Tag Archives: Little River

Videos: Hurricane assistance, Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC Regular 2023-09-26

Andrew Toussaint gave a report about the Small Business Administration and EMA Director Ashley Tye gave reports on hurricane assistance and local disaster group COAD, in this Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of September 26, 2023. Because of those reports and a second recognition of Leadership Lowndes (they showed up late), the meeting took 49 minutes.

[Collage @ LCC 26 September 2023]
Collage @ LCC 26 September 2023

Like the previous morning, Commissioners were unusually chatty.

Commissioner Scottie Orenstein had some questions and comments about 5.a. Quiet Pines Golf Course Ezgo Golf Cart Lease Agreement. and 5.b. Mental Health Model Resolution for ACCG. Commissioners Clay Griner, Demarcus Marshall, County Manager Paige Dukes, and Chairman Bill Slaughter discussed which statehouse bills the mental health resolution mentions, and that it does not support any particular current bill, specifically not HB 520. They passed the resolution unanimously. Continue reading →

Colquitt EMC, Conference Center, 2 rezonings, 2 water, HVAC, Solar, Controls @ LCC Agenda 2023-10-09

Update 2023-10-10: Videos: Colquitt EMC, Conference Center, 2 rezonings, 2 water, HVAC, Solar, Controls @ LCC Work 2023-10-09.

Despite four working days to do it, more than the three days allowed by the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA), Lowndes County has not returned the board packet for this week’s Lowndes County Commission meetings.

However, most of the materials for the two rezonings will probably be similar to what the county put in the preceding Planning Commission packet.

They also plan to spend a third of a million dollars, most of it on heating and air conditioning maintenance. The agenda sheet says, “Attached in your packet is an equipment list for each building to be maintained.”

But we the taxpayers don’t get to see that list, because the county does not publish its own board packets and, despite the state open records law, has not returned it so LAKE can publish it.

Cost What
$255,029.00HVAC Maintenance Agreement
$24,825.00Joint Funding Agreement with USGS for Stream Gauge Maintenance
$23,370.00Water Treatment Agreement
$0.00Solar Panel Maintenance Agreement
$0.00Quarterly Controls Inspection Agreement
$303,224.00Total

[Collage @ LCC Agenda 2023-10-09]
Collage @ LCC Agenda 2023-10-09

Here is the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2023, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Packet: Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC 2023-09-25

Update 2023-09-10: Videos: Hurricane assistance, Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC Regular 2023-09-26

It turns out the board packet for today’s Lowndes County Commission meeting contained little or nothing beyond the one-page agenda sheets for the four Bid items.

[Collage, LCC Packet, 2023-09-25]
Collage, LCC Packet, 2023-09-25

So you actually learn more about those items from the LAKE post with the agenda and bid documents.

In the Minutes for the Work Session of September 11 and for the Regular Session of September 12, about REZ-2023-04 Chase, 6119 Quarterman Road, the LAKE letter is only alluded to as “a report from the opposition” in this passage: Continue reading →

Videos: Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC Work 2023-09-25

Update 2023-09-26: Packet: Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC 2023-09-25.

Lowndes County Commissioners were unusually chatty in yesterday morning’s Work Session, about 5.b. Mental Health Model Resolution for ACCG, in which they sounded like prison reform advocates.

[Collage @ LCC 25 September 2023]
Collage @ LCC 25 September 2023

Also about 6.a. Grove Point Lift Station Access Road, 5.c. Purchase of Wetland Credits for Shiloh Road Bridge Project, and 5.a. Quiet Pines Golf Course Ezgo Golf Cart Lease Agreement.

They had no questions about the almost $4 million dollar item, 6.b. TIA 2023-05 Briggston Road Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving Bids, which leads to Wild Adventures.

See below for more notes on those items, with the LAKE videos of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the agenda and bid documents.

We have not yet received a response to the LAKE open records request for the board packet.

