Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

County response to 10 inches of rain —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2013-02-26



Emergency Services Director Ashley Tye spoke about Local weather conditions
at the

26 Febuary 2013 Lowndes County Commission meeting.

He said the
Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge Road
was expected to crest at 20 feet within hours.
He didn’t expect Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant to flood.

He said most of the rain fell to the west of Valdosta, so
the Little River actually absorbed more water than the Withlacoochee this time.
Only Shiloh Road and a few other roads were closed.

The boat ramps at Langdale Park were closed in conjunction with Parks and Rec.

A few schools were closed, but all expected to reopen the next day.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked

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Videos: Commission voted against the people @ LCC 2013-02-26



Apparently one person with a lawyer can persuade the Lowndes County Commission
that hundreds of people are just

an unruly mass
, not the public it’s supposed to represent.
For whatever reason, not clear to the public, the Commission voted
3 to 1 with 1 absent to close the end of Old State Road to Hotchkiss Crossing,
thus barring the only public access to the Alapaha River in Lowndes County.
We shall see whether they will follow through with their

hint
that they might make a park on the Alapaha River at another location.
Congratulations to
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall for
speaking up for due process and for voting for the public!


Public Works Director Robin English spoke about road conditions

and

Emergency Services Director Ashley Tye spoke about Local weather conditions
,

Update noon 27 Feb 2013:
Link to
weather conditions,
and to
Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.

The Commission reappointed
J. Glenn Gregory to the

South Regional Joint Development Authority

and
appointed Commissioner Joyce Evans to the

Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council
.
They are applying for a grant for the county’s MIDS
bus system and reapplying for a CDBG grant for Second Harvest.

Here’s

the agenda
, with links to the videos and some notes,
followed by a video playlist.
See also

the videos of Monday morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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Video: two appointments, a public hearing, and two grants @ LCC 2013-02-25



Newsflash! “no new information” and “questions were resolved” about
the proposed abandonment of Old State Road at Hotchkiss Landing
on the Alapaha River, according to the Commission.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.

Dr. Bill Grow talked for fifteen minutes about

South Health District
,
and managed not to ask the county for money, although the Health Dept.
clearly could use some.
Ashley Tye reported on
local weather conditions
and the county’s Code Red
emergency warning system, in which lack of Internet access by
some county residents came up.

It’s J. Glenn Gregory again for the

South Regional Joint Development Authority

and
Commissioner Joyce Evans for the

Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council
.
They are applying for a grant for the county’s MIDS
bus system and reapplying for a CDBG grant for Second Harvest.

Here’s

the agenda
, with links to the videos and some notes,
followed by a video playlist.



LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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Proposed abandonment of a portion of County Road 16/Old State Rd. —Brett Huntley @ LCC 2013-02-25

Received today; he sent it to all the Commissioners. -jsq

To the commission on the proposed idea of road abandonment on County
Rd. #16:



On the morning of 2/25/13 after the county commission’s morning work
session, my wife and I spoke with Joyce Evans and Bill Slaughter on
some of our concerns and new found technical information about road
abandonment, Georgia state waterways, and what the county and state
are expected to protect.

During our conversation we were told that for unexplained legal
reasons the county would have to give the road back to the land
owner. At this time my thoughts and questions come back to: Why if
for legal reasons do we have to give the land back or away, and why
are we even having to have a public hearing on this matter, if the
public has no say?

Also during this conversation Bill mentioned

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Agenda: 2 Lowndes County rezonings; 1 Valdosta @ GLPC 2013-02-25


Agenda

To get an agenda for tonight’s Planning Commission meeting,
apparently you have to go to the meeting; here it is.
It’s sloppier than usual:
Case REZ-2013-04 has neither a number of acres nor
a specific location.
Why is the Planning Commission not revealing this information?

Douglas O. Thompson owns two properties on Bemiss Road, but one
of them is in Valdosta taxing district, so presumably it’s
the other one, of 1.28 acres at 3432 Bemiss Road.
Why is this a secret?

Perhaps for the same reason that the county doesn’t just publish
PDF of this agenda on the web for all to see?

Here’s a summary of the cases.

Lowndes County,

Final action

Tuesday 12 March 2013
2. REZ-2013-03 Valler

Knights Academy Road, Valdosta

Request to rezone 10 acres from
R-21 (Medium Density Residential)
to
R-A (Residential Agriculture)
3. REZ-2013-04 Thompson

Bemiss Road, Valdosta

Request to rezone [?] acres from
C-H/c (Highway Commercial conditional)
to
C-H (Highway Commercial)
Valdosta,

Final Action

Thursday, 7 March 2013
4. VA-2013-01 Turner Brooks LLC

411 West Mary Street, Valdosta

Request to rezone 0.50 acres from
R-6 (Single Family Residential)
to
R-M (Multi-Family Residential)

-jsq

Agenda: two appointments, a public hearing, and two grants @ LCC 2013-02-25



The county’s website,

down earlier today,

is back up, so we can see there is a Work Session this morning, with voting
at the Regular Session tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM.
The proposed abandonment of Old State Road at Hotchkiss Landing
on the Alapaha River,

tabled two weeks ago
,
is on the agenda, although

the Georgia Supreme Court makes me wonder why.

