Tag Archives: IRMA

Videos: SPLOST VIII, Grassy Pond Sewer, and Hospital Authority funding @ LCC 2019-07-23

Five and a half minutes of the
Regular Session fifteen minutes was on

the county guaranteeing refinancing Hospital Authority debt,
due to County Manager Joe Pritchard reciting what’s in the agreement,
and Hospital Authority CEO Bill Forbes
speaking, and Chairman Bill Slaughter thanking him.
The agreement is in the board packet on the LAKE website from a LAKE open records request.


Hospital Authority

Citizen

Michelle Williams of Hahira asked for a spay and neuter ordinance,
noting Macon and Dalton have those already.
County Clerk Paige Dukes

praised Michelle Williams and other volunteers.

Second at almost two minutes was Continue reading →

Special Called Meeting to approve SPLOST VIII Projects @ LCC 2019-07-31

You got a notice about this meeting two days in advance,
if you signed up for the county’s alerts, which is twice as long as they usually do.

Special Called Meeting,

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

A special called meeting will be held to adopt the amended SPLOST VIII Agreement.

Date:
July 31, 2019

Time:
8:30 AM

Location:
Board of Commissioners

Administration Building

Address:
327 N. Ashley Street

2nd Floor

Valdosta, GA 31601

[Lowndes Project List]

Lowndes Project List

PDF

Here is Lowndes County’s SPLOST VIII Project List.
The biggest items are water and sewer at $23 million
and sports at $13,274,912,
followed by the historic Courthouse at $12 million.
Note nothing about Continue reading →

Board Packet @ LCC 2019-07-22

For the first time ever, the county returned the complete board packet before the Lowndes County Commission voted on it!
This was in response to an open records request sent Wednesday,
so the statutory three days were actually up Monday morning.
They emailed the packet Monday afternoon about 5PM.

[Google Map annotated by LAKE]

Google Map annotated by LAKE to show the quit claimed part of Reed Road in magenta (this map was not part of the board packet).

All the dirt part of Reed Road, back from the old Skipper Bridge over the Withlacoochee River,
to the entrance to Pine Grove Middle School, is what is being abandoned.
It is possible to decipher this from the quit claims in the board packet for
yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session and tonight’s Regular Session.

All the SPLOST VIII Project Lists, for the county and the five cities, are included; see below.

Everything the county sent, plus images of each page,
is on the LAKE website.
LAKE looks forward to the county putting all these packet documents
on the county’s own website, along with the agenda and agenda sheets.

See also:

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

[Lowndes Project List]

Lowndes Project List

PDF

SPLOST VIII Project Lists

[Valdosta Project List]

Valdosta Project List

PDF

[Hahira Project List]

Hahira Project List

PDF

[Remerton Project List]

Remerton Project List

PDF

[Dasher Project List]

Dasher Project List

PDF

[Lake Park Project List]

Lake Park Project List

PDF

Videos: SPLOST VIII, Grassy Pond Sewer, and Hospital Authority funding @ LCC 2019-07-23 2019-07-22

The whole Work Session took eleven minutes,
of which three were about

the county guaranteeing refinancing Hospital Authority debt.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM; Gretchen will be there with the LAKE video camera.
Update 2019-07-23:< Obtained in response to an open records request from LAKE, board packet is on the LAKE website.

Second longest yesterday morning at a minute and a half was the

SPLOST VIII Agreement, for which it seems the list is already finished,
finalized at a “public” meeting between the county and the five cities,
which was not announced to the public.

Most of the bids for the

Grassy Pond Sewer Connection
were not in the board packet, we discovered due to a question by a Commissioner.
The

Abandonment of Portion of Reed Road
is the bit to the Withlacoochee River,
which they county says was “unopened”, which is a strange
way to describe the old dirt road that used to cross the river on a bridge.


Below are Continue reading →

SPLOST VIII, Grassy Pond Sewer, and Hospital Authority funding @ LCC 2019-07-22

Not on Lowndes County’s online calendar, the county already met with the five cities about SPLOST VIII:

On July 8, 2019, Lowndes County met with the cities of Valdosta, Hahira, Lake
Park, Remerton and Dasher to officially call for SPLOST VIII. As a result,
the attached SPLOST VIII Agreement
between Lowndes County and the cities has been prepared for consideration. Once approved by Lowndes
County, the agreement will be forwarded to the cities for consideration during a public meeting.


SPLOST VII pie by Lowndes County


Lowndes County on the previous SPLOST.

Will when and where for that upcoming “public meeting” be announced in advance?
Where is “the attached SPLOST VIII Agreement”?
Wednesday morning at 9:35 AM,
I sent the county a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request for the board packet
for this week’s Lowndes County Commission meetings.
By a very generous interpretation of the three business days GORA permits to
respond to such a request, time’s up this morning at 9:35 AM.
So far, the county has not even acknowledged receipt of the request.

