Tag Archives: Transparency

Lowndes County web site not responding

Safari First noticed about 1PM, still down at 3:30PM, for http://www.lowndescounty.com/

Safari can’t open the page
Safari can’t open the page “http://www.lowndescounty.com/” because the server unexpectedly dropped the connection. This sometimes occurs when the server is busy. Wait for a few minutes, and then try again.

Firefox Similar results with Firefox and Google-Chrome.

I even tried it from somewhere far away geographically and on another ISP, and got this with lynx:

Chrome Alert!: Unexpected network read error; connection aborted.
Can’t Access `http://www.lowndescounty.com/’
Alert!: Unable to access document.

So it looks like the Lowndes County Commission’s website is down.

Have you seen their facebook page? Here’s the entire contents of it:

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I have obtained the binder of the documents —Joe Pritchard

The County Manager has found the legal documents on issuance of the the bonds Chairman Slaughter listed in his letter of 18 January.

Received yesterday (as a *.docx file, and still to the wrong email address, but this time including both residence and postal addresses), County Manager Joe Pritchard followed up on his email of 29 January, in which he had seemed puzzled about the term "financial instruments" (it's a standard term in business and investing) such as I asked for 28 January. I thank Mr. Pritchard once again for responding. (I thanked Chairman Bill Slaughter in person the other day.) The relevant correspondance about the flyer that Mr. Pritchard previously wrote was created by the VDT is still missing. I will ask for that Monday, when I respond to Mr. Pritchard's most courteous offer to inspect the financial instruments.

Here's Mr. Pritchard's letter. -jsq

Joe Pritchard February 1, 2013

John Quarterman
6565 Quarterman Road
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605

Dear Mr. Quarterman:

To follow up my email of yesterday, I have obtained the binder of the documents executed at the closing of the $15,500,000 CVDA

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Why must the small business owner be discarded? —Deep South Sanitation

Cary Scarborough, owner of a local sanitation business, previously asked the Commission not to grant a monopoly on waste collection. He was quoted in today’s VDT article, and he has elaborated on his company’s facebook page.

To the Commission, 13 November 2012:

Don’t do this to private enterprise, to an individual. If it’s done to me, it will get easier later down the road to do it to someone else.

In the VDT:

“I have not been told by the County that what I’m doing is illegal,” Scarborough said. “But I realize they’ve drawn up an ordinance, and they’re probably going to say that it’s illegal. If they come after me, I guess they have to come after me.”

Scarborough believes that if the citizens aren’t required to contract with Advanced Disposal, they are then allowed to choose.

“If the citizens can choose, why can’t they choose me?” he said.

On Deep South Sanitation’s public facebook page:

“REGARDING THE ISSUE OF THE TRASH ORDINANCE IN LOWNDES COUNTY”

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No choice on trash —”representatives from Lowndes County”

The VDT went deep under the Lowndes County government’s anonymous cover for an interview with “representatives” who confirmed that unincorporated residents have no choice for trash collection other than the monopoly the Commission granted to a company from New York City.

Jason Schaefer wrote on the front page of the VDT today, County trash ordinance goes into effect Friday: VDT has Q&A with county leadership about new law, burning,

VDT: Lowndes County has said residents aren’t required to sign a service contract with Advanced Disposal. What other services are there in the area, and do they include Deep South Sanitation in Valdosta?

LC: “According to the solid waste ordinance, Advanced Disposal will be the only residential hauler licensed to serve unincorporated Lowndes County. There’s been some confusion about trash collection service in the city. This ordinance is just for unincorporated Lowndes County, not for any of the cities.”

Maybe these were the same “representatives” who sent an unsigned letter saying there were 5,000 residents of unincorporated parts of Lowndes County who didn’t already have curbside service, and they have one choice now: the one-and-only county-appointed purveyor of waste bins. What could possibly go wrong?

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Created by the newspaper, not the county —Joe Pritchard

Thanks to County Manager Joe Pritchard for responding to my letter of Monday. He partly (but not completely) answered my question by saying the VDT did it. More on that later.

He included a PDF copy of Bill Slaughter’s letter of January 18th. Perhaps Mr. Pritchard was unaware that letter didn’t reach me until after my letter of Monday, because the county sent it to the wrong address. Mr. Pritchard’s email response was also sent to the wrong address, although fortunately email to that business address does reach me. He also copied the Chairman at his business address instead of at his Lowndes County address. In any case, electronic copy is almost always more useful than paper, so I thank Mr. Pritchard for sending that PDF copy.

Here’s Mr. Pritchard’s letter. -jsq

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Regarding the recently refinanced bonds —Bill Slaughter

Many thanks to Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter for taking the time to respond to a citizen's question in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard! The response didn't actually answer my question, but that may be because the question wasn't clear enough without a copy of the flyer that claimed the county's new judicial and administrative complex was "100% Paid by SPLOST" and "$0 Balance Owed"; see next post.

An hour or two after I sent a letter to County Manager Joe Pritchard Monday, someone from the county called to say Chairman Bill Slaughter had sent me a letter in response to my question to the Commission about bonds, but it had been returned by the Post Office. As you can see by the image of the envelope, they sent it to my residence address, where I don't get mail. That's why I always include my postal address on Citizens Wishing to Be Heard forms, open records requests, etc. Anyway, they made it available for pickup at the county palace. Ten days after the PO sent it back to them is better than never.

