Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Videos of Candidates and Mayor Gayle about SPLOST @ LCDP 2013-09-09



In which we discover one candidate works for the City of Valdosta
and opposes SPLOST.
Candidates took questions directly from the
audience and answered them, unlike at later candidate forums.
Candidates from the smaller cities started their tradition of
not showing up for forums outside their cities.
Here’s the list of
qualified candidates.
See also the videos of the

30 Club forum 2013-10-21
and the videos of the

AAUW forum 2013-10-15.

Opening


Call to Order,

Moment of Silence for Congress,

Pledge,

Approval of Minutes,

Treasurer’s Report.



SPLOST VII

30 Club Candidate Forum @ 30Club 2013-10-21



The candidates were almost unanimous on

SPLOST VII and

how to prevent JK situations,
but more varied on other questions.

Roy Copeland, billed as “Valdosta attorney”
(but perhaps known better to LAKE readers as VLCIA board member and former Chairman)
was the moderator,
assisted by
Valdosta Fire Chief and



Thirty Club member

J.D. Rice.
They took questions from the audience and recognized their host,

Pastor Floyd Rose of Serenity Church.
You may wonder as I do why city council candidates were answering
about graduation rates.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 21 October 2013,

‘Let the games begin’.
Here’s the list of
qualified candidates.
As usual, nobody showed up from the smaller cities, although at least one Valdosta candidate,
Richard Miller,
spoke up for the smaller cities about SPLOST.


Valdosta City Council District 2

Continue reading →

Videos: VLMPO Policy Committee @ VLMPO 2013-10-29



I commend VLMPO for addressing real issues and getting a broad variety of organizations to show up.
However, map after map on
the consultant’s slides
showed a straight-line highway going from Moody’s
front gate to Hahira:


Highway straight line from Moody AFB to Hahira?

There is no such road.
There better not be, since it would go straight through my property
and would drive development right through agricultural and forestry
areas that the Comprehensive Plan says aren’t supposed to be developed,.
not to mention the Moody MAZ.
I’m told the consultant is going to fix this.

I have my doubts, because Continue reading →

Videos: Special bid review meeting @ VLCIA 2013-10-29



With
a bare quorum of 3 out of 5, VLCIA
Chair Mary Gooding

said they had finally purchased their own office space
and would henceforth pay neither lease nor rent
using our tax dollars.
I’d like to congratulate them for a thorough public bid review.


Project Manager Allan Ricketts reviewed the project
including the bids on “the second document in front of you”
that the taxpaying public didn’t get to see.
He did summarize the bids, and they even showed them
on a slide:

$273,595 Cauthan
$232,445 Kellerman
$274,900 Quillian Powell
$262,557 Taylor
$244,000 True North


Bids

A board member wanted to know if the bids were all local.
Ricketts said they were.

Mr. Matt Hart, with IPG, project manager on the project,
clarified Continue reading →

Special bid review meeting @ VLCIA 2013-10-29

The Industrial Authority’s
new office is urgent enough for a special called meeting.
Inquiring reporter Gretchen is going to see what the fuss is about.

Maybe it’s just because this office search has had
more episodes than Star Wars.
Before Roy Copeland was appointed to the VLCIA board, they were
considering buying the old Board of Elections site from him.
Now he’s even been Chairman twice and given that up, and they
still don’t have a new office.
Or maybe it’s something to do with

who owns 103 Roosevelt Drive.



Interestingly, HG Pinnacle Properties, Inc. also owns the much larger surrounding lot,

2318 N Patterson Street,
on which

a Valdosta Electric trailer has been parked
across from the hospital for so long it shows up on Google Maps.

On VLCIA’s website
and
facebook page
(although oddly not in their

current news page:



There will be a Special Called Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes
County Industrial Authority 12 noon Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Offices.

The purpose of this meeting is to review bids regarding the
renovation and construction of 103 Roosevelt Drive.

-jsq

Videos: Nottinghill tabled, Barrington, Whitewater, New Statenville + VLD * 2 + Dasher + Hahira variance @ GLPC 2013-09-30



In last month’s Planning Commission meeting we learned that
developers get agenda items in PDF;
yet the county still doesn’t publish agendas or minutes,
much less agenda packets, online.

Nottinghill (on Orr rather than Cat Creek Road this time)
was

tabled.

Norwood (on Springhill Drive in Valdosta)
got recommended denial by 5-4
and was later

withdrawn,
plus a
a

Hahira variance (5 to 3 against), a

Valdosta conditional use permit (unanimously recommended),
a

Dasher zoning text amendment (unanimously recommended),
and three other rezonings in Lowndes County, on

New Statenville Highway,

Whitewater Road @ Williams Road,
and

Barrington Drive @ Bemiss Road.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue

Monday, September 30, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Steward, Chancy, VLCIA, Nottinghill, and Teramore @ GLPC 2013-10-28



Why is the Industrial Authority asking Valdosta to

annex
and

rezone
a parcel it apparently does not own?
That plus rezonings in

Dasher
and

Hahira
(see

separate post for more on that one),
plus two in Lowndes County:

Teramore,
and

Nottinghill is

back.

Here’s the agenda.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue

Monday, October 28, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Spectra to answer questions about pipeline @ LCC 2013-12-09

Received yesterday.
Good first step. Will the Commission also have Spectra speak at the Regular
Session, like they did ADS back in February?
Will it make that a public hearing?

Update 11:30 AM:
Pipeline meeting set:
Commissioner gathers opposing views by Matthew Woody, front page of the VDT this morning. -jsq



From: Demarcus Marshall <marshall at lowndescounty.com>

Date: Friday, October 25, 2013 7:51 AM

To: Tim Bland

Cc: Matthew Woody

Subject: Sabal Trail Pipeline

Tim and Residents along the Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Brian Fahrenthold of Sabal Trail Pipeline contacted me yesterday and
requested an audience with the Lowndes County Commissioners. I have
submitted to the chairman a slot for him to address the
commissioners at our December 09, 2013 work session.


I am writing
you to ask Continue reading →

Videos: Health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-21



Vice Chair Richard Raines ran the work session, calling the meeting to
order and moving briskly through the first item (minutes for approval).
Commissioners asked questions on most of the other items.
-gretchen

In the Library item Commissioners discovered even they
didn’t get the whole board packet.
After the meeting,
Gretchen filed an open records request for the agenda packet,
but if the county runs true to form she won’t get it until after
they vote in the Regular Session tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM.

Insurance plan
and
health plan
took more than 20 minutes, with many questions from Commissioners.

Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Striping and citing @ LCC 2013-10-08



Catching up with the Regular Session of 8 October 2013,
why is the county going to pay

$150/month for a traffic signal
and

$2200/month for offramp lighting
(both at Exit 22, North Valdosta Road)
when they could install solar panels and batteries once and pay nothing ongoing?

They tabled
Nottinghill
like the Planning Commission did.
They voted to let
Barrington subdivision
sprawl into the county with no conditions, taking staff’s
recommendation instead of one about a fence by the Planning Commission..
They voted to rotate the mostly ceremonial
Vice Chairman position every eight months.
They decided on a price for tentants in the
Leila Ellis Building
and will get around to drawing up a lease agreement.
Commissioners finally did get that list of roads for
striping.
Fiddling changes to percentages
evidence for juvenile justice
and hardware and software for
fining people coming off of I-75.

Here’s

the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →