Multiple attorneys (ka-ching!) were needed to negotiate access for the county to fix private Carter Way, which the Lowndes County Commission approved unanimously at its 10 May 2016 Regular Session. This is the same Commission that signed an easement with Sabal Trail because they didn’t want to spend attorney fees to defend a lawsuit. The same Sabal Trail that wants to put its three-foot pipe only three feet deep just downhill from where Carter Way washed out.

County Planner Jason Davenport showed an updated site plan for 6.a. REZ-2016-10 Freedom Heights, 4301 Bemiss Rd, C-H to P-D, but as usual it’s not posted on the county’s website, and you had no way of seeing it before the meeting unless you filed an open records request three days before.

Commissioner Clay Griner remembered flooding, fence, and forgot the third thing a constituent asked him for about 6.b. REZ-2016-11 Creekside West Subdivision, 7551 GA Hwy 122 W. Developer Young Tillman said the changes were because of the previous conversion of water from local wells to county E-1, which he said the county was familiar with so he wouldn’t discuss it further. If you’re not familiar with that, I guess you can go back and search the Commission’s minutes. Eventually he said his time was up, but he kept talking. Jason Bellflowers also spoke for, mostly about the condition proposed by the Planning Commission 25 April 2016 for the subdivision lake to be public. I’m all in favor of commons at subdivisions, but trying to impose such a condition after people already bought lots expecting to have private access to the lake, that horse already got out of the barn. The Commission approved the rezoning without that condition.

They reappointed Shamb Purohit to the South Georgia Community Service Board by acclamation, and about appointing an elected official “we will keep that under consideration and move forward at a later date”.

Here are LAKE videos of the 10 May 2016 Regular Session, followed by a video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session, the agenda and the LAKE videos of the 25 April Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting at which the two rezoning cases were discussed.

• 1. Call to Order 2. Invocation 3. Pledge

  Video.

• 4. MInutes for Approval

  Video.

• 5.a. Appointment South Georgia Community Service Board

  Video.

• 6.a. REZ-2016-10 Freedom Heights, 4301 Bemiss Rd, C-H to P-D

  Video. Nobody spoke against, the developer spoke for, and they approved unanimously.

• 6.b. REZ-2016-11 Creekside West Subdivision, 7551 GA Hwy 122 W

  Video. Nobody spoke against, the developer spoke for, and they approved unanimously.

• 7.a. GA DCA Low-Income Housing Letter of Support Request

  Video.

• 7.b. Infrastructure for Grove Point Subdivision Phase IV Section 3

  Video.

• 7.c. Declaration of Surplus Items and Authorization of Sale

  Video.

• 7.d. Sewer Vactor Truck

  Video.

• 7.e. Agreement to Repair Access Easement- Carter Way

  Video. At the previous morning’s Work Session the County Attorney reminded us that in a previous episode (March 25th Work Session) we learned that the Loretta B. Moore irrevocable living trust owns half of the access to the damaged part of the road; that’s also the meeting in which Chairman Bill Slaughter called it a “difficult and touchy” issue. It was also the Chairman who first referred to this item as the “tar baby”. Since then the County Attorney learned that the trustee is Loretta Anne Ruth, who lives in Panama City, Florida. He has contacted her, and has a copy of the trust formation document. He says Ms. Ruth has signed an agreement with the county, and he expected Charles Cowart of Cowart and Sons to sign an agreement that same morning. This has been going on since the April 11th Work Session and the April 12th Regular Session. At Tuesday evening’s Regular Session we learned that multiple attorneys had negotiated an agreement, which the Commission voted for the Chairman to sign. That’s $67,822 to fix a private road, plus whatever they spent on attorney fees.

• 8.a. Bid for Security Services at Human Resources Building

  Video.

• 8.b. Hwy. 84 Lift Station

  Video.

• 9. Reports County Manager 10. CWTBH (none) 11. Adjournment

  Video.

Here’s a video playlist:

Videos: Attorneys v Carter Way tar baby, Appointment, big subdivision, Hwy 84 lift station
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 May 2016.

-jsq

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