Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Budget meeting inside Lowndes County today @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

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After this morning’s
Work Session,
there’s an all-day budget meeting.
All county departments, including constitutional officers, are reporting.

From Gretchen on the scene:

So far we have heard Board of Elections and Public Defender.
Next up the Sheriff.

This is apparently not a public meeting, and there was no public notice
that I can find.
Apparently it was mentioned at the February retreat.
Some candidates for County Commission are there, in addition to
current Commissioners and staff.

You may wonder as I do why this is not a public meeting.

-jsq

Only four voting Commissioners Monday @ LCC 2014-03-10



With only four voting Commissioners left, and two of those
lame ducks, it should be an interesting set of Lowndes County
Commission meetings this week.
On the agenda is adoption of infrastructure for

the Nelson Hill subdivision;
the one with
all the waivers by staff with no public hearings.

Plus four rezonings, one for

a former County Commissioner
and another

for a community well for a development.
And the annual contract renewal for the

MIDS on-call bus system.

While the VDT headline yesterday said

Political shuffle continues:
County commissioner resigns to run for state Senate seat,
actually former Commissioner John Page didn’t resign:
he vacated his seat the moment he signed the qualifying papers
to run for state Senator.
That’s why the Board of Elections has already

called a special election that Continue reading →

Musical chairs in local qualifying

Three out of five voting County Commissioners are not running again,
and one has already vacated his seat,
plus you have to have a playing card to keep track of who’s
running for the state Senate and House.



We already knew

State Senator Tim Golden was not running again,
and now we know who’s running for that seat:
Richard Raines (R),
who had said
two months ago he was not running again for
County Commission District 2,
Ellis Black (R) currently House 174, Bikram Mohanty (D) who ran last time and came close,
and John Page (R), who thus vacated County Commission District 5.

Because Ellis Black is running for Senate, and even though he
qualifed for his House District 174 seat Monday,
when he qualified for Senate Wednesday, he left his House seat open.
Running for District 174 are Crawford Powell (R), currently
County Commissioner for District 3,
Jessie Smith (D), and John L. Corbett (R).

The incumbents qualifed for the other House seats,
each with no challenger.

As for the three (3) County Commission seats now open,
here, read

Gretchen’s explanation.

And remember, more changes can still happen, because

qualifying has reopened for County Commission District 3,
and will have to reopen for District 5.

-jsq

Videos: quick agenda and then pipeline @ LCC 2014-02-25



The

County Manager’s report was
about FERC’s Scoping Meetings starting next week;

two citizens spoke about the pipeline.
The Chairman

refused to let another one speak because she hadn’t turned in a form,
and then he

spent 20 minutes after the meeting
telling her what the county wasn’t going to do.

We sort of found out where is the

unopened right of way off of US 41 South.
The

special tax lighting districts item went quickly this time.
We found out how much the county’s
sewer lift station at a subdivision with a private golf club

will cost to replace.
This is the subdivision for which the

Nelson Hill Wells were drilled as possible replacements.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos from the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

VDT redacted Sabal Trail pipeline FERC Scoping Meeting story @ FERC 2014-03-04



Amusingly, when the VDT fixed the typos in their online story,
they redacted me and Gretchen right out of it.
I’m flattered!
Still, congratulations to the VDT on quoting a lot of landowners
(and a few others who remained unredacted),
and on putting this story on the front page.

Here’s an extract from the online version showing changes from the
printed version (pictured) as if the newspaper had used standard
blogging markup for changes after posting.
Starting with the pullquote in the printed version,
which they edited heavily in the online version:

Affected Land owner
Landowner Larry Rodgers
said he has been trying to sell his property
for a long time, and once he
He had an interested buyer
and they found out about,
but upon learning of
the pipeline running through his property

they dropped their, the interested party withdrew the offer.

“Where do I go to file that complaint!?
And whose who’s responsible for value lost due
to property damage?” Rodgers asked.
Peconom replied, “I don’t have an answer
for you tonight, but well we’ll look into it.”


Concerned citizens Gretchen Quarterman said she was concerned about the
pipeline moving Natural Gas that has
been fracked, and the taking of property
from private land owners to benefit a company
that does not do business in Georgia.
She also brought up safety concerns regarding sink holes,
and proposed Florida use an alternate way of producing energy,
such as solar “because as we all know
Florida is the sunshine state.”
 Continue reading →

There’s nothing we can do about the pipeline –Bill Slaughter @ LCC 2014-02-24



“There’s nothing we can do,”
said Lowndes County Commissioners
about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline,
after the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak during
the

25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
But there are things local governments can do, as other local
governments and elected officials have already demonstrated.

Citizen Carol Singletary drove 100 miles to get there.
As Chairman Bill Slaughter asked for a motion
to adjourn the meeting,

she said she called in to say she wanted to speak.
Slaughter responded,

You have to fill out the paperwork and everything in order.

Phillip Singletary said he did, and it was in the Commission Chamber
entranceway.

The Chairman did not relent; “just do it next week; next time”.
Nevermind that he has let people speak who hadn’t turned in the paperwork
before the meeting started (we have videos).
He even

let pipeline reps speak from the audience without coming up to the podium
and didn’t let any citizens speak at the Spectra sales pitch
back in December.

Commissioner John Page moved to adjourn, and added that he would
like to see Ms. Singletary after the meeting.
Chairman agreed, somebody seconded, and they voted to adjourn.

Do elected Commissioners now have to get a vote of the Commission
to talk to citizens?

Here’s

the video of that part.

After the meeting, Continue reading →

FERC pipeline Scoping Meeting tonight in Valdosta: testify for your community

A local affected landowner and the chair of a local political party
ask you to come tonight at 6PM at the Holiday Inn on West Hill Avenue
to testify to the federal agency that decides on a permit
for the proposed yard-wide hundred-foot right of way
methane pipeline that a company from Houston wants to gash through here.
First a presentation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
then citizens can stand up and be recorded by a court reporter.

As directly affected local landowner Carol Singletary

pointed out on WALB Sunday,



“When you have it within 100 feet of your home, you cannot
have any sense of security there. There are alternate routes that
aren’t being considered. So I want to get those on the table and
some strong considerations given to those.”

As Gretchen Quarterman pointed out for the Lowndes County Democratic Party

on WCTV yesterday,

“The Georgia Democrats feel that there’s a moral obligation to
leave the world as beautiful and majestic as we found it and the
pipeline, it does not do that”, says Gretchen Quarterman,
Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee.

More from the LCDP
Press Release yesterday, plus more meetings and more ways to testify, Continue reading →

Broadband, outsourcing, trash, and fire @ LCC 2014-02-28


The second day of the Commission retreat is finished.
Reporting from location, Gretchen noted:

1PM: BroadBand

Chairman Bill Slaughter has a five year goal of making broadband
available. Some possibility of creating a fibre ring.
He says he’s working with the City of Valdosta.

Well, a year ago in February he said broadband was

“one of the number one issues”,
but in October he said
“we have broadband”,
so it’s anyone’s guess what his opinion will be in a few months.

1:06PM: Outsourcing

Commissioner Crawford Powell wants to outsource more county services.

That’s working so well, after all; see the next note.

1:19PM: Trash evaluation

Continue reading →

Taxes and outreach @ LCC 2014-02-28



Got a TV camera in there this morning.

Here’s
the agenda.

See also

yesterday’s session.


Continue reading →

Videos, Retreat, first day @ LCC 2014-02-27



They talked in detail about the

Naylor boat ramp and park.
The discussed

animal shelter renovations for 2015 and 2016.
And of course their paving list.
Surprisingly, they actually considered whether ownership
along the road right of way should be taken into account
in deciding whether to pave or not.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall said he had been surprised
to learn that many county citizens did not want their roads paved.

Here’s
the agenda and some
still pictures.
Here are

the raw videos
so you can see for yourself.



Videos, Retreat, first day

Annual Retreat, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2014.

They’re back at it this morning, and Gretchen is there videoing.

-jsq