City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. What was that?

It's a wet bug going on. I called the councilman.

I'm glad you made it today.

Me too. So you got you working out now? My buddy Scott Willis says you already wear him out.

like to call to order the august 20th 2026 city council meeting meeting of mayor and council i'd like to call on pastor hubert miguel from new life ministries to lead us in prayer please remain standing for the pledge

Heavenly Father, thank you for being gracious and merciful for us. Father, as we gather here today, we pray that you will bless everyone, Lord. I pray that you bless this city, God. Let businesses come from all over, Lord. Let this city grow, Lord. I pray for the mayor. I pray for the council people. I pray, Father, that you lead us, that you give us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Help us, Lord, to put you first in every area. Grow this city, Lord. Let this city be a place as never before, God. Thank you, Lord, for everyone here. Thank you for your mercy, grace. Thank you for your compassion. We give you all the glory, honor, and praise because you deserve the glory and the honor and the praise. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I slowed it way down for you.

I sure did. We're gonna start out with three public hearing items tonight. Item A, consideration of an ordinance to rezone a total of 19.82 acres from residential agriculture

um county to combination of heavy industrials and highway commercial city matt martin will present hi yes sir thank you mayor um these first two items have to do with the same property it's an annexation and rezoning request as we do in these types of cases we consider it as one presentation one public hearing when it comes time to make motion and vote we need to do that separately so we vote on the rezoning first and then the annexation This was an item or a pair of items that was on your agenda two weeks ago and is tabled till tonight. We went through it in a lot of detail at the work session two weeks ago. But to give you a refresher, applicant is Sheldon Hill and Lane Chaney. The property is located along Howell Road to the east of Inner Perimeter. Both packets are in your agenda packet for this evening, but I've merged them into one presentation. So this is from the annexation packet. It shows you the location relative to the city limits. Everything that is in gray shading on this map is currently unincorporated Lowndes County. The white area is in the city limits, and so you see this property is contiguous to the city limits on its north boundary, which is a railroad track, and so we can annex across a right-of-way, whether it be a street or a railroad in this case, but this makes it eligible for annexation by touching the city limit area to the north. other maps in your packet the current zoning is ra residential agricultural in the county you see the ea zoning to the south and west that's in the county is agricultural zoning but more notably is the to the north you see the dark gray that is heavy industrial m2 zoning in the city which is straight north of the tracks and then to the west of there on the west side of inner perimeter that's heavy industrial zoning in lowndes county Other maps include the character area, which is currently rural residential, but like we talked about two weeks ago, we are in the process of going about to amend the comprehensive plan and do an update for that. We've already transmitted that to the state. Included in that transmittal is a proposed new character area map. And the county has requested that this area, and a little bit to the east of it, become industrial activity center. In other words, match the same character area that currently exists to the north and to the west. So that's a proposed change, but at the moment, the character area's rural residential. As part of the city's review, whenever we annex property in, by code, we have the ability to amend the character area map upon annexation. And the proposal for this is to amend it to Industrial Activity Center upon annexation, which is what is being proposed for anyway with the new map. Aerial imagery is currently a crop field, really the western half of one. This is family owned property that has been broken into large pieces. The applicants purchased this several months ago, and you heard the story from two weeks ago where they were proposing residential, and by virtue of the highway and the railroad nearby, they are looking at commercial and industrial. What you don't see on the aerial on the screen, but it's in your packet, The north of the railroad is the industrial uses with the trucking distribution centers that are there. And across in the perimeter, that's Hunt Construction, which has been there for many years, hence their argument for heavy industrial zoning. Also in your packet, you have annexation surveys and rezoning surveys. Remember from two weeks ago, we talked about the difference in acreage. So for the rezoning part of it, which is everything south of the railroad, it's 19.82 acres. Because we are annexing a segment of the railroad as well, the annexation portion of it increases by a couple acres to I think 21.97. That's why the two packets that you have give different acreage totals. So here's a survey of the annexation boundary, which is the property itself, plus the railroad, and then the rezoning portion is just the area south. What is important to note here is they're requesting a split zoning of M2 and CH, The southern fourth of the property along Howell Road would be CH and the rest of it M2. And remember, there is no specific proposed use yet for this property. This is a speculative request. They want to market it for industrial and commercial. They've already been in conversation with the railroad about getting a railroad spur from Norfolk Southern. They're working through those engineering details as to where to place the spur and how long and so forth. But they see that as an opportunity with the major rail line to the north. They understand that it is not a good idea to have heavy industrial all the way to Howell Road, but maybe to reserve that as a commercial area for the long-term development pattern. Some imagery, the subject property, this is how you see it from Howell Road looking north. Beyond those trees is the crop fields that you can see in the aerial image. Then continuing with the pictures, this is looking eastward down Howell Road. Most of the lands around here are undeveloped. with the only exception really being the church that is across the street to the south. I'm on the large parcel land. It is zoned agriculture. It has been there for a number of years, and they are a customer to the city utility system. They are part of our designated service area, and if we annex the property to the north, then that comes into our service area as well. Other photos, this is looking westward. This is the intersection of Howell and Ender Perimeter. a stop sign for Howell Road through traffic of course for Interperimeter Road and then some other photos this is the railroad line this is from the top of the bridge of Interperimeter Road looking east down the railroad the subject property is there on the immediate right and on the left through the trees that is where the trucking terminals are located just a little bit hard to see from Interperimeter Road at the bridge Then the same trucking terminals, when you go around the corner and view them from the north. Then I think lastly, another zoom-in view of the trucking terminal. And then this is Hunt Construction. It's on the west side of Interparameter, and it's been there for a large number of years. I think that's it for the imagery. So again, it's an annexation and rezoning request, different acreages, but the proposal is to go to M2 and CH, about 3 4ths of the property, M2, about 1 4th CH along Howell Road. Planning Commission reviewed this at their last public hearing. They found the rezoning request Consistent with the comprehensive plan that stands for exercise of zoning power, they are recommending approval of the rezoning as proposed, which is the split of M2 and CH. However, when it comes, and that's on a eight to one vote. However, when it comes to the annexation, they are recommending denial of the annexation also by an eight to one vote. And we talked about this at length two weeks ago at the work session. And the only way I know to translate that an unusual recommendation is they are not in favor of the annexation collectively, but if it's to be annexed, they are in favor of the rezoning as proposed, which is M2 and CH. The eight to one vote is common to both of these requests, but the dissenting vote, interestingly, is not the same individual. So as you can imagine, there was a lot of discussion at the Planning Commission. There were some folks from the public who spoke at the hearing. I suspect one or more of them may be here tonight who will like to convey more details to you about what their thinking is. Any questions on these?