One of the two appointments is to the
South Regional Joint Development Authority

which Andrea Schruijer mentioned at the most recent VLCIA board meeting.

Another is to the
Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council.
I’m guessing one person to each agency; the agenda doesn’t say
how many nor who the candidates are.
Here’s

the agenda
. -jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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Work Session this morning? Lowndes County web site down again @ LCC 2013-02-25

Is there a County Commission Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM?
Can't find out from the county's website: it's down again.
Is this a good way to demonstrate that Internet access is

"one of the number one issues"
?


Firefox

First noticed about 7AM,
http://www.lowndescounty.com/
not responding, same as

three weeks ago.

Once again I also tried it from somewhere far away geographically and on another
ISP, with the same results as last time.

Alert!: Unexpected network read error; connection aborted.

So it looks like the Lowndes County Commission's website is down.
Speaking of far away, why does it seem to be hosted in Dallas, Texas?

Well, let's see if there's any information on their

facebook page.

Nope; still content-free.

Here's a response Gretchen got from County Clerk Paige Dukes
when she inquired after the last outage:

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Broadband on the table @ VLCIA 2013-02-19



Internet speed and access (appearing as Broadband)
played a starring role at the 19 February 2013 meeting of the

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
,
with a surprise cameo by Lowndes County Commission Chairman
Bill Slaughter (appearing as himself)
and a bravura performance by Angela Crance of Wiregrass Tech,
with a strong supporting role by VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland,
and Mary Gooding standing in for VSU.
Internet access (as "telecommunications infrastructure")
came up in Project Manager Allan Ricketts' report as a requirement for

a Fortune 500 customer service operation

and
for a

National health care service provider
,
both considering locating here,
also as
bandwidth,
as a requirement for
jobs.
That was the main theme of

Executive Director Andrea Schruijer's report
,
especially in rural parts of our county,

especially for a home-based call center.

Even Rotary Clubs
need broadband.

VLCIA is also helping find potential sites for several

utility-scale photovoltaic solar installations
.

The Industrial Authority Board was down to three members, barely a quorum:
Mary Gooding, Chairman Roy Copeland, and Tom Call.
Whereabouts of Norman Bennett and Jerry Jennett were undetermined.
I can't complain; I was in bed with a sinus infection.

Here's the

agenda
(such as it is), with links to the videos and some notes,
often in separate posts.

Continue reading

Rotary Clubs need broadband @ VLCIA 2013-02-19


Bill Slaughter, Dennis Marks, John Page, Gretchen Quarterman @ Valdosta Rotary Club 2012-09-12

Before

the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013
meeting,

Gretchen told Bill about how she’s now videoing at Rotary

and

putting playlists on the web
with some delay.
Bill and Gretchen (and Commissioner John Page) go to the same

Valdosta Rotary Club
.
This is yet another use of Internet access:
attracting participants to local community groups,
and getting their speakers to a wider audience.

-jsq

 

I’m super-excited about the whole broadband thing —Gretchen Quarterman @ VLCIA 2013-02-19

And now a word from the only person in the room at the

the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013

with actual experience in bringing Internet broadband access to new areas,
invisible behind the camera but clearly audible,
Gretchen Quarterman:

I’m super-excited about the whole broadband thing,
because you know that’s near and dear to our heart, and our background.

But please be very careful about the buill that’s before the legislature
that will prohibit municipal Internets.
Right now the legislature is trying to take off the table muncipal Internets.
And I think that a municipal Internet would be a really great solution here.
So let your legislator know that’s a bad idea; they shouldn’t take that
off the table from us.

That’s

HB 282
, in opposition to which Amy Henderson of Georgia Municipal Association
said:

Broadband is economic development.

Gretchen continued:

At the Chamber’s annual meeting when a local speaker stood up she talked
about the
that’s doing really well right now is
agriculture


and I’m pleased to announce
that

the South Georgia Growing Local Conference will be here in January of 2014

the last weekend, a Friday and Saturday.
It’s an equivalent of the Georgia Organics big conference that they have
in Atlanta.
Except that it’s for south Georgia local growers, farmers, homesteaders.
We just were in Reidsville this last January
and Lowndes County is going to have it next year.

And the whole series of South Georgia Growing Local Conferences (this will
be the fourth) has been organized largely online,
in yet another use of Internet access for economic development,
in this case sustainable local development.

OK, one more:

Rotary Clubs need broadband.

-jsq