By Robin Postell

LOWNDES CO., Ga. – With the General Municipal Elections/Special Elections coming on November 5, and early voting having already begun, some might wonder what will be on the ballot besides the offices for mayor, city council, and school board.

SPLOST VIII will be on the ballot and on October 15, 2019, Valdosta Today was invited on a tour to several locations which will benefit if passed from the penny sales tax addition.

Learning about SPLOST is beneficial when voting. You can access the full project list for SPLOST VIII on the City of Valdosta website here, which outlines all the expense costs for each proposed project in the City of Valdosta, County of Lowndes, City of Remerton, City of Lake Park and City of Hahira located at the very end of the document.

The projects listed below that were included on the tour are but a small fraction of the overall intended tax collections off SPLOST VII during the years it will be active if a majority of voters think it’s worth their penny investments.

On the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners website, information regarding SPLOST VII can be found:

On November 5, 2013, the voters of Lowndes County approved a seventh round of Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) collections.  SPLOST VII collections began January 1, 2014 and will end December 31, 2019.  The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will officially approve projects over the next six years as enough funds become available to cover the cost of each improvement.

LowndesCounty.com

Some of the language being used during the tour by the SPLOST committee members in attendance were that it was merely an extension of SPLOST VII, but this point is arguable since it will be a completely new special tax with its own timeline.

First stop was the historic downtown Valdosta courthouse. If SPLOST VIII is passed, the historic courthouse will be restored as authentically as possible to its original structure and turned into a Regional Visitor Center.

The closest one to Valdosta is Albany. If a tour bus is passing through Valdosta, feasibly the Regional Visitor Center would provide a place for them to take a break, go to the restroom and look around.

The old courthouse has seen many changes since its earliest days. Plenty of renovations and modifications were made, while still other original fixtures do remain. SPLOST VIII would provide funds for many changes, within the bounds of the historical preservation guidelines, with the ultimate goal keeping it as close to its original state.

Public restrooms, which apparently were part of the original design, will be restored. There will be space for Valdosta Main Street, the Historical Society, and event space on the second floor where the classic courtrooms are located. Ashlyn Becton who was on hand pointed out that any revenue brought in from rented special events areas in the courthouse would go towards the upkeep of the courthouse.

Potential usages would be for VSU lectures and even weddings.

SPLOST originally paid for the construction of the current Lowndes County Judicial and Administration Complex, which is where the original courthouse’s offices and courtrooms were moved.

Celine Gladwin, the architect for the proposed project, was there to explain the various changes that would be made to the existing structure.

The courthouse construction began in 1904 and was completed in 1905. The architecture, according to Gladwin, is very unique. “It is a square building with four domes,” she said, “with multiple towers. It was a very well thought-out project with major civic thought in mind.”

Gladwin added that she could “talk all day long” about the courthouse, from the drop-down ceilings, covering up the original tin ceilings when air-conditioning was added, to the hardwood floors buried beneath the carpet and plywood they hope to restore.

The local historic society doesn’t have that many reliable photos of the original courthouse condition, so archived copies of The Valdosta Daily Times articles from when it was being built are being used.

Second visit on the tour was to Fire Station 2 where we met Valdosta Fire Chief Brian Boutwell. The air packs firefighters use when they are on a call must be properly filled and operational at all times. The outdated system being used currently, Boutwell said, needs to be upgraded to ensure safety and efficiency going forward.

“This is the only filling station for air packs on our backs and on our trucks,” Chief Boutwell said at Fire Station 2. “That’s a lot to ask out of our 30-year-old system.”

The SPLOST VIII amount which would cover this was estimated to be $455,000. This would cover not only the air packs, but also the filling station, which is a generator that takes in air, purifies it, and pressurizes it.

The reason SPLOST VIII is allowed to fund this is because there has been “trouble getting a larger tax digest,” according to Paige Dukes and the SPLOST Committee members.

“We don’t want to raise property taxes,” Dukes continued. “It’s a matter or prioritization of funds.”

This third stop on the tour was at the Lowndes County Emergency Communication Center located at 1515 Madison Highway. The last SPLOST provided many renovations and added a building for dispatchers, who work 12 hour shifts and are limited in their ability to move from their consoles.

“They can’t leave their consoles for breaks,” said the facility director, Tonya Davis. “They do everything from deliver babies over the phone to dispatching officers to the scene – so many things you wouldn’t think of.”

SPLOST VIII will add a shed in the rear which was knocked down during the SPLOST VII renovations, which expanded the building since the Lowndes County population has doubled since it was built in the 90s.

Davis said the new changes will involve giving the administration areas a “facelift” for their 41 staffers who “can’t even leave for lunch,” and rely on the kitchen SPLOST made possible.

An updated security system will also be added, using a key fob instead of a card, which will eliminate having to change the code every time someone is fired or retired.

With attention to the comfort of the dispatchers at their consoles, ergonomic designs are throughout, with the ability to raise the console desk area to suit the employee.

One of the most interesting additions SPLOST VIII will enable for the 911 center is the ability to receive text messages, which will require some change of policies. The only community with that available is in Macon.

“It’s important to be able to accept texting because we have so many younger people here because of VSU and Moody,” Davis added, who has been working at the center for 19 years.

Since SPLOST VII didn’t finish all the projects, SPLOST VIII will provide software updates to existing technology.

The fourth stop was the Lowndes County Animal Shelter, located at 337 Gil Harbin Industrial Blvd. Due to poor construction to cope with the necessary cleaning, the entire building which was built in the early 90s, will be torn down and rebuilt in an L-shape.

The facility is routinely inspected by the Department of Agriculture and 6,000 animals come through the facility every year.

“Only one animal out of two that comes here makes it out alive,” said the personnel, adding that only 19 cats are reclaimed every year.

Though the tour was helpful in determining what SPLOST VIII will go towards, it is important for readers/voters to now there are far more projects involved in the entirety of Lowndes County which you can find more about on the Lowndes County website here, or the City of Valdosta website here, or the Lowndes County Board of Elections site here.

You can also visit Valdosta Today’s General Municipal/Special Elections Page here.