In addition to the big ticket items of $1.5 million
approved this week by the Lowndes County Commission,
one rezoning will probably actually cost the county nothing,
and the other will most likely eat up more tax dollars down the road.
The inexpensive one is
REZ-2021-02 on Loch Laurel Road,
where Nancy Hobby is returning some land to Estate Agriculture (EA) zoning.
The pricey one is
REZ-2021-01 Knights Landing Subdivision, Phase 5,
where most likely the county will end up paying for road maintenance
or fixing utilities or something else down the road,
plus fire trucks and school buses.
The agenda packet item says that the
Deen’s LLC Contract
for personal property appraisal costs $84,000,
but that is per year, and the contract is for three years,
so the real price is $252,000. Continue reading →
That’s longer than many of their in-person meetings, maybe because the Chairman
had the Clerk call roll for the Commissioners for each vote.
Both votes were unanimous with no discussion.
Nobody explained why these items were important enough for a Special Called Meeting.
I assume listen-in because there is no Citizens To Be Heard on the agenda.
While Madison County, Florida, BOCC, weeks ago had a participatory conference call meeting, I can’t imagine Lowndes County Commission doing that.
The only agenda items
are how to spend the Hotel/Motel Tax (assuming there is any) for Tourism,
and paying for right of way (ROW) for one parcel so TSPLOST paving of Clyattstone Road and Simpson Lane can continue.
I don’t know why that one paving project is so important.
Special Called Meeting
April 16, 2020, 9:30 AM @ In an effort to respect
social distancing, a conference call line has
been set up for this meeting. The call in number
813-769-0500 and the access code is 373-829-614#
There are only two items being addressed due to
them needing immediate attention.
More Details
That “More Details” link goes to a page that has exactly the same information.
However, unlike most Special Called Meetings, for this one they did post an agenda.
We don’t know whether they will video the meeting.
That would be good, since LAKE can’t go into the building to do that.
See also Continue reading →
Remerton can’t use SPLOST VI funds for an office building, since
the old mill building intended for that has been torn down.
That was the longest item in the Lowndes County Commission Work Seesion of December 9, 2019:
7. Reports – County Manager – Remerton SPLOST Resolution.
Then Commissioner Clay Griner
moved to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel.
Chairman Bill Slaughter reminded him the Commission has only one employee.
Griner agreed, and they went into Executive Session.
The one employee is the County Manager.
They breezed through everything else
their last meeting of calendar year 2019.
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the Continue reading →
In its last meeting of calendar year 2019, the Lowndes County Commission had many
items to wrap up, as you can see in the board packet,
on the LAKE website.
We don’t know why the county sent this packet in black and white.
LAKE videos of the Work Session and Regular Session will follow.
Longest at four and a half minutes on November 12, 2019, was
6.e. Grant Re-Application for the Rural (5311)Transportation Program,
in other words, the MIDS on-demand bus system; follow the link for more notes,
including a question about where have the county funds for this been coming from.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall about the MIDS bus system.
Let’s hope the Arglass project doesn’t turn out like the James Road project a decade ago,
with massive road paving and road and utilities rerouting, and nothing else,
given that the county just approved
a grant and VLDA match of more than a million dollars
for road repaving for Arglass.
with detailed definitions and tax classifications for every occupation in the county.
The mysterious
Joint Ordinance the
Planning Commission keeps cryptically alluding to
turns out to be about revising the charter of the Planning Commission
to add Remerton, to note Lowndes County now handles GLPC’s budget, and other updates.
Received 3:48 PM, Friday, November 8, 2019, “The agenda packet for next week’s meetings is attached. The October 21 & 22, 2019, minutes will be available Monday.”
That Lowndes County Commission in response to a LAKE open records request is now
on the LAKE website.
Finance Director Stephanie Black said due to the
Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights,
if the tax digest (total assessed property value in the county)
goes up, the county has to reduce the millage (tax per $1,000 of property value),
or announce the difference as a tax increase and hold three public hearings,
so they’re rolling back the millage rate slightly: 0.126 mills,
down from 11.064 for 2018 to 10.938 for 2019.
That’s Georgia Senate Bill 177, Act 431, signed April 30, 1999, effective January 1, 2000.
Here is the millage resolution they adopted half an hour later,
in the
board packet, which LAKE only received after this millage meeting and after the Commission voted on this millage change:
She showed some quite informative slides, which for unknown reasons do not
seem to be on
the Finance Department’s web page.
For example, she had a nice summary slide of the five chunks of sales tax these days:
4 cents to the State of Georgia,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (LOST),
split between county and its cities for property tax reduction,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), split between county and its cities for capital improvements,
1 cent to Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST),
split between the county and city school systems for capital improvements
1 cent to Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST),
regionally approved, and split between the county and its cities for transportation capital improvements.
Billed on the lowndescounty.com calendar as
Millage Meeting,
5PM, Tuesday, 27 August 2019, in Commission Chambers before the voting Regular Session,
as usual almost nobody attended, and nobody from the public spoke.
Lowering the Millage Rate
Millage Meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC Millage),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, August 27, 2019.
-jsq
Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
![[Two rezonings and $252,000 for contractor, personal property assessment]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-03-08--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
![[Only two items]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-04-16--special-called-meeting/2020-04-16--lcc-agenda-0001.jpg)
![[With dialin instructions]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-04-16--special-called-meeting/calendar.jpg)
![[WRPDO Site Map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-12-09--lcc-packet/December-9--10-2019-Commission-Meeting-Packet-0025.jpg)
![[2020 LMIG Project Report]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0040.jpg)
![[Electrical Demolition Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0125.jpg)
![[Electrical New Work Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0126.jpg)
![[A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE 2019 AD VALOREM TAX MILLAGES FOR LOWNDES COUNTY]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-08-26--lcc-packet/August-26--27-Meeting-Packet-0015.jpg)