Sure, I only sent that request Sunday. But it is stil mysterious why Lowndes County does not put its board packets on its own website, like many counties smaller and larger in Georgia and Florida have been doing for years. Continue reading →

Agenda: Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC 2023-09-25

Update 2023-09-26: Videos: Golf carts, mental health, wetland credits, regional transit, Lift Station and Fire Station Access Roads, 2 TIA Road Bids @ LCC Work 2023-09-25.

This week the Lowndes County Commission proposes to authorize spending $4.5 million on road projects, plus golf carts for the Quiet Pine Golf Course at Moody AFB that the county now operates.

[Collage @ LCC Agenda 2023-09-25]
Collage @ LCC Agenda 2023-09-25

The biggest project at almost four million dollars is TIA 2023-05 Briggston Road Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving Bids, leading from Madison Highway to Old Clyattville Road, where you will find Wild Adventures.

Cost What
$3,892,229.54TIA 2023-05 Briggston Road Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving Bids
$240,119.00Fire Rescue Station 10 Pavement Resurfacing Bids
$222,377.49Grove Point Lift Station Access Road
$194,166.66NC-TIA 2023-01 Rocky Hill Church Road Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving Bids
$85,440.00Purchase of Wetland Credits for Shiloh Road Bridge Project
$50,160.00Quiet Pines Golf Course Ezgo Golf Cart Lease Agreement
$4,684,492.69Total

Perhaps a longer search would find information on the county website about the Purchase of Wetland Credits for Shiloh Road Bridge Project. At least we can say what it is a bridge (or box culvert) over: Big Creek, which runs into Franks Creek, which ends up in the Little River.

[Shiloh Road Bridge in WLRWT]
Shiloh Road Bridge in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).

However, the Lowndes County Finance Department has a Bids web page that leads to specifics on each bid, including for the Grove Point Lift Station, Briggston Road, Rocky Hill Church Road, and Fire Rescue Station 10 projects. Three of them include a location map and engineering drawings. The exception is for Fire Station 10, but its Bid Documents do reveal the location of that fire station: 2981 US Hwy 84 East, Valdosta, Georgia.

Copies of all these documents and images of their pages are on the LAKE website.

We do not have a copy of the board packet, because I forgot to send the open records request.

Although it is still mysterious why the board packet is not on the county’s webiste where they have an option “packet” that only produces the agenda and an agenda sheet for each item.

Here is the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2023, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Surprise One Valdosta-Lowndes presentation, and executive session to discuss personnel @ LCC Work 2023-06-26

Update 2023-07-10: Videos: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC Regular 2023-06-27.

Update 2023-06-29: Slides: One Valdosta-Lowndes @ LCC Work 2023-06-26.

People might have come to see if they knew One Valdosta-Lowndes was going to present at Monday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session. Instead, County Manager Paige Dukes announced it during her County Manager Report, and then OVL Executive Director Mary Beth Brownlee presented. Thanks to Mary Beth for sending LAKE her presentation slides.

[Collage @ LCC 26 June 2023]
Collage @ LCC 26 June 2023

At the end of the meeting, the Commissioners held an executive session to discuss personnel. There is only one personnel directly managed by the Commissioners: the County Manager.

The second longest item at 4 minutes was 5. Fire Officer of the Year – Fire Fighter of the Year Recognition.

Next longest at two and a third minutes was 7.a. Lowndes County Accountability Court Grant Approval and Cash Match.

Everything passed unanimously, including the adoption of the FY 2024 Operating Budget and the reappointments to three boards.

Once the county finishes taking over its own permitting, the 6.c. Valdosta Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals won’t exist, and Lowndes County will have to appoint its own. The new one could have the same county members.

Were you invited to the stakeholder meetings the County Manager announced for “the development community”? Maybe taxpayers and citizens are not stakeholders.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also

Continue reading →

Videos: FY24 5311, USGS, Code Red, Disaster, Hazard, Facilities, TIA, FY23 Law, SDS, Exit 13 @ LCC 2022-10-25

Everything passed unanimously at the Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission on Tuesday, October 27, 2022. There were a few questions, but nothing contentious.

[Collage @ LCC 2022-10-25]
Collage @ LCC 2022-10-25

Chairman Bill Slaughter said Valdosta had supplied all the needed signatures from the City of Valdosta for the Service Delivery Agreement, although two of the smaller cities (unnamed) still needed to sign. City Manager Paige Dukes whispered to the Chairman that Valdosta City Council Andy Gibbs was in the room, and the Chairman thanked him.

The County Manager in her Report said Finance Director Stephanie Black had finished the “budget report” and it is on the county’s website for use by Commission, staff, and citizens. She didn’t say where, but I’m guessing she meant the Operating Budget, Fiscal Year 2023. She also said the county is going to update its noise ordinance to “get in line with citizens’ expectations”. On November 7th at 4-7 PM there wil be an Internet session with Windstream.

Rachel Thrasher said the county’s new videos have gotten 6,000 views in six weeks. She didn’t say where. But here’s one, on facebook, about golf cart accidents.

Robert Tracy proposed a special session of the Commission that citizens could attend, about property taxes. Apparently as the Tax Assessors catch up with a many-year backlog of appraisals, there have been some sudden rises in appraisals.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and agenda and board packet.

Continue reading →

Videos: River Gauges, Lift Station, Disaster Relief, Hazards, Facilities, TIA, Service Delivery @ LCC 2022-10-24

Most items sailed through this morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission. They vote tomorrow, Tuesday evening, at 5:30 PM.

The county continues to be unhappy with the City of Valdosta about the Service Delivery Agreement.

Chairman Bill Slaughter asked to have the Patrol Car Laptop Lease tabled for further clarification.


[River Gauges, Hazard Mitigation, Facilities, Service Delivery, Lift Station, Reports @ LCC 2022-09-24]
River Gauges, Hazard Mitigation, Facilities, Service Delivery, Lift Station, Reports @ LCC 2022-09-24

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda and board packet. Continue reading →

Packet: Lift Station & Force Main, River Gauge, Transit, Code Red, Facilities, TIA, SDS, etc. @ LCC 2022-10-24

Update 2022-10-24: Videos: River Gauges, Lift Station, Disaster Relief, Hazards, Facilities, TIA, Service Delivery @ LCC 2022-10-24.

It’s a long agenda even with no rezonings, at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning.

They vote Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM on $3 million in expenditures. The agenda says that $1,839,820 for Hazard Mitigation will be “Fully reimbursed to Lowndes County (90% from FEMA 10% from Pruitt Health Corporation)”.

Cost What
$1,839,820.00 Approval of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) Applications
$1,084,938.91Exit 13 Lift Station and Force Main Project
$50,300.00Patrol Car Laptop Lease
$31,500.00Code Red Service Renewal
$23,850.00Joint Funding Agreement with USGS for Stream Gauge Maintenance
$3,030,408.91Total

[Agenda @ LCC 2022-10-24]
Agenda @ LCC 2022-10-24

The Stream Gauge item is for the river gauges on the Withlacoochee River at Skipper Road [sic] (Hagan Bridge) and the Little River near Hahira (Folsom Bridge).

Here is the agenda.

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website. Continue reading →

Roads, Wastewater, and Trash @ VCC 2022-02-24

A twelve-foot alligator surfaced twice at the briefest Valdosta City Council meeting of recent memory, in Special Recognitions and Citizens to Be Heard, related to the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle organized by WWALS, with Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman as a speaker.

[Valdosta City Council, Staff, and Citizens]
Valdosta City Council, Staff, and Citizens

Four from Leadership Lowndes where there, and there’s a New Neighborhood Development and Community Protections Manager, Anetra Riley. The Mayor recognized WWALS, which is a first.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading →