Tag Archives: Georgia

Videos: Emergency road repair bids! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-22



The added agenda item

6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road
got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their
usual no-bid emergencies) passed.
The Chamber sent

Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page)
apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers
did not get to see) of
transportation projects to help “the business community”,
apparently including the truck bypass.

They only appointed six of the seven members of the

Development Authority of Lowndes County,
although a Commissioner did ask about that.
It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then,
since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already
expired in December 2016.
Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots
that expired in December 2016 until eight months later,
and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.

Below are links to Continue reading →

Nydia Tisdale should be emulated, not punished: LAKE to Judge 2017-12-17

You can also write a letter of support. Please send it today before
the

sentencing hearing 9AM December 18, 2017.


Nydia Tisdale

Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange


3338 Country Club Road #L336, Valdosta, GA 31605


www.l-a-k-e.org

lakesubmissions@gmail.com

229-242-0102

December 17, 2017

Hon. Senior Judge Martha Christian

Dawson County Judges Office

25 Justice Way, Suite 4202

Dawsonville, GA 30534

C/o Catherine Bernard

catherine@bernardlawoffices.com

Your Honor,

Nydia Tisdale is an inspiration for everyone who is in favor of the
First Amendment, especially citizen journalists such as ourselves.
Her years of educating local governments about Georgia’s open
meetings laws by handing out materials, and of shining a light on
local government activities by videoing their meetings, are
exemplary and should be emulated, not punished.


With attorney Bruce Harvey inside AJC

Photo: John S. Quarterman for LAKE, 14 October 2016.

The misdemeanor conviction of Nydia Tisdale makes no sense, since Continue reading →

Videos: Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11



They vote this evening on what you can see them discussing yesterday morning in
these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
The longest business item was not even a minute and a half on
REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park.

By far the longest item was not on the agenda:

11. Reports – County Manager a. Steve Gupton- LODAC Presentation,
about a local drug counseling organization, originally private,
but for long now funded by Valdosta and Lowndes County plus grants.
As one of the presenters noted, probably only Commissioner Joyce Evans
was thoroughly familiar with LODAC.

Below are Continue reading →

Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

A very busy agenda this morning, including the
controversial
REZ-2017-14 Cothron, Tucker Rd rezoning.

They’ll probably reappoint Commissioner Joyce Evans and Gerone Anderson to the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority,
although Robert Jefferson and Ellen Hill have also applied.

Mary Gooding is retiring from the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Development (Industrial) Authority,
and four people have applied:
Ed Hightower Jr., Brad Folsom, John (Mac) McCall (currently on ZBOA) and Giovanni Panizzi.


Mary Gooding, VLCIA

Nevermind the
REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park
rezoning
had nothing to do with the Industrial Authority that I know of.

No meeting would be complete without Continue reading →

The shift has come: GE, Siemens massive job losses as fossil fuels crash and the sun rises

The carbon bubble is bursting,
as jobs fly from some of the biggest companies in the world,
because solar and wind power are taking over right now.
It’s too late to bet on the wrong nuclear horse
or the wrong pipelnie snake.
Get out of fossil fuels now: the sun is rising.

Tiffany Hsu and Clifford Krauss,
New York Times, 7 December 2017,

G.E. Cuts Jobs as It Navigates a Shifting Energy Market,

General Electric, whose new leadership is moving to eliminate bloat
and grapple with the fallout from earlier, ill-timed decisions, is
taking drastic steps to keep pace with seismic shifts in the global
energy industry.


GE ranks first in 2017 downsizing after 12,000 more jobs: Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017

Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017,
GE Ranks First in 2017 Downsizing After 12,000 More Job Cuts.

The company said on Thursday that it would cut 12,000 jobs in its
power division, reducing the size of the unit’s work force by 18
percent as part of a push to compete with international rivals in a
saturated natural gas market, adjust to “softening” in
the oil and gas sectors and stay abreast of the growing demand for
renewable energy.

Solar and wind energy technology is increasingly being deployed Continue reading →

Sign variances @ ZBOA 2017-12-05

“[V]ariances are
designed to provide an opportunity for relief in circumstances beyond design’s control where it would be
difficult if not impossible to meet the regulations,”
said city staff, about

APP-2017-07 — Messiah Lutheran Church,
on the the agenda
for this afternoon at the decision-making Valdosta-Lowndes Zoning Board of Appeals.
Ditto
APP-2017-06 — Axis Infrastructure,
but they like the signs proposed in

APP-2017-05 — Staten Station.


APP-2017-05 Tax Parcels Aerial

You can see all the details of the three Valdosta cases on

on the LAKE website.
I don’t have the packet items for the four Lowndes County cases.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin,
Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator

300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia

(229) 259-3563

Carmella Braswell,
Lowndes County Zoning Administrator

327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia

(229) 671-2430

AGENDA

December 5, 2017

2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →

Videos: Cothron on Tucker Road and second West Ridge Business Park rezoning @ GLPC 2017-11-27



Twenty five minutes on

7. REZ-2017-14 Cothron 5310 Tucker Road 5 acres from E-A to R-A
to split out two 2.5 acre house lots and a home business office
(is there a deed restriction?),
fourteen minutes on a storage building in

3. VA-2017-16 220-224 Myddleton Road 0.58 acres from R-6 to M-2
(probably will be at ZBOA for a variance later),
and six minutes each on

5. REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park 1.2 acres from C-G to C-H
and

4. VA-2017-17 City of Valdosta LDR text amendments.
Everything else sailed through.

They

nominated
the same Chair and Vice-Chair as currently:
Franklin Bailey and Jody Hall.
County Planner Jason Davenport pointed out traditionally they
rotate every two years, but the Commission could decide to keep the same
officers, and they did.

Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also
the agenda. Continue reading →

Videos: Office in the woods, B&B, Church @ GLPC 2017-10-30



Well, it wasn’t all that brief, because

3. REZ-2017-11 Dasher Johnson & Howell Roads
for an office far away from any similar zoning
was contentious and almost 40 minutes long,
with a split vote against, although later
the Lowndes County Commission passed the rezoning anyway.

Second longest was

4. CU-2017-05 206 East College Street (B&B)
at almost nineteen minutes.
Everything else sailed through.

Below are Continue reading →

Second West Ridge Business Park rezoning in two months @ GLPC 2017-11-27

Second rezoning in two months at

West Ridge Business Park, which does not appear to be
among the
eight Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority business parks,
none of which appear to be on the agenda for today’s Planning Commission
meeting.


Parcel 0059 140B, 2812 Cameron Road

Lowndes County Tax Assessors,
Parcel 0059 140B, 2812 Cameron Lane

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission Continue reading →