I have one question. How far is this from that school over there? I went over there and I was looking at that area, and I think I have the right area in mind, but I just never hear us mention about the school.

Right, a good distance, and there's actually two schools. You've got the Moulton Branch School straight to the south on the inner perimeter. And that's a good way, as I would say, probably a couple miles or more. As you've got the Howell Road intersection, you go on to the south and there's Moulton Branch off to the left on the east side of the road as you round the curve approaching Statenville Highway. And it's across from the Moulton Branch neighborhood. then you've got the city elementary school that's on howell road which is off to the west um and i don't know the distance maybe three-fourths of a mile it's down a little ways but you know it sits back off the road as well they're not immediately closed and certainly not close enough to show up in the mapping but they're in the vicinity in terms of the broader sense and maybe on the city limit map it and it zoomed out enough so that's what i was just wondering because i was looking at going down howe road they're going to make this in you said it's going to be an industrial activity area Correct, an expansion of the industrial activity area that's north of the railroad and off to the west. So on this map, you can see where the subject property is. If you look immediately to the left where you see the word Valdosta, that's industrial development. That's where the, I think it's the GAF site is being built and opened there as part of an expansion of the industrial park that runs east of Clay Road. If you look immediately to the south, you see a finger of the city limits that crosses to the south side. That's the elementary school there. and it's in along the eastern side of that. So it's a little distance from the subject property. I mean, not real close, but, and in between is vacant land, which you can, is what you see in the area. And then the Moulton Branch School is actually off the edge of the map to the south. You keep going down inter-perimeter, you know, just a little bit beyond the edge of the map, and then it'll be on the east side of the road. We've got a city school and a county school kind of nearby, but not immediate neighbors by any stretch of the imagination.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Matt? Matt, thank you. Yes, sir. Again, this is a public hearing item. We'll dedicate 15 minutes for and against for each side. With that being said, is there anybody who would like to step forward in favor of this request? Seeing none, their 15 minutes are over. I'll now dedicate 15 minutes for anybody that would like to step forward in opposition to this request. Matt? You had a thought?

You can stay up. And we did talk about this extensively two weeks ago. Of course, with any annexation requests under state law, we have to give due notice to Lowndes County. That starts a review process for them that we learned two weeks ago that that review process was longer than it had been for many years, which is why we had tabled the request. that full amount of 45 days has run its course as of tomorrow they are if the county wishes to file an objection they have to do it at a public meeting their next public meeting is not until next week tuesday which is beyond that time frame and i did confirm this afternoon there is no called meeting in the works so we have the green light to proceed on with the annexation thank you thank you for that addition matt

All right, a fresh 15 minutes for anybody in opposition to this request. Good evening.

Good evening. Mayor and Council members, my name is Nathan Brantley. I'm a lawyer here in Valdosta at 701 North Patterson Street, and I'm here on behalf of Jenny Jo Spivey. Ms. Spivey is the adjoining landowner to the east of the subject property, so her property fronts on Howell Road, immediately adjacent to the subject property. I'm here to, on her behalf, object to the requested annexation and rezoning for the following reasons. We believe that this request is premature, speculative, unnecessary, overly intensive, inappropriate, and burdensome. And I'll explain why for the following reasons. This request is, and this is the crux of our argument, it is currently inconsistent with the comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan has been submitted for acceptance, but it has not yet been accepted by the state. The character area of this subject parcel pursuant to the comprehensive plan is currently rural residential. Now, I know that there are plans for it to be changed over to industrial activity center, but that has not yet occurred. I also am aware that there is a city ordinance that allows that if this property is annexed and rezoned, that the character area can be changed from rural residential to industrial activity center. But that's not yet occurred. And what's being asked here is a speculative annexation and rezoning with no site plan prepared. There's nothing that indicates what this property will be used for and it is going from the least intensive zoning type that is currently allowed to Possibly and arguably the most intensive zoning type that is allowed within the city, which is m2 so m2 zoning is It's an area used in manufacturing, wholesale trade, distribution activities, assembly, and processing activities. Uses may or may not generate excessive noise, particulate matter, vibration, smoke, dust, gas, fumes, odors, radiation, or other nuisance characteristics. this is a significantly different description of the use of the property than what is allowed under a rural residential character area which is rural undeveloped land likely to face development pressures for lower density residential development now currently The property, the character area of the subject property is rural residential with a plan to transition in the next comprehensive plan over to rural residential. But there currently is, obviously we know, we've all been down Perimeter Road and we've all seen the comprehensive plan and the character area maps. There's a corridor running down Perimeter Road that is industrial in nature, industrial activity center, those types of uses. But what this does is this, and so if you were to approve the annexation and the rezoning request, effectively you would also be approving a change in the character area. So, I mean, it's really a three-prong request that they're asking for here. And there's currently a boundary. There's a boundary of the railroad. And if you've been out there, it's a pretty clearly defined boundary because you have to go over a big overpass before you pass on into what has always been and currently is agricultural development. I've agricultural use of property so rural residential rural AC suburban area this would be an encroachment across the railroad track over the overpass and not just down perimeter road but also turning the corner from perimeter road on the Howell And so this is an encroachment even further into rural residential areas. And I also want to point out, make sure that you're aware, that the subject property does not even front on Perimeter Road. There is a parcel that divides Perimeter Road from this subject parcel. It's owned by a different owner and it is not part of this request. But this is not just an extension of Industrial Activity Center. down south further south on perimeter road but it is actually turning a quarter and heading east onto howell road um For that reason, we believe it is a premature request. It is asking a lot for the city council to approve this when the character area very well may be changed through the proper process and it may become appropriate down the road for this kind of request to be made. But we would still argue that M2 zoning is too high of an intensity. And it's not explained why into is even required because there's it's purely speculative. There's no site plan submitted. We have no idea what's going to go in this property. And into is the most intensive type zoning that is allowed within the city. um it's unnecessary there are other industrial sites within the city within industrial uh parks that within the city that have rail access that are already rezoned or already zoned appropriately which is m2 zoning so the character area i'm sorry the comprehensive plan this is straight out of the comprehensive plan this is industrial activity center character area The development strategy for property that is within that character area, development or where possible retrofitting should occur as part of planned industrial parts, having adequate water, sewer, storm water, and transportation infrastructure for all component uses at build out. We don't have that here. This is not a part of a planned industrial park. This is an isolated parcel that is currently... Now, yes, there is industrial across the railroad track, but it's across the railroad track and over an overpass before you get to where plant industries and these other industrial areas are. This is an encroachment into what has... or as long as Lowndes County's been around, has been agricultural use property and rural residential. Also, the implementation measures regarding the industrial activity center character area require that there be access control measures implemented whenever this property is developed in this area. So this is out of the comprehensive plan as well. So access control measures, providing reasonable access to developments while preserving the safe flow of traffic on an arterial and major collector. Techniques like managing where and how approaches or signals are allowed, use of medians, creation of turn lanes, and support of local ordinances improve the driving atmosphere. In some cases, they also make movement easier and safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Now, we have a situation here where there's no site plan submitted, so we have no idea how they plan to deal with traffic in the area. This is already a very dangerous intersection, and I have included, or I have provided to you a copy of some documents that prove such. We made some open records requests, and there is, each of you should have, I think the clerk has handed it out, a Department of Transportation traffic engineering study from November 2020. It's got some information in there. This cuts off as of It's January 2015 to November 2020. This was an analysis done by the DOT. And so, you know, you probably asked the question, well, 2020, that was six years ago. So what's been happening since then? Well, I also did an open records request for accidents that have occurred at this intersection, the Howell Road and Perimeter Road intersection. And I've included a spreadsheet that shows all the accidents that have occurred from January 2021 through July 2026. So, pursuant to the traffic study that cuts off in November 2020, Perimeter Road has an average vehicle per day count of 9,310 average vehicles. Howell Road has a count of 2,180 average vehicles. Within that period, there were 12 crashes recorded and two fatalities. The DOT's recommendation for this intersection was as follows. Their short-term recommendation was upgrade stop signs, add reflective sign supports, install crossing traffic does not stop signs. Their intermediate recommendation, install intersection conflict warning system. Their long-term recommendation, install roundabout. Traffic light not recommended because of limited approach over railroad overpass. So if you've ever been out there, you know that we've come down that hill You're going fast, so it's logical that it would be dangerous to have a traffic light right there, especially with those big trucks. So the recommendation was install a roundabout. Well, as of today, this is what, six years later from November 2020, The only thing that's been done is the short-term recommendation. Upgrade stop signs, add reflective sign supports, and install crossing traffic does not stop. There's been no installation of any conflict warning system. There's been no installation of any roundabout. So what's happened in the meantime since this recommendation was made? Well, here's what's happened. It's still a dangerous intersection because the problem was not addressed. Since then, From January 2021 to July 2026, there have been 31 crashes and one fatality. So that's a period roughly the same length and duration as the DOT traffic study. So you go from 12 crashes to 31 crashes. I've been out there personally. I've driven out there leaving the elementary school that's right there. At night, it's a dark intersection. Vehicles are flying down the perimeter road. And additionally, you're... This development is moving, the idea behind this development is it would move industrial uses down Howell Road, which is not set up to deal with this additional traffic, and also there's no plan submitted by the applicants here to address any of those concerns. I want to point out to you that the standards for exercising zoning power When reviewing those, we believe that the applicant has not met these standards that would justify rezoning this property. We have no objection to the annexation of this property. I don't believe that it's material, I mean to me, I'm sure it is probably to the council, but whether it's in the city or county, the issue is the zoning and the land use. So when When reviewing or when determining whether to exercise zoning power One of the questions that has to be asked is whether the proposed zoning will result in a use that will or could cause an excessive or burdensome use of existing streets, transportation facilities, utilities, or schools. And I would argue absolutely yes, that these studies show that more traffic down Howell Road and at the perimeter intersection would have an adverse effect on the citizens of lowndes county additionally another question that must be answered whether the proposed rezoning is in conformity with the policy and intent of the comprehensive plan i would argue it absolutely is not this property and all the property in this general area south of the railroad track and east of perimeter is residential or agricultural in nature This is an encroachment beyond an existing boundary that is unnecessary. And additionally, another question that has to be answered is how would it affect, let me find it. Whether a proposed rezoning will adversely affect the existing use or usability of adjacent or nearby property? I would argue absolutely. My client's property is currently zoned agricultural use. It's a large tract of land. It's submitted to a CUVA covenant. It's farmed. We believe that having an industrial or manufacturing facility next door under an M2 zoning designation would absolutely adversely affect her property and is unnecessary, inappropriate, and purely speculative at this point. Thank you for your time. Do you all have any questions for me?

