Oh, look, they’ve apparently taken up
Scott Orenstein’s suggestion
and moved Citizens Wishing to be Heard to the end of the meeting!
Personally, I think that’s a fine idea as long as Commissioners stay
for that item.
Continue reading
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
He says there’s a lot more to learn,
T-SPLOST has got a good regional executive committee,
etc., but:
Right now, I do not have a good or warm fuzzy feeling about this. That could change.And previously he said if it did change, he would come back and tell us about it.
That was Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC), talking at the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) monthly meeting about T-SPLOST.
Here’s the video:
Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: Questions.
-jsq
Gretchen Quarterman, Chair of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
thanks
Corey Hull of VLMPO and says the next speaker will give us
some inside knowledge about T-SPLOST.
Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC)
is not a fan of T-SPLOST.
He says:
He made that point at least three times.Y’all know I’m on the executive committee, so I guess I should be a salesman. But I’m sorry. Y’all know me pretty well, I’ve got to really be not just a little bit correct, but it’s got to be good for the people. I think what disturbs me, is when you’ve got to put something in the law that’s a stick, carrot and stick, you don’t do what I’ve said you’re going to get punished.
He also doesn’t like Continue reading
OK, so
the regional executive committee selects from the T-SPLOST lists
submitted by the local jurisdications and boomaranged through GDOT.
Then what?
Corey Hull of VLMPO says:
Public meetings will be held in August and September before the regional transportation roundtable meets before October 15th; that’s what their deadline is to vote….Here’s the video:The referendum will be in the summer of 2012 … July or August 2012….
Then the tax begins January 2013.
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: Ashley Paulk talks about the T-SPLOST executive committee.
-jsq
Corey Hull of VLMPO explains that next they go to GDOT and then back.
Here’s the video:…
On June 1st or thereabouts, the executive committee that Chairman Paulk is on is gonna receive the unconstrained project list. It won’t be … constrained to the amount of money the economists say we will receive.
…
It is that executive committee’s responsibility to go through and select projects and select the projects off that we can afford for the region.
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: Referendum in 2012.
-jsq
That’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant Program (LMIG). So if they get $100,000 from LMIG they’ll have to match that with $50,000. This will affect smaller communities the most, since they use the most LMIG funds proportionally. And the most likely way to raise the funds to match is to raise property taxes.If the regional transportation roundtable does not agree on a list to present to the voters by October 15th of 2011, then each jurisdiction in this region must match their Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant … at a rate of 50%.
So what if there is a list on the ballot but the voters vote it down? Continue reading
The 75% pot of T-SPLOST funds is what the project lists recently
submitted by Lowndes County
and the City of Valdosta are about,
according to
Corey Hull, continuing his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting.
Those are projects of regional significance that the local jurisdictions want the voters to actually vote on that project.The other 25% goes to local jurisdictions, like this:
| $1,300,000 | Lowndes County (unincorporated portion) |
| $600,000 | Valdosta |
| $30,000 | Hahira |
| $5,000 | Dasher |
| $14,000 | Lake Park |
| $9,000 | Remerton |
Here’s the video:
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: penalties if the voters don’t approve.
-jsq
Continuing:
Back to the VDT editorial:
Continue reading
T-SPLOST Business plan —Corey Hull of VLMPO at LCDP (Part 2)
Corey Hull continued
his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting by talking about
the statewide business plan for the state of Georgia.
It is not a project list; it’s estimates of how much money is needed
and how much money can be raised.
The plan identifies
$35 billion to meet the needs in Georgia today.
However, $72 billion are needed to meet the transportation
needs to sustain Georgia’s economy into the future.
Of course, that’s according to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT),
which notoriously is not interested in trains or other mass transit:
if it’s not a road or a road bridge, forget it.
And $1 billion is needed here in Lowndes County.
Lowndes County’s transportation plan through the
Metropolitan Planning Organization
has about a billion dollars in projects.
A billion dollars right here in Lowndes County?
Continue reading
VDT says VLCIA illegally made up a document
Today’s editorial in the VDT is
Another Industrial Authority misstep
refers to the VDT
article
and
editorial
of Sunday, and continues:
Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached”
that wasn’t actually attached to
documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011.
Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT,
presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request,
even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.
The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project
Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by
Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts,
the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial
Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open
Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot
produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If
he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the
Open Records Act.
Just say no to biomass –VDT to VLCIA
VDT reported on
Biomass plant misses deadlines,
but what do they really think?
The title is my paraphrase of Sunday’s editorial title,
It’s all up to the Industrial Authority:
Well, the City of Valdosta could
refuse to sell the wastewater.
And maybe the Lowndes County Commission could exercise its
fiduciary responsibility.
But, sure, the Industrial Authority could just say no.
In two months, less than 60 days away, Wiregrass Power LLC is supposed to
break ground on the biomass facility in Lowndes County. By now, they are
supposed to have contracts with power companies to sell the electricity
to and with suppliers to purchase the wood waste. They have neither,
nor does the company have an agreement with the city of Valdosta to
purchase the wastewater from the sewage treatment plant.
Folks?
Like Col. Ricketts?
But remember, he and
Lame-Duck Lofton
are only
Continue reading .jpg)
And yet the folks at the Industrial Authority appear to be rather
nonchalant about the fact that this company has yet again broken its
agreement. They have the power to renogiate the terms of the agreement and
they also have the power to cancel it, but neither is happening. Instead,
they are giving the company all the leeway they need to continue dragging
this project along that the community doesn’t want.