Tag Archives: Lowndes County

Committee meeting in Valdosta and draft sponsor banners: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-03-14

Last week the Committee met by telephone. This week it will meet in person, tomorrow, in Valdosta for the first time.

When: 1PM Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Where: Michael’s Deli, 1307 N Ashley St, Valdosta, GA 31601-4017
To attend by telephone, contact us for the number.

Event: facebook, meetup

What: Finishing up contest rules, entry form, scorecards for selecting finalists and winners, sponsor application form, and banners for sponsors. Oh, and a date to start accepting submissions and a budget.

Draft sponsor banners: Which one do you like? Here are five sketches: mix and match what you would like to see flying over sponsor businesses and festival booths.

Banner 1: music and long SuwRK banner, Draft Banners

The Contest

Continue reading →

Fundraising for Water Trail signs

Update 2025-06-04: Prices for road signs have tripled (due to price of steel tripling) and at-water signs also cost more.

Update 2019-11-08: Donate through GA Gives, including if you wish for Brochures.

Update 2019-04-26: Price of metal signs at the water at boat ramps and landings. Just the signs, Westbound

Update 2018-04-27: Pictures of Lakeland Boat Ramp signs in the ground.

Update 2018-03-15: People want to know how much the signs cost:

  • Road Signs
    • $150 $500 road signs for one signpost (one direction)
    • $300 $1,000 pair of road posts with signs for a landing or boat ramp
  • Signs at the water near a boat ramp or landing: if you donate for a specific location, your logo can go on the signs there, and on the water trail brochures and web pages
    • $600 one park-style kiosk, or
    • $50 $70 pair of metal signs with 4×4 post, bolts, and concrete.

Any amount of donation helps put up the road signs that let people know the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT) exists and directs them to the landings, as well as the kiosks that inform people about what to expect nearby, so we get more people paddling the Alapaha River who will take care of the river.

The pair of metal signs at the water also work for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT). Here is an example pair of metal signs at the water for Troupville Boat Ramp:

[Side by Side]
Side by Side

The Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT) is a reality. We are ordering have bought the road signs from the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) which has planted them on roads leading to landings, and we need to pay for them. We have a small amount of money from Continue reading →

Afternoon Saturday Azalea Festival 2018-03-10

Come on down and look over the pictures of the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers Gretchen printed. WWALS will be at Azalea Festival again today.

Shirley, Gretchen, pictures are a hit, Volunteers

Where: Drexel Park, north of E. Brookwood Drive, between North Patterson Street and Williams Street
30.846771, -83.285066
(across Patterson from VSU)
That’s on One Mile Branch, which flows into Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River, the Suwannee, to the Gulf.

WWALS booth: First thing you see coming in the main entrance from Slater Street. Continue reading →

Set up at Azalea Festival Saturday morning 2018-03-10

Bobby McKenzie and Shirley Kokidko are helping at the WWALS booth that Gretchen Quarterman set up yesterday. Come on down!

Bobby and Shirley, WWALS booth
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman for WWALS at