The meeting of the Valdosta City Council with the Florida Rivers Task Force scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled, according to Task Force Chair Rick Davis just now via telephone.

This meeting never actually appeared on the City of Valdosta calendar, but City Manager Mark Barber did announce it at the last such meeting back in January.

Also cancelled are almost all other government meetings in Valdosta or Lowndes County this week.

On April 3, 2020, Scott R. Koons, Executive Director of the North Central Florida Regional Planning Commission and acting E.D. of the Task Force also sent out a notice which included this:

After careful consideration and discussion with North Central Florida Regional Planning Council Chair Robert Wilford, a decision has been made to cancel the Council meetings scheduled for April 23, 2020 at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Lake City, Florida.

This cancellation of meetings includes the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force meeting at 4:00 p.m., Program Committee meeting at 5:30 p.m., Regional Planning Committee meeting at 5:30 p.m., Executive Committee meeting at 6:00 p.m., Clearinghouse Committee meeting at 6:00 p.m. and Council meeting at 7:00 p.m.

The reason for all these cancellations is the same: health and safety in the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the recent Florida and Georgia stay-home orders.

Meanwhile, Madison County BOCC has already met once via teleconference, and plans to do so again, setting an example for its larger neighbors.

I would also like to commend Valdosta for continuing a slightly abbreviated water quality testing schedule on the Withlacoochee River and Okapilco Creek despite operating with a skeleton crew, and also Madison Health for continuing testing.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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