Tag Archives: Valdosta

You can choose love: Valdosta vigil for Orlando

Before the names of the dead were read by 50 of the crowd that numbered at least three times as many; before the moment of silence and the prayer and the thanks to all the first responders and police who assisted at the scene in Orlando; this evening at St Barnabas Church on Bemiss Road one speaker said we could choose to focus on the person who did this horrible thing in Orlando, or we could choose to focus on fear, but as for her and her house, she chooses love: go out and do something for your neighbor.

Choose to focus on love

The gathering also served as Continue reading →

Videos: KLVB, DFCS, SGCSB, LCLB appointments, prisoners, mosquitos, grants, contracts, and a sidewalk bid @ LCC 2016-06-13

Sandra Tooley, Valdosta City Council District 2, was among the very few people present who did not have business on the agenda of the Lowndes County County Commission Work Session this Monday morning. They vote 5:30 PM Tuesday evening.

Below are LAKE videos of Monday morning’s Work Session, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: Policies, Workshop #6 @ SGRC 2016-05-09

Educating people upstream about things they could do to reduce flooding, was among the topics discussed by Gretchen with the small sixth workshop that on Monday May 9th 2016 reviewed the Policies section (Word, PDF) of the 19 April 2016 Workbook for the Update to the Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan, as Ariel Godwin said in advance.

Here’s a video playlist:

Continue reading →

KLVB, DFCS, SGCSB, LCLB appointments, prisoners, mosquitos, grants, contracts, and a sidewalk bid @ LCC 2016-06-13

Here’s the agenda for this morning’s 8:30 AM Work Session and tomorrow evening’s voting Regular Session: will the Lowndes County Commission spend more on mosquito testing than on renting prisoners from Valdosta State Prison? (Answer: no, $45,790 on mosquitos and $118,500 on three prisoner work details at $39,500 each: “The details are utilized in the maintenance of over 5,000 easements that require manual hand cutting.” Hm, if the county didn’t insist on 80-foot easements….

They’re also appointing people to four different boards. If you wanted to apply, how would you know to do so?

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Abandoned Voting @ LCC 2016-05-24

Record low attendance, not record but very short session time, even with a full agenda; at least you can see last month’s last Lowndes County Commission Regular Session in these LAKE videos. They meet again 8:30 AM this morning.

See also the LAKE videos of the May 23rd Work Session. In the May 24th Regular Session, there were still no questions yesterday from Commissioners about that $55,979.00 in two no-bid items.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall did ask Continue reading →

Public Transit Open House @ VLMPO 2016-06-28

Received yesterday via email:

June 28 2016 Open House Dear Stakeholders,

I am pleased to let you know that the Valdosta Urbanized Area Transit Implementation Study is well under development and it is time to share the draft recommendations with you and with the community. With your help, we reached over 500 members of the community through our online survey this Spring! The input has been very helpful in the development of the study and in fine-tuning our Pilot Shuttle Program which just received additional funding to operate through September of this year.

We will hold a Transit Implementation Study Open House from noon to 7pm on Tuesday, June 28 at the Lowndes County Judicial and Administrative Complex, 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. We look forward to Continue reading →

Budget Meetings with less than 24 hours notice @ LCC Budget 2016-06-01

Does 9:28 AM to 8:30 AM the next day sound like 24 hours notice to you? And as usual there’s no draft budget posted. Also no agenda.

From: listserv@civicplus.com
Date: 31 May 2016 09:28:22 -0500
Subject: New Event Budget Meetings For cp-stcity2.civicplus.com

A new Event now appears on our site. Please click on the link below to go directly to the new posting.
http://www.lowndescounty.com/Calendar.aspx?EID=160

The actual event posting says “There will be no votes taken at these meetings.” Which probably gets them off the hook for the Georgia Open Meetings Law, but still doesn’t indicate they want the taxpayers to see what they’re doing.

Budget Meetings Continue reading →

Existing and future land use and character area maps @ SGRC 2016-06-06

Received by email today this Reminder:

Lowndes County Future Development Map The final workshop for the Joint 2016 Lowndes County and Cities of Dasher, Hahira, Lake Park, Remerton, and Valdosta Comprehensive Plan Update will be:

Monday, June 6, 2016
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
SGRC office, 327 W. Savannah Avenue, Valdosta

At this workshop we will review the existing land use and future land use or character area maps.

The entire plan workbook can be downloaded at: Continue reading →

3 Hahira rezonings + annexation, valdosta PD + LDR @ GLPC 2016-05-31

The controversial Hahira rezonings and annexation are on the Planning Commission agenda tonight at 5:30 PM. Thanks to Hahira City Planner Matt Martin, packet materials for the Hahira items are on the LAKE website.

Here’s the agenda that was not available before the GLPC Work Session, but is online now before tonight’s 5:30 PM Regular Session.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING
AGENDA
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue
Tuesday, May 31, 2016 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Videos: Abandon Beaver Lane, Aging Development Appointments, Kinderlou Lift Station Pump @ LCC 2016-05-23

Will they take longer to vote this evening at 5:30 PM than the 8 1/2 minutes for yesterday morning’s Work Session with a full agenda?

No questions yesterday from Commissioners about that $55,979.00 in two no-bid items, although the County Manager did say “quotes” about the . lift station pump. The County Manager’s Report did say he’d received an annexation request from Hahira for the W. Main St. property and he indicated no grounds for the county to protest.

The only question from a Commissioner was about which one of them might be picked to serve with “Ms. Andrea Schuijer” on the South Regional Joint Development Authority. Answer: maybe Clay Griner. Nobody asked why the county’s web page on that Joint Authority says Andrea Schruijer is already on it. Is this a reappointment? And which slots are vacant? Also, what does this Joint Authority do?

For the Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging, yes it’s Commissioner Joyce Evans for reappointment.

County Engineer Mike Fletcher said the Beaver Lane closing previously came up in 2002 and was denied, but now some of the opponents from then are for it. Tonight is not the public hearing: merely a determination on scheduling a public hearing. Continue reading →