“We’re down to one!”
said Commissioner Scotti Orenstein, seeing Commissioners Joyce Evans and Demarcus Marshall coming out of the elevator before the April 9, 2024, Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Before the meeting,
I asked Information Technology Services (ITS) Director Aaron Kostyu
if the sound box in the video pen at the back of the room would be fixed soon.
He said that was a $1700 item, but they were working on it.
I asked loudly enough that all of the Commissioners could hear me,
including when I noted that it’s hard to hear Commissioners on our videos without the direct audio feed.
He said some of them probably would still be inaudible.
I went up to where Commissioner Joyce Evans was sitting and indicated that if Commissioners push their microphones away, they’re hard to hear.
She said I was pointing at Commissioner Scottie Orenstein’s microphone.
We shall see.
I had a video camera fail, so I took these videos with my phone,
starting after they did, so the call to order and approval of minutes agenda items are not in these videos.
Also, my phone does not stop and start videos quickly, so there may be a second or two missing between clips.
After the meeting was adjourned, Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker said he was disappointed to get dressed to come there for such a brief meeting.
I feel his pain.
It’s an hour round trip for me, this time for a five minute meeting.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
Here is the letter Gretchen Quarterman sent on behalf of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE)
to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) before their meeting of Monday, August 28, 2023.
As you can see in the
LAKE videos of that meeting,
GLPC recommended denial by 7:1 of REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road.
Thanks to everyone who signed the petition: a table of signatories and images of the petition sheets are included.
Thanks to everyone who spoke at the GLPC meeting.
The final decision will be at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of Tuesday, September 12, 2023.
More petition signatures would help, and more calls and letters to Lowndes County Commissioners, and more speakers in the Public Hearing on September 12th.
The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) voted 7:1 to recommend denial
of the proposed E-A 2.5-acre-lot rezoning on Quarterman Road,
in an agricultural and forestry area.
They unanimously voted to recommend approval of the R-21 half-acre-lot rezoning on Mt. Zion Church Road that is among numerous existing small lots.
In the first rezoning item, REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road,
the County Planner mentioned that county staff had been unable to find any record of the previous (1980s) rezoning of the existing subdivision on Emily Lane west of Quarterman Road. Continue reading →
It was a brief agenda at the Clinch County Commission,
with roads and taxes, plus boat ramps and a proposed resolution against the strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp.
Much to the surprise of the several dozen opponents of the Dollar General rezoning,
and even after the DG developer attorney attempted to tell his version of the Lowndes County Commission’s legal responsibilities,
all the Commissioners voted to deny the rezoning.
The audience laughed at the Dollar General’s offer of an “enhanced facade,”
as conveyed by County Planner JD Dillard.
Even after Chairman Bill Slaughter limited each side to ten minutes,
the opposition gave excellent summaries.
Heath Dawson, who is the nearest neighbor to the north and a commercial banker,
attested Continue reading →
Lowndes County Commissioners were still not happy with the City of Valdosta
about the
Service Delivery Agreement,
with Chairman Bill Slaughter reciting a litany of recent extraterritorial water and sewage decisions and a change in funding for county roads for the upcoming
“physical” year,
at their Regular Session of October 11, 2022.
Commissioners Clay Griner and Scottie Orenstein complained about the agreement,
with some threats to go back to the 2008 agreement if signatures were not gotten from the Valdosta immediately.
It passed 4:1, with Griner voting against.
County Manager Paige Dukes in her
report
said the county was only doing their river cleanup because it is required
by the county’s stormwater permit, so it’s a checkbox they are checking.
Also, she was asking Public Works to have the county’s litter crew
stand down beforehand, so volunteers would have something to pick up
at the boat ramps.
Flags are to fly half-mast Sunday across the entire state of Georgia at the state Capitol and in Lowndes County for the late Sonny Vickers, whose absence loomed large over the
Valdosta City Council meeting.
The funeral will be
3 PM Sunday.
There will be a
special election for his Council seat,
as required by the city charter.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item with a few notes,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also
the agenda.
The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request,
is
on the LAKE website.
Some of the materials are out of order (I don’t know why), so if you don’t find something at first, keep looking.
Cave in at manhole on Sustella Ave. along One Mile Branch.
Inspection discovered 525 feet also in danger of collapse.
