Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

He would please rise removing the head cover. I'm gonna call on Commissioner Ornstein for the invocation and the pledge.

pray with me if you will father god lord we come to you tonight as always grateful for all our many blessings lord the things that we sometimes take for granted we acknowledge those tonight and give thanks to you lord we're thankful for the crowd that's here tonight lord we're thankful for our community our first responders and all that make us um a great community in which to live lord i'm thankful for the staff that support us each and every day and my fellow commissioners and the work that they put into our county Lord, just be with us here tonight. Lead us and guide us, and we'll give you the honor and glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

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

Thank you, Commissioner Ordenstein. Commissioners, before we get started, I have a need to add an agenda item. This is going to read in regards to the proposed L-host consideration. That would be labeled as agenda item 7F. If there's no objections, then I would add that to the agenda. Yes, sir. All right. Okay. Okay. Archimedes is inside your package you find your minutes of the work session as well as your regular session minutes for May the twenty sixth if there are no additions deletions or corrections I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes we have we have motion to approve by Ms. Evans we have a second by Mr. Weisenbaker Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, like, sign? Hearing none, the minutes are approved. Agenda item 5A is our first of several appointments. We have appointment for the Valdosta Lounge County Zoning Board of Appeals. Ms. Dukes?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Commissioners. The terms of Victoria Copeland and Marion Ramsey have expired. Mr. Ramsey would like to be reappointed, and Ms. Copeland does not wish to be reappointed. Mr. Gary Weisenbaker and Stacey Young are also interested in serving on the Vastalounds County Zoning Board of Appeals.

Okay.

Mr. Chairman, I need to recuse myself from this agenda item, please.

Okay. It's understandable. All right. If there's no questions for Ms. Dukes, then I will open up the floor for nominations.

I would like to nominate Ms. Gary Weisenbaker.

All right. We have Mr. Gary Weisenbaker.

Mr. Chairman, if we could take these one at a time as well.

Okay.

That would satisfy the attorney.

All right. Okay. Are there any other nominations for this seat?

Is that for Copeland's seat or?

Yes, this is for Ms. Copeland's seat. All right, hearing none, then Mr. Gary Weisenbaker will be appointed by acclamation. All right, now we'll open up the appointments for Mr. Ramsey.

And Mr. Ramsey would like to be.

Yes, he would like to continue to serve.

I nominate Ramsey.

Okay, so we have a motion for Mr. Ramsey. Are there any other nominations? All right, hearing none, I'll close the nominations, and Mr. Ramsey will be reappointed by acclamation. All right, we'll now move on to Agenda Item 5B, and this is for the Valdosta Lounge County Airport Authority. Ms. Dukes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dan Kerrigan's term has expired. He is not interested in being reappointed at this time. Mr. Kerrigan stated that he's had some life changes right now that he's enjoying and he would possibly like to serve again in the future. Mr. James Warren, Mr. Christian Funk are interested in serving. Also, Mr. Kevin Lancaster submitted a letter a form and he's interested as well. So we have Mr. James Warren, Mr. Christian Funk, Mr. Kevin Lancaster, or the board's pleasure.

Okay. Any questions for Ms. Dukes? All right. Hearing none, I'll open up the floor for nominations.

Okay.

We have Mr. James Warren. Are there any other nominations? All right. If there's no other nominations, then we'll close the nominations and Mr. James Warren will be appointed by acclamation. All right, we'll move on now to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority. And commissioners, these positions will, we need to state that they'll be beginning on six and one of 26 and will end 531 of 29. That makes the attorney happy. All right. Ms. Dukes?

The terms of Andy Griffin and Scott Purvis on the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority expired May the 31st of this year, and both gentlemen are interested in being reappointed.

I nominate Andy Griffin.

Okay. I'll open up the floor for nominations. So the floor is open. So Mr. Griffin.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Lower your flag.

And we have two seats, correct? Yes, sir. All right. Are there any other nominations for this seat? Hearing none, then Mr. Andy Griffin will be appointed by acclamation to serve beginning six and one of 26, and its term will end 5-31-29. All right. We'll take the next seat. Are there any other? Can I open the floor for nominations for the second seat?

I nominate Mr. Scott Purvis.

Okay. We have a nomination for Mr. Scott Purvis. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none, I'll close the nominations, and Mr. Scott Purvis will be reappointed by acclamation as well, beginning 6-1 of 26. That term will end 5-31-29. Thank you, commissioners. All right, we'll now move into our... Ma'am?

If they are here, can they stand? So we'll get to know whoever it is.

I'm sorry?

If they are here, can they stand?

Yeah. Are any of the folks that was nominated and appointed, are they here tonight? Anyone that was nominated, are they present? Okay. Well, thank you. All right, we'll move now into our public hearing items. Our first case is agenda item 6A. This is REZ 2026-13, Touchstone Lake Park. It's 1.4 acres. It's located on Cannon Drive and Park Drive. Also, U.S. Highway 41, it is currently CH, and the request is for R10. This will be served by county utilities. Mr. Dillard.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good evening, Commissioners. As you stated, the request before you is for R10 zoning here upon the 1.4 acres currently owned by Mr. Touchton in order for the applicant to develop a few home sites at an R10 density. As you see, the subject property has three road frontages. Proposed access is currently off of Cannon Drive. uh... the property is within the urban service area and the community activity center area which does recommend both c h and or ten zoning as appropriate there are no wetlands on the property to speak of the the whole area is generally in a ground water recharge and with the addition of county utilities it makes it more appropriate uh... for development the property to the south is proposed to be developed as allows county fire rescue station at twin lakes and the surrounding properties are our tens on residentially as well This is a proposed subdivision of the property for the four lots. Again, exceeding the 10,000 square foot minimum of R10 with the proposed access along Cannon Drive. And again, this is that same image overlaid on the existing aerial just for some scale and reference. With that being said, the TRC analyzed the request and recommended approval of R10 after considering the neighboring land uses, lot sizes, availability of county utilities, and any potential environmental impacts. At the Planning Commission meeting, again, the applicant's attorney spoke in support while Mr. Tustin recused himself. The recommendation for approval came six zero with the one recusal.

Okay, any questions for Mr. Dillard? All right, hearing none, we'll move into the public hearing portion of the meeting. Is there anyone in the room that would like to speak in opposition to this request? Anyone that would like to speak in opposition? Hearing none, is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of this request? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, good evening. Bill Nijen, 1007 North Patterson Street, here on behalf of the applicant. As you can see, this is a down zoning from CH to R10. I'm here to answer any questions you have, but we would respectfully request that you follow the lead of the Planning Commission and approve this. Any questions for Mr. Nijen? No, sir.

All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you all. Anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this request? All right, hearing none, we'll close the public hearing portion of the meeting, and commissioners, I'll turn it over to you for your consideration.

Motion to approve.

Do we have a motion to approve the request? Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, like, sign? Hearing none, the motion carries. Agenda item 6B is a tower request and that has been withdrawn. Correct, sir. Thank you. All right, we'll move now to your items of consideration, and the first item is Agenda Item 7A. This is the Old U.S. 41 North Widening Phase 4 of the Transportation Improvement Act. Mr. McLeod.

Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Old 4 U.S. 41 North Widening Phase 4 will run from Union Road to the city limits of Hayhara. On May 12th, the board approved us submitting an application for local project delivery that has been approved. And what you have before you is the agreement to be executed so we can begin preliminary engineering. Any questions for Mr. McLeod?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Can we have a motion to approve? Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed, like sign. Hearing none, motion carries. Agenda item 7B is a beer, wine, and liquor license for the Patels of Pit Stop 3 Liquors, LLC, doing business as Pit Stop Liquors. This is located at 1405 St. Augustine Road, Suite B in Valdosta, and this is a change of ownership.

Yes, sir. This is a change of ownership, and it is for beer, wine, and liquor for consumption off-premise.

Any questions for Ms. Black? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Okay, we have a motion to approve. Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed, like sign. Hearing none, the motion carries. Agenda item 7C is the GFA loan number GFP011 for bypass pumps for the lift stations. Mr. Stowley.

Yes, sir. Lowndes County was preselected for a GFA loan to install bypass pumps at our lift stations that don't currently have backup capabilities. The loan amount was for $2,812,500 with a principal forgiveness of $703,125. This will allow us to have the backup capabilities in all of our lift stations that will allow us to lock in the current pricing and potentially have the equipment delivered as soon as it's ready. This project was previously presented to the board on October 28th meeting in 2025, but the required resolution was not available at that time. And staff now request approval of the attached resolution as required by the GFA loan approval.

Any questions for Mr. Stallion? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Can we have a motion to approve by Ms. Evans? Do we have a second?

Second.

I have a second by Mr. Weisenbaker. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, like sign? Hearing none, motion carries. Agenda item 7D is the ACCG's arm of property and liability insurance renewal. Mr. Beals.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Commissioners. Like we talked about yesterday, this is our annual property and liability insurance renewal with the ACCG. This proposal represents a complete blanket of coverage for property and liability insurance coverage for the upcoming fiscal year. This is going to cover all your property, your building, your automobile, machinery, as well as general liability for public officials and law enforcement. There was a 4% increase coming into this year, so this year's renewal is $1,248,947, and that's reduced thanks to a $65,734 safety credit discount. Any questions for Mr. Beals? Thank you, Mr. Beals. Thank you.

All right, commissioners, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to renew.

We have a motion to renew. Do we have a second?

Second.

Have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed, like, sign? Hearing none, motion carries. All right, agenda item 7E is the Industrial Authority Series 2026 bonds. Ms. Dukes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As discussed in our work session yesterday, we are ready to move forward with the finalization of the Industrial Authority Series 2026 bonds. We have talked about the fantastic growth opportunity that this is for our community. see our development authority continue to grow, to bring in more inventory with related to our industrial parks and its expansion to be ready for that growth when it comes. As you all know, to be competitive, we have to be ready whenever they come knocking on the door. There's not a lot of time to catch up. And so this initiative will allow us to be ready We're excited about some of the prospects that the Industrial Authority has yesterday. Some of us met with them, and they are working on one of eight seriously interested industries right now, and so they are very confident that most of those may land here in some places. some shape form or fashion and this is a part of that initiative so mr tom owens with raymond james is here this evening he's going to provide some information and any technical questions that you have related to this issuance please address them to him

i don't know why you laid that off on me, but okay.

Well, you got backup back there just in case you need it.

That's right. Welcome, Mr. Owens. Thank you for coming. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. Like Ms. Duke says, I'm happy to answer questions you might have of this. I'll hit the high points, and then to the extent y'all want more information, I'd be happy to give it to you. These are the bonds that you have sort of approved in concept previously. Today was the day that we went out into the market with those bonds and actually signed up actual investors to loan the money to the industrial authority, the development authority. the bonds fit within the parameters that you've previously approved on an all-in basis so inclusive of the fact that you do have some professional fees you have things like a bond rating offering perspectives that you provide investors that do have some some cost to those but on an all-in basis the funds are costing five point one two percent so just over five percent uh... we were able to make what I would consider an improvement in the original structuring of the bonds by identifying a portion of the project as not earmarked ultimately for private use, things that really fall into the public governmental nature, so some improvements to the the infrastructure at the park are really just governmental in nature and we were able to finance those on a tax exempt basis. So the longest maturities of our bonds we converted from a more expensive taxable cost of funds down to a less expensive tax exempt. In total, the annual payment on the bond is just a tick over $3.7 million, which is well below where we had estimated it previously back when we started this process last fall. These are publicly offered bonds, and so part of that process is we went to the rating agencies who affirmed the county's AA2 credit rating, which is fantastic, and I will read directly from their report, if you will indulge me. One of the credit strengths of Lowndes County is the long track record of maintaining balanced budgets and building reserve at healthy levels. So that is a direct reflection of this board and you should be commended for that long-term focus on putting Lowndes County on a very firm financial footing. They talked about things like the hurricanes and your ability to respond to those type of things. and to move forward and to have reserves in place to weather quite literally weather the storm so don't think that goes unnoticed by both the investor community and the rating agencies it absolutely does and again that's a credit to this body and also you know the other thing is for just the progressive focus that you guys have in terms of economic development there are a lot of places that do not provide standing support financially to an economic development to a development and you guys do that they have uh... was really a stable source of financing and they know that they can go out and do things like acquire property that will be available for prospects and do that. And again, that is a direct reflection of the commission and the support you provide them. So that's all, really all I think the nuts and bolts of my presentation. I would tell you, you know, just one more thing to add. Paige Dukes and Stephanie Black and Walter Elliott, you've got as good a team at the staff level is anywhere that we work. And we work all up and down this state of Georgia. And your folks, they know where everything is. They know what happens when I push this button, what's going to happen over there. Anytime we need a piece of information or the rating agencies or investors, somebody wants to know something, your folks can put their hands on it and give it to us, you know, in a very, very efficient manner, and that's not the case everywhere. So I just want to give those folks also a pat on the back because they do a fantastic job for you. Mr. Chairman, I'm happy to take any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Owens? Thank you. Yes, sir.

One of the questions, I mean, the county has been involved in backing industrial bonds since many times. Yes, sir. That's correct. The creation of the Industrial Authority Development Authority. When was the last time that this happened prior to that?

The last time that the authority accessed the bond market was 2019, and that was a refinance of some prior bonds. So we lowered the rate there, and then we added a little bit to what they had borrowed to go out and make some land purchases. And I think you see sort of the fruits of some of those past efforts now in terms of your economic development. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Yes, sir.

Mr. Chairman, if I could also add for the record that exhibits A, B, and C are substituted for the final loan documents in our packet. So the attorney will need that verification for his part in this moving forward. So that information is in the room, and it has been updated appropriately.

Okay. All right. All right. Any other questions? Commissioners, I will entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

Do we have a motion to approve?

Second.

We have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor of the motion, signify by aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, like, sign? Hearing none, motion carries. Thank you, commissioners. All right, we'll now move on to the agenda item that was requested to be added, and that is agenda item 7F, and this is in regards to the L-host consideration. Ms. Dukes? Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to share with the Commission and our citizens who are here tonight some additional information on financial considerations. We just talked about being positioned for this bond issuance to be able to look at our industrial development there. We are now introducing a proposed local act, which you all have instructed us to have prepared so that it can be considered during the governor's special session that begins mid-June. And it is related to Senate Bill 33. You all remember that during this past legislative session, we all worked very hard with our local delegation as well as the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia to work out the language. And I can't leave the county attorney out of that conversation either because he was certainly on the forefront there. But we worked on wording for legislation that ended up being Senate Bill 33. which passed and authorizes a local homestead option sales tax. And the purpose of this is to provide an exemption, not a rollback like local option sales tax, but an actual exemption that would have a meaningful impact on our homestead properties and then beyond that collection, also the rest of our parcels in Lowndes County, again, as an exemption. Staff and the county attorney have prepared the attached draft proposed local act, which if you all approve this tonight, then tomorrow we will send this to Representative John LaHood. He will forward it to legislative council and they will prepare the actual bill language that we'll need for the General Assembly to consider approving this during the special session in June. If approved, we have recommended in accordance with the act that collections begin or that we have a referendum this fall so that collections would begin in January of 2027. That date is at the Will of the General Assembly. The Act also provides for a January 1, 2028 date. And so we have submitted our legislation for 2027 and we hope that they will respect that and that will pass. As a conversation there, I know that assessment notices have also gone out and we had some concerns because in the past that assessment notice had looked more like an estimate of your property tax bill. And none of that information is on the assessment notice this year. And as you know, that's not something that we have any control over locally. that template is decided by the General Assembly and pushed forward by the Department of Revenue but we're you know getting some phone calls and we're you know watching social media and listening to our citizens there and there's a lot of confusion because the normal exemptions even things like the financial impact of conservation and other things are not on that assessment notice it is purely an assessed value of your property so I know that as we are also in the budget process that you all have been very concerned with our millage rate making sure that even though we're as a local government experiencing the same inflation that our citizens are that we're not passing any or any more of that along to them than we do and then we have to to provide the services at a level that they expect so with that being said I've got some additional information that I'd like to go through here back and hit the right button stop working here okay alright so as well as county concerned and the double-edged sword of rising values the increased assessment assessments result in higher tax bills uh... when reassessment great is not rolled back and as you all know i will look at the five later in this presentation that shows that lands county has ruled that back for the past eight years uh... not all local governments in school systems have done that and i think that you know our pain is that you know those tax bills go out under the heading of Lowndes County and so you all can take a a lot of heat both personally professionally and as elected officials that you know the county's just continuing to increase taxes when we know we're rolling the county's portion back but again not everyone is is able to do that Lowndes County shares the concern of citizens with regards to those assessed values the formulas for determining that those values are set by the state of Georgia not Lowndes County. You all have been to some of the Board of Equalization meetings. We've had personal conversations with citizens. We talk about those assessed values and the formulas that are involved there and because of the uniformity that's required by the Department of Revenue, we don't have any local input on that. Those are set by legislation and the Board of Assessors has to follow that, which can be very frustrating. Balancing inflation and the overall cost of providing services as a central challenge for elected leaders, not just you all, but your counterparts as well. Due to the millage rollbacks, Lowndes County is currently operating with the same dollar amount of revenue in 2026 as we were in 2018. And speaking to Tom's comments, and thank you for that, Tom, earlier, Now staff is really, really proud that we've expanded services since 2018. We've added some departments, we've expanded some public works services and other things, and we are still able to hold the line on our spend. I mean, I don't know how many companies or corporations or even in our personal budgets or other local governments are able to make that claim. Not only do citizens deserve quality services, but service value equals growth value. So it is a challenge, again, where inflation is concerned to be able to hold the line there. Next slide, please, Aaron. Which one? All right, good. So those factors that are having the impact and things that we have to consider, number one, increasing values, inflation, and also home affordability. Let's look at how we got here. So increasing values, this is a great slide. It was put together by Construction Coverage via Zillow data. I borrowed it. I can't take credit for it. But what stands out to me here and the point to make is that post-COVID home prices in Georgia have risen 104%. 101.4%. I think that, you know, we saw, we heard from a lot of our citizens, you know, post COVID when people were working remotely and they were moving to Lowndes County and they had moved from other parts of the state that were more fluent or other states where home values cost a lot more and their dollar went a lot further here in my neighborhood alone. We're solid homes, you know, 2000 square feet and, and, and the two hundreds. And now there's homes in my neighborhood that are selling for close to $400,000. And, but those are not $400,000 homes. We are still living in nice $200,000 homes. That is just what the values have done because of that spin and the influence from the outside coming in South Georgia. Other inflationary impacts, the wage growth versus cost of living. While Georgia's wage growth has consistently beaten the national median, offering hovering between 3.5% and 4.7 year over year, this has not translated to increased wealth for many workers. We have continued to work harder and make less. Inflation is a factor here. Wages have increased over 20% since 2020, but the adjusted real wage increase has been essentially flat. We've talked about that in our revenues as well whenever Stephanie looks at budgeting. Cost of living certainly has gone up. And then the living wage. Economists calculate that the living wage in Georgia for a single adult with zero children is approximately $24.21 an hour. And, you know, we here, our families are trying to live off of $20 an hour. And there's... There's never enough money there at the end of the month. Um, and then you have to look at an adult supporting two children at $47 and 81 cents. You know, we don't have a lot of that's not our average wage here in South Georgia. So, you know, I think sometimes people say, well, our cost of living is low. And so that's why it's cheaper to own property here. And that's true. Whenever you compare us to national averages, But that's not the living experience that we're hearing from our citizens. So it's very important that we continue to be mindful of this. In Lowndes County, the median household income is roughly $58,000, while the income required to afford a median price home hovers around $60,000. We all know that you can't go out and find a home making $60,000 a year and go and get a mortgage and be able to afford that payment and also keep the lights on and feed your family. There's a wage cost disconnect. While we talked about a general lower cost of living, stagnant local wages mean home affordability remains a persistent challenge for many. Our median household incomes in the area range around $45,000, $58,000 region-wide. And then if you go back and look at that $46 an hour, that's $95,000 annually that you need to take care of two adults and two children, basically a family of four. So that means that two adults are having to work and make roughly $45,000, $50,000 a year, or you have one person who's able to make $100,000 a year. Whenever you have both of those adults working, trying to make $50,000, where's the child care cost coming from? I mean, you can't make those numbers work. And now let's talk about our renters. I mean, we've heard a lot of people are being put out because they can't afford rent. So the average rent in Valdosta is roughly $1,000 to $1,200 per month. Most mortgages on a reasonable size home with a reasonable size credit rating are not $1,200 a month. So our vulnerable demographics, we talk a lot about this. The Alice Report, something that Commissioner Smith has mentioned in his work with the United Way. What's our vulnerable population? Our seniors are on fixed incomes. We hear a lot from them around this time of the year, rising costs, limited options. They're being taxed out of their homes. We have more than 10,000 veterans here in Lowndes County, and certainly some of them are displaced and on very fixed incomes as far as their retirement goes, maybe from a mental health standpoint. They don't have the capacity to continue to work. And then our young families are being priced out. We hear a lot about young families not looking for that 1800 square feet on a quarter acre. They're looking at multi-family housing and higher density. But is that really because that's the way they want to live or is that because that's all that they can afford? So policy leavers, what can officials do? Not just us, but these are considerations that I believe that all officials should look at responsibly and lead their staff to do the same as you all have us. So first Homestead Tax Relief, we're gonna talk about what the county and the county school systems have done recently related to that. Our millage considerations, transparency and budgeting, just like tonight. And then shifting the burden, the L-host opportunity that you have to consider. So first, Homestead Tax Relief. So this was during the 2025 legislative session. Lowndes County Board of Commissioners and the Lowndes County School System introduced legislation to increase the Homestead Tax Exemption for citizens across Lowndes County. On May the 19th, our voters brought that across the finish line to officially locally enact that legislation during the primary election. So what did that do? Lowndes County, for the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners, we already had a $6,000 tax general county exemption for homestead. The state has only ever had a $2,000 exemption. So ours was already three times what the state was, but it had been there for years. So that doubled to $12,000. Now we have it also for county schools for the unincorporated area, a general school exemption of $12,000 as well. So I think that the school system was very responsive to those citizens that have said, I don't have kids in school anymore. Why am I either single and I've never had children or retired and I'm still paying for the schools? And so there's an additional exemption there now. There was also an additional exemption or an increase to the exemption for our seniors 65 and over to $40,000. And then for those 70 and over, it went to 50,000. So we are extremely proud of the work that you all did last year, the General Assembly agreeing with that, and then, of course, our voters ratifying that here locally. So we talked a little bit about our millage history, and I know this slide is very simple, but I think that it speaks volumes because this is our millage history from 2006 to the present. And you'll see that for the last eight years, the county has continued to roll the millage rate back. The public's argument is, well, you may be rolling the millage rate back, but my tax bill is not going down. Well, that's because not every taxing government in Lowndes County is rolling their millage rate back. And that's not me throwing stones saying that. Maybe they don't have the opportunity to do that. We certainly know that legislatively the schools are in a different environment. The county schools have moved forward to try to address that. But I think that it does prove a tremendous track record related to how conservative you all and the expectation of staff as far as providing services and making sure that we're living within our means there. Transparency is important. So Lowndes County's commitment to financial accountability, responsible stewardship, and public trust is second to none. We balance our budget every year. Local governments are the only level of government that is held accountable to the extent that we are for balancing a budget. Our fiscal year ends. June the 30th, so we are winding down to balance the new budget for the next year to start July the 1st. State and federal audit compliance, Lowndes County has and will continue to be in compliance where our state and federal audits are concerned. I know there's a lot in the media right now on local governments that have not completed audits for years. Not only does Lowndes County complete our audit in a timely manner, but it is also successfully reported. Our fund balance, Mr. Owens mentioned earlier our hurricane responsiveness. You all know the millions of dollars that the taxpayers had to spend to clean up this county two years in a row where hurricanes are concerned. And that fund balance was also mentioned during our ratings call with Moody. So we maintain that fund balance so that we are ready. There's a fine line there between holding onto too much and not enough, and we are within our financial policies and the state's expectations where that's concerned. And then for the 20th consecutive year, Our finance department has achieved the GFOA, the Georgia Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. And this means that we are also presenting our budget materials and our expenditures and our revenues in a way that an average citizen who does not have a finance degree or who is not familiar with government accounting can understand how their money is being spent by their local government. And that information is available on the county's website. All right, so what's next? That's what we're here to talk about tonight, the possibility of a local homestead option sales tax. So thanks to Senate Bill 33 that was just approved this past session, is a mechanism where 1% local sales tax funds are used to exempt homesteads. For Lowndes County, we collect about $36 million, as far as an additional penny on the dollar. So special purpose local option sales tax, our SPLOST, brings in about $36 million a year. So if passed, this would be the ninth penny on the dollar. But the chairman and I talked this morning, and so many times whenever we hear people talking about special purpose local option sales tax, They will begrudgingly support that tax. We've had it for the last 40 years. The voters today don't know what our community looks like without it, but they do understand that they are voting themselves a tax increase. I think the exchange there is that they know that those are amenities or facilities or repairs or things that need to happen here in our community for us to maintain that quality of life and be attractive to those who we want to come here, whether it's additional citizens and residents or it is business and industry. But the comment is often made, what is that doing for me personally? Maybe I don't use those facilities. Maybe I don't travel those roads. Maybe this is not a priority for me, but for the good of the community, I'm gonna agree with it. This ninth penny would be returned through an exemption directly to our homestead property taxpayers. We are still working on the interpretation of those calculations to see to the extent that would reach. But we do know that the value of our homestead digest for Lowndes County taxes, which are the same for all citizens, whether you're inside or outside city limits, is a little over $17 million. So if you look at that $36 million that we would collect annually on that penny, It would take roughly half that or a little less than half that to take care of those homestead exemptions, not just for our M&O, our maintenance and operations millage, but also for our fire millage, our industrial authority millage, and our parks and recreation millage. And then the rest of that $18 million and some change would be applied to the rest of our parcels in Lowndes County. So when you talk about business relief and industry relief and, you know, those residential parcels that are not homesteaded where people are renting, we just talked about the struggle there, $1,000 to $1,200 a month for people to rent, then we hope that those landlords would turn this exemption into a cost savings monthly for those folks who were trying to find rental property as well. It's important to remember that where sales tax is concerned, more than 51% of that comes from people outside our community. We are a draw for the surrounding counties, and then we also have I-75 and Highway 84 that run through our community. And what is most important is this is not a penny that can be used as some sort of subsidy or padding of a local government budget. It is not a rollback that can be interpreted. It's not something that you can massage a millage rate over to pull additional funding into your general fund. It has to legally 100% be used as an exemption. There is nothing about it that is discretionary. This is a penny that the voters would approve, that would be collected through sales tax, that would go directly back to their homesteads. So in closing, our commitment has not changed and will remain steadfast. Lowndes County Board of Commissioners understands and shares the concerns of our citizens related to taxes. We are committed to continuing to work towards efficiency in local government, exploring new ways to keep home ownership costs as low as possible. Through strategic policy on job recruitment and wage growth, we are building a better today and the best tomorrow for every family in Lowndes County. So with that, on behalf of staff, I would like to turn it back over to the chairman, and hopefully he's going to request your consideration of the local legislation that's before you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Dukes. That's very, very informative. I know you put a lot of time into it. get it to a point to where it's easily understood, because a lot of times some things in government can be complicated and it can be difficult to understand. But this is about as clean a piece of legislation as I have seen, and then for us to be able to transform that understanding to the citizens, I feel very, very good about it. Commissioners, do you have any questions or comment before I call for a motion?

Yeah, I have a comment.

All right, sir.

State leaders are focused on providing property tax relief, especially to homeowners and seniors. Lowndes worked hard to secure approval for tax relief in partnership with the county schools last year and voters approved it this May. The state is adjusting the rules each year and we have to work within the directions and opportunity it creates. Elhost is a new instrument to support property tax relief that prioritizes the homeowner first. The state and local voters will ultimately decide if this is adopted, but we as commissioners want to be prepared. Lowndes County should always look for ways to shift the burden off property owners, especially when our regional hub economy allows visitors and consumers to help support the services they use. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Mister, if there's no other questions, I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve submitting the attached proposed local act to the local delegation of the General Assembly representing Lowndes County.

Okay, we have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second. We have several, I'm sure. But we'll take the one from Mr. Weisenbaker. All right. If we have a motion, we have a second. If there are any questions, any discussion, hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed, like, sign. Hearing none, motion carries.

Thank you, Commissioner.

This really is going to pay some big dividends in the future as we move forward for our taxpayers here in Lowndes County, our property owners.

Thank you, Paige, for an outstanding presentation.

You're very welcome.

Staff, attorney, everybody who participated.

Thank you. All right, we'll now move on to agenda item 8A, and this is our one bid item, and this is the Twin Lakes Road. This is for the Transportation Investment Act. And on is Tim. Mr. McCloud.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Twin Lakes Dirt Road is a road that runs between Highway 41 South and Law Road. This is a T-splossed project. Staff did submit the bids and opened them on May 21st. We received two bids. The low bidder was Reams and Son Construction, $2,664,355.90. The other bidder was the Scruggs Company at just a little over $3.7 million. Any questions for Mr. McCloud?

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Commissioners, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion to approve.

We have a motion to approve by Ms. Evans, second by Mr. Weisenbaker. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed, like, sign? Hearing none, the motion carries. Agenda item nine, county management report, Ms. Dukes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do want to thank the county attorney, Mr. Walter Elliott, for setting aside the majority of his business over the last week to get our local legislation as it relates to Senate Bill 33 ready for you all. As you know, there was a lot of conversations and requests going to the governor's office for the governor to amend his executive order to allow for the consideration of the legislation. Walter, thank you for all your hard work in getting that done in the middle of a bond issuance and all the other things that we have going on. I would also like to invite Ms. Felicia Roundtree to come up and give you all an update on our services at Lela Ellis. There was a lot of conversation during our budget meetings about our jail population and recidivism where misdemeanor probation is concerned as well as the availability of mental health services whenever we start looking at all of those things you know it all of those roads eventually lead back to a challenge in receiving services as it relates to mental health and i know that both chairman slaughter as well as commissioner marshall are in are involved at the state and local regional level and mental health boards and being very influential and taking on a leadership role there. But right there with you is Ms. Roundtree. And so she's got some exciting news. Commissioner Evans has been pushing us very hard for several years on this. And I'm excited that there's so many of those seeds that Commissioner Evans has sown that are very quickly going to bear fruit. So with that, Felicia.

All right, so I wrote this down right quick, so thanks for speaking to me. So good evening, everyone. How are y'all doing? So I just want to update everyone. Last Thursday, June the 4th, I had a meeting with Mallory Tyree, Tyree? Tyree? Tyree. Tyree, I think I said. It was her first time. And Jennifer Taylor. about collaboration with the probation department and Legacy on ways that we can help my offenders and citizens of Lowndes County. Just to let you know, the outcome of this meeting produced some great news for the department. Legacy currently has a position within the community. It's titled Community Therapist. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that. But what this therapist is responsible for is she's responsible for going to certain areas to service only the clients. at that area or at that building. For example, one of the locations is LAMP, which is right behind us. However, she can only service LAMP clients. She can't service my offenders or any citizens of Lowndes County. So by collaborating with the probation department, they will not only be able to service offenders in a more central location, but they will also be able to service all the citizens of Lowndes County that needs their services. This will be done by using the other end of our building, the Lela Ellis building that we moved out of in October two years ago, I think it was, with the hurricane. They will actually conduct actual sessions there. Those sessions can range from mental health sessions or substance abuse sessions, whatever they need, that they offer at their North Oak Street location. This is a tremendous change because some of the offenders and even the citizens of Lowndes County has transportation issues getting all the way out there to Oak Street trying to get the help that they need. So with this location, the services, again, will be held there, and we will also have a space for what's called a certified peer specialist. They're short for CPS. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that, but I did write a note of that. What a CPS is responsible for doing is this is a person that is trained by DBHDD their approved training through them, this person has actually live experience of mental health or substance abuse issues that they come to offer emotional support recovery strategies our connections uh... for the offender or the citizens to connect to the local resources that we have here in the community uh... so with the probation and legacy we're very excited about starting this collaboration because again it's going to not only help the defendants that are on probation but also the citizen allowance county Right now, we're currently waiting. We just met last week. So we're currently waiting on a date to get started. But I just want to let everyone know, after getting Paige up to date, they are very exciting about this. Being that within their policy, the community therapist can only service someone within that area. I think they have about four or five locations here in Lowndes County. But knowing that they have a place now that they can come and not only help the probation department, but help the citizens of Lowndes County because they haven't found a location that would be able to help them and actually help them maintain within the frames of their policies. So we're waiting to see, and also along with that, with some of the stuff Commission Evans have, we're working on some other stuff with that end of the building and actually partnering with Legacy. So did I... Get it all. I just got it really quick. So I just wanted to make sure it was a quick meeting. But I mean, if you could have seen the excitement on Mallory's face, like she was really excited to take this back to the community therapist to explain to her that they now have a location within the city that the citizens of Lowndes County could come to.

Good. Maybe we get a tour of that space soon. I know there's been some remodeling upgrades to that building, but I'd like to walk through it when you can.

Yes, sir. If you'll collaborate with Paige, give me a couple days. I've got to get some stuff cleaned up. We're getting it ready for them on that end also. But, yes, once we get everything together, we will get it set up. I think we told them about the other end, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Anything I need to add? No. Good job. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to add that this is using existing space and the existing building that we are already paying for water and HVAC and overhead services on there. So this is an expansion of service availability to our citizens that we will be able to bring to them without an impact on the budget. So we're excited about that as well. Thank you, Felicia.

Thank you for your great work.

That concludes.

Felicia, appreciate you and you and your staff. All right.

That concludes my report, Mr. Chairman.

Any questions for Ms. Dukes? All right. Hearing none, we'll move right on in to our citizens wishing to be heard. Our first citizen is Mr. George Fisher. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Good evening, my name is George Fisher. I live at 5278 Hall Road in Hay High Road, Georgia, 31632. I'm here tonight to speak to you about the vulnerability of our aquifer. This is the sole source of our drinking water. And I took it upon myself to go down and collect samples of this aquifer. This is the Ocala limestone. And I have hiked over the Sierra Nevada mountains and down the Grand Canyon and back up again, and I no longer can do that. So it took me a long time to go up a little bit of bank and a lot longer to come down. But this is the Ocala limestone here. This is an Eocene limestone. It's very friable. It's extremely soluble. I'm not going to put any acid on it now because it does kind of smell, but later on I can show you how it sizzles. I'm concerned about the vulnerability of the Withlacoochee River and our aquifer. This last week I had a conversation with a very experienced, probably the most recognized hydrologist in the state of Georgia. And he called me up and we were talking about susceptibility of the aquifer. And he told me he's working on a case up in associated with the Hyundai plant up in Bryan County, Georgia. He said there are farms that are miles away that are getting black plastic shavings and blue plastic shavings in their well. They've got fairly shallow wells, and these wells have got plastic in it. And he's investigating, and when they built the Hyundai plant, they joined all of the piping, all of the plastic piping, by milling. They milled out the outside, and they milled out the inside so they could fit together. For some reason, those millings ended up in the aquifer. Now, I spent 10 years working for Korean companies. I visited Busan, the SK plants. Koreans don't do this stuff. The Koreans are very much into seafood. They love their seafood. They love their fishies. And all of that stuff is protected. So I can't imagine why it would be allowed to contaminate the aquifer. I've got some... finishing up my research on this aquifer, and what I'm finding is that the problem is these conduits, piping, channels, not quite caves, I don't think they're quite underground caves, but they're large enough to provide large volumes of water. Once it goes in, it's gone. Normally, if a soil ground is contaminated, each of the particles can through chemistry and physics, take some of the contaminant and circle around it, and you can scoop it out. If it's a sandstone, if it's a shale, if it's a fractured granite, gravel, you can mitigate it by taking it out. Some of it still goes into the aquifer, but you can take it out, you can wash it, you can clean it, you can haul it away, you can replace it. You can't do it here. These are tunnels. It goes in and it goes out. In Florida, they try to track these things. At Gainesville, Tallahassee, by putting dye. They get an industrial site. We have a spring. Let's figure out where this water goes. So they'll put dye in the spring. Well, guess what? It doesn't come out where they want it to. It comes out where it wants to. You can think of it like the subway station in London, where there's tunnel after tunnel after tunnel. Each one goes a different way. Nobody knows where these tunnels go to. Nobody really understands it. This is why I'm opposed to the data center being put where it is. It's less than a mile from the river. In a study by Kraus in 78, he writes that the confluence of Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River contains sinkholes that takes in the afloat. He was in response to the sewage. But he says that is the place where the water is charged to the aquifer. That's within a stone's throw of where this data center is going to go. Anything that's spilled there, anything, any contaminant is going to go right into the drinking water, right down to the Florida line. And this is a serious thing. My time's up. Next time we see each other, I'm gonna talk to you about the two possible large sinkholes that are on the crest of the structure. They're visible from space. And I think they're there.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Fisher. All right, our next speaker is Mr. Jimmy LaFiles. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Yeah, I'm Jimmy LaFiles. I live at 3561 River Taste Drive, Vallejo, Georgia, 31602. I'm an industrial chemist. I've been with chemists for 40 years.

Mr. Jimmy, would you pull that microphone down and point it towards your mouth, please? Thank you.

Did y'all get that first one? My career includes a lot of years helping design and build manufacturing plants around the world, and also managing them. I'm going to go over some stuff today I left on one pager for you guys bullet points if you can want to check that out later after I talk. First thing I want to say though, is my family has lived in Lowndes County for over six generations. My grandmother grew up on a farm down there Browns Pond. in the early 1900s. My grandfather actually owned some of the land that this building's built on. There's two more generations of LaFileses behind me that live in Lowndes County and don't intend to move. Lowndes County's our home, okay? And I take this a little bit personal. I don't intend to sit around and watch Lowndes County get polluted for my grandchildren to inherit. So I'm gonna tell you about some more about the PFAS chemistry, what I talked about last week and the findings I've come up on that. I'm going to go back through what I said last week just for clarity, but the problems and risks associated with current data centers are well known and documented. As a matter of fact, there are many active lawsuits about these problems. There are several class action lawsuits about the noise. There's lawsuits about environmental damage. There's lawsuits about endangered species. There's even lawsuits against county governments about improper review and approval of data centers. The issue I'm bringing up, though, is in addition to all those known kind of risks, and it goes back to November of 2024 when EPA issued what's called the AIM Act, which required that data centers switch from the current refrigerants that are being used for cooling the data care centers to the refrigerants with lower global warming potential. Which sounds great, but the problem is, as near as I can tell, eight out of the nine available substitutes for the current refrigerants are what are called PFAS chemicals. So these are also known as the forever chemicals, because they don't go away. PFAS chemicals do not degrade in the environment. They're highly toxic to animals and humans, and they're already present in our local rivers at levels above EPA's four parts per trillion, that's per trillion, drinking water standard. The estimates that I found of the volume of PFAS coolants that would be on site at a moderate-sized data center are in the range of 5,000 to 20,000 pounds at any given time. And if you do the math, 50 pounds of a PFAS in the Georgia-Florida aquifer would pollute a year's worth of water above the current EPA drinking standard of four ppt. Okay, so this is pretty serious business. To me, all this information adds a significant risk to approving and operating a data center, especially in the proposed location. There's a couple more things I wanted to add to those facts to kind of round out the picture on PFAS. There will actually likely be other PFAS chemicals at the data center. They have to have fire suppression systems, and the foams that are typically used for these fire suppression systems use PFAS chemistry. So you've got even more PFAS there than I mentioned. We're already drinking more PFAS in our drinking water than PFAS recommends. Municipal water treatment plants cannot remove PFAS from drinking water. Currently, Valdosta's drinking water is about 50% over the EPA limit. EPA set a deadline of 2031 for municipal water treatment plants to be in compliance, so five years before that. So the expectation is that there will be an application to approve a data center on the proposed site at some time. What I'm asking is, when you guys get involved, this needs to be a really detailed and a really in-depth review. I mean, do not hurry through. I mean, don't take superficial answers. There needs to be pointed questions about the specific chemistry involved, trade names of the chemicals, the volumes that are going to be in sight, chemical handling. I mean, it's got to go into great depth. And people have to understand how to handle these kind of chemicals. So that's my ask. My professional opinion is that we have a particularly dangerous situation with the proposed site considering the geology that Mr. Fisher just presented to you combined with the anticipated use of PFAS chemicals. So. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

All right, our next citizen is Mr. John Smith. If you would, please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Thank you very much for having me. My name is John Smith. I live at 3797 Old Vine Way here in Valdosta. I have some comments and concerns about the data centers. But first of all, I want to let the audience know, in case they haven't gone on the website, that Loudoun's County Commissioners do have a mission statement. to provide an efficient, effective, and responsive government to all citizens of Lowndes County while maintaining the financial strength to meet any contingency. So the key points there I think is the citizens of Lowndes County. How does the data center challenge communities? Managing soaring energy demand, a large scale center needs a minimum of 40 megawatts, the equivalent to 30 to 40,000 homes. As of July 1st, 2025, the census.gov said there are 54,000 dwelling units in Lowndes County. Addressing competition on the land, changing the zoning from residential reduces the amount of land for any type of housing, including affordable and senior housing. How to reduce air pollution and climate impacts. Backup power supplied by diesel generators. These hyper centers sometimes take dozens to hundreds of generators to run power when the electricity runs out. Research by Arizona State University has found waste heat can boost heat in neighborhoods in close proximity by two and a half to four degrees. In a summer day at 90 degrees, now that neighborhood's at 92 to 95 degrees. Some of the reasons I'm opposed to a data center, World Research Institute in 2025, $60 billion in rate increases countrywide on electrical. The center will be built by companies that specialize in this type of construction, fewer local jobs than we think. Don't know what type of system. Will it be an open system where the water flushes through and uses a large volume of water? Will it be a closed system? Will they use a system that has alternates like a mineral oil or a synthetic type of coolant? The average lifespan of the servers in a data center is three to five years. The minimum number of servers in a hypercenter is 5,000. What happens to all that electronic waste in three to five years? The average lifespan of the physical facility is 20 to 30 years. What happens if the cost of maintaining the building exceeds the profits? Now you have a huge building built for a specific reason sitting empty. Tax abatement. The top three data center companies are Microsoft. Their 2025 revenue was $282 billion, their operating income $128 billion. Meta, which is Facebook, 201 billion, 60 billion in operating income. Amazon Web Services, 129 billion revenue, 45 billion in operating income. These companies don't need any help. You had listed when you did your vote of conditions for the change. Data centers require special fire suppression. Perhaps a condition would be provide equipment and funds to train our firefighters. require percentage maybe twenty five percent of property surface to be permeable pavers to recover rainwater then they could recover their own water and not use the groundwater once a permit is applied for the data center owner begins a hiring process open to Lowndes county residents where they pay for training to operate the center now we have local people who know how to run the plant that's paid for by the owners of the of the plant uh... the language says data center I think I should say and any like businesses will be subject to those conditions. It's well known that big companies can change the language and now instead of a data center, it's a information gathering center and now it kind of fools everybody. And some of these big data centers, they build for a certain size today and then when they expand, they bring in modular pods. to increase for growth. I think we should build the size that they want right away. Probably won't be able to stop an infinite number of pods coming in to a physical plant once it's built. More pods, more electricity, more noise. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, our next speaker is Mr. Robert Willis. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Robert Willis, and I live at 5195 Dinelli Drive North, Lake Park, or Twin Lakes. My concern is that my street is a two-lane street. If you know where the old fire station is, where you're gonna build the new fire station, people come off of 41 South, and by the time they get to my house, they have exceeded the speed limit. They're going at least 40 to 45 miles an hour. I have four grandchildren, three dogs, and I'm trying to contain them all. My young grandson, Gavin, mows our grass. And of course, you know he has to go on the edge of the street to do that. What I'm proposing and what I'm asking in number one is that this commission would consider putting a speed strip on my street to determine the speed of the residents there. Since there's a lot of more residents there around Schoolhouse Pond and the other new residences, people are taking, in my opinion, advantage of the speed. I have seen them driving beyond each other, beside each other. And I'm very concerned about it, gentlemen and ladies. What I would like is to have a speed strip there to determine the speed. I would like for this council, if you can, to determine if you can put some speed bumps there just beyond where the fire station is going to be built and extending down beyond the apartments there, the townhouses that are there. Because there are children there. There are buses that come by there. Several years ago, about 20 years ago, a young girl who was waiting for the bus station, bus to come by, pick her up, was struck by a car that was being operated by someone who was on drugs, who was eventually apprehended and convicted. And that in turn allowed my street to have street lights. Maybe some of you possibly remember that incident. It's time, I think, to control the speed on Denali Drive North. And the only way to do that is to have some way to put speed bumps or to find some way to let these people who decide that they want to drive a lot faster than 30 miles an hour. The speed limit is 30. And I've been witnessing this for probably over 40 years because I've lived there for 40 years. And I'm very concerned about it for my children, my grandchildren, the people across the street. And the speed bumps on the east side of Denali Drive, as you know, Denali Drive connects 41 north and 41 south to Lake Park. And that's a through street. People decide that they want to make that a quarter speed race. And I'm very concerned about it. I would like for something to be done about it. Lowndes County Police Department, they've done an excellent job. I've seen them sit at the fire station. They were driving down my street again. They've got a greater presence there in my community, and I'm grateful for Lowndes County. But they can't police it 24 hours a day. it's difficult for them to do that. And so I'm just requesting that something be looked into insane what can be done i have talked to the to the chief of uh... transportation about a year ago and of course there's nothing that he can do you know during the school season there are more opportunities and more privilege and and more uh... necessities then taking my request so i'm here today to simply ask can we be can something be done the speed on my street. Gentlemen, ladies, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

All right, our next speaker is Mr. Skyler Ramsey? Ramson? Skyler Robinson, my apologies.

Okay.

Please come forward then, and you state your name and your address for the record, please.

Hello, my name is Skyler Robinson. I live in 1601 Norman Drive. And I'm just here to, well, there was just a slide show showed about it. The rent is increasing pretty fast and unfortunately my paycheck is not quite keeping up with it. So I just want to bring it up to everybody's attention. And as I can see from the slide, I'm glad that y'all are really paying attention to it. But as far as things are going, My rent is currently on the high end of $1,200 every single month. My paycheck only comes in at about $1,150, and it increases by $100 every single year. My paycheck increases less than that. And my main concern is that the younger people, most people, whenever they come in, because I'm a truck driver, I understand that my paycheck can be a little higher than most young people coming in. They can probably get a job around $14 an hour at that. Maybe if they know somebody, it might be a little better. But my biggest concern is that the young people, everyone that I talk to, a lot of my friends, they came in and just, every time I've talked to them, they've, oh, sorry. Talking to my boss's bosses, it's a little nerve wracking.

You're doing great.

But a lot of my friends have left the Valdosta, Lowndes County area over pay, and I worry that if the trend continues, the people who maintain the roads, the sidewalks, our law enforcement, while I respect all of the older men and women of our departments who keep up the job in their later years, if our young people can't get into those departments, I worry that our town may fall into ruin. because I know that when you get up there about 50, 60 years old, I know that your back may not feel the best anymore, and I don't know about you, but when I get to about 60 years old, I don't want to be holding a concrete saw. And I'm a Public Works member, so I do see what the age range is of a lot of our Public Works employees are, and it's about... I'd say we're all about fifties. I know I'm in my twenties, so I carry a lot of our more heavier stuff. I'm, I'm a little dirty because of it, but as I said, I appreciate. The slide show was very informative that you showed me about what you're doing for the homeowners and taxpayers, and hopefully it'll fall down to the renters like me. And hopefully whenever. everyone figures out what they're going to do with their taxes, that the rent will hopefully slow down. Since my biggest fear is I've been in about Austin and Lowndes County, the majority of my adult life. And I worry that if the acceleration of the rent continues, that I'm going to be priced out because I love my job. I love my County and If the rent just keeps raising, I won't even have a chance to be a homeowner. So I appreciate the effort they all have put into trying to reduce taxes and everything else. Hopefully we can find some consideration towards either reducing or slowing down the rent as well. That's all I really have to say.

Very well said. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right, our next speaker is Miss Amy Wagenstein. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. I'm sorry?

I said that was close enough. It took me years. My name is Amy Wiggenstein.

There we go. We got it now.

Like Frankenstein with a wig.

He's been calling me orange.

I'll never forget that now. I live at 4038 Foxboro Boulevard. I want to thank you for this opportunity. I also want to thank my neighbors.

Thank you all for being here and standing up. I'm sorry I had

Ma'am, ma'am, direct your attention this way, please.

I just don't want to ignore my neighbors.

We're not. They're here.

I hear you. I also want to thank Scott. It's been a few years, but you were instrumental in getting Foxboro Boulevard paved a few years ago. You may not remember. A lot of water. Okay. Good deal. My hair is shorter and a lot wider, so I do remember your help.

Good to see you.

I've been in Valdosta for 40 years. Six years. I went to Valdosta State College, so that's been a while back. I love Valdosta. I didn't think I'd settle in a small town, but I do love the small town. Now, if you're a rotten person, everybody's going to know it, but I still love the little town and the small town feel that we have. I worked at the paper mill for 38 years. Um, so I was well employed and I worked hard for that. And, um, I'm not going to speak for very long. I just simply wanted to ask the commissioners if they would consider asking Mr. Langdale, um, if he would consider a different piece of property that is really rule. and wouldn't be right next door to, say, like my neighborhood or anybody's neighborhood. I know when I first came to Valdosta, I was under the impression that the Langdells were the largest landowner east of the Mississippi. Now, that was back with Billy Langdell. I don't know what it's now. Maybe around, I've heard, like 200,000 acres. So I know they have other property they could sell. And I'm not against improvement. I'm not against moving with the times with the electronics and the internet and that type of thing. But I don't think that Foxboro is really rural property. So if you would indeed, talk to Mr. Langdell. See if, hey, what about selling another piece of property somewhere that's not going to be so effective, like on our river? We've always had a water issue in Foxboro. We've had several floodings since I've been there. And I love it. I love my neighbors. I've never had anything stolen from me. I've never been threatened in any way. And I'd like to see that continue. So if you would... Take that to Mr. Langdell. I would appreciate it. Thank you again for your time.

Thank you. All right, our next speaker is Sarah Riggles. Probably not even close. Please come forward. State your name and address for the record, please.

My name is Sarah Riggle, 709 West Alden Avenue. I'm here about the... Sorry. The data center. My phone is dead.

Anyway, what I want to do... I'm asking if the...

agreement for the Florida and Georgia water agreement is still effective. How does the project of the data center affect the Florida and Georgia water agreement? Is it still effective? uh... the great number of housing developments i've seen coming up population increases with the consumption of water consumption will be increased and the expansion of moody and the additional air groups possible coming adding more people to the water uh... climate change is affecting uh... water levels I travel to Gainesville quite often, and I notice the water levels in various ponds and rivers have dried up. And I've seen four-wheelers driving on the Suwannee River bed. That's how low it is. And the swamps in Georgia, South Georgia, are gone in various counties. Also, how does the noise volumes in the centers, how does the volume of the noise affect the local animals and the family pets' behavior?

And I've heard that they do affect that.

So how do we justify letting the data centers be built, which will consume one and a half to five million gallons of water every day? Uh, will there be enough water for the communities to use, to cook, bathe, flush toilets, uh, to, uh, water our fields and crops will cost the right water rise, and it will be passed to the consumers. So how do we affect, how do we monitor those consumers who abuse our, our sort of very, uh, finite water source? Uh, thank you for your time.

Thank you. All right, our last speaker is Mr. John Quarterman. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Hello, I'm John Quarterman. I live on Quarterman Road, 6565 Quarterman Road. Get my mail in a higher appeal box 461. And, um, as the one river keeper, I'm here to invite you to read Bingham state park from 11 to 3 PM on Saturday, June 20th for a June 20th celebration, getting children in boats. We'll have stunt adults for the children whose parents don't want to go with them. And we'll have food provided by Macedonia community foundation. I just visited Fannie Gibbs and her daughters are on our own it with the food. So y'all come. I keep hearing rumors about the data center. One of the rumors is that they're going to be getting their water from a deep well and then ejecting their wastewater into the aquifer. I have seen no evidence of this rumor that any of it is true. I can't get anyone to give any source for it. I hope if that does turn out to be the case when they make an application, I hope that would be a deal breaker.

You bet.

Now, I also hear a rumor that Georgia Power has already made a deal with them. I can see no source for that, and I can get no confirmation. So, don't believe everything you hear. I also hear the data center's a done deal. Many of the people in the room, okay, some of them can remember when a private prison in Lowndes County was a done deal. It was gonna happen. Well, I'd like to think Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange helped with that by exposing the sweetheart deal of the landowner with the industrial authority, where they deeded the land over to the industrial authority long enough to get a second entrance through a wetland, then got it back in time to be ready to sell it to the private prison at a big profit. Anyway, that was a done deal, but it didn't happen. This don't have to happen either. Remember a few years ago when crypto was all the rage, there was gonna be crypto farms everywhere? Many of those are already closing. Some of those locations are trying to get data centers to take them over. This is also a bubble. Please don't rush into something that may only last a few years and leave a big white element that you and all the rest of us will have to take care of. What George Fisher was saying about sinkholes, I mean, you all know about Shadrach Sink. It's on county property off of River Chase. When the river's up, water goes down into Shadrach Sink, goes east under the Withacoochee River several miles, at least as far as where Valdosta's water wells are. on Guest Road. When they first put those wells in, they discovered, oh my God, we're getting river water in here. We have to deal with the tannic acid and the various biological compounds. And they had a choice, either pay a lot more for treating that sort of thing, something that you're well aware of, to Stone Creek and Lappaha Plantation, or just sink the wells deep enough to get under it, which is what they chose to do. and there's a line of sinkholes heading west from there through for example moody family homes on valdell and over to the shiloh road sinkhole which the county first tried to fill in and then move the road around it the whole area is riddled with sinkholes so that is indeed a concern but the main thing i want to say in addition to the numerous water issues, is don't believe every rumor, and in particular, don't believe that it's either a done deal or that it has to happen. It doesn't.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. That concludes our citizens wishing to be heard. Commissioners, any questions or comments?

Yes, sir. I'd just like to encourage everybody to get out and vote with early voting. There's a lot of reasons to vote, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, with key positions in state leadership, and then, of course, the elections next Tuesday. So please take the time to express your vote.

Anyone else? Motion to adjourn.

To adjourn.