Tag Archives: Transportation

Four board appointments, animal tethering, bus, trash, homeland security, mutual aid, and housing @ LCC 2016-03-21

Work Session 8:30 AM this morning, and Tuesday evening finally voting on the Animal Services Ordinance including tethering, and (who knew about this?) appointing Christina Bennett to the Animal Control Board.

Renewing the annual Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Capital Contract for the MIDS bus service is on the agenda, as is appointing three people to the Valdosta Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) out of these four: Ronald Skrine, Tammy Greenway, Floyd Rose, Bob Wilburs. As usual, how were people supposed to know? And where are the applications of those named? Continue reading →

Issues and Opportunities in Comprehensive Plan Workshop @ SGRC 2016-03-21

This Reminder came in today, refreshingly explicitly mentioning agriculture. Note the different location, this time at the Health Dept. office after the Planning Commission meeting.

The next workshop for the 2016 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan Update will be:

Monday, March 21, 2016
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 W. Savannah Avenue
Valdosta, Georgia

At this workshop we will Continue reading →

Downtown Parking Deck Public Comment Meeting 2016-03-15

On Valdosta’s website, 9 March 2016, CVDA Hosts Public Forum for Proposed Downtown Parking Deck, Mar. 15

The City of Valdosta and Central Valdosta Development Authority will host a public forum on Tuesday, March 15 to discuss a proposed new parking deck for Downtown Valdosta. The forum will take place at 5 p.m. in the City Hall Annex Multi-Purpose Room, located at 300 N. Lee Street.

The parking deck is being suggested as one option to create additional parking opportunities in Downtown Valdosta. At the forum, conceptual plans for the parking deck will be presented. Key staff members will be present at the meeting, and the public will have the opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback and voice concerns related to the proposed project.

For more information, contact the Main Street office at 229-259-3577.

Noelani Mathews, WCTV, 14 March 2016, Local Shops React to Parking Deck in Downtown Valdosta, Continue reading →

Help fix land revaluation: come to Farm Bureau –Board of Equalization

Come to the Farm Bureau in two weeks to hear Tax Assessor staff present their updates and provide your input Contents for changes to the rural land revaluation, this time taking into account rivers, aquifer recharge zones, and uniformity. Maybe the Tax Assessors actually don’t want more flooding in Valdosta; both the City of Valdosta and GA-EDP have already shown interest in attending about that point.

At an appeal on my property valuation, the Board of Equalization stopped short of actually ordering the Tax Assessors to redo last year’s rural land revaluation, because staff volunteered Continue reading →

Videos: CAC on Skipper Bridge, 3 board appointments, lots of alcohol @ LCC 2016-03-07

See also the previous post for LAKE videos of the preceding Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session. County Manager Joe Pritchard brought up in his Report yesterday morning the annexation request that is part of the Valdosta proposed rezoning for a development on Bemiss Road; see the packet materials for that item obtained by LAKE through open records request. They heard the long-awaited animal tethering ordinance, and will vote on it this evening, as part of an Animal Welfare Ordinance. See agenda posting for the three board appointments, the two Copeland Road items related to water, sewer, pavement, and Lowndes Middle School students, the two Tax Assessor items, others, and, last but not least, the four alcohol items. See also the previous post for LAKE videos of the preceding Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session including the CAC item on Skipper Bridge Road, with a link to the board packet materials for that item that LAKE obtained by open records request.

Below are Continue reading →

CAC on Skipper Bridge, 3 board appointments, lots of alcohol @ LCC 2016-03-07

The long-awaited animal tethering ordinance will be heard Monday morning and voted on Tuesday evening, as part of an Animal Welfare Ordinance. They’re going to reappoint Joyce Evans and Frank Morman to the Landbank Authority. They last reappointed those two 27 March 2012, so apparently they serve four-year terms.

Despite the public not knowing there was an opening on the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Board, they’ve already picked who they’re going to appoint: Chris Yarbrough. What he sent in his application, we don’t know, but his LinkedIn profile says he’s a “Community Supervision Officer III Mental Health Specialist, Georgia Department of Community Supervision, May 1996 – Present (19 years 11 months) Valdosta, Ga.”

Per LAKE open record request, here are the packet items for the Children’s Activity Center (CAC) rezoning on Skipper Bridge Road, REZ-2016-06, as sent to the Continue reading →

Comprehensive Plan Update Workshop @ SGRC 2016-03-07

As promised, there is an updated Work Book online, dated February 29, 2016. Title page As Ariel Godwin also promised, the SGRC website says:

The next workshop will be Monday, March 7, 2016, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the SGRC office, 327 W. Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA.

It will be interesting to see if this version of the Work Book for the 2016 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan Update contains any changes about the issues Greg Odom raised last month (22 February 2016) about road paving, trees, and reducing expense to the county. And LAKE will be at the meeting with the video camera.

-jsq

Videos: Rivers and Pipeline, Rehab homes, LAMP Lease, Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-09

Gretchen thanked them for putting most of the response to her open records request on CDs, shortly after they had said at their recent planning session that they wanted to promote interaction with the community. Still nothing from the county attorney about the Sabal Trail documents, and it’s been well over three days. I invited them on behalf of WWALS to a workshop and a movie; there’s more below. See also the contested rezoning 5.d. REZ-2016-05 Union Rd Subdivision, E-A to R-A, ~114 acres for more water issues.

Three citizens spoke explicitly about the pipeline, Jim Parker, Michael Noll, and Dr. Mario Bartoletti, as also noted in Jason Stewart, VDT, 11 February 2016, Sabal protests continue. As I noted in another post,

I go to a lot of county commission meetings in Georgia and Florida. Nowhere but Lowndes County do I see Continue reading →

Videos: Rehab homes, LAMP Lease, Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, and paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-08

They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.

At yesterday’s Work Session, there were two unscheduled reports. Mark Stalvey of the county Housing Authority said they’re working together with Habitat for Humanity to form a nonprofit for collecting funds for rehabilitating housing, and they’re asking for $5,000 each from Valdosta and Lowndes County to get the nonprofit up and running, in return for which each would get to appoint some board members; the rest would be elected by the nonprofit board.

Last, Tina Folsom with Lowndes Associated Ministries to People (LAMP) said their executive director left, so they don’t need their space in the Leila Ellis building. They’d like to be let out of their lease and have the funds applied to another county building they’re also renting space in.

See previous post for context and the agenda. Below are links to each LAKE video of the Work Session, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, and paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-08

Monday morning 8:30 AM, the Lowndes County Commission will hear about (they vote Tuesday evening) four well and septic rezoning cases, one of them from R-10 to E-A, and another of 114 acres from E-A to R-A. The usual wine, beer, and liquor licenses, a County Purchasing Card and Credit Card Ordinance, a 2016 Public Defender Contract Renewal and Proposal from Lovell Engineering for Stafford Wright Road Paving Project. I remember residents of that road asking years ago for it to be paved; instead the county paved Quarterman Road. Here’s the agenda. See also the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →