Twenty-two minutes, quite long for the Lowndes County Commission, with four minutes on the ZBOA appointment with a split vote, and most of the rest on the three rezonings, with five and a half minutes on 6a. REZ-2019-09 Mark Courson, 5761 Long Pond Rd. R-1 to R-10.
The Chairman held forth about Leadership Lowndes at the end of the meeting. It’s like he’s not running again and is getting the most out of his time up there.
Commissioner Clay Griner was not present.
Below are Continue reading
Yesterday morning’s Work Session took eleven minutes. They vote this evening.
The three rezoning cases took the longest, simply due to time for Planning Technician Molly Stevenson to read them out. Only one Commissioner had one questions on one of them. Longest at 2 and a half minutes was 6c. REZ-2019-11 Stewart, 4151 Stewart Circle R-1 to C-H which is for establishing a new metal working business with rail access. Second at almost two minutes was 6a. REZ-2019-09 Mark Courson, 5761 Long Pond Rd. R-1 to R-10, which was for subdividing into two lots; this one had the quesion. Third at a minute and a half was 6b. REZ-2019-10 Ballard, Madison Hwy E-A to C-C and R-A for a boat repair service and a single residence.
None of the appointment candidates appeared. Surprisingly there were questions on two appointments, to Continue reading
Update 2019-07-09: Videos.
On the Lowndes County Commission agenda for Monday and Tuesday, appointments to three boards, three rezonings, and a mystery agreement.
They have no candidates to replace Malinda Taylor on the Lowndes County Library Board. Paul Alvarado and John McCall want to be reappointed to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals. Gregory Powell apparently does not want to be reappointed, and Victoria O’Steen and Kelisa Brown have applied for Keep Lowndes Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB).
The rezoning cases are three from the preceding Planning Commission meeting; GLPC unanimously recommended approval of all three.
The mystery Agreement with Cornerstone is, according to the agenda sheet, a $96,000 ($8,000 / month) item:
As a part of Lowndes County’s ongoing support of Moody Air Force Base, the services of Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc. are being recommended. In addition to assistance with matters related to the Department of Defense, Continue reading
If not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, nor with the water and sewer growth plan, fire and rescue doesn’t want it, and the Planning Commission recommended rejecting it, what does it take for the Lowndes County Commission to reject a zoning, in this case for REZ-2018-17 for The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road?
Only three people were allowed to speak against, of the five whose hands went up.
The developer promised restrictive covenants enforced by nobody but the homeowners. County-imposed conditions on the Nelson Hill development, also on Val Del, were largely waived by county staff without public hearings. What promises should we believe?
Will the developer’s demand to ignore the Comprehensive Plan because of “market conditions, supply and demand” prevail? Do property values of neighbors not matter? How about saddling the county school system with houses priced too low for property taxes on them to cover expenses of sending school buses? Or is profit for a few all that matters?
See the Continue reading
A Val-Tech Road 16" Force Main Emergency Repair with recommendation:
The 16” force main between Coleman Road lift station and James Road has experienced repeated issues with pipe failure. Several repairs have been made on one section near 3624 Val-Tech Road. After detecting another pipe failure along this section staff recommends we replace a 400′ section of the 16” force main. This is an emergency and needs to happen ASAP to prevent a sewage spill. Staff received a quote from RPI for $99,935.00. Staff recommends the emergency repair be approved for $99,935.00 from RPI.
I think everyone would be in favor of fixing that recurring leak, near the green dot at the top of this map.
VALORGIS Map → Streams Waterbodies plus Utilities Service Areas and Lowndes County Sewer Line.
Plus the annual USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge, on the agenda for this morning. Also appointments to three boards, as usual with no previous public invitation to apply: Linda Most reappointment to the Lowndes County Library Board, Clay Griner reappointment to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority, and Jim Scruggs reappointment to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals.
A a subdivision rezoning: The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road. GLPC voted 5-2-1 against and of TRC only Engineering wanted approval, with the rest saying:
Overall Planning and Zoning found this request inconsistent with with the Comprehensive Plan. Utilities found that development in that area is not supported by the County Water System Growth Plan.
And road abandonment, and quit claims for another road.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Continue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2018, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
The added agenda item
6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road
got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their
usual no-bid emergencies) passed.
The Chamber sent
Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page)
apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers
did not get to see) of
transportation projects to help “the business community”,
apparently including the truck bypass.
They only appointed six of the seven members of the Development Authority of Lowndes County, although a Commissioner did ask about that. It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then, since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already expired in December 2016. Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots that expired in December 2016 until eight months later, and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.
Below are links to Continue reading
Bids for an emergency repair!
This could be a first, instead of their usual sole source approve-it-right now method.
See
the County Manager’s Report, in which County Engineer Mike Fletcher
describes bids incoming from both Scruggs and Reames for temporary
repair to Rocky Ford Road.
Below are links to each LAKE video of yesterday morning’s Work Session with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda with notes about appointments and millage. And see also the 5 PM today Millage Rate Meeting.
Continue readingMaybe the county would have enough applicants their Work Session, Monday morning at 8:30 AM, if they advertised for applicants for open board seats, such as on the Development Authority of Lowndes County, And if they posted the application sheets for the applicants they did get, such as for the Lowndes County Library Board, we’d have some idea of who they are. They could even say whether the millage is going up or down.
According to the agenda sheet for the appointment to the Lowndes County Library Board,
There is a vacant seat on the Lowndes County Library Board. The Board of Trustees of the South Georgia Regional Library System respectfully requests the appointment of Mr. Gene Toffolo to fill the vacant seat.
They don’t say who applicant Gene Toffolo is. According to the South Georgia Regional Library he’s a 2016 Friends of the Library Board member:
Front Left to Right: Kay Scott, Janet Toffolo, Mary Helen Watson (President), Merrilee Casady,
Sarah Smart (Vice President), Robert DeVan (Treasurer)
Back Left to Right: Gene Toffolo, Patricia Marks, Riley Howard, Karl Osmus, John Swiderski (Secretary)
The county’s agenda and agenda sheet for the Lowndes County Library Board don’t say whose seat expired or maybe somebody resigned. The county’s web page for this board is no more helpful, listing these members and expirations, none of which expires in 2017: Continue reading
They actually spent the most time on the fire pages, but the biggest item was renaming Val Tech Road: they decided not to do that, rather to designate “a portion” of it as Wiregrass Technical College Way or something like that.
For two boards, KLVB and DFCS, they didn’t have an application for one seat, so they left it until the next meeting.
The meeting lasted more than fifteen minutes, so they’ll probably have to pay staff overtime! Below are links to the LAKE video for each item in the agenda, for yesterday morning’s Regular Session, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of hte previous morning’s Work Session.
Below are links to the LAKE video for each item in the agenda, for yesterday morning’s Work Session, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
![[Area map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2019-06-24--glpc/valorgis.jpg)