Council, any questions for Mr. Brantley? There is one minute, no questions, I'm sorry. There is one minute remaining in the 15 if anybody else wants to step forward and speak quickly in opposition.

My name's James Spivey. My family owns the property to the east. That's my Aunt Jenny and he just spoke for me. I won't take up much of your time, but my family has owned that property since 1870 and so it's not undeveloped. There's families living there and there's plans for that property. and so our concerns aren't for development or moving forward our concerns are the use of the land and so the heavy industrial is what we've what we've got a problem with and so that's the concern so if it was any other zoning we probably wouldn't even be up here opposing but for the use of the land the people living around and ma'am you asked a smart question i could throw a rock to that school So that man tells the truth. The other schools may be a mile away. The other one, you can see it. So just be considerate of the neighbors is all I'm asking, and we are the neighbors.

James, thank you. That closes out that portion of the public hearing, items of council. One at a time, item 2A, consideration of an ordinance to rezone a total of 19.82 acres is before you. It's yours for action. You got a question for Matt? Absolutely, Matt, please.

Matt, the, speculative nature of this property. We don't, why did the developer, or not the developer, the owner decide to go with M1? Do they know what's coming? Or M2, excuse me.

They don't have any proposed use in mind. They were at the Planning Commission and answered similar questions. It's speculation to market the property for industrial and commercial development. No specific use, no specific site plan at this point, other than the desire to have a railroad spur coming from the Norfolk Southern Rail Line, which they've already been in conversation with.

Gotcha.

Council? Any other questions for Matt? Andy?

Are they in attendance tonight? Are they here tonight?

I did not see them. My understanding was the applicants themselves were not able to be here, but they were going to send a representative. And I don't know if there's a representative here. It's not anyone I recognize. And that might be a good question for the representative.

Would they consider not going with them too?

That would be a good question for them. I don't know what their thought reaction would be, but I do know within your purview, you can approve a more restrictive zoning than what's being requested. But does M1 or CA or something between what it's zoned now and what they're requesting?

I was just curious as to if M2 is what's hanging it up. Like if M2 is the thing that They gotta have or. Or it's not going to what I mean is like is that what they want is into along with CH or would they be OK with just CH?

I don't know if we want to invite someone up or.

If you want to open the public. 5 minutes each side. 5 minutes gotta be equal. Give 5 minutes each side.

Alright Matt, thank you.

Mr. Mack, with J.L. Lomax being that close, did we talk to the school superintendent, the school board concerning this? We did not.

They're not in the realm to be notified. They're a good distance away. We notify surrounding property owners, which is a handful of properties around there, large. But you saw the mapping and how far away schools are.

Yeah, I looked it up, Councilwoman. Moulton Branch is about one mile away. The other one I did not see. You can walk.

