Tag Archives: Utilities

Videos: Mystery Simpson Road paving, taxes, alcohol, emergency, roads, and law @ LCC 2019-01-22

They vote 5:30 PM this evening on what they discussed this morning.
Longest at two minutes was

5 g. Abandonment of McLeod Road,
followed by

5 i. Speed Zone Ordinance (apparently something was not right at exit 2),
and then at just under a minute:

6 a. Paving on Parker Road and Simpson Road.
Will Scruggs or Reames get the $2 million-plus contract for paving?
(Hint: Reames is the low bidder.)


Oops, sorry: the unscripted

7. Reports – County Manager
actually came in second at 1 minute and 44 seconds.

Finally, after

9. Adjournment,
there was a reminder of some mystery swearing in at 5PM.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also Continue reading →

Mystery Simpson Road paving, taxes, alcohol, emergency, roads, and law @ LCC 2019-01-22

Due to Monday being Martin Luther King Jr. Day,
both the Work Session and the Regular Session will be on Tuesday, January 22, 2019,
at 8:30 AM and 5:30 PM.
Last time they approved paying for right of way on Simpson Road.
This time they’re approving
Paving on Parker Road and Simpson Road.
Why does Simpson Road get this exception to their decade-long custom of never paying for road right of way?
Will Scruggs or Reames get the $2 million-plus contract for paving?
(Hint: Reames is the low bidder.)


Qpublic-lowndes,


Simpson Road in Lowndes County Tax Assessor Maps.

Meanwhile, the county apparently borrowed money for paving,
and is tinkering the
Special Assessment Rate for 2019
from 6.5% to 7.5%.

Hm, the county “currently receives $32,770 annually” Continue reading →

Neighbors oppose Val Del rezoning @ LCC 2018-10-09

If not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, nor with the water and sewer growth plan,
fire and rescue doesn’t want it, and the Planning Commission recommended rejecting it,
what does it take for the Lowndes County Commission to reject a zoning,
in this case for
REZ-2018-17 for
The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road?


Five hands go up, REZ-2018-17

Only three people were allowed to speak against, of the five whose hands went up.

The developer promised restrictive covenants enforced by nobody but the homeowners.
County-imposed conditions on the Nelson Hill development, also on Val Del, were largely waived by county staff without public hearings.
What promises should we believe?

Will the developer’s demand to ignore the Comprehensive Plan
because of “market conditions, supply and demand” prevail?
Do property values of neighbors not matter?
How about saddling the county school system with houses priced too low
for property taxes on them to cover expenses of sending school buses?
Or is profit for a few all that matters?

See the Continue reading →

Force Main, appointments * 3, Val Del rezoning @ LCC 2018-10-08

A
Val-Tech Road 16" Force Main Emergency Repair with
recommendation:

The 16” force main between Coleman Road lift station and James
Road has experienced repeated issues with pipe failure. Several
repairs have been made on one section near 3624 Val-Tech Road. After
detecting another pipe failure along this section staff recommends
we replace a 400′ section of the 16” force main. This is an
emergency and needs to happen ASAP to prevent a sewage spill. Staff
received a quote from RPI for $99,935.00. Staff recommends the
emergency repair be approved for $99,935.00 from RPI.

I think everyone would be in favor of fixing

that recurring leak,
near the green dot at the top of this map.


VALORGIS Lowndes County Sewer Line, Val Tech Road

VALORGIS Map → Streams Waterbodies plus Utilities Service Areas and Lowndes County Sewer Line.

Plus
the annual
USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge,
on

the agenda
for this morning.
Also
appointments
to three boards,
as usual with no previous public invitation
to apply:
Linda Most reappointment to the
Lowndes County Library Board,
Clay Griner reappointment to the
Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority,
and
Jim Scruggs reappointment to the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals.

A

a subdivision rezoning:
The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road.

GLPC voted 5-2-1 against and of TRC only Engineering wanted approval,
with the rest saying:

Overall Planning and Zoning found this request inconsistent with
with the Comprehensive Plan. Utilities found that
development in that area is not supported by the County Water System
Growth Plan.

And

road abandonment,
and
quit claims

for another road.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Rocky Ford Road, Sharp Family, C-G Bemiss Rd @ LCC 2018-02-13



Again like in the

previous morning’s Work Session
the lengthiest regular item was the

rezoning on Rocky Ford Road
for the
church-proposed Camp Rock,
mostly with attorney Jack Langdale speaking for,
including that a “wilderness camp” for unfortunate children doesn’t need
a buffer, and any future buyers of neighboring property beware.

The

Sharp family said for seven years they have been trying to
get somebody to do something about stray dogs,
only to discover Animal Control doesn’t work weekends anymore,
and the Sheriff’s office won’t do anything, even though one
of their family had been killed by the dogs and another bitten, and the dogs
are now into their second and third generations running loose.

Third longest was Continue reading →

Videos: Turner Center presentation, VAWA, Rocky Ford Road @ LCC 2018-02-12



It was Art
(12 minutes of
4. State of the Arts by Cheryl Oliver, Director, Turner Center of the Arts)
Law
(10:46 of

7.c. Solicitor-General’s Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Grant Application
and
1:31 of

Introduction of new Probation Officer, which was not on the agenda),
and
Development
(
6.b. REZ-2018-02, E-A and C-C to E-A and PD-R, 4391 Rocky Ford Rd, ~72 acres)
this morning at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
Actually, all of those items were about law enforcement one way or another.
The Commissioners vote Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM.

Below are Continue reading →

Turner Center for the Arts presentation @ LCC 2018-02-12

After a decade
as Director of the Turner Center for the Arts,

Cheryl Oliver announce last month she is resigning,
and she is
on

the agenda
for this morning at 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission with
"State-of-the-Art Center" Presentation.


Cheryl Oliver

Plus three well and septic public hearings,
one road abandonment,
subdivision roads,
utility relocation for I-75 exits 2 and 11,
and an annual judicial grant application.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

The real worst and best cases of climate change

†What do you want? The planet Venus? The current degraded Earth? Or a better world we know how to create?


What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?

†Joel Pett, Lexington Herald Leader, 18 March 2012,
The cartoon seen ’round the world

Mostly I post about solar and wind power winning, which is what I think is happening.
But sometimes it’s worth a reminder of what could happen if we do nothing about
climate change, and I posted on my facebook page a story about that.
Which actually didn’t go far enough to the real worst case.
Nonetheless, that story has been attacked by numerous parties of all political
and scientific and unscientific stripes for being too doom and gloom.
Yet none of the attackers bothered to mention a best case beyond
“the same world we have now”.
I have news for you: the world we have now is an ecological catastrophe,
and we can do a lot better.
So here’s the real worst case,
the current case, which is far from the best of
all possible worlds,
and the real best case, as I see it.
Plus
what we can do to head for the best case.


grinning fossilized skull

First, the story I posted:
David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine, 9 July 2017,

The Uninhabitable Earth:
Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change
could wreak — sooner than you think.
Notice that word “could”, which a lot of his critics seem to have ignored.
He didn’t say “will”, and he clearly labeled what he was presenting
as worst case scenarios.

In case anybody thinks he was making any of that stuff up,
Wallace-Wells has also linked to an annotated version
with footnotes for every substantial assertion.
The annotated version notes at the top: Continue reading →

Videos: Deep South Sanitation litigation resolution, Animals, MAZ, Water, School @ LCC 2015-06-09



Not on the agenda for the 9 June 2015 Regular Session:

settlement agreement for the county’s unnecessary
lawsuit against Deep South Sanitation.
Commissioners had no questions, but I have two:

  1. how much did the county spend on the lawsuit?
  2. how much did the county end up paying DSS?

Also unscheduled:

Recognition of Leadership Lowndes Attendees.

Citizen

Billy Rowland
had some comments about road grading and wondered how Animal Control
could come take his dog from his posted property yet not do anything
when he reported barking dogs.

They approved a Scruggs Co. contract for

Paving on Coppage Road, which includes curb and gutter to
save some of the tree canopy.
They approved a

Bid for Bemiss Road Mowing even though it’s a state highway, plus
a

Bid for a Zero-Turn Mower for the Public Works Department from Nashville Tractor.
They
approved the

Bid for a Fire Pumper for Lowndes County Fire Rescue
and the

LCSO Patrol Car Laptops Lease Purchase and
tabled the

Lowndes Middle School Utility Service from Valdosta utilities.

Via LAKE open records request,
see the

board packet item
for the complicated

Moody Activity Zones
Text Amendments to the Unified Land Development Code
that were tabled for more time at the Tuesday June 9th 2015 Regular Session
of the Lowndes County Commission.
See the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission
meeting that considered the MAZ and the rezonings on this agenda.
The

Shiver
and

Kinsey
rezonings were
were approved unanimously
with no speakers from the public and no Commissioner comments.
The

Orchard at Stone Creek
rezoning discussion about a retirement home lasted for 14 minutes, including updated maps
that were only provided to LAKE on paper, despite a request for
electronic copy.
See also the
agenda
and the
LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ, Water, School @ LCC 2015-06-08



Through a LAKE open records request, now

you can see
the complicated

Moody Activity Zones
Text Amendments to the Unified Land Development Code,
which affect everything from animals to retirement homes.
In these LAKE videos you can see the Lowndes County Commission
consider that and other matters at their Work Session of Monday 8 June 2015,
including

Lowndes Middle School Utility Service from the City of Valdosta,
two water well and septic rezonings on
Mt. Zion Rd
and
Touchton Rd,
and
water and sewer for 24 acres of The Orchard at Stone Creek, Tillman Crossing Rd.
Plus
Utility Relocation for the Replacement of Franks Creek Bridge on Morven Road
and
many bids, including for
Paving on Coppage Road;
staff recommends the Scruggs bid.

County Manager Joe Pritchard noted
many of the bids were
related to SPLOST in an effort
“to get those projects up and running as quickly as possible”.

Here’s the
agenda.
See also the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission
meeting that considered these rezonings and the MAZ. Continue reading →