The
Hospital Authority,
over whom the county has so little authority it has to Continue reading →

Videos: 2 KLVB appointments, lift station pump, 2 rezonings @ LCC 2018-07-10



Scottie Orenstein and Mark Wisenbaker were absent,
so they barely had a quorum with three Commissioners: Joyce Evans, Mark Wisenbaker, and Clay Griner, plus Chairman Bill Slaughter, who does not vote
unless there is a tie.
Spoiler: they passed everything unanimously, except one item.

They took almost 2.5 minutes (less than the five minutes I predicted)
on the

KLVB appointments.
Remember,
Tracy Chapman asked for her name to be withdrawn.
See

previous post about the Work Session for
that and what

applicant Regina Kimbrough said.
And see

the agenda post
for more about the applicants.

Slightly longer and longest at 2:49 was

6.b. REZ-2018-14 Coventry Villas, Mulligan Rd,
followed by 1:32 for

7.d. Ordinance Adopting Current Board of Health Rules,
which did not go as planned,
and then 1:49 for the other rezoning,

6.a. REZ-2018-13 Sims, Beaver Lane.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: 2 KLVB appointments, lift station pump, 2 rezonings @ LCC 2018-07-09



They vote this evening on what you can see they discussed yesterday morning,
in these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
They barely had a quorum. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall is never at Work Sessions because he’s at work, and Commissioner Scottie Orenstein was on some beach.

Tracy Chapman asked for her name to be withdrawn from the KLVB appointment.
Regina Kimbrough spoke.
See

previous post
for more about the applicants.

Longest at more than 3 minutes was

6.b. REZ-2018-14 Coventry Villas, Mulligan Rd,
a rezoning for a planned development,
in which Commissioner Clay Griner actually asked a question.

Third longest (after the KLVB item) was the

7.d. Ordinance Adopting Current Board of Health Rules,
because of Continue reading →

2 KLVB appointments, lift station pump, 2 rezonings @ LCC 2018-07-09

This morning at 8:30 AM at the Work Session and tomorrow at 5:30PM for voting
by the Lowndes County Commission,
Vivian Miller-Cody wants to be reappointed to
Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful,
while Adam Floyd does not.
Three people applied for that second slot:

Tracy Chapman, Regina Kimbrough, and Travis Morgan).
“Three applications… are included”, apparently in the board packet,
but not in what is posted with the agenda, so we don’t know who these people are.
I would guess Tracy Chapman is

the Assistant District Attorney;
that Regina Kimbrough is the
second grade teacher at Sallas Mahone Elementary School,


Regina Kimbrough

City of Valdosta PR,

2017 Jr. Fire Marshal School of the Year,
“Trey Sherwood of Valdosta Insurance Service, sponsor of the Jr. Fire Marshal program, presented the 2017 Jr. Fire Marshal School of the Year awards to Regina Kimbrough (left) of Sallas Mahone Elementary School and to Danielle Gibbs of Pinevale Elementary School.”

and that
Travis Morgan is

a manager at Best Buy,
but I’m only guessing, while the county could just post the applications,
like counties in metropolitan areas eleswhere do.

Jason A. Smith, Valdosta Daily Times, 10 April 2018,

Volunteers work recycling event, Continue reading →

Videos: Leadership Lowndes, VLCIA appointment, Rivers Radio @ LCC 2017-12-12



In an outbreak of transparency and due diligence in the last Lowndes County Commission of 2017,
they took ten minutes
replacing Mary Goodman
on the

Industrial Authority,
hearing from three nominees, and appointing Brad Folsom.
They took three and a half minutes to choose among three nominees
to the

Tourism Authority
to appoint
Robert Jefferson.
None of those nominees spoke, but the vote was so split
they actually had a runoff, which ended in a 3:2 final vote.
They also reappointed Joyce Evans by silent “acclamation”.


Leadership Lowndes spoke for 12 minutes (as long as three citizens get),

citizen Willie Mae Jones wanted to know what next to get her Black Road paved,
and County Engineer Mike Fletcher said the signatures were verified as 84% of the property owners on the road, so it would go on the paving list
with the 74 projects already on there.
Chairman Bill Slaughter

actually asked for Commissioner comments,
and each of them said a few words, mostly thanks to the staff and Merry Christmas.
Chairman Bill Slaughter even thanked citizens for coming to the meetings. Merry Christmas, Commissioners!

The longest rezoning public hearing was
REZ-2017-13
Quattlebaum-Meadors, N Valdosta RD, R-21 to C-H.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11



They vote this evening on what you can see them discussing yesterday morning in
these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
The longest business item was not even a minute and a half on
REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park.

By far the longest item was not on the agenda:

11. Reports – County Manager a. Steve Gupton- LODAC Presentation,
about a local drug counseling organization, originally private,
but for long now funded by Valdosta and Lowndes County plus grants.
As one of the presenters noted, probably only Commissioner Joyce Evans
was thoroughly familiar with LODAC.

Below are Continue reading →