You can walk from J.L. Lomax at that corner. That was my question. And we do, with the bus.

I don't know how far the other one is.

It's within walking distance, I can tell you, because I have done and looked at it.

if we can go back to the maps we can show the maps again yeah and i did not measure it i if i had to guess i would say it was a little bit less than a mile to the other one there's the land between i mean it's a few thousand feet it's definitely yeah definitely closer but not next door i can't throw a rock that far i know that

all right yes I do have another question though but whatever business that goes in that spot that is would be a part of planning though that you guys would have to put some regulations or different things to make sure that they don't interfere don't

Correct, yeah. Development from scratch like this would be, would be subject to all of our new development standards, nothing grandfathered in. M2 zoning next to non-industrial carries with it a pretty extensive buffer yard requirement because of the differences in uses. So with the CH, because CH against agriculture is a pretty big disparity, so that again, buffer yards. Depending on the nature of the use that goes there in terms of traffic generation, it may or may not trigger a traffic study. We don't know what the use is now. There's a lot of discussion about this at the Planning Commission meeting about traffic study and speculation. 20 acres of industrial zoning by itself is not a whole lot that the acreage alone would generate a need for that, but you could get an intensive use there. You could have a warehouse. We have one in town that's over a million square feet, but it has three people. Or you could have a FedEx ground terminal. Same kind of acreage. Big difference in intensity. The things that generate a lot of traffic and things that the city would be concerned about, we would address those during the development review process. What's a little bit different with this property is Howell Road itself is a county road. It is not part of the annexation, which means it would continue to be a county road. And any access to and from that road would be the pleasure of Lowndes County, they would be part of that review process. Any impacts to the intersection of the inner perimeter would then be under review and scrutiny of Georgia DOT. So there's some different layers of oversight involved here with what goes on with this property based on current geography.

Also, sir, we have a large church, the one you showed, New Life.

Across the street, yes.

That's a large congregation. And with that industrial effect, The church members that go to attend that church?

That would be a question for them. They were notified of the hearings. I fully expected at least an inquiry from them. My office did not receive any inquiry. They did not come to planning commission meeting. But they are the only developed property that's non-industrial that's to the south. They're zoned agriculture.

One last quick question. How would they have, their access would be off Howell Road? They couldn't get any access any other way other than off Howell Road?

Correct. This property only has frontage on Howell Road. That's what I thought. They're sort of near inter-perimeters, we pointed out, but impossible to get access there. One state route and two pretty steep slope, and that is a separate parcel. that is in between. It is not buildable on its own. It is a remnant parcel, like we talked about from two weeks ago. I know the applicant has tried to get custody of that property as well, but the owner of that who owns the property also on the other side of Interpreter was not interested in selling.

And that's why we're looking at the traffic, because traffic coming south off a perimeter, in a perimeter, would have to make a right, and then make a left to go to that, if they had any business, right?

Right, they would have to make a turn eastward onto Howell Road and then come into this property. I think because of the nature of the roads and the intersection, the access in and out of this property is not gonna be close to the Howell Road intersection. Georgia DOT I know is not going to allow that.

It will be kind of tight with a lot of traffic.

And that's all development review consideration. The county controls ultimately their road and Georgia DOT controls if it's too close to their intersection.

Thank you Matt.

And particularly if there's truck traffic involved.

All right any other questions for Matt? um council still has questions and knowing that the applicants here um council without objection i'm going to reopen the public comment portion and give five minutes for each side for and against um it'll offer a semi rebuttal if they if they hear something in that other five so with that being said um if there's somebody wants to speak in favor or answer questions on this property at the applicant now that we're aware that he's here if you don't mind coming forward i believe councilman gibbs will lead and then maybe some others have a question or two how's it going how are you how are you oh please identify yourself

identify yourself children Hill thank you for coming I just have a question as far as I think the concern is not the annexation part of it it's the m2 portion of it would you be I mean is there is this a deal breaker would you be willing to I mean discuss or move the zoning down

um we would definitely consider it um i have other partners involved in the ownership of that that i would need to further give a discussion before i could answer that question as far as yes we chose one of the reasons why we chose this too is just as matt pointed out um in that region that's it was m2 that's what we were kind of um guided to do as far as what we felt like was the path of least resistance to get the best use out of the property.

Are you talking about because of Hunt and everybody else being M2? Yeah. Hunt Industries? Correct.

But yes, we would definitely consider that if that's going to be a hang up. By all means, I mean, we're not here to upset anybody. Right. At all. So yeah, we would definitely consider it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council, any questions for the applicant?

Just a comment on that, Mayor. You know, if we were to, say, go from M2 to M1, that doesn't stop them at some point in the future. If they get a prospective client that needs M2, they could come back and ask for the M2 then. But M1 would still give them a lot of range as far as industrial uses.

Okay.

Yeah.

Council, any other questions? No. All right. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you all.

I don't imagine there's anybody else that wants to come forward and speak in favor of this request. Kelly. So we'll close out that portion. We'll open up five minutes for anybody else in opposition, especially on what they heard. Kelly Saxon.

Hi, my name is Kelly Saxon. I do have concerns with this, being that it is residential, the crashes in the area, and I'm gonna just say the word, you know, data centers, we have to be mindful of the zoning that comes before us is not defined yet, and we don't have anything in place for that, and the changing, and the highest level, and all of that, we just need to be mindful of what people are asking for before it's granted, so we don't wanna have to come over here and fight over here, too. We love y'all, though. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else in opposition?

One aspect of school is a good question. Lomax is right there. School buses use that all the time. They've already had bus wrecks there, too. I want you to consider that very much so, because it's children you're talking about. The curve down from it where you're going to have to build, if they build anything there, there's a curve on the highway from Boren Pond Road at what you can't see around. that you're talking about going into, when you get to the intersection, you're talking about the bridge that's right there. Coming down it, if you're coming from the opposite way from the school, that long is how long you got to cross that road before somebody comes down that bridge. I think it's ridiculous to put a manufacturing plant there. That's just me. My name is Charles, and I live on Howell Road. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you letting me speak. Charles, thank you.

Still time, anybody else in opposition to this request?

I'm a member of New Life Ministries. My name is George Ward. I attend there. I cannot respond to the, about the contact information, but hearing what I've heard on today raises an issue for me and this concern for the environmental impact it would have in that area and on our ministry. also the traffic concerns for that area as well, and not knowing exactly what industry is coming and how that would impact that area as well.

George, thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to come forward and speak in opposition to this request?

