Tornado sighted just west of Interstate 75, between Hahira and Valdosta. Lots of thunder, rain, and some lightning: I see no tornado.
The previous commission was divided among itself on this issue, and the local state representatives would not bring it up in the legislature without consensus among the commission. The new commission has been trying to move forward on this. The last version I heard involved keeping the same commission districts as now, plus adding two overlapping commissioners for new east and west districts.
Interestingly, there was nothing said about all this at Monday’s work session, yet we discover in the newspaper:
Paige Dukes, Lowndes County information officer, said the commission visited with reapportionment in Atlanta twice during the past few weeks. As a result of those meetings, the reapportionment office forwarded several maps to the commission for its review, Dukes said.It’s not clear from that just what they might vote on, but from context maybe it would be to forward a plan to citizens to vote on.Lowndes County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk said, “The commission continues to work feverishly on the expansion issue. We are at an 80 percent consensus regarding a plan that will meet local needs and satisfy requirements determined by the Department of Justice. I am working one on one with each commissioner in an effort to get a plan to citizens as soon as possible.”
Paulk was a guest of Scott James on his morning radio on program TALK 92.1 Monday, and in the course of that interview, Paulk said that if all the commissioners agreed on the plan, the expansion could actually be voted on by the board at tonight’s meeting.
A new year brings
Mayor Fretti’s State of the City address for Valdosta.
It was quite interesting as an exercise in transparency:
he walked through what
seemed like every city department, one by one, in addition to
talking about overarching cost-saving measures and emphasizing
that Valdosta has no debt, not even bond debt.
This was all good.
I noticed that, unlike last year, there were no military personnel pointed out or even present. I guess the mayor noted that saber-rattling is not in fashion this year. He did mention some details of recent economic improvements at Moody AFB; everyone knows the importance of Moody to the local economy.
I did think it was a little over the top when the mayor included in his welcome of new and old county officials that “all roads lead to Valdosta, the county seat.” Valdosta Aeterna! Well, Valdosta, unlike Rome, may not be eternal, but bickering between the city and the county apparently is.
Also, as I mentioned to the mayor afterwards, I had hoped he would say a few words about the proposed bus system. He indicated that he had simply forgotten to do so. That’s understandable, considering all he did talk about. Next year.
If you live in Valdosta, I understand you can view the mayor’s speech on local cable for some time to come. I recommend it. The full text is on the Valdosta city web site (yay!), even though it’s in a hidden link (which I’ve dug out and linked in here) and in Microsoft Word (boo!) instead of as plain HTML.
In the regular agenda, the elephant not in the room became even more obvious by its absence. At the citizens wishing to be heard section, nobody came forward. For that matter, there were almost no citizens present other than elected officials, city employees, contractors, and press. This is a problem. The city of Valdosta is going to some lengths to be transparent and to accept citizen input. Where are the citizens?
Also, this being Valdosta, the one item on the agenda that got the most discussion time was the tennis court improvements at McKey Park. Sports rule in TitleTown!
Perhaps the new county commission chair will think about giving a State of the County talk.
Another interesting thing from the Valdosta Transit Public Information Meeting was I was reminded of the Valdosta Urbanized Area. As you can see by the map, it extends all the way up Bemiss Road through Moody Air Force Base into Berrien County. This came up in the context of bus lines. Valdosta can run a bus to Moody, because Moody is in the Valdosta Urbanized Area.
In a larger context, local public officials often wonder aloud how they can keep landowners from selling out and developers from developing all over the county. Well, they can’t actually prevent that. (Except they already have in the Moody Exclusion Zone immediately around the AFB, but that’s not the point; in general they can’t.) But they can encourage developers not to go for cheap land way out on the edges of the county, and instead buy land near existing services (water, wastewater, busses, etc.). Cheap hookups, expedited permits, encouragement by local municipalities; these things can all help steer development.
Lowndes County and the city of Valdosta could even designate a Preferred Development Corridor and steer development there. It already exists: Valdosta up Bemiss Road towards Moody, plus the area in and around Valdosta, especially along I-75. What’s missing is official and unofficial encouragement for developers to develop there.
In addition, I keep hearing people saying there’s no farming left in Lowndes County. That’s just not true. It’s not like it was 50 years ago, sure, but there are people actively farming, and even seeking new land to rent. South Carolina promotes farming as its growth business. Lowndes County is big enough to promote both industry and farming.
A couple of weeks ago (Wednesday, Jan 7th, 2009), I went
to a public meeting on a
Transit Implementation Plan for the Valdosta Urbanized Area.
Basically, where should the proposed Valdosta bus system run?
This is part of the
Valdosta Transportation Master Plan.
It was quite interesting that there was such a meeting, at which the various organizers (SGRDC, MPO, and the consultant) actively solicited input from the attendees, in both ad hoc and organized ways. First they gave a presentation and answered questions. Then they asked participants to fill out a questionnaire about where they lived, worked, and played. The presentation for that meeting is online. They even scheduled several more Public Involvement Meetings. Hm, I’m not seeing that schedule online, but presumably they’ll put it up before the meetings happen.
There was pretty good attendance: several plain citizens, the mayor, a couple of city council members, a couple of county commissioners, at least one planning commission member, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, a newspaper reporter, etc.
If you want a bus to run near you, I’d recommend going to one of these meetings, or contacting the organizer, Corey Hull, MPO Coordinator, 229-333-5277.
Lowndes County has a Thoroughfare Plan, which is currently being revised. We’ll see what the public input process for that turns out to be.
To: Richard C. Lee, District 2
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From: John S. Quarterman
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Thank you for meeting with us Friday. That was a good beginning to a conversation, much like I had hoped we would have after you attended our neighborhood meeting of June 5 in which we requested further options and my letter of August 7 in which I also requested further options regarding Quarterman Road. Now we’re talking!
I understand that there has been some confusion as to who wants to
do what with Quarterman Road. This is why we have clarified neighborhood
opinion with the petition of 26 October showing that a majority of households
on the road and the owners of a majority of the road frontage
do not want the road paved,
at least not using the current plan the county is pursuing of clearing
a 60 foot right of way and tearing down the tree canopy.
Apparently there has also been some confusion as to what the state requires the county to do. I hear that some time in the past the county was planning to use state money to improve Quarterman Road. If so, I see how that money could have come with requirements from the state. That would explain why the current county paving plan, which was originally drawn up many years ago, looks more like a state highway than a rural local county road. However, as I am sure you are aware, SPLOST VI is a local tax, not state money, so there are no such requirements along with it. I confirmed this with the District Engineer with GDOT. He tells me that the state makes no requirements on the county as to what to do with Quarterman Road, which the state classifies as functional class 9, a rural local road. Continue reading
For a while I’ve been going on about commuter rail for Lowndes County. It turns out there’s somebody running for Congress from Georgia’s First District (GA-01) who wants to do mass transit for all of south Georgia, including busses and rail: Bill Gillespie.
If you’re near Valdosta today, you can meet Bill, and the incumbent, Jack Kingston, at the South Georgia Political Forum. Ask Bill and Jack about mass transit.
I don’t know the vintage of this picture. Those more clever than me could try dating it by the style of the Coca-Cola ads or the electrical poles or the clothes or the locomotive engine. I would guess 1920s.
This is the railroad (then known as the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad) that caused Troupville residents to uproot themselves and to found Valdosta as the Lowndes County seat at the present location, on the main line from Savannah to Thomasville. So this is the original Valdosta train station. I don’t know if it’s the original building, but it’s the original location, between Patterson and Ashley, where the overpass starts now.
Picture courtesy of Lowndes County Historical Society. They’ve got a caboose out back, too.
And Valdosta was right in the middle of it all.