{"id":1647,"date":"2011-08-12T12:37:08","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/lowndes-county-doesnt-do-what-it-says-ernest-mcdonald-lcc-8-august-2011.html"},"modified":"2011-08-12T12:37:08","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T16:37:08","slug":"lowndes-county-doesnt-do-what-it-says-ernest-mcdonald-lcc-8-august-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/lowndes-county-doesnt-do-what-it-says-ernest-mcdonald-lcc-8-august-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"Lowndes County doesn’t do what it says —Ernest McDonald @ LCC 8 August 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/a>\nCounty resident Ernest McDonald laid out a list of issues he said the\ncounty hasn’t addressed correctly.\nHe said it wasn’t anything personal.\nHe wasn’t mad.\nHe just thought there were some issues that needed to be addressed.\n

\nFor example, regarding moving a power line from one side of the\nroad to another as agreed:\n

\nWe met every person involved.\nThe state, the high pressure gasline….\nThe telephone buried cable people, they came.\n\n<\/a>\nThe county engineer came…. And we all agreed….\nPut stakes in the ground….\nThe stakes had rotted down.\n<\/blockquote>\nIt’s been so long the stakes rotted down, and nothing ever got done.\nAs Ernest McDonald said:\n
\nThat’s not right.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe County Engineer was missing from the meeting.\nIt’s a bit hard to see in the picture, but there are only two heads\nin front of the glaring window, and the Engineer would\nbe the third head in the middle.\n

\nIn another issue, Ernest McDonald paid $650 to find a sewer line,\nmarked it, and the county tore up\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nhis property line markers.\nThe county put the sewer line on his property.\n
\nNever heard from them again.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThis is apparently the first time he’s asked for anything:\n

\nI’ve never asked for anything…\nI’ve always tried to serve the community in various things.\n<\/blockquote>\nThis is not someone who can be dismissed as not a citizen<\/a>\nor as not a resident of the county, or their character questioned,<\/a>\nand he’s not a single-issue petitioner, either.\n

\nChairman Paulk did warn McDonald at one point that he had about a minute\nand a half left.\nBut if you look at the video of McDonald speaking,<\/a> he actually got more than 6 minutes,\nnot the Commissioner-approved 5 minutes.\nSo apparently Ernest McDonald isn’t someone\nthe Chairman can cut off early<\/a>, either.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nErnest McDonald continued:\n

\nI know who I’m dealing with….\nAnd I expect things to work out more pleasantly than it has.\n<\/blockquote>\nHe remarked that he had been to see several of the county officials,\nwith no resolution.\nHe looked straight at County Manager Joe Pritchard when he said that.\nPritchard spent most of the time McDonald was speaking shuffling papers\nand grimacing at them, as in the picture.\n

\nMcDonald wrapped up:\n

\nIt’s not a right of way issue.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe Chairman said he would make sure the appropriate people\ngot with him.\nWait a minute! Isn’t that the County Manager’s job?\n

\nSo yet another person points out that\n\nthe Lowndes County government has transparency issues.<\/a>\nAnd job completion issues.\nWho is supposed to make sure work gets done and citizens get feedback?\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAfterwards, Commissioner Richard Raines, who is the Commissioner\nfor most of the northern part of the county,\nwent up to McDonald in the audience and asked him to come\nupstairs so he could be sure he (Raines) got everything\nMcDonald had.\n

\nHere’s\n\nvideo of Raines asking McDonald about that:<\/a>\n

\n