Tag Archives: Reames and Son Construction

Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Regular 2025-04-22

It is mysterious why 7.b. Val Del Rd and N. Valdosta Rd. Intersection improvement was only added in this Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. They’ve been leading up to it for a long time. Apparently the two bids were only opened the previous day; I thought bid openings were scheduled.

Collage @ LCC 21 April 2025

In this meeting, they talked about that intersection for almost seven minutes, which is very long for this body. The intersection will completely close starting May 27, probably for most of the summer. It will end up with two lanes going north, and three lanes going south: one left only, one left or straight, one right only.

The old US 41 North facebook group has renamed itself to follow this development
https://www.facebook.com/LowndesCoHwy41WideningRoadProjectUpdates

Second longest was Continue reading →

Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Work 2025-04-21

Update 2025-04-29: Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Regular 2025-04-22.

It took 14 minutes, the Monday morning Work Session. Much of that the Lowndes County Commission spent on the LMIG road resurfacing item and on the two court grant items.

They voted this evening at 5:30 PM: LAKE videos to come.

Collage @ LCC 21 April 2025

At the Work Session, Lowndes County Commissioner Michael Smith volunteered for one of the two posts available on 5.a. Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), with Juliana Powell having already applied for one of them.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know whether there were any problems with DEI on the 6.a. Acceptance of the VAWA Continuation Grant Award for 2025. Nobody seemed to know, or to address the question.

Commissioner Marshall asked a similar question about 6.b. FY2026 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Application. County Manager Paige Dukes said basically that with things changing daily in the federal goverment, nobody knows. Commissioner Michael Smith had a question about service areas.

There was some chit-chat about 6.c. Emergency Purchase – Naylor Tower Top Amp Replacement.

There was some discussion of districts, specific roads, and state funding, after Commissioner Wisenbaker asked to have the list of roads being repaved read out for 7.a. 2025 LMIG Resurfacing Bids (Project #: ENG 2025-01).

Here are LAKE videos of each agenda item, with a few comments by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist. Continue reading →

Packet: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC 2025-04-21

Update 2025-04-22: Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Work 2025-04-21.

It’s a pretty light agenda for the Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday morning, April 21, with voting the Regular Session Tuesday evening, April 22.

Two posts are open with only one applicant for appointment to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD).

There is a regular court grant renewal and an application for another.

Lightning caused the Emergency Purchase – Naylor Tower Top Amp Replacement.

And there are road resurfacing projects using state and SPLOST funds.

Collage @ LCC Packet 2025-04-21

Of those projects, two are mostly or completely reimbursed from funds outside the county. So it is hard to add them up in a simple table like this.

Cost	What
$-36,776.00	Emergency Purchase – Naylor Tower Top Amp Replacement (Capital funding)
$-342,493.00	FY2026 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Application (reimbursed by CICC)
$-1,478,673.94	2025 Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) Resurfacing Bids (Funding: SPLOST/LMIG)
$-1,857,942.94	Total

Here is the agenda.

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

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2025, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2025, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Regular 2024-05-14

An hour-long Regular Session is very unusual for the Lowndes County Commission. Much of it was taken up by two rezonings: REZ-2024-08 on River Road (10:43) and REZ-2024-09 Dasher Grove Subdivision (12:24). For River Road, the applicant discussed setbacks and fire trucks and answered Commissioner questions about house prices and lot sizes. For Dasher Grove, Commissioner questions were mostly about how many lots and when T-SPLOST road work on Val Del Road would take place. Remember, that road work is your tax dollars going to subsidize subdivisions.

Nobody spoke against those rezonings nor against any of the others. All the rezonings and everything else passed unanimously, including they reappointed Hospital Authority incumbent Shirley Garland as expected.

Collage @ LCC Regular 14 May 2024

There was discussion about the apparent price rise by 8.b. Pronto Consulting for Software as a Service to manage probationers. It is actually just that Pronto started with a discount, and this time is not supplying a discount. The total undiscounted amount was always in the county budget.

In Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, Mark Perkins of Lake Park had some questions about the burn ordinance.

Also, Representative John LaHood (R-175) was recognized by the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) for his work on legislation regarding Service Delivery Strategies.

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

Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Work 2024-05-13

Update 2024-05-27: Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Regular 2024-05-14.

This Work Session was long by Lowndes County Commission standards, more than half an hour.

