{"id":13597,"date":"2015-07-13T08:35:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T12:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=13597"},"modified":"2015-07-13T08:39:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T12:39:41","slug":"county-and-landowners-still-paying-for-failed-2007-james-road-mega-mall-boondoggle-lcc-2015-06-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/county-and-landowners-still-paying-for-failed-2007-james-road-mega-mall-boondoggle-lcc-2015-06-22.html","title":{"rendered":"County and landowners still paying for failed 2007 James Road mega-mall boondoggle @ LCC 2015-06-22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nBack again: the James Road subsidy for a failed mega-mall that we just keep on paying,\r\neight years later!\r\n

\r\nFive companies showed up at the May 27th pre-bid meeting, but only one bid for\r\n$71,192 was received from Rountree Construction for the\r\nCommercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road,\r\nsaid County Engineer Mike Fletcher at the\r\n\r\n22 June 2015 Lowndes County Work Session<\/a>.\r\nThe Commission\r\nat their 23 June 2015 Regular Session<\/a>\r\napproved that yet another fix-up payment caused by\r\nthe county’s\r\n\r\n2009 widening of James Road “from a two-lane local road with ditches to a five-lane road with curb and gutter”<\/a> for the never-happened\r\n\r\nMarket Street mall and subdivision project<\/a>.\r\nAnd local elected officials say bus systems need subsidies?\r\nEvery road and bridge is a subsidy for private developers.\r\nAnd James Road is a subsidy we just keep on paying year after year.\r\n

\r\nThe county spent SPLOST VI funds and $587,000 in GDOT funds on this subsidy\r\nfor private developers,\r\n\r\nsome of them from Tampa<\/a>,\r\nwhile requiring local James Road property owners to\r\n\r\n\r\n“pay for their own sewer and water connections, at an estimated cost of between $1,000 and $5,000,”\r\naccording to the Matt Flumerfelt, Valdosta Daily Times, 21 February 2009,\r\n\r\nJames Road widening starts<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAnd\r\n\r\non 13 May 2014<\/a> the Commission spent money to fix the\r\nJames Road 10-inch drop in 48 hours in front of Westside Elementary School due to faulty road construction.\r\nThat same meeting they scheduled a \r\nPublic Hearing for abandoning Excess Right of Way on James Rd & Riverside Dr.\r\n

\r\nStill no Market Street Mall with detached homes and townhouses\r\nsuch as was promised back in 2007; see\r\nBilly Bruce, VDT, 19 September 2007,\r\n\r\nNew mall annexation on commission\u2019s agenda<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nWe’re still paying for that failed mall boondoggle eight years later.\r\nRemember this the next time somebody says bus systems have to be subsidized.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHere’s\r\n\r\na video playlist:<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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