Tag Archives: Valdosta

Agenda: Airport, Aging, Community Service Board Appointments, $1,677,028.92 LMIG funds from GDOT @ LCC 2025-05-27

Update 2025-05-27: Videos: Airport, Aging, Community Service Board Appointments, $1,677,028.92 LMIG funds from GDOT @ LCC Work 2025-05-27.

Both the Work and Regular Sessions will be held Tuesday, because the Lowndes County Commission is observing the Memorial Day holiday today. On the agenda is one more than million-dollar income item, and a couple of outgos, plus three board appointments.

Ben Hogan has also applied, but Jeff Sikes will probably be reappointed to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Airport Authority.

Commissioner Joyce Evans will probably be reappointed to the Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging and appointed to the South Georgia Community Service Board; nobody else has applied for either board.

Agenda: Collage @ LCC 2025-05-27

The county got one bid that met specifications for the Mini Excavator for Public Works: $171,543 by Yancey Bros.

The big dollar item is income to the county: 6.a. 2025 Local Road Assistance (LRA) Administration Funds Application

HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: The Georgia Department of Transportation announced that the Governor and the Legislature included the LRA in the amended fiscal year 2025 budget. The Local Road Assistance (LRA) funds will be distributed using the Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) Application System and will require no matching funds. The fiscal year 2025 LRA formula amount for Lowndes County is $1,677,028.92.

If approved, the LRA funds will be used for the following roads:

Newsome Road – 1.76 miles
Radar Site Road – 1.82 miles
Coffee Road – 1.43 miles
Hemby Lane – 0.15 miles
Webb Road N. – 1.78 miles

No dollar figure is given for the 1.9% increase on the Updated Debris Removal Contract Pricing with Ashbritt after Hurricane Helene.

Here is the agenda.

We do not have the board packet yet, because Continue reading →

Packet: 2 rezonings, 2 airport funding agreements, 3 major sewer system projects @ VCC 2025-04-10

Update 2025-05-21: Two Valdosta sewer projects from new municipal bonds, plus one from user fees @ VCC 2025-04-10.

Back at the April 10, 2025, Valdosta City Council meeting, they moved ahead towards fixing the rest of the sewer line near Knights Creek before it breaks on its way to the Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Two agenda items are for Professional Design Services Proposals financed from the recently-approved $67 million in municipal bonds.

Collage, Valdosta City Council Packet, 2025-04-10

That’s $485,010 for 6.g. Consideration of a request to approve a Professional Design Services Proposal for Utility Rehabilitation and Improvements for the Lakeland Highway Lift Station and the Sanitary Sewer Main Outfall.

And $167,000 for 6.h. Consideration of a request to approve a Professional Design Services Proposal for Evaluation of the Knights Creek Sanitary Sewer Trunk Line.

Both contracts go, no surprise, to LEA Surveying and Engineering Services.

These are just design contracts. The later contracts for actually doing the work will presumably have RFPs and multiple bids.

Also on the agenda, for $279,900 funded out of user fees, and also a sole source agreement, was 7.c) Consideration of a request to purchase a new Micro Bar Screen for the Mud Creek Water Pollution Control Plant.

So that’s $931,910, or almost a million dollars, in sewer system contracts in one Valdosta City Council meeting.

The extent of the sewer system problem will require many more millions spent, after the well more than $100 million they already spent.

Here is the agenda.
https://www.valdostacity.com/file/8240/download?token=l4yXr9FM

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website, with images of each page below.

Why the packet is not on the city’s own website is mysterious.

Even more mysterious is why the minutes of that meeting are not on the city’s Agendas & Minutes web page. There have been two more City Council meetings since then, at one of which those April 10 minutes should have been approved. Continue reading →

Packet: Lowndes County materials @ GLPC 2025-05-19

Update 2025-06-07: Videos: Two Lowndes County cases, 1 Hahira, 2 Valdosta @ GLPC 2025-05-27.

Update 2025-05-20: There was no quorum, so there was no GLPC meeting yesterday.

In addition to the two Valdosta machine and welding shop Conditional Use Permit requests, this evening the Planning Commission will hear a C-G to C-H rezonings request for All Metal Buildings to “unifity the commercial zoning on the properties for their expanding business” across Madison Highway east of the Valdosta Airport.

Collage, Lowndes County rezoning materials @ GLPC Packet 2025-05-19

Plus there’s a county request north of Naylor for E-A to R-A near the Cherry Creek that flows into the Alapaha River a bit upstream from Old State Road in Lowndes County and Hochkiss Road in Lanier County.

Those Lowndes County packet materials, received in response to a LAKE open recor ds request, are on the LAKE website.

Two Lowndes County cases, 1 Hahira, 2 Valdosta @ GLPC 2025-05-19

Update 2025-05-19: Packet: Lowndes County materials @ GLPC 2025-05-19.

I suppose it’s a coincidence that two different requests for “a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a reinstated machine and welding shop in a Highway Commercial (C-H) zoning district” about two Valdosta blocks apart are on the agenda for Monday’s Planning Commission meeting.

Collage @ LCC Packet 2025-05-19

There’s one Hahira case for “Special Exception for a financial institution in R-P zoning”.

And two Lowndes County cases, one for 10 acres from E-A to R-A, and the other for 1.9 acres from C-G to C-H.

Here is the agenda.

The board packet materials for the Valdosta and Hahira cases are on the LAKE website, because Valdosta and Hahira City Planner Matt Martin sent them.

