Videos: Tabled Hotchkiss Landing Road Closing but Trash Co. Apology @ LCC 2013-02-12

Tabled! The applicant requested and the Commission unanimously voted to table the proposed closing of Old State Road to Hotchkiss Crossing on the Alapaha River until their next meeting, which is in two weeks, Tuesday 26 February 2013. A waste company executive suddenly rescheduled so he could come back and apologize to the public. All this and 3 rezonings and 3 contracts at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session Tuesday 12 February 2013, plus people haven't forgotten about animal shelter issues.

Here's the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes. See also the videos of the Work Session of the previous morning.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2^nd Floor

1. Call to Order
2. Invocation
3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

Unscheduled Items

• Welcome to meeting and announcement of Leadership Lowndes interaction earlier in day

  It's great the new Chairman seems to be making a habit of welcoming people to the meeting (the old one occassionally did). If it's going to be a regular thing, why not put it on the agenda, like the Industrial Authority does?

• Sad News - Deaths of Harley Langdale Jr. and Earl Wetherington

  Obituaries in the VDT:

  1. “Harley Langdale, Jr., 98, of Valdosta, died on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013....”
  2. “Earl C. Wetherington Jr., 87, of Valdosta died on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 at South Georgia Medical Center following a lengthy illness....”

1. Minutes for Approval

   The previous morning two Commissioners made changes to the minutes of the previous meetings, both related to Hotchkiss Landing. Motion by Joyce Evans, Second by John Page, Unanimous approval of January 21 and January 22 minutes.

   1. Work Session — January 21, 2012
   2. Regular Session — January 22, 2013
2. Appointment - Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful

   On a motion by Commissioner Raines and a second by Commissioner Evans, they unanimously appointed the only one of the three candidates, Nick Henson of Wild Adventures, who didn't show up, neither at the Work Session nor at this Regular Session. Is working for Wild Adventures more important than showing up?

3. Public Hearing
   1. Abandonment of a portion of Old State Road (CR 16)

      You can see in the video that the room was packed. See separate post for more detail.

   2. REZ-2012-20 Corbett Property, US 41 S & Newsome Rd. E-A to C-H, Well & Septic, ~5 acres

      Applicant Corbett spoke, then Commissioner Richard Raines commended him. Commissioner Crawford Powell made a motion to approve while prohibiting adult entertainment, alcohol package store, and lounge bar and night club as uses. Unanimous approval. This is primarily for agricultural tourism. Does anybody else find it odd that the Commission is in favor of agricultural tourism (so am I) but is even entertaining closing the only public access to the Alapaha River in Lowndes County?

   3. REZ-2013-01 Barrentine, David Rd E C-H to R-1, Well & Septic, 1.29 acres

      Applicant tried to reach author of the one letter of opposition, but could not. Nobody spoke against. The applicant spoke for. No questions from Commissioners. Powell moved, Page seconded, unanimously approved.

   4. REZ-2013-02 Interstate Land Management, L.L. C., Briarwood Rd/I-75 R-1 to C-H, Well & Septic, 87 acres

      Nobody spoke against, and nobody spoke for. Powell moved with exemption of adult entertainment, Marshall seconded, unanimously approved.

4. For Consideration
   1. Piney Woods Saddle Club Contract Renewal

      $100 a year? Well, that's a deal! Unanimously approved.

   2. Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Capital Contract

      Four conversion vans, 2 to replace, 2 new, for a total of 8, from ARRA funds, with surveillance cameras on each bus. Ridership last year was 26,442. Moved by Marshall, seconded by Evans, unanimously approved.

   3. Mutual Aid Agreement and Resolution between Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and Lowndes County Sheriff's Office

      Long-standing agreement requiring formal approval by local legislative body because of recent SC Supreme Court decision. Unanimously approved.

   4. GEBCORP Retirement Eligibility Amendment

      See Work Session for more details. Unanimously approved.

5. Reports-County Manager
   • Dave Shepler, regional manager of Advanced Disposal

     Suddenly he decided he didn't have to be in Biloxi after all, and reappeared! See separate post.

6. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
   • George Boston Rhynes

     George thanked the Chairman for a thank-you card he got from the Chairman after a library item. George then started talking about jail deaths, and was interrupted by the Chairman, who said that wasn't the subject he signed up to talk about. The Chairman did add:

     If you'd like to come another day and address that issue, we'd be more than glad to listen to you.

   • Old State Road Closing

     Chairman Slaughter read out the names of the people who had signed up for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard to talk about the closing of Old State Road, but most of them had already left.

   • Old State Road —Brett Huntley

     He thanked the Commission for tabling the road closing and said the community would try to all work together.

   • Recycling - Glass,Batteries,Motor Oil —Gretchen Quarterman

     Gretchen said she was pleased to hear glass would be collected, and she wondered about batteries and motor oil. She also thanked County Clerk Paige Dukes for providing copies of minutes earlier that same day.

   • Waste Disposal: keep recycling centers open —John Gates

     He said he had lost trust in many of the Commissioners because they had voted to close the recycling centers.

   • Termination clause in contract with Advanced Disposal System —John S. Quarterman

     After thanking Paige Dukes for some documents, Jason Davenport for some quick research, and the Commission for tabling the road closing, I pointed out that the contract with ADS has a termination clause, and with a County Attorney as highly recommended as the one Lowndes County has, plus the degree of lack of performance by the contractor just heard, the county could choose to exercise that termination clause and re-open the collection centers, charging enough to cover their costs.

     A direct and simple solution to fix the problem the previous Commission produced.

   • Economic Development and Green Jobs —Bill Branham

     He suggested the Commission appoint a committee.

   • Animal Control Questions —Judy Havercamp

     She had various questions to which she didn't get answers because the Chairman stuck to the letter of the Commission's CWTBH ordinance and refused to let staff answer. County Manager Joe Pritchard did say he would talk to her later.

Here's a video playlist:

Videos: Tabled Hotchkiss Landing Road Closing but Trash Co. Apology
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 February 2013.

-jsq