Collage @ LCC 13 May 2024

Almost half of that, 13 and a half minutes, was on 7.c. REZ-2024-08 River Road, 4374 River Road, mostly about spacing between houses and fire risk.

Another five minutes was on 7.d. REZ-2024-09 Dasher Grove, about the timeline for Val Del Road improvements.

Notice the Val Del Road improvements are TIA projects, which means tax-paid road improvements to benefit a private developer. Yet this and other such rezonings appear in the agenda as “BUDGET IMPACT: NA”.

Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker asked if the packet materials could be projected on the screen for 6.a. Appointment – Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County. ITS Director Aaron Kostyu said he did not have the ability to do that.

Well, the County Planner manages to project all the materials for the rezonings. Why can’t the ITS Director project materials for other board agenda items?

Or the County Commissioners can look at the LAKE website, I suppose.

Or county staff could put the board packet on the county’s own website.

Either way, the Commissioners could use the Internet to look at it on their tablets.

The Commissioners could just direct staff to put the packet on the county’s website.

Commissioners also had some questions about why the increases in Continue reading →

Packet: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC 2024-05-13

Update 2024-05-17: Videos: Hospital Authority appointment, 6 rezonings, paving and resurfacing, subdision infrastructure, probationers @ LCC Work 2024-05-13.

This week the Lowndes County Commission takes on six rezonings and other business, including $1,194,081.20 in 2024 Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) Resurfacing Bids, paid for by your Transportation Improvement Act (TIA) sales tax.

Hospital Authority, 6 rezonings, probationers, paving and resurfacing, subdivision infrastructure, road abandonment @ LCC 2024-04-13

Here is the agenda.

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

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 13, 2024, 8:30 A.M.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2024, 5:30 P.M.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: ULDC amendments, Voting machine security, Library Board, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Regular 2023-07-11

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked for clarifications on chickens being excluded from conservation in 6.a. TXT-2023-01 ULDC Text Amendments, County Manager Bill Slaughter said there were two kinds of conservation: land use and taxes, and the exclusion only applied to one of them; not clear which one.

Collage @ LCC 11 July 2023

Gretchen Quarterman spoke against the amendments being voted on without more time for the general public to review and comment, as she did at the preceding Planning Commission meeting. She pointed out she still could not find the amendments on the county’s website, there had been only one county announcement of these changes, and no listing of the changes. Nobody spoke for. The Chairman asked for rebuttal, but there was none.

Commissioners had no discussion, and voted unanimously to approve the ULDC text amendments.

They unanimously approved everything else, except Continue reading →

Videos: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Work 2023-07-10

Update 2023-10-16: Videos: ULDC amendments, Voting machine security, Library Board, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Regular 2023-07-11.

This time the ULDC text amendments are on the agenda as a Public Hearing.

Collage @ LCC 10 July 2023

However, Lowndes County still has not put the proposed amendments on its website. You can see them in the board packet on the LAKE website (they are different from the draft that was in the Planning Commission packet).

But that’s only because LAKE sent an open records request for that packet and posted it. Why should the general public have to do that, when the county already showed draft amendments to the Homebuilders Association more than a month ago? We know this because the the County Manager said so in the June 12th County Commission meeting: “In addition to the Planning Commission, the amendments have also been shared with the Homebuilders Association, as our largest group of stakeholders, we’d like for them to be able to give us some feedback.” Continue reading →

Packet: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchases houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC 2023-07-10

Update 2023-07-11: Videos: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Work 2023-07-10.

Four terms expire on the South Georgia Regional Library Board (SGRLB) and all four people want to be reappointed. Plus another term will be vacant and two people want to be appointed to that: Catherine Ammons and Sarah Fitzgerald.

The Lowndes County Commission will hear these items this morning at 8:30 AM, and will vote on them at 5:30 PM tomorrow evening.

The text amendments to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) are on the agenda, even though the Planning Commission recommended tabling it for 30 days for the public to review. The version in this board packet is different from the version shown to the Planning Commission. Even county staff are asking for more time for the solar amendment.

Collage, LCC Packet 2023-07-10

The County Commissioners will vote on more than two and a half million dollars, mostly in road paving and insurance.

Plus they’re buying the houses next to where they want to make Griner Park near the county palace, and only a few blocks from where the City of Valdosta has already made Unity Park with an amphitheater.

And yet more of your tax dollars go to fix the private water system at Alapaha Plantation.

On the bright side, the land formerly rezoned for a biomass plant is now requested to be rezoned for boat and RV storage. Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange