovDeals.com.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Center of Innovation – Energy

Where’s Waldo?
And where’s the

state renewable energy strategy for Georgia, or for the southeast, or for just south Georgia?
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Project Manager Allan Ricketts

found another candidate.

“Forests Dominate Georgia’s Land Use”

That’s the title of slide 10 of 21 in

Center of Innovation – Energy (CIE)
by Jill Stuckey, Director.
Actually, massively pesticided planted pines dominate south Georgia’s land use;
not the same as actual forests with species diversity and diverse ages of trees.
The same CIE slide equates

Georgia Forestry = Biomass Energy

That is what the state government seems to want it to be.

Back on slide 9, solar is defined as a southwestern regional energy
source; nevermind that the solar map on that page shows Georgia
with the same insolation as most of Texas (more on that later).
And wind is defined as a central U.S. regional strength,
nevermind that even Georgia Power has started exploring the
possibility of wind off the Georgia coast.

I get it that Georgia has trees and forestry is a big industry in Georgia.
I’m a tree farmer myself.
I’d love to be convinced that biomass from trees is one good way to go.
But at what costs?
And compared to what?

Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange