Tag Archives: Valdosta City Manager

Community Preparedness Townhall 2025-08-26

Valdosta City Council Nick Harden organized an informative meeting that he called a Community Preparedness Townhall,
also known as a Disaster Recovery Meeting.
Hurricane Helene featured, and also the flash flood last November.

A cavalcade of Valdosta City, Lowndes County, and Georgia state officials spoke,
as well as people from private nonprofits.

They attempted to answer all the citizen questions.


[Collage @ Community Preparedness Townhall, 26 August 2025]


Collage @ Community Preparedness Townhall, 26 August 2025

Below are links to LAKE videos of most of the speakers,
with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist. Continue reading

Videos: Appointments to Hospital Authority and Parks and Rec + well pump @ LCC 2017-07-11



Two Regular Sessions back,
they started with a moment of silence for Mike Everett, recently deceased employee
of the Public Works department.
The

obituary in the VDT
, 14 July 2014,

Michael Thomas Everett, a senior heavy equipment operator with
Lowndes county and long time resident of Berrien County, GA, died
unexpectedly on July 9, 2017 at the age of 58 at his home. Mike was
born in Miami, Florida on December 29, 1958 to Hermon J. Everett and
Mary C. Everett both deceased and is survived by his loving
Step-Mother Nora N. Everett. Mike also known as Mr. Mike to many of
his close friends and co-workers was an avid race car fan, loved
cooking, enjoyed tending to his many gardens. He also loved music
and often played guitar with family and friends. He was a magnet for
all dogs taking great care of any that showed up on his doorstep.
Mike was a very kind and generous man who will be deeply missed by
his family, close neighbors, friends, co-workers and all who knew
him. There is no service scheduled at this time.

No surprise on the

pump
or
for the

Hospital Authority
,
but news about Ashley Paulk and

VLPRA
.
They approved everything else unanimously, as they usually do.

Below are links to each LAKE video, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the agenda.
There are no LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session,
because, they moved it half an hour early and didn’t send a notification.
But there is a blog post about one Commissioner’s response to that.
The county apparently does video its work sessions, but not that one,
and not this Regular Session, either.

Continue reading

Videos: Appointments to Hospital Authority and Parks and Rec + well pump @ LCC 2017-07-10

Nope, there are no LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
because, remember,

they moved the meeting half an hour earlier so when Gretchen showed up it was already over
.
The county does not video its Work Sessions, so there is no county video, either.
Since the Valdosta Daily Times apparently did not run a story (I don’t even know if they had a reporter there),
this means you won’t know what the Commissioners discussed nor who else was there Monday morning before they vote this evening at 5:30 PM.


Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson welcomes new 23d Wing Commander Col. Jennifer Short at the July 10 Change of Command ceremony.


City of Valdosta PR 2017-07-10:

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson welcomes new 23d Wing Commander Col. Jennifer Short at the July 10 Change of Command ceremony.

Commissioner Scottie Orenstein asked, on facebook, in response to

yesterday’s LAKE blog post about the moved meeting
: Continue reading

Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority after privatized landfill

Local counties and cities
sold off one landfill in Lowndes County in the late 1990s,
and a second one in 2005 through the Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority.
Yet in 2007 the


Deep South Municipal Regional Solid Waste Management Authority (WMA),
with the same county and city member governments,
was still active, discussing a regional recycling station.
And it is still active today, including some of the same board members
the entire time since 2005,
such as

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson
.
Hanson was not present last week

when Valdosta Mayor John Gayle said
Valdosta does not control the landfill
, or perhaps he would have
mentioned that Valdosta through its longterm seat on the WMA board
does have some degree of control over the landfill’s operations.

I notice quite a few of the Valdosta City Council’s own minutes

record discussions and votes related to that WMA

including this item from

their Regular meeting of 4 October 2014
, which was called to order by Mayor Gayle:


  1. Boards, Commissions, Authorities, and Advisory Committees

    1. Consideration of an appointment to the Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste
      Management Authority. — Appointed Richard Hardy, Public Works Director (7-0 Vote).

There must be some advantage to the City of Valdosta to have two members
(Hanson and Hardy) on the WMA board.
Certainly the average citizen or organization does not have that.

Bill Roberts, VDT, 5 December 2005,

Authority closes on landfill deal
, Continue reading