Mayor, council members, I'm Richard Terry. I live in Howell, Georgia. I traverse that road almost daily. I hit that intersection constantly. My wife was T-boned at that intersection in 2016, so I've got skin in the game. This is a bad idea. it's not a bad idea annexation no problem but if an industry were to relocate there until this traffic situation is remedied ahead of time this is this is a bad idea and uh this overpass here the overpass on hill avenue the roundabout These are all band-aids, man. I don't know what's wrong, but this nation does not have a forward vision. It cannot see past the four-year election cycle. We put band-aids on stuff. And that's all I've got to say. This is a bad idea to rezone that to manufacturing. There's already been deaths, and you're just going to intensify that if it happens. Thank you very much for your time. Richard, thank you.

It'll be quick. The possibility of a data center, one of the things I want to start doing is coming up and giving people some of the knowledge that I have and stuff. I'm going to do a lightning round for you. just on general knowledge of data centers, right? In the past 18 months, the demand for hyperscale data centers has grown in Georgia. This has led to a doubling of the capacity of energy that we need in this state, adding 14 gigawatts to what Georgia Power's asking for. Anybody who's telling you anything about what data centers might bring to this, they do not know anything that they're talking about. It is all speculative, right? This is a bubble. We will come out of this and we'll be left with empty warehouses that will be blights in our community. These data centers, when we're talking about being so close to these schools, there's particulate matter, there's noise pollution that comes out of this. You can end up, by the time they end up coming in, y'all, they're bringing in the big guns when it comes to their lawyers, when it comes to their land development. You've seen data centers across the country that have completely transformed the areas that they've been in because they need more requirements. Point blank period, y'all, this is bad for everything that we have, environmental here, it's gonna mess up. If there is the possibility of a data center coming to that area, it's gonna mess up the water, it's gonna mess up the air, it's gonna be noise pollution. These people do not care about us. The thing that a lot of folks aren't saying is it comes to these data centers. These are tourists who are looking to exploit Georgia for its resources. They're looking at us as dumb country folk who are trying to get out of whatever situations we think we have, and we're looking at this as like the solution on the hill. It is not. Do not make a deal with the devil. And then a couple of months or years later, we're looking, wondering why we in hell, y'all. Be very careful about if we don't know why it's being rezoned, because data centers are on people's mind. They think they can use it to make quick money to exploit Georgia.

Thank you. Anybody else in the, no, I'll close it out. 17 seconds, there will not be time. thank you Susan all right that wraps up the public hearing portion for a second time council I'll turn it over to you for action sorry I'll turn over the consideration of an ordinance to rezone first to a for you for action mayor

the a lot of good comments a lot of good input a lot of concerns though I I do say I think this tracks not big enough to be considered for a data center but so many issues that have been brought up are not addressed within the zoning itself they're addressed at time of permitting and permitting will address traffic access, how that access is done. And ultimately, whatever is allowed would have to pass through all those courses of the permitting process. There is a reasonable request before us for M2 because just north of it is M2. However, we've heard some good arguments about maybe not going quite as intense with some of the neighboring properties, but there is going to be a huge divide between rural agriculture and any highway commercial, M1, whatever. There's a big difference there, and you can't really stop that. To consider rezoning this to CH, we talk about traffic, large fuel center going in there, they're gonna generate way more traffic than probably a number of things would. So to try to find some balance and give some leverage to the neighboring properties, I would make a motion to rezone this to M1 and follow based on staff's recommendations. I have a motion before us.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

All right, I have a motion and a second. Any comments? I'll direct that to staff.

Quick point of clarification, the request for rezoning is a split of M2 and CH, and I know we can go more stricter with the M2 part, but I do not believe we could go from CH up to M1. So is the motion to rezone a split of M1 and CH with the boundary as submitted?

Sorry, Matt, you're right.

It's for clarification.

Yeah, wanna open again?

mayor I would like to make a motion I have a motion and a second for M1 split CH all in favor show of hands all in opposition same sign motion carries 4-2

Mr. Mayor. Hold on. Now we'll move on to item B, consideration of an ordinance to annex the same 21.97 acres. Council, it's yours for action.

Mayor, make a motion to approve the request as presented.

Second. I have a motion and a second.

Any comments, council?

All in favor, show of hands. Opposition, same sign. Motion carries. now move on to item c 2026 millage rate public hearing darquita williams this is second reading we have the first at 11 o'clock this morning the actual vote will be the following thursday at 6 p.m for any citizens that want to attend darquita is our finance director darquita good evening thank you good afternoon mayor and council

Okay, this evening I'll be presenting to you the 2026 digest and also the 2026 proposed millage rate. All right, just some background information. Each year the governing authority must establish a millage rate for the tax year through the required public process. We must also publish the required digest history and conduct the required public meetings before final adoption. The city's 2026 tax digest increased across most property categories, resulting in an overall 5.83 increase in the net taxable digest. Some highlights that I would like to point out are real property increased by 4.74%, personal property increased by 9%, motor vehicles decreased by 10.14%, mobile homes increased by 6.89%, and our exemptions increased by 2.99%. What you have here is form 32.1 and what this shows is a detailed comparison of our categories and the net change between 2025 and 2026. This also shows the calculation of our rollback millage rate and this is also available for viewing on our website if you'd like to see those details. Some opportunities for this millage rate increase. Information technology and service modernization. These investments will support upgrades to our aging systems, improve communication and information sharing across departments, and also create opportunities to streamline processes through technology with the city. Another initiative is our strategic workforce investment. Investing in our workforce will strengthen the city's ability to attract and retain a talented, high-performing staff by ensuring that all employees are offered a fair and competitive pay and also benefits. And lastly, one of the main points is strengthening our financial reserves. Maintaining a healthy reserve provides a financial cushion during economic downturns, emergencies, or unexpected expenses. And this also helps us maintain the city's essential services and protect the community's financial stability. Overall, we're showing continued growth in our taxable property. We had 141.9 million increase in our net taxable digest. The rollback rate that's calculated is 6.133 mils, and our proposed millage rate is 7.997 mils. Thank you, and I'll open up the floor for questions if y'all have any.

Council, any questions for Dr. Guida?

i have no question but i do have a comment yes ma'am i want to say we've had a lot of conversation a lot of work has gone into this i appreciate it and i just want everybody to know what we have to do here with these things with the taxes and all and everything look at the whole picture our financial department uh other staff have put a lot of time in it and a lot of scenarios on how to best of work with our city and get our city going and keeping it growing and maintaining and manageable. So I just want you to know, thank you for the way you have explained it, all of the different scenarios you've showed me, made me understand what it's about and all and everything and I really wish we could get some of the information to like what they gave to me to a lot of the citizens because they are asking the question but I can assure you our staff have put a lot of time in looking out what's best and how it is going to affect the citizens and they have been looking out for your interest so thank you and i'm glad for this hearing and i'm having all these questions that they asked i just want them to come right now will be a good time when it comes to some of the hearings and you can explain it to them better because you've done a wonderful job but you've done a well a good job and i say that because all the questions that has been coming but you have given us some good information all of you even our city manager have been giving us some good information to give back to them and some of them seem to be okay with it

Thank you, and I'm more than happy to answer any questions from the audience after the meeting, after comments, or if they have any questions, they can contact me if they're not here. That's right, thank you for telling them.