Here's Chairman Slaughter's letter. -jsq

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Tourism Board Meeting @ VLCCCTA 2013-01-23

Last week I went to the Rainwater Conference Center to attend the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center & Tourism Authority Board Meeting.

I had discovered the time and date of this meeting by asking at the information booth at the Conference Center one day when I was there for another event.

I arrived slightly before the 8:00 appointed time and was greated warmly by Councilman Tim Carroll and Conference Center Director Tim Riddle. Being the Conference Center, they served a hot breakfast (other morning boards have fruits and sweets but this was something that you might get up for).

As 8:00 came there was apparently not a quorum, so calls went out to missing members to see if one more could be attacted. At 8:15 it was clear that there would be no additional members coming so no formal meeting was held, no votes were taken but an informal review of the agenda was performed:

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Planning Commission yesterday: did you know? @ GLPC 2013-01-28

Did you see an agenda or an announcement that the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) was meeting yesterday? Agenda @ GLPC 2013-01-28 Nor did LAKE. Matt Martin, Valdosta City Planner, usually sends an agenda to Gretchen, but there were no Valdosta items on this agenda, so he apparently didn’t even get one. And the county still doesn’t publish GLPC agendas, so if there was an item on there that affected you, how could you know? Does that seem right to you?

On the agenda were three Lowndes County rezoning items, all involving C-H (Highway Commercial), and one Lake Park rezoning case, going to R-P (Residential/Professional). Here’s a summary of the cases. You know, if I can do this in a couple of minutes by typing it in from a photograph that Gretchen took, Lowndes County could do it in a second by pressing Export to PDF. Now that there’s a new Chairman, maybe he’ll say they should do that.

Lowndes County,
Final action
Tuesday 12 Feb 2013 		4. REZ-2012-20 Corbett
US 41 South and Newsome Road, Valdosta
Request to rezone ~5 acres from E-A (Estate Agriculture) to C-H (Highway Commercial)
5. REZ-2013-01 Barrentine
102 Davis Road East, Valdosta
Request to rezone 1.2 acres from C-H (Highway Commercial) to R-1 (Low Density Residential)
6. REZ-2013-02 Interstate Land Management
Briarwood Road along I-75, Valdosta
Request to rezone 4.87 acres from R-1 (Low Density Residential) to C-H (Highway Commercial)
Lake Park,
Final Action
Tuesday 5 Feb 2013 		LP-12-2012-01 Karen K. Nolan and Blanche C. Bush
105 Broadway Street, Lake Park
Request to rezone 0.46 acres from R-15 (Single Family Residential) to R-P (Residential/Professional)

-jsq

Dear Mr. Pritchard: How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off? —John S. Quarterman

I sent this today. -jsq

 
From: John S. Quarterman <questions@quarterman.com>
Cc: bslaughter@lowndescounty.com, jevans@lowndescounty.com, rraines@lowndescounty.com, cpowell@lowndescounty.com, dmarshall@lowndescounty.com, jpage@lowndescounty.com, questions@quarterman.com
Subject: How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off?

Dear Mr. Pritchard,

You may recall that at the Lowndes County Commission meeting of the 8th of January 2013, I asked the following:

“When this building complex was opened in 2010, the county put out a double-sheet flyer saying it was completely paid off out of SPLOST money, with zero dollars owed. I’m wondering how it is that then, either in November or December, the Commission just before your one here, refinanced bonds that included I think it was six or seven million dollars for this very building complex? I’m very confused by that. I wonder if someone could clarify how we’re paying on something that was completely 100% paid off with zero owed.”

I asked Commissioner Crawford Powell this question at the going-away reception for former Chairman Ashley Paulk on 14 December 2012, and he referred me to you for an answer. It has been more than two weeks since I asked in a Commission Regular Session and I have received no answer. So I ask again.

Specifically:

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KLVB Alapaha River cleanup at Old State Road in 2007

So if Old State Road to the Alapaha River has, according to the criteria recited by County Engineer Mike Fletcher, “ceased to be used by the public to the extent that no substantial public purpose is served by it”, why did Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) do a cleanup there in 2007? Is the removal of that section of road “from the county road system… in the public’s best interest”?

Jessica Pope wrote for the VDT 30 September 2007, River cleanup,

Saturday’s Alapaha River cleanup will be held in cooperation with Rivers Alive, a statewide annual volunteer waterway cleanup that targets Georgia’s 70,150 miles of streams and rivers each October, and Hands On Georgia Week 2007, which will culminate on Saturday with Hands on Atlanta Day, the largest volunteer service day in the country. A number of volunteers will spend the day cleaning Georgia’s waterways, building wheelchair ramps, collecting cans of food for Georgia’s food banks and as picking up trash along Georgia’s highways.

Anyone interested in participating in the Alapaha River cleanup Saturday should head on U.S. 84 East past Naylor, turn left on Good Hope Road then turn right on Old State Road. Small boats and canoes are welcome. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., and participation waivers must be signed.

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