The Lowndes County materials are not, because I miscalculated the date of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting as May 26 when it is actually May 19, so the LAKE open records request was scheduled to go out this Tuesday. I have sent an open records request to the county for the May 19 meeting. Meanwhile, the county already sent the minutes from the previous GLPC meeting, and those are on the LAKE website.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Monday, May 12, 2025 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, May 19, 2025 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia
Continue reading →

Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission meetings 2025-05-12-13

The response to the LAKE open records request for the board packet, “The May 12-13, 2025 Commission Meetings have been cancelled due to a lack of agenda items requiring attention at this time.”

Cancelled: both meetings, Lowndes County Commission, Work Session 2025-11-12, Regular Session 2025-11-13,
according to the calendar on lowndescounty.com

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Videos: One Hahira Case: rezoning and annexation for an access road @ GLPC 2025-04-28

This may have been the fastest Planning Commission meeting ever, at 18 minutes.

Collage @ GLPC 28 April 2025

They welcomed new Planning Commissioner Shawana Griffith, appointed by Lake Park.

The only person there who was not a Commissioner or staff (or LAKE) was to speak for the one rezoning and annexation case in Hahira. So the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission forged ahead and approved both parts unanimously.

Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the agenda and the board packet, received in response to a LAKE video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Regular 2025-04-22

It is mysterious why 7.b. Val Del Rd and N. Valdosta Rd. Intersection improvement was only added in this Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. They’ve been leading up to it for a long time. Apparently the two bids were only opened the previous day; I thought bid openings were scheduled.

Collage @ LCC 21 April 2025

In this meeting, they talked about that intersection for almost seven minutes, which is very long for this body. The intersection will completely close starting May 27, probably for most of the summer. It will end up with two lanes going north, and three lanes going south: one left only, one left or straight, one right only.

The old US 41 North facebook group has renamed itself to follow this development
https://www.facebook.com/LowndesCoHwy41WideningRoadProjectUpdates

Second longest was Continue reading →

One Hahira Case: rezoning and annexation for an access road @ GLPC 2025-04-28

Update 2025-05-04: Videos: One Hahira Case: rezoning and annexation for an access road @ GLPC 2025-04-28.

Update 2025-04-28: The minutes of the previous GLPC meeting were received this morning in reponse to a LAKE open records request reminder, and are now on the LAKE website.

The Planning Commission has only one case in two agenda items: rezoning and annexation into the City of Hahira of a triangular lot on South Hagan Bridge Road, so that a secondary subdivision access road already built can be made legal.

Collage: GLPC Packet 2025-04-28

Here is that agenda for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), Monday evening at 5:30 PM.

The board packet, received in reponse to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website.

Except the minutes of the previous meeting are missing, because Lowndes County did not responsd to the LAKE Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request, which was sent more than the statutory three days ago.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Monday, April 21, 2025 5:30 P.M. Work Session – CANCELLED
Monday, April 28, 2025 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia
Continue reading →

Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Work 2025-04-21

Update 2025-04-29: Videos: DBHDD appointments, VAWA, Juvenile Justice, Naylor Tower Top Amp, LMIG Resurfacing @ LCC Regular 2025-04-22.

It took 14 minutes, the Monday morning Work Session. Much of that the Lowndes County Commission spent on the LMIG road resurfacing item and on the two court grant items.

They voted this evening at 5:30 PM: LAKE videos to come.

Collage @ LCC 21 April 2025

At the Work Session, Lowndes County Commissioner Michael Smith volunteered for one of the two posts available on 5.a. Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), with Juliana Powell having already applied for one of them.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know whether there were any problems with DEI on the 6.a. Acceptance of the VAWA Continuation Grant Award for 2025. Nobody seemed to know, or to address the question.

Commissioner Marshall asked a similar question about 6.b. FY2026 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Application. County Manager Paige Dukes said basically that with things changing daily in the federal goverment, nobody knows. Commissioner Michael Smith had a question about service areas.

There was some chit-chat about 6.c. Emergency Purchase – Naylor Tower Top Amp Replacement.

There was some discussion of districts, specific roads, and state funding, after Commissioner Wisenbaker asked to have the list of roads being repaved read out for 7.a. 2025 LMIG Resurfacing Bids (Project #: ENG 2025-01).

Here are LAKE videos of each agenda item, with a few comments by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: Three rezonings, three tax items, Sheriff Office and Water Wells bids @ LCC Regular 2025-04-08

The Tuesday evening Regular Session two weeks ago took 28 minutes, 5 of which were a Citizen Wishing to be Heard: 10. CWTBH – Brian Cosey – 4881 Newton Circle – dangerous dogs. He was actually speaking for three people.

Collage @ LCC 8 April 2025

The Lowndes County Commissioners did not repeat 4. Georgia 811 Safe Digging Month Proclamation. For that, you’ll need to see the LAKE videos of the preceding Work Session.

There was some Commissioner discussion of the first of the three rezonings, but all three breezed through unanimously, as did everything else.

Once again, the item with the longest discussion, this time 2.5 minutes, was 8.a. Alapaha Plantation Water Treatment Plant New Wells – Water Main Ext.

Commissioner Scottie Orenstein wanted to know when.

Answer from Utilities Director Steve Stalvey: “We’re ready to roll” on approval.

He also wanted to know when it would be finished.

Answer: It’s a 180-day project. Within 3 or 4 months of completion we will know if we need to do a nanocompression or not.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked about the Consent Order.

Answer: I couldn’t make out the answer.

Paige Dukes in 9. Reports – County Manager said the county’s hurricane debris collection program is finished.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item of the Regular Session, with a few comments by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the LAKE videos of the preceding Work Session and the agenda and board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request.

See also the board packet and LAKE videos for the preceding GLPC meeting.