Ms. Dooley, well said. I'll add that we took a beating last year. The growth in the Digest was only .6 last year. It's 5.83 and very healthy this year, and we're gonna mop up a little bit of the beating we took last year.

Yes. True.

all right this is not a uh i also want to say mr please thank you for taking the time so that i can explain it to my citizens today you took the time you sit with me you and you even laminated for me to be able to be able to talk to my citizens when they ask me questions on how to about our tax military And again, I cannot say, you told me that there was no such question as a dumb question. And you took the time, and this is the first time that someone has really, really, really took the time and just went step by step by step. But it counts, well, I can do it myself, to be able to present this in the public to our citizens. Thank you so much. As Ms. Dooley said, kudos to you. Thank you so much.

Thank you, most welcome. Thank you.

Wanna hang around? Soak up some more compliments? Darquita, thank you very much.

Thank you.

There is no action to be taken on this. It's our second reading. Again, the third reading and the actual vote will be Thursday night at 6 o'clock in a special called meeting as well.

Yeah, we sure did. We had one at 11 o'clock today. This was the second.

All right, move on to item three, ordinances and resolutions. Item A, consideration of a resolution to submit an application for Georgia Transportation's Infrastructure Bank, Ben O'Dowd, our city engineer, to present.

We should open it up.

Hey Ben, sit down. It did fall within the public hearing. It's not a for and against, it's any citizens that wish to comment. on our second reading for setting our millage rate may come forward. I'm sorry, I almost excluded you.

I can't blame the old stoner.

I came here from Cocoa about the same time you came from Cocoa Beach, so I know.

Frank Kilgard, at the same time our county tax commissioner has blanketed, raised everybody's property value approximately 20%, you are proposing 30% increase in millage on top of that. Are you out of your minds? That's it.

Is there anybody else that wishes to come forward at this time? i'll close out the public comment period and again move on ben if you'd like to come forward we're on item 3a consideration of a resolution to submit an application for georgia's transportation infrastructure bank event good evening mayor and council thank you

First item is as stated a resolution in support of staff grant application. The Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank is a funding instrument that's available to road owners around Georgia. There's a specific arm of that particular funding instrument that allows us to apply for grants in support of local transportation improvement projects and maintenance projects. The specific project that we're working on right now is the capital maintenance for Baytree Road from BSU to Gordon, and we're proposing to apply for additional grant funds through the GTIB program that would facilitate the extension of that maintenance operation all the way through to Guarantoe. And so this is basically a grant application for supplementary funds to supplement our local budget and help us stretch our dollars further. Any questions on this one?

Council, any questions for Ben? All right, Ben, hang tight. Council, this one's yours for action.

Mayor, I make a motion we approve the application as presented.

motion and a second all in favor show of hands council thank you then item b consideration of a resolution supporting zero traffic related deaths i don't know who's going to oppose this one

Yes, sir. This is a resolution supporting zero traffic-related deaths. As you're aware, we had the wonderful young ladies present at the last work session to kind of give you all a roadmap for what our SS4A Safety Action Plan development is going to look like. And one of the pivotal moments here is an opportunity for you all to express support for this initiative, the Target Zero initiative. Our local regional commission has adopted a target zero policy as well as the Georgia Department of Transportation has also adopted a target zero policy and so as far as as part of the SS for a grant program in order this is a thing that we have to go through but we need a resolution from the local government the City Council in support of the target zero policy.

Council any questions for Ben? All right, Ben, thank you. Council, that one's yours for action.

May I like to make a motion to approve the request as presented?

Second. Motion to second. All in favor, show of hands. Council, thank you. Ben, thank you. Move on to item four, bids, contracts, agreements, and expenditures. A is consideration of payment for emergency sewer repairs at Jerry Jones Drive. Ben O'Dowd, still to present.

Yes, sir. So as part of the Jerry Jones widening project, we have some in scope utility relocations and repairs that are taking place, as I'm sure you're fully aware. We had some damaged utilities that we encountered that were in some cases completely collapsed and in some other cases posed an imminent threat of collapse adjacent to the project, but technically outside of the contract area for Scruggs as part of that project. RPI is the utility subcontractor for that project, and they were working with Scruggs, and so we reached out to RPI and said, hey, we've got some issues here where we've got backups, we've got collapses, can y'all extend basically the service work out into, if you're familiar with where Relish is, the parking lot there, the work that they did that basically connected Relish, cut the corner from Relish to Baytree. And then there was some deep exploratory and encapsulating work that they had to do on a portion of the sewer system that was previously abandoned, but not sufficiently for the project. And it was not reflected on our mapping. And so when we found that, we had to fix that as part of the Jerry Jones project as well. long story short the request before you is to approve payment of an invoice in the amount of two hundred five thousand nine hundred thirty three dollars the proposed funding instrument for this is user fees additionally I did want to just point out I do have photographs on here we had the the pipe in question we had it televised prior to Then City Manager Al Crace's approval of emergency authorization repairs on this. And included as part of the agenda item are photographs which depict the damage to the sewer system. There you can see where that kind of brown colored opening there is I'll say contaminant and dirt. And then next image that's zoomed in. showing where portions of the pipe are missing, pipe wall, it's old vitrified clay pipe, which once it's reached or exceeded its service life becomes friable and it collapses into the pipe. And eventually the entire pipe collapses itself. Continue scrolling, Shakira, if you could. One more. This was the one that was considerably concerning. This is a complete occlusion of the pipe. So what you see here is dry pipe that's totally occluded from you've got complete misalignment between the pipe segments. And this is an emergency backup in service failure waiting to happen. And so this was really what initiated the emergency repair. And we said, okay, we've got to take care of this right now. And I believe that's all the photographs.

$205,933.

You scared me there. and Ben is this last one the one that they opened up the Grand Canyon in the middle of the road to explore yeah that was quite the sizable and for what it's worth excavation as compared to the unit cost pricing within the competitively bid contract for the Jerry Jones project uh the cost to perform this work was actually under what it would have been if it was included as part of that project so that is I think I was like Miss Cody I was ready for two million on that one not 205 000. Any other questions on this one?

No. Council, any questions?

I have one question. Yes, ma'am. I was just trying to understand. You said that Scruggs was on this, and we brought in RPI emergently.

Yes, ma'am.

