In case you haven’t heard, one of the LAKE crew, Gretchen Quarterman, is running for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission. Today she’s at the Spirit of America Celebration at Valdosta Mall (next to Buffalo Wild Wing). As you can see, she’s been practicing.
“Anyone who is entrusted with the resources of another human being or thing, you have to be a good steward of tax money, air, and water. They are entrusted to us and need to be handled with responsibility.”
Gretchen arrived early, but they started even earlier. That’s right, once again the Lowndes County Commission started a meeting before the advertised time. None of the names of prospective appointees to four different boards were listed in the agenda, and many of them didn’t bother to show up. Nor do we know what’s in the budget amendments.
So we have videos starting in the middle of the appointments.
6.a. Valdosta/Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) Nope, they already discussed that before the announced start time, so there’s no video.
6.d. Appointments to Lowndes County Library Board. If the Library Board has its members listed somewhere online, I can’t find it. Nobody showed up to speak. County Manager Joe Pritchard said Edward Rawls and Rabbi Elbaz(?) asked not to be reappointed, and Kay Harris is asking to be reappointed. (They didn’t mention that Harris is also the chairman of the library board and the editor of the VDT.) Names under consideration are [clatter, bang]. It’s impressive the ways Pritchard finds to be unintelligible even with his microphone adjusted correctly.
Lowndes County Emergency Management Agency Director Ashley Tye correctly predicted no tornadoes and quite a bit of rain for when Tropical Storm Debbie made landfall. He also mentioned our chronic drought, and Commissioner Richard Raines was surprised about that.
Raines asked:
What kind of conditions would it take for us, because you and I talked a couple of weeks ago, and I was I was surprised when you said that. I guess there’s a difference between drought and extreme drought. What kind of rain conditions would we need to get out of that, I guess in terms of inches, for the water table….
Tye answered:
For them to officially declare us out of the drought, the latest numbers I’ve seen were about 15 inches over the next 30 days, or over the next 3 months, it would have to be like 25 to 30 inches. So we still need a lot of rain. But every little bit is going to help. With the rain we’ve got recently we’re better off than we were, but we’re still technically classifed as in extreme drought.
TS Debbie and south Georgia extreme drought —Ashley Tye Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 June 2012.
Ankle monitoring is fully funded this coming fiscal year, with a 2% increase,
and the Sheriff’s office accounts for 35% of the county’s budget,
yet the Public Defender had to beg for more funds. The state-imposed property tax assessment cap has expired, but no increases in the tax digest are yet expected. Sales tax revenues are gradually increasing. The state is fiddling with motor vehicle license fees, and nobody can predict the effect of that. The Industrial Authority and Parks and Rec are now shown in the Lowndes County budget; they and other transfers out account for about 15% of the budget, specifically about 6% VLCIA and 7% VLPRA. All that and more at Tuesday’s budget hearing.
Chairman Ashley Paulk was not there. Commissioner Crawford Powell chaired the meeting instead.
Parks and Rec’s 1.25 mil and
Industrial Authority’s 1 mil
are now shown along with the county’s 7.31 mils of property tax
and integrated into the budget charts.
They and other transfers out account for about
15% of general fund expenditures.
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE PURSUANT TO O.C.G.A. 31-7-74.3
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE PURSUANT TO O.C.G.A.
31-7-74.3
The Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia will
hold a public hearing regarding a proposed sale to Acadia Greenleaf,
LLC, an affiliate of
Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc., 830 Crescent
Centre Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37067, the real estate, assets and
operations owned by The Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes
County, Georgia associated with its operation of the Greenleaf
Center located at 2209 Pineview Drive, Valdosta, Georgia and the
Greenleaf Outpatient Center, located 2217 Pineview Drive, Valdosta,
Georgia. The public hearing shall be held on July 23, 2012, at 9:00
a.m. in Dining Rooms 1 and 2 on Level 1 at South Georgia Medical
Center, 2501 N. Patterson Street, Valdosta, Georgia 31603. At said
public hearing, the subject matters required by O.C.G.A. 31-7-74.3
will be described, discussed and disclosed.
J. Randall Sauls, Secretary,
The Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia
Walter H. New
Attorney at Law
P.O. Box 111
Quitman GA 31643
00030430
5/22,25;06/01/12
According to the
online calendar
of the Lowndes County Commission:
Budget Public Hearing (6/19/2012)
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing
for the purpose of adopting the FY13 Proposed Budget at 8:30 a.m. in
the Commission Chambers, located on the 2nd floor of the Administration
Building, 327 N. Ashley St. For questions please call County Clerk,
Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.
Budget Public Hearing (6/26/2012)
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing
for the purpose of adopting the FY13 Proposed Budget at 5:00 p.m. in
the Commission Chambers, located on the 2nd floor of the Administration
Building, 327 N. Ashley St. For questions please call County Clerk,
Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.
He said you can get it as close to him as Quarterman Road.
I can attest to that because I have 3 megabit per second DSL,
due to being just close enough to Bellsouth’s DSL box on Cat Creek Road,
but most of Quarterman Road can’t get DSL due to distance.