Due to emergency, Utilities selected a contractor without bids.
Main input line to the plant, so “pretty critical.”
Replaced 5500 feet of cement line with epoxy line.
Emergency contractor selection with no bids.
Work already completed April 6th.
$259,430.86.
Council Tim Carroll pointed out that this is David Frost’s last Council meeting,
and tomorrow is his last day. Applause, and mutual thanks from Frost.
Gregory Williams, 806 West Gordon Street, said he was a son of Sonny Vickers’ work.
He proposed renaming Cherry Street to Sonny Vickers Lane.
Vickers always lived on Cherry Street.
Gracie Bacon, 708 Holly Drive, said three houses had junk cars and trash that made it difficult to breathe.
She invited Council to come see for themselves, then do something about it.
John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper, thanked the city for fixing two sewer lines and installing a trash boom at Sugar Creek.
He reminded them that there was more to do.
For example, that trash on Holly Drive probably washes into waterways.
More than that, fast food parking lots need trash cans and to keep trash from escaping.
The city has ordinances, so if they don’t do it, the city can fine them.
And the city should put trash cans on its own parking lots to set an example.
He invited Mayor and Council to a chainsaw cleanup on the Withlacoochee River.
Council Vivian Miller-Cody said
the funeral for Sonny Vickers will be 3:00 PM this Sunday at
Woodlawn Forrest Church of Christ, 1515 Barack Obama Blvd.
If there’s no room, people can go to
Harrington Funeral Home, 713 Lake Park Road, 229-242-2828.
She said the family requests no flowers, rather donations to a cancer foundation
which they are starting in honor of Council Sonny Vickers.
Mayor Scott James said the state proclamation from the governor
is to fly flags throughout the state at half mast this Sunday.
Standing ovation.
RIP Sonny Vickers + two sewer lines fixed @ VCC 2022-06-23
Valdosta City Council Regular Session, June 23, 2022, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-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!
Here are LAKE videos of (most of) yesterday’s Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) Council meeting yesterday in Pearson, Georgia.
For some of the items, I have included photographs of the first sheet of the relevant handout(s).
For the rest of each handout, please contact SGRC.
Thanks to SGRC Council Chair Joyce Evans and Assistant Director Chris Strom
for inviting me to come speak about the Okefenokee Swamp in my other hat as Suwannee Riverkeeper; see the WWALS blog post.
Collage: Audit; New member John Clayton (Nashville); DCA Small Cities Conference; Okefenokee Swamp Resolutions –Suwannee Riverkeeper; Jody Redding, GA Gov. Field Rep.
With a packed agenda, the Valdosta City Council
passed eight resolutions,
approved five bids or purchases,
and appointed people to four boards,
yet the longest discussion was after all that.
Perhaps the most far-reaching item
was one of the briefest, presented by Mayor Scott James Matheson:
3.f. Resolution in Opposition to a proposed strip mine near the Okefenokee Swamp,
opposing the proposed Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) strip mine or any others within ten miles of the Swamp,
asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reverse its abdication of oversight,
asking GA-EPD for a moratorium on all mining permits until effects are settled of the recent court overruling of 2020 Clean Water Act changes,
as well as to reject the TPM permits, or at least to review those applications as thoroughly as the Army Corps would, and
asking the Georgia legislature to prevent such strip mines near the Swamp or any blackwater rivers in the Suwannee River Basin. Continue reading →
![[Collage @ LCC 9 April 2024]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-04-09--lcc-regular-videos/many.jpg)
![[LAKE Videos: Racetrack Road SE Abandonment and ULDC Text Amendments @ LCC Work 2024-04-08]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-04-08--lcc-work-videos/many.jpg)
![[LAKE letter and map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2023-08-28--glpc-lake-letter/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 28 August 2023]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2023-08-28--glpc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/clinch/2023-08-07--clinch-county-commission/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 24 January 2023]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2023-01-24--lcc-regular-videos/many.jpg)
![[Sonny Vickers and other matters]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/valdosta/2022-06-23--vcc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Collage]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/sgrc/2021-12-09--sgrc/many.jpg)
![[Mayor, Howard, Gibbs, WWTP, Manager & Tooley, Suwannee Riverkeeper]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/valdosta/2021-11-11--vcc-videos/many.jpg)