Emergently, RPI had to come in again. I mean, it was an emergency situation.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

It wasn't it was causes outside the scope of Yes, it's work right way G dot does their contract They're contracting with the general contractor the prime on the project is they have a they have an area that they call the limit of survey Right and so they it's a unit cost contract so they can do things in addition to what's specified or shown on the plans if new needs are identified during construction, but they're not allowed to exceed based on the funding that they use and the calculations that they use for the project budget. They're not allowed to exceed this survey area. And so the survey area was right on the limits of the right away for Jerry Jones, right where relish parking lot came through. And so when they went to, uh, televise this line, they identified the failures and it was just downstream of the work that they were doing that they had torn up right there at the entrance.

if you come off a bay tree pulling in the relish that's what we're talking about here and the last one was all the way down they tore up the entire middle of the road for the last one that one's in that one's in contract we're not paying for that yeah that's part of it this one not being within the scope and the contract of the original what we agreed to we're having to step in and pay for rpi to do this because it wasn't within it yep but was this an emergency situation

Yes, ma'am, as you can see on the photographs, I mean, you've got 30%, 40% occlusion on the gravity sewer there, and then you've got areas where pipe segments are completely collapsed. You've got bell and spigot joints that are completely fractured and separating, which is a primary indicator of something that would warrant an emergency solicitation.

If we did not warrant an emergency,

and you were to just bid it out what we're talking it'd be fixed a year from now they would say probably three to four months of additional delay it would have gotten worse yeah yeah and delayed jerry jones yes yeah because it's all got to connect all of this is downhill from all of this kind of goes through cuts the corner through relish and then goes uh through bay tree eventually gets to langford not clear then the rest of is we're making repairs on sewer that's just going to back up and we've got service failure for 500 people so what do you say in black's my restaurant closing down Any other questions on this one?

Any other questions, Thomas?

I got one.

Yes, sir.

How'd you take those pictures? Would you put a little boat in there?

I'm surprised how they got good at it. It was so bad. They've got basically a small, it's almost like a laparoscopic camera, but it's like a wire camera that they can travel down the pipe.

Oh, you can just?

Yes, sir. Okay. You can feed it down the line and take images and photography.

Okay, I got you. Not that bad.

you want to authorize a drone form all right ben thank you council yours for action me may i make a motion that we approve um this emergency sewer payment second motion in a second all in favor show of hands

opposition same sign thank you miss Dooley motion carries move on to item 4b consideration of a request to purchase a mobile column lift system for the public works motor pool division I don't have anybody written down but I know that had to be John Burton how'd you know hi John

The Public Works Motor Pool Division needs to purchase a mobile column lift system for the health and wellness of the service technicians and diesel mechanics who maintain the city's fleet daily. Current conditions are to drive up onto seven inch tall ramps or lift the vehicle with air jacks or air over hydraulic jacks. Each of these tasks is meticulous and time consuming, providing minimal space under the vehicle to complete job duties. A notice of intent to utilize a cooperative purchasing agreement was posted to the Georgia Procurement Registry for five days, per the Department of Administrative Services guidelines due to cost. By utilizing a cooperative contract with Sourcewell, this is a courtesy post to allow other companies the opportunity to protest our purchase four days from the posting date. We did not have anyone protest this purchase. And I recommend that council approve the source well contract price submitted by Ari Phoenix in the amount of $112,512.93. Council, any questions for John?

He needs a new lift. Thomas? Okay. John, thank you. Thank you. Council, yours for action.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the request as presented.

Second.

Motion and lots of seconds. All in favor, show of hands.

I just got a second. Council, thank you.

We'll now move on to the citizens to be heard portion of the evening. We ask that you come forward, state your name and address so that we may have it for the record. Our policy requires that you stay under three minutes so that all have time to be heard. Please direct all comments to Council as a whole and do not attempt to engage individual members in debate. It is our policy to follow through with you on your concern. Additionally, we ask that any groups that want to address Council designate a spokesperson for that same reason. With that being said, are there any citizens wishing to be heard at this time? Please come forward.

Dr. Noll, good evening. Good evening, everyone. My name is Michael Noll. I live at 2305 Lindell Drive. It is good to see you all. I was not expecting to hear the word data centers before, but I was carefully listening to it. And that brings me directly to the reason why I'm actually here this evening. I urge the city council to pass a moratorium on data centers and develop a robust data center ordinance. And for a very specific reason, uh, last Saturday, um, Alcat has long citizens against data centers actually received a tip. And, uh, there was a Facebook, um, page basically called land for sale in Georgia, uh, which, uh, provided a rendition of what could be a wonderful site for data center. And this one is big enough. There's more than 800 acres would be south of all just a high school. And not blaring this out right away, I'd like to do my research. I was trying to get an idea of what may be going on and then realized that within two or three days actually the post disappeared from my Facebook. But driving by on perimeter road, as well as highway 84, you can see the signs that are actually connected with a particular real estate agency called McKellen. They're not from here. They're from around somewhere else. And if you go to their website, you find out that actually this piece of land has already been listed for more than 140 days. And I know there's also a description in there. It does not use the word data center, but it also talks up for at least 374 acres for industrial uses. You all know how sensitive and how important of an issue data centers are for various reasons. Some of you have been at town hall meetings we organized on February 17 and April 17. I think we handed out very early on already in January the general concerns we have about data centers. Since that time, we have mainly focused on trying to educate the general public and also educate our county commissioners on the issues that are connected with it. But having been exposed to this potential idea, and this may be just as speculative as the project you basically approved, although you zoned it to M1, It is really important that we all know about this, that we take a look at this, and that we also are actually considering a moratorium as well as a data center ordinance. You have three handouts today. One is just simply the quick narrative I created today to give you an idea of why I'm here tonight to talk about data centers, and then an image that you can no longer find on Facebook of this wonderful rendition using AI, apparently, to show us what a data center may look like south of Aldosta High School. The other two handouts you received from me tonight, one is a simple example of a moratorium that Adel just passed not too long ago. And then the third handout you received is basically a very decent data center ordinance that was developed by Henry County. I would like to bring it to your attention. So long story short, data center is on everyone's mind. I wake up with them. I go to bed with them. It seems like they're not leaving me alone at all. But we can, as a community, county or city makes no difference, be progressive in this regard and just simply pass a moratorium, develop a data center ordinance to have that in place as guardrails to protect our community, our natural resources, and just simply do our job. That's all. Michael, thank you. Thank you.

Are there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time? Now you got time.