There are some other land-line possibilties, involving cables in the ground
or wires on poles.
Then there are wireless possibilities, including EVDO, available from Verizon,
with 750 kilobit per second (0.75 Mbps) wide area access from cell phone towers.
Verizon’s towers could also be used for WIFI antennas,
for up to 8 Mbps Internet access, over a wide scale.
Internet speed and access —John S. Quarterman
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 May 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
…Lafayette, Louisiana,
Bowling Green, Kentucky,
Lagrange, Georgia,
and
Thomasville, Georgia.
They use it for
public safety,
education (Wiregrass Tech, VSU),
and
It attracts new industry.
If you want knowledge-based industry,
they’re going to be expecting Internet access not just at work,
but at home, whereever they live.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA)
had one Lowndes County case at its 5 June 2012 meeting,
VAR-2012-07,
already posted separately.
ZBOA, unlike GLPC, does actually make binding decisions,
but chose not to do so at this meeting for this case.
First they considered two City of Valdosta cases,
APP-2012-06
(Bill Nijem spoke for the applicants)
and
APP-2012-07,
both about signs, one at Academy Sports, and the other at Gander Mountain,
both of which had been tabled at their previous meeting.
ZBOA approved both with conditions.
Here’s
a video playlist.
Audience left to right, with name, appointed by, and date term expires:
Laverne Gaskins, Valdosta, 05/08/12
Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, 05/07/14
Paul Alvarado, Valdosta, 07/01/13
Scott Orenstein, Vice-Chair, Valdosta, 10/11/13
Dr. Willie Houseal, Lowndes County, 05/07/14
Nancy Hobby, Valdosta, 07/01/13
Dave Kirk, Lowndes County, 08/28/13
Not present:
Allan Strickland, Chair, Valdosta, 05/07/14
Video Playlist
Regular Session, Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 June 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
A controversial case made its way from the Planning Commission for a
rezoning recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance
decision,
all before it reached the Lowndes County Commission for a decision
on the rezoning.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA)
had one Lowndes County case at its
5 June 2012 meeting,
a buffer variance request,
VAR-2012-07.
Related aspects of this same property had already been heard by
the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) on 21 May 2012
as the controversial rezoning case REZ-2012-09 Copeland.
ZBOA member Nancy Hobby recused herself from VAR-2012-07.
ZBOA discussed it at great length and eventually
decided to table it.
ZBOA, unlike GLPC, does actually make binding decisions,
but chose not to do so at this meeting for this case.
Presenting the Case
Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator,
presented the case,
saying the property owner, John A. Copeland,
wanted a buffer variance for his property at 3258 Loch Laurel Road.
The applicant and four neighbors spoke for the buffer variance,
but one neighbor spoke against, and others had hired locally famous
lawyer Bill Nijem to speak against.
Carmella Braswell noted
that GLPC had moved
its meeting ahead a week,
but staff had managed to meet statutory requirements.
ZBOA wanted to know what they were buffering against.
Answer seemed to be one single-family residence and a pasture.
Ms. Braswell said staff had considered buffering according to
the zoning statutes, and there were for example churches nearby,
plus the existing buffering was mostly on other landowners’
property, and the applicant would be required to plant his own
vegetative buffer, plus staff recommended a six foot privacy fence.
Dave Kirk noted the abuse of the property had been occuring since 1967.
Ms. Braswell said that was unbenownst to county zoning.
Also there was no current business license on the property,
not since 2007.
Gretchen Quarterman asked how long the residents to the north had been there:
before or after 2007.
Ms. Braswell said well before 2007, and they were present at the meeting.
(See Gail Hiers below.)
This difficult and complicated rezoning case went to all three of the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Lowndes County Commission. First, here are videos of REZ-2012-09 Copeland at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), 21 May 2012.
Presenting the Rezoning Application
This is case REZ-2012-09 Copeland, 3258 & 3264 Loch Laurel Rd, R-A & R-1 to C-C, well & septic, ~5 acres.
The request is to rezone about 5 acres of the subject property to from Residentidal Agriculture (R-A) and R-1 to Crossroads Commercial Zoning (CC). He noted that Mr. Copeland was not proposing a new use of the property, but:
It’s just he’s had a history of not operating with current zoning.
Davenport said part of that was the fault of the county for not keeping up with what was going on, and part of it was to the credit of the applicant for operating in such a way he hadn’t disturbed his neighbors. And the case itself was very difficult.
It was so challenging it split the staff.
The staff meet as the Technical Review Committee (TRC) about cases before they get to the GLPC. New material before the GLPC, he said, included a new survey.
Ted Raker (GLPC for City of Hahira) had a question:
This survey has changed from what the original packet indicated, and the differences of opinion among the staff was prior to this change?
Davenport said when staff voted they had no survey, but he didn’t think the survey changed their opinions, since what they thought applicant was proposing was pretty much what the survey indicated.
is running for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission. Today she’s at the Spirit of America Celebration at Valdosta Mall (next to Buffalo Wild Wing). As you can see, she’s been practicing.
