HISTORY, FACTS, AND ISSUES: The certified Lowndes County fatality
rate: 2006-14, 2007-14, 2008~19, 2009-16, 2010-18, 2011-15,
2012-11, 2013-7, 2014-14, 2015-19, 2016-20. Any traffic
fatality in Lowndes County is too many. For numerous years, the
county has been plagued with an unacceptable fatality rate.
Consistently for ten years between 2006 and 2016 we suffered with as
much as nineteen people dying annually in crashes. In April 2012 the
Sheriff created the SPEED team which joined forces with the Valdosta
Police HEAT team. Together both agencies diligently fought to reduce
the fatality rate. In 2013, Lowndes County recorded an unprecedented
lowest rate of the decade with seven fatalities.
Citizen Delores Matchett wanted to know why Howell Lane isn’t paved when all the streets around it are; she mentioned several new subdivisions.
She said Commissioners had no idea how fast people drive on that dirt road.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall noted (as a different Commissioner did
Monday morning) that
the three lift station pumps are no-bid.
The agenda sheets for them said because of some unexplained county policy.
They vote Tuesday night at 5:30 PM. In these LAKE videos of Monday morning’s
8.5 minute Work Session, you can see they are buying
three new lift station pumps, and for each:
“This pump has not been bid due to it being a sole source item in accordance
with the County’s standards and specifications.”
One commissioner did ask about that.
Where can we see these no-bid standards and specifications?
In other water news, they are likely to approve the annual renewal of the
USGS Little River GA 122 stream gauge, which they started paying for after the 2009 floods.
They actually named an appointee in the agenda!
Dr. Wilhelmenia Howell for Georgia Department Of Behavioral Health And Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD).
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
As expected from the previous morning, they appointed
Chairman Bill Slaughter to the South Georgia Community Service Board, after he got that board to change the time of its meetings to be different from this Commission’s time.
Video.
A Commissioner after the vote appointing Chairman Slaughter
asked what this board did.
Chairman’s answer: mostly behavioral health,
and they used to hold their meetings the same time as the Lowndes meetings,
but they have moved them to Adel at 1PM presumably also on Tuesday.
Video.
For quite a bit more background, see the LAKE video from the previous morning’s Work Session.
Chairman asked for timeline.
Ashley Tye said federal year starts October 1st, so Valdosta would like to have
and agreement ready to sign before then.
Also they could come back at a later time, but could lose out on the federal
funding match.
Chairman asked for timeline to get agreement ready by then.
Tye said agreement with USGS would be with Valdosta,
and he would check back with them for a more firm date,
and would probably be best to decide at next Lowndes County Commission meeting.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked confirmation that waiting until the
next meeting would work.
Answer: tabling until next meeting would work.
And that’s what they did.
They vote Tuesday 5:30 PM.
Monday morning at the Work Session,
after some resistance from a Commissioner, surprisingly Chairman Bill Slaughter
argued for
paying the $40,000 to match Valdosta on the LiDAR flood maps
to prevent loss of life and property damage.
He even said “folks that live in our cities are Lowndes County Citizens as well.”
Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye
answered questions the Commissioners didn’t think to ask about Continue reading →
