By Johnna Pinholster
VALDOSTA — A $336,233.04 check was presented to the Valdosta City Council Thursday night during its regular meeting.
The Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste Management Authority presented the check, which can be used by the city to offset solid waste disposal costs.
Marty LeFiles and Richard Lee, authority chairman, spoke briefly about how the funds came to be available.
Deep South was started by six area governing bodies — Valdosta, Lowndes County, Nashville, Berrien County, Lakeland and Lanier County, LeFiles said.
This year the authority looked at the economy and the general financial stress by the members and decided to take two-thirds of its budget and give it back to those original members. The amount of the check received by a member was determined by the population and annual tonnage.
Council members then unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement between the city and the authority that the funds would only be used to offset costs concerning solid waste and that the money would be spent by December of 2010.
The original intention of the authority was to buy land and build a landfill for the six members. Instead a contract with Veolia Waste Management was forged for a low tippage fee at Pecan Row landfill and a 50-year contract, LeFiles said.
The authority also plans to continue to return some of the funds to original members but has yet to work out a formula to divide the money between members, Lee said.
Business sign issue
During the citizens to be heard section Roy E. Taylor Sr. spoke on behalf of a business owner currently renting property from him on the corner of Gordon and Ashley streets.
The sign above the building has been the same size for 15 years. Reinforcement work was recently done, but the size has not changed, Taylor said.
The business has recently received notice from the city that the sign needed to be removed.
Taylor said that would be detrimental to the business and the sign is no different from any other sign on Ashley Street. He requested that the city consider grandfathering the sign in.
Public hearing postponed
Council members voted to postpone a public hearing regarding a request to take 11.53 acres of land from single-family residential to multi-family residential until their first meeting in November. This will allow owner Jimmy Bennett to conduct a traffic impact study on the property located between Hickory Road and Harmon Drive and work out runoff and sewer issues.
