Tag Archives: sound

Kim Greene, CEO, Southern Company Gas, at 5701 Quarterman Road 2019-05-10

Update 2023-02-15: New CEOs for Southern Company and Georgia Power 2023-01-09.

The future CEO of Georgia Power visited 5701 Quarterman Road in Lowndes County in 2019 to inspect a completely rebuilt methane pipeline station.

Movie: Kim Greene, CEO, Southern Company Gas

This, on my property, is where the Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) pipeline starts that goes to Homerville, GA, where in 2018 its gas blew up a coffee shop and sent three women to Shands in Gainesville, FL, with third-degree burns.

But the rebuild had nothing to do with that event. Continue reading →

Now with sound! @ LCC 2013-06-10

After the soundless 10 June 2013 Lowndes County Commission Work Session, Gretchen requested, County Clerk Paige Dukes promised and a few days later delivered, sound recordings on CDs of both that meeting and the next day’s Regular Session. LAKE thanks the County Clerk for those recordings. Gretchen has integrated the county sound with the LAKE video recordings and I have updated the Work Session blog post. But what about state open records law?

These CDs demonstrate the county does make recordings of the Commission meetings, at least of sound. The County Clerk told Gretchen the recordings are erased after the Clerk is finished with them. Hm, since such recordings are records of public meetings, wouldn’t that make them public open records? And if they are, wouldn’t destroying them be illegal?

According to state law on the GA Secretary of State’s website:

Continue reading →

Buffer variance? VAR-2012-07 Copeland @ ZBOA 2011-06-05

A controversial case made its way from the Planning Commission for a rezoning recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance decision, all before it reached the Lowndes County Commission for a decision on the rezoning.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) had one Lowndes County case at its 5 June 2012 meeting, a buffer variance request, VAR-2012-07. Related aspects of this same property had already been heard by the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) on 21 May 2012 as the controversial rezoning case REZ-2012-09 Copeland. ZBOA member Nancy Hobby recused herself from VAR-2012-07. ZBOA discussed it at great length and eventually decided to table it. ZBOA, unlike GLPC, does actually make binding decisions, but chose not to do so at this meeting for this case.

Presenting the Case

Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator, presented the case, saying the property owner, John A. Copeland, wanted a buffer variance for his property at 3258 Loch Laurel Road. The applicant and four neighbors spoke for the buffer variance, but one neighbor spoke against, and others had hired locally famous lawyer Bill Nijem to speak against.
Carmella Braswell noted that GLPC had moved its meeting ahead a week, but staff had managed to meet statutory requirements. ZBOA wanted to know what they were buffering against. Answer seemed to be one single-family residence and a pasture. Ms. Braswell said staff had considered buffering according to the zoning statutes, and there were for example churches nearby, plus the existing buffering was mostly on other landowners’ property, and the applicant would be required to plant his own vegetative buffer, plus staff recommended a six foot privacy fence. Dave Kirk noted the abuse of the property had been occuring since 1967. Ms. Braswell said that was unbenownst to county zoning. Also there was no current business license on the property, not since 2007. Gretchen Quarterman asked how long the residents to the north had been there: before or after 2007. Ms. Braswell said well before 2007, and they were present at the meeting. (See Gail Hiers below.)

Speaking For