Really; those are the names of two of the organizations they spoke before:
Great Promise Partnership and Leadership Lowndes.
And what is the mystery Project XX2?
Here’s the agenda:
Valdosta — Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
The biggest population center for 80 miles around is Valdosta and Lowndes County.
Albany to the northwest actually has more people than Valdosta, but Dougherty County
has fewer than Lowndes County.
Beyond Albany it’s Columbus and then Auburn is about the same size as Valdosta.
Farther north it’s Warner Robins and Macon. Due west Dothan it’s Dothan. The closest bigger place is Tallahassee and Leon County, Florida to the southwest. Farther south it’s Gainesville, then Orlando and Tampa. East it’s Savannah, and of course Jacksonville.
On this handy interactive google population comparison chart, you can see in the 3-6,000 range: Adel, Ashburn, and Lakeland.
14-20,000: Americus, Brunswick, Moultrie, Thomasville, Tifton, and Waycross.
55-60,000: Auburn and Valdosta.
67-80,000: Continue reading
Who’s responsible for the recent partiality in budget reports?
The newspaper, or its source of information, namely the county government
at its secretive retreat on the Chairman’s private property that even the VDT reporter had trouble finding?
When the Coroner and the Sheriff (often at odds lately) agree that the VDT’s version of the county government’s remarks about their budgets was at best partial, where is the source of that partiality? Who’s responsible for budgeting for the county, reporter Matthew or editor Kay Harris or Dean Poling? Or is it the local government our taxes pay to do that job, namely the Lowndes County Commission and its staff, which is managed by County Manager Joe Pritchard?
Maybe somebody down at the county palace should,
as Gretchen suggested recently,
“check our work”.
-jsq
Just a few cracks a couple of years ago turned into a 90 foot wide
and 60 foot deep sinkhole Thursday.
At least six houses affected in north Florida,
above the same Floridan Aquifer that produces sinkholes here in south Georgia.
Here in Lowndes County Michael McCormick has more than a few cracks:
he has a sinkhole in his garage.
Will Lowndes County do something before we wake up to news of
man’s house fell into a sinkhole overnight?
ABC News Blogs 14 November 2013, Florida Sinkhole Swallows Home
Six other homes have been evacuated as a precaution and Duke Energy has shut down power to the area.
A growing sinkhole in Florida has swallowed Continue reading
Like
the Sheriff, the Coroner reports
that something’s rotten in the
Lowndes County Commission and staff’s version of his budget.
Dean Poling write for the VDT today, Coroner responds to county budget issues,
Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson explained Friday that comments calling him one of the county budget’s “worst offenders” did not explain why his office’s expenses change from year to year.
“I have no control over the number of people that dies each year,” Watson told The Times, “and I have to fund the transportation for autopsies. Any time there is an autopsy, it costs my office about $750.”
These costs include Continue reading
LTE in the VDT today. -jsq
Sheriff’s Response to “budget woes”
The Sheriff’s Office has received a lot of criticism in the last several months. It appears to be the fashionable thing these days and an easy target. Sheriff Prine did not receive an invitation to the Chairman’s personal property for a review of the county’s budget and criticism of the Sheriff’s budget in particular. There are some facts that have not been reported by the Valdosta Daily Times, which may or may not have been provided.
First it should be noted that the Sheriff’s Office general fund budget was reduced from last year’s budget by $171,306.
This was before another $130,492 was taken away in August as a result of shift in traffic citation processing responsibilities to the Clerk’s Office.
A closer look at some of the specific line items targeted for criticism will show Continue reading
They detailed spending by the Sheriff and the Coroner,
yet never seemed to say how much the Commission itself has spent
sueing a local business.
And what was that executive session about?
Doesn’t
Georgia Open Meetings Law say they have
to say what it’s for?
Here’s the agenda. See also County discusses budget woes: Sheriff’s department, coroner are ‘worst offenders’, by Matthew Woody, VDT, 15 November 2013.
Here’s a video playlist for the entire Lowndes County Commission Retreat Work Session.
Videos: Budget, SPLOST, and 2014 Planning
Retreat Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 November 2013.
-jsq
Valdosta city PR today, City Receives $36.7 million GEFA Loan to Move Forward with Force Main Project,
The City of Valdosta was awarded a $36.7 million Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) loan by the
Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA), on Nov. 14, 2013.
The city will use the low-interest loan to finance the construction of two major pump stations, two minor pump stations, a 6-mile 32-inch and 40-inch force main, a headworks structure with grit removal and bar screens, and a 6-million gallon equalization basin. Wastewater will be gravity fed to the existing site of the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) for final treatment and discharged utilizing the existing plant outfall, until the relocation of the plant is completed in November 2015.
This project will Continue reading
A local mom said she was one of many landowners being bullied
by a pipeline company and asked for help from local leaders,
at the
7 November 2013 Valdosta City Council Regular Session.
Here’s Part 1 of 2:
Carol Singletary’s impassioned and reasoned plea
got a response from Mayor John Gayle,
even if it was only Continue reading
Fan of local government Gretchen suggested it
“check our work” before whipsawing citizens in for items
that didn’t happen or failing to schedule a public hearing
even after the Chairman asked for it, plus failing do deliver
what was promised in open records requests,
at the
12 November 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Today she’s checking their work at
their secretive Retreat Work Session.
At the Regular Session she noted that the Sabal Trail item that was misscheduled for the previous morning caused several citizens to take off work to come in for something that didn’t happen. (You can find out more about that pipeline Saturday morning at 10AM at the SpectraBusters Informational Meeting.
She mentioned the Green Lane item that the Chairman had asked Continue reading