Because the air is really important that we breathe. But anyway, I'm Susan Whaling, 2410 Georgia Avenue. I want to thank you for three things first before I fuss, but the inclement weather shelter was much needed. Thank you all and the former city manager too. Perfect timing, right, with this heat wave. um thank you for the excellent recycling program which i heard is doing well especially with cardboard thank you for the strict garbage regulations those are really important and citizens seem to be following along and i hope that they're doing more recycling i do i do remember at the meeting though someone suggested storing that data for three years of the garbage collection i hope we're not doing that we're doing month at a time Because when we keep adding to this cloud, all this information, then we need data centers. So we need to reduce the amount of stuff we're storing in the iCloud. Which brings me to flock cameras. I'm totally opposed to flock cameras. I am not alone. As more citizens get educated, they're very upset about it. I think we need to reduce the number of flock cameras. I think the bad guys are questionable, who we think are bad guys and who are not, but we seem to always be picking on the poor. And I don't like my data going across county, city, and state boundaries. And flock cameras surveil all of us 24 hours a day. They use a lot of data storage. Again, we don't want data centers, so we don't need more storage. And then I also, if we're gonna pass this huge tax thing, and believe me, my neighbors are gonna fuss, they fussed, we all fussed when the county did. So you're gonna get a lot of flack, just know that. So if you're gonna raise our taxes, spend it on things that matter. If you don't want crime, invest it in the youth here. I have so many children that come to my door because they don't have shoes, because they're not allowed to wear Crocs, to the high school. They're teased and bullied because of the clothes they wear. They have no chance for the future. My students who are police officers in the city and Remerton and the county tell me, these students are free in the summer, there's nothing for them to do, trouble is easy. I took students to the prison and to the jail, and a lot of people are in there because of poverty. I don't see us doing much to alleviate the well-being of children and the temptation that they might have to join gangs. So let's work on improving chances for the youth here. I also, I don't know if you have the Bray land, if that's for sale, but the city bought a lot of land. Let's convert that land into parks and sports centers instead of half a million dollar swap mobiles. I was really disappointed by that purchase. I heard it was for the hurricane. Well, let's buy trucks that pick up logs. Let's invest that SPLOST money in the people and the environment. Thank you.

Susan, thank you. Is there any other citizens wishing to be heard at this time? Seeing none, we'll close out this portion of the evening and turn it over to our city manager for the city manager's report.

Just a few quick updates. We have the Valdosta Fire Department Citizens Fire Academy that will start on Tuesday, August 25th. This academy gives citizens an opportunity to go behind the scenes with the fire department and gain a better understanding of the services provided by the fire department. Since 2014, the program has helped educate citizens and members of the business community about fire department operations, increase fire and life safety awareness, and build strong partnerships between the fire department and the community. alongside that the valdosta fire department has the 9 11 5k coming up this will be the 25th anniversary of september 11 2001 honoring the lives lost recognizing the courage and sacrifice of our first responders and supporting an important cause the 9 11 5k will be held on saturday september 20 september 5th 2026 at 8 a.m in downtown valdosta And finally, we have the annual Expo Latino held by the Valdosta Main Street. This will be on Saturday, September 19th from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Unity Park. The festival will feature live entertainment, authentic food, local vendors, community organizations, family activities and educational resources celebrating the rich diversity of Hispanic and Latino cultures.

jennifer thank you now move on to council comments i'll start them with thomas uh... said yes got to comment that one first of all uh... i've had a lot of citizens asking about when we have citizens to be heard and we tell them that we will talk to them after the council meeting and uh... from citizens of ask what do we say to know what is the results of it and it was one of the things that away we could um... rehash it or come back and review or tell what happened from that conversation that we had with citizens to be heard. I told them I would ask the council and we would see. I even told them to come up here and ask themselves, but I don't see anybody here who asked me that question, but they were inquiring as to what was the results from what we said to the people with citizens to be heard. I did tell them a lot of times we do have something, and I thought one time we were, we did have a paper telling us what it is, but some of the public want to hear, so I don't know if that's something we can bring up. I did, I bought it. my other thing i gotta say is about this approval for this industrial area over off of howell road now i've been over there howell road and and i know it is a tight road it's two lanes if they're gonna have their be able to only have one interest coming on howell road when you come in off of that Yeah, I've been a perimeter row coming down that long that steep over bridge you got a bus from the city coming down how low going West you got a bus going to the Lowndes County bus bond going right they have to stop I mean it's like almost going here they're gonna hit they gotta go slow and get by them granted one of it is the county probably the reason they won't widen the road or do something, but it is a traffic zone. I was between a truck and the big bus coming behind me off that thing. I pulled out. I didn't think the bus was gonna stop in time to keep from hitting me when we turned. It is a bad intersection because you can't help it. It's steep and you're gonna come down fast. You can put your brakes on. or whatever, but it comes down fast. That's one thing. And they only got one entrance. That's what I was looking at. How are they gonna have an entranceway of somebody coming? If you got a big truck coming down that road, I just can't see how you're gonna have those two people passing by. There have been some studies with other places like DOT trying to look at how they're gonna make traffic come through there. This is a big safety hazard. I can tell you that now. I was very nervous when I saw, like I said, that big truck coming behind me and it was coming down the bridge. I'm waiting behind this big bus and I basically had to pull out. I did, I pulled out a little bit because it just was coming too fast. probably wasn't going to hit me, but you heard what the man said about how many traffic accidents we've had in that area. They haven't fixed it up. We got kids coming in. I do know because I'm telling you, going down there in the morning to greet the kids, it's dark. You got cars coming. It's a disaster. Coming down that residential road, you see people mowing their yards on the side or anything like that, and you got a big truck coming and those buses coming. all i can say is it is a big problem you're looking for more accidents to happen but i also say this too for anybody who see it ask why they did it y'all was looking you see who voted for it don't come to me please don't ask me why they would not think safety you go to the person who voted for it they had their reason for looking at that and looking at why would you want that on that side of the town anyway close to those kids i have walked down when we had a little run down coming from jl lomax i went out there with the kids we were planting uh vegetables and stuff we did a little quick run for exercise and that's why i know you can walk from there those kids walk down that road on there i don't know if they will be doing that but if you have a lot of trucks coming got industry you got those trucks coming I just don't see it being safe. I got a concern for it. And I was looking at them talking about this safety. What is that? The zero traffic related death and serious injuries. I'm going to be interested in finding out how many more we continue to have in that area if they allow this organization or this company to put a business there. Look like they say they're going to have commercial on the front part and the big industrial thing on the back side. I don't know what they're going to do, but I got a feeling they're going to really mess up and they're going to have this area close to that school. Look at the school. Where the school at? What kids go to that school? look at the people who voted for that what did they think about it i i'm just i just can't i'm not happy about it and i want y'all to know it and i'm sure you know as our kids i go out there with them i see them and trying to learn about them and help with them you put them in jeopardy i feel like they were put in jeopardy to allow this zoning to be put there in that area that's it

Tim, Nate, Ms. Cody? All right, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. We stand adjourned. Thank you, everybody. i'm leaving with a lot more than i came with look at this