Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Four minute work session @ LCC 2012 04 09

As I walked in the door, a couple minutes late due to construction on the hospital parking lot, Commissioner Crawford Powell said,

John, you’re late!

They were milling about and looked like they were about to start. But no, they had started early and Chairman Paulk told me the meeting had lasted four minutes because there hadn’t been much to say. So there are no videos of this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

I remarked that it had seemed like a fairly complicated agenda, but he didn’t think so.

I asked him about this mysterious item:

7.b. Request from LCSO — GOHS Grant #2013-TEN-0077-00 & #2013-GA-0040-00

He said it is about some equipment to automate Sheriff’s deputies checking license plates against databases. I told him I had assumed they had already been doing that. He said they could do it by hand, but they’d get really tired trying to do as many as this device could do.

Presumably it’s similar to the Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) described by Doug Nurse in the AJC 20 March 2009, New police license plate scanner eyes criminals.

Alpharetta Police Officer John Allen said that a few weeks after the system became went online last August, he was driving home after a shift when the system alerted him that he had passed a stolen car. He wheeled around, and after a chase, arrested the thief.

“I never even saw the tag myself,” Allen said. “I would have just kept going. It catches things I would be unable to see.”

While I don’t know that I’m in favor of ALPR, it’s common enough elsewhere that I was actually surprised the famously drug-interdicting LCSO wasn’t already using it.

To the Chairman’s credit, as soon as I asked about the LOST meeting with the mayors, he said it was at 9:30 in the room next door, and the public was invited. I took videos of that LOST meeting, and they will appear soon.

-jsq

Shadowy LOST talks tomorrow morning among all the local elected governments @ LOST 2012 04 09

It’s great that the local cities and the county government think they can negotiate how to share Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) money this time without spending a lot of money suing each other like they did back in 2002. It’s not so great that they’re doing it at an unannounced time and place.

Kay Harris wrote Saturday in the VDT, LOST talks set to begin: County, cities to meet Monday,

As required by state law, Lowndes County issued a letter to the mayors of all the municipalities in the county, requesting they attend a renegotiation meeting Monday, April 9 to discuss LOST (local option sales tax) distributions.

“This has to be done and approved by the end of the year in order to stay in place, so we have to start the process now,” said Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk.

Well, that’s interesting. When is this meeting? Ah, the time of day wasn’t included in the article.

There’s a clue in David Rodock’s 31 March 2012 writeup about the Commission retreat, Continue reading →

Videos @ ZBOA 2012 03 06

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) had a somewhat unusual case to start out its March meeting, of someone wanting to revert to a previous zoning after the County Commission had approved a rezoning. The owner wants to do a development, but doesn’t have the resources in this economy, so wants to go back to agricultural zoning to make a little money while waiting. It was complicated, with issues of wetlands, costs, advice by county staff, and small business employment. Watch and see!


View Larger Map
They also had a sign request from Denny’s, with input from the neighboring Mobil station and others.

Both of these cases were numbered 2012-01 (one from the county and one from the city). How can they be numbered 01? If I understand correctly, these were the first cases ZBOA has received this year, and this was the first ZBOA meeting this year. That could be an indication of the state of the local economy.

ZBOA mostly considers Continue reading →

Videos @ LCC 2012 03 27

Here are videos of the entire 27 March 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC). The audio feed is coming directly from the Commission’s own audio system. We don’t know why County Manager Joe Pritchard is frequently barely audible, nor why the microphone at the audience podium sometimes seems hardly to be working, nor why Commissioners ask people in the audience to speak when there is no microphone pointing at the audience.

Some of these videos have already been blogged:

Here’s a playlist:


Videos
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Col. Mark A. Ruse and Moody AFB ORI @ LCC 2012 03 27

Commissioner Richard Raines noticed Col. Mark A. Ruse of Moody Air Force Base in the audience and mentioned the operational readiness inspection (ORI) then in progress at Moody. In case anybody doesn’t know this, Moody AFB is by far the largest employer in Lowndes County.

The Col. said a few words, but it’s hard to tell what they were, since there’s no mic on the audience.

A student group also said a few words, but it’s hard to tell what they were, for the same reason.

Maybe Commissioners could ask people to come to the podium to speak, or deploy a mic that works for the audience.

According to his biography at Moody:

Col. Mark A. Ruse is commander of the 23rd Mission Support Group at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. He leads a group of more than 1,450 military and civilian members providing support and services to a population of 28,000 active duty, retired military and family members. His group maintains an installation with more than 830 buildings and more than 17,500 acres, including an adjacent bombing or strafing range. He is responsible for ensuring the readiness of support forces to mobilize and deploy to build, secure, and sustain air base operations at austere bare base locations anywhere in the world.

The 23rd Mission Support Group also retains responsibility for civil engineering, environmental compliance, disaster preparedness response, fire protection, security forces, airfield navigational systems, communications-computer systems, contracting, transportation, supply, food service, housing, recreation, family and community support programs, personnel, manpower, education and training.

He has a degree in civil engineering.

Also according to Moody (which apparently believes in transparency), 3 April 2012, Continue reading →

Joyce Evans and Frank Morman reappointed to Land Bank Authority @ LCC 2012 03 27

We previously discovered who was on the Valdosta-Lowndes County Land Bank Authority (VLCPRA) (VLCLBA) because the state publishes that information. Lowndes County has reappointed Joyce Evans and Frank Morman. Maybe the county will also put some information about that Authority online?

Here’s the video:


Joyce Evans and Frank Morman reappointed to Land Bank Authority
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Bicycles noted in appointment to VLMPO Citizens Advisory Committee @ LCC 2012 03 27

Lowndes County cares about bicycles? That’s news!

The Lowndes County Commission appointed Edward Rawls, retired professional engineer and Blake Waagner, owner of Valdosta Bike Center to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) Citizens Advisory Committee. Commissioner Crawford Powell surprisingly said:

I think the perspective from the bicycle group would be interesting on the MPO.
Interesting development!

Also, the Commission continued the tradition which I believe was started by Commissioner Joyce Evans of attempting to get all applicants for appointed boards to introduce themselves. I think that’s a good thing.

Here’s the video:


Bicycles noted in appointment to VLMPO Citizens Advisory Committee
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Farm Bill Forum in Tifton 2012-03-16

Here’s a playlist of videos of Saxby Chambliss’ Farm Bill Forum in Tifton. It seems the Farm Bill is about big agro crops like corn and soybeans. Peanuts are considered a specialty crop. Fruits and vegetables are not really considered.

Some more videos will be added, but here is the first bunch:


Farm Bill Forum, Senator Saxby Chambliss,
Gary Black, Charles Hall, Robert Redding, John Maguire,
UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center, Tifton, Tift County, Georgia, 16 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

 

 

School lunches, speculators —Garry Gentry

Garry Gentry from Tifton at Saxby Chambliss's Farm Bill Forum in Tifton wanted to know how much of food prices was due to Wall Street speculation.

Here's the video:


School lunches, speculators —Garry Gentry
Farm Bill Forum, Senator Saxby Chambliss,
Gary Black, Charles Hall, Robert Redding, John Maguire,
Tifton, Tift County, Georgia, 16 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

 

 

Bring our troops home —Gretchen Quarterman

Gretchen Quarterman asked the first question at Saxby Chambliss' Farm Bill Forum in Tifton:

Bring our troops home.

That way we'd have more money for everything else.

Here's the video:


Bring our troops home —Gretchen Quarterman
Farm Bill Forum, Senator Saxby Chambliss,
Gary Black, Charles Hall, Robert Redding, John Maguire,
Tifton, Tift County, Georgia, 16 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq