{"id":1646,"date":"2011-08-12T14:40:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T18:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/hahira-city-council-meeting-barbara-stratton-4-august-2011.html"},"modified":"2011-08-12T14:40:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T18:40:29","slug":"hahira-city-council-meeting-barbara-stratton-4-august-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/hahira-city-council-meeting-barbara-stratton-4-august-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"Hahira City Council Meeting —Barbara Stratton 4 August 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"Received today, and I saw the owl chortling with glee at the prospect\nof reports on another local council. -jsq\n
\n\n<\/a>\nThe LAKE blog has been doing an excellent job of publishing what\nis happening in various Valdosta and Lowndes County public meetings. I\nhave been attending the Hahira City Council meetings for several months\nnow and decided I would start posting a monthly blog summary of council\nmeetings so Hahira residents will be aware of what is happening in\ntheir city. This is not intended to be an official documentation and\ncitizens should depend on the\n\nofficial meeting minutes<\/a> and\/or discuss\nissues with\n\ncity officials.<\/a>\n

\nIt was announced that a hearing had been advertised to discuss\nchanging the millage rate for the city and it was decided the mileage\nrate would remain the same with no increase.\n

\nThe review of bills\/budget overages were approved by the council.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAddendum to the summary – Per history records,\n\non Feb. 15, 2011\nthe Valdosta Daily Times printed an article about a special meeting of\nconcerned citizens and Hahira city officials<\/a>\nwhich discussed several\nagenda items relating to the city’s trash services. During the\nmeeting citizens were not allowed to speak. Mayer Wayne Bullard\nrecused himself after stating he was employed by All Green Services\nwhich could be a\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nconflict of interest.\n\n<\/a>\nCouncilman Bruce Cain filled\nthe mayor pro-tem position when Mayor Bullard was in the audience.\n\n<\/a>\nDuring this meeting the city attorney, Robert Plumb, reported that the\ncontract for curbside pickup with Griffin Waste Services, LLC would\ncomplete three years on December 31, 2011. He also stated that if the\nservices were going to change or terminate Griffin Waste Services, LLC\nwould have to be given notice of the intent 90 days prior to Dec. 31,\n2011. The issue had been discussed and postponed in the July meeting.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAt the August meeting Councilwoman Rose Adams added to the agenda\na request that the service be put out for bid because she felt the city\nwould save a considerable amount of money with another company.\nCouncilman Ralph Clendenin asked the mayor if he was still employed by\nthe garbage company so he could recuse himself again. Mayor Bullard\nstated he does not work for the garbage company and that it did not\nmatter on this issue so he did not recuse himself. During the\n\n<\/a>\ndiscussion it was stated that both Councilman Clendenin and\nCouncilwoman Adams thought the city would benefit financially by\nputting out a request for proposals to begin the bidding process.\nCouncilman Clendenin reminded the council that a decision would have to\nbe reached at this meeting in order to meet the 90 day deadline for\nnotifying Griffin Waste Services, LLC. A vote was taken with\nCouncilman Clendenin and Councilwoman Adams voting to request proposals\nso bidding could be accomplished to see if money could be saved.\nCouncilmen Allen Cain and Terry Benjamin voted nay creating a tie which\nMayor Bullard broke by going with the nays. Since Griffin Waste\nServices would have to be notified by Sept 30, and it will take time to\nreceive bids before the notification deadline the solid waste and\ndisposal within the city will have to remain with the current contract.\n

\nThe other main discussion concerned the Gateway Pines Retirement\nCommunity being constructed off Union Road.\n\n<\/a>\nMatt Martin, Lowndes Co zoning commissioner\n[Actually, \nMatt Martin is Valdosta’s Planning and Zoning Administrator<\/a>\n-jsq ]\nwas present to speak on behalf of the developer,\n\nInvestors Management Company of Valdosta.<\/a>\nThe project manager for the\ndeveloper, Joe Chambers also spoke. During the discussion it was\nadmitted that the plans submitted to and approved by the Hahira City\nCouncil had been changed in several areas. Mr. Chambers was asked why\nthe changes were not brought back to the council for approval and\nCouncilman Clendenin stated that he felt like the council had wasted\ntheir time considering and approving plans that were not followed.\nAmong the changes were trees that were supposed to remain had already\nbeen cut down, less space was left between the buildings and the\nneighboring properties, and there was confusion about what type of\nfence would now be put up. Mr. Chambers stated when the council\napproved plans were submitted to the state some EPA changes were\nrequired. He also stated that part of the reason for the changes was\nbecause the design had been changed from 72 units in two story\nbuildings to 56 units in single story buildings. No definable answer\nwas given for why the changed plans were never discussed with the\ncouncil before construction began. Mr. Chambers stated he did not\nrealize council should have been consulted about changes to their\napproved plans and apologized.\n

\nAs a lay person in the audience I had to assume that the change\nfrom two story to single story units meant that the building footprint\nchanged from 36 buildings (if all were two story) to 56 single story\nbuildings which would be a much larger footprint on the property. My\nassumption did not seem feasible even with changes, so I decided the\noriginal plan Mr. Chambers was referring to contained some mixture of\ntwo story and single story buildings which would equal less than 20\nadditional buildings. I thought I remembered someone on the council\ntelling me that the buildings would all be single story after the plans\nwere approved, so I was totally confused. Citizens are not allowed to\nspeak or ask questions unless they sign up before the meeting stating\nwhat they want to discuss. If questions come up during the course of\nthe meeting citizens are not allowed to participate. Since the\ncurrent construction is for Phase I and Phase II has already been\napproved, surely there will be more approval communication between the\ncouncil and the developer before Phase II construction begins.\n

\nI don’t remember seeing Mr. Chambers present at any meetings dealing\nwith the approval of the plans & it seemed to me he should not have\nbeen the one that had to defend the changed plans. I feel that he\nfollowed the plans he was given to conduct the site construction and\nthat the persons who were responsible for the approval process &\ninternally aware of the changes should have been there to be questioned\ninstead of Mr. Chambers.\n

\nAs a citizen I have a concern that there seems to be a wide spread\nhistory of developer’s interests being catered to over the rights &\ninterests of the citizens within Lowndes County. I also have a\npersonal concern with the fact the housing project is a “Certified\nEarthCraft Community” which when researched has direct ties with UN\nAgenda 21 initiatives. Since it is a government subsidized project\nthere are multiple avenues for consolidating government and private\nbusiness concerns through grant monies, which is an open door to\nsocialism initiatives.\n<\/blockquote>\nAs always, posts on this blog are the opinions of the authors,\nunless specifically labeled as by LAKE, which seldom happens,\nsince that requires a meeting of the LAKE politburo.\nAnyway, in this post, I have added some pictures of the people named,\nsome links to related material, and I’ve made one correction of fact.\nIt certainly is hard to keep track of all the people around here\nwho pop up at one meeting or another. With Barbara’s help, the owl can see more of them!\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Received today, and I saw the owl chortling with glee at the prospect of reports on another local council. -jsq The LAKE blog has been doing an excellent job of publishing what is happening in various Valdosta and Lowndes County public meetings. I have been attending the Hahira City Council meetings for several months now […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,14,3952,2,602,3953,11,21,478,3,479],"tags":[300,8879,8791,8711,8700,328],"class_list":["post-1646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-gateway-pines-retirement-community","category-government","category-hahira","category-hcc-4-august-2011","category-lake","category-planning","category-solid-waste","category-transparency","category-trash","tag-development","tag-gateway-pines-retirement-community","tag-hahira","tag-planning","tag-transparency","tag-zoning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-qy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}