{"id":2739,"date":"2010-02-18T07:26:43","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T12:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/you-build-it-they-will-come-quarterman-road-drag-strip.html"},"modified":"2010-02-18T07:26:43","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T12:26:43","slug":"you-build-it-they-will-come-quarterman-road-drag-strip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/you-build-it-they-will-come-quarterman-road-drag-strip.html","title":{"rendered":"You Build It, They Will Come: Quarterman Road Drag Strip"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>
\nCarolyn Selby reminds the Lowndes County Commission at their regular meeting on 9 February 2010 that residents
\nasked the Commission to redesign Quarterman Road for slower traffic.<\/p>\n

\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\n“You did throw us a bone by limiting the speed limit at 35 miles per hour.
\nBut it’s not enforceable
\nWe asked you to put in speed humps….
\nNope. Couldn’t do that.<\/p>\n

\nYou designed a mile and a half straight-away, and they have come.
\nWelcome to the Quarterman Road Drag Strip!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She took pictures.
\nShe called 911, and they caught one of the dragsters.
\nNeighborhood Watch in action.<\/p>\n

\nThe Commission responds by looking at County Engineer Mike Fletcher:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\nFletcher says they’ve sent a request to the Georgia State Patrol to
\nask for radar enforcement on Quarterman Road.
\nThat’s a good idea, but also very interesting, considering all the times
\nthey told us they couldn’t do that, because the design speed is higher
\nthan the posted speed limit.<\/p>\n

\nAnd speed humps?<\/p>\n

\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\nChairman Ashley Paulk still says they can’t do that because of “mercy vehicles.”
\n“Anybody else?” he added, perfunctorily.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nYet
\n
\nPortland, Oregon<\/a> does it.
\n
\nNew Haven, Connecticut,<\/a> does it.
\n
\nPlainfield, New Jersey<\/a> does it.
\nNumerous counties in Georgia do it, as a 10 second google search reveals.<\/p>\n

\nAnd no, a 35 MPH posted speed limit is not an impediment to installing these impediments.
\nMost of these examples are of speed humps intended to bring speeds down
\nto 35 MPH.<\/p>\n

\nWhy is Lowndes County backwards, to use one of Commissioner Lee’s favorite words?<\/p>\n

\nWe were told Quarterman Road was being paved for safety.
\nCommissioner Richard Lee, who earlier insisted on paving Quarterman Road
\nfor that reason,
\nsilently shuffled papers in response to Carolyn Selby’s pictures of drag racers.<\/p>\n

\nWhen will the County Commission do something about this safety on Quarterman Road?
\nWill this take until mercy vehicles have to be called after somebody is run over by a drag racer?<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, there were other citizens wishing to be heard.<\/p>\n

\nGretchen Quarterman wanted to know if the county would hold
\na local government 101 session
\nlike Valdosta is doing.<\/a><\/p>\n

\nChairman Paulk joked that maybe she would like Valdosta to annex Quarterman Road.
\nShe responded that no, she’d just like something done about safety.<\/p>\n

\nCounty Manager Joe Pritchard said he and County Clerk Paige Dukes
\nwere working on something on county government that they would show to the
\nCommission soon.<\/p>\n

\nJohn S. Quarterman (your humble scribe) noted that while he’s aware the county has some budget issues, looking on the county’s web pages before this meeting he found no Commission meetings scheduled for this year, and he thinks that’s rather severe!<\/p>\n

\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\nOr somebody could update the calendar; that would also work.
\nChairman Paulk said it’s probably because he was out of the country.
\njsq agreed that must be it.
\nThe calendar was updated by the next day.
\nNo meetings are listed for January, even though I remember going to some.<\/p>\n

\nCounty Manager Joe Pritchard and Public Works Director Robin English commended
\na former employee, but neither of them said his name:<\/p>\n

\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\nCommission and Robin English gather for group picture with honoree:<\/p>\n

\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\nWe look forward to the minutes so we can learn his name.<\/p>\n

\nUpdate: The
\nagenda says his name is James Perry<\/a>, Public Works Retiree.<\/p>\n

\nThe Valdosta Daily Times didn’t see fit to mention any of this.<\/a><\/p>\n

\nFortunately, LAKE covered these citizens wishing to be heard,
\nand a former county employee being honored.
\nHere’s
\na playlist for the above videos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolyn Selby reminds the Lowndes County Commission at their regular meeting on 9 February 2010 that residents asked the Commission to redesign Quarterman Road for slower traffic. “You did throw us a bone by limiting the speed limit at 35 miles per hour. But it’s not enforceable We asked you to put in speed humps…. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,2,11,88,73],"tags":[5862,5861,3890,5864,1870,5869,5867,5870,5868,5871,1095,3255,4339,1094,3303,5860,5865,5872,8701,10,5856,655,136,548,8702,7,5863,5866,625,656,5776,94,2214,4011,8731,652,814,62,6,624],"class_list":["post-2739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-government","category-lake","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-safety","tag-9-feb-2010","tag-5861","tag-aaron-kostyu","tag-ashley-tigh","tag-carolyn-selby","tag-chairman-ashley-paulk","tag-commissioner-g-robert-carter","tag-commissioner-joyce-evans","tag-commissioner-richard-lee","tag-county-attorney","tag-county-clerk","tag-county-commission","tag-county-engineer","tag-county-manager","tag-county-planner","tag-drag-strip","tag-ema-director","tag-finance-director","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-it-director","tag-jason-davenport","tag-joe-pritchard","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-knowledge-exchange","tag-mike-allen","tag-mike-fletcher","tag-paige-dukes","tag-pictures-by-gretchen-quarterman","tag-public-works","tag-quarterman-road","tag-robin-english","tag-safety","tag-sheriff","tag-stephanie-black","tag-utilities","tag-valdosta","tag-walter-elliott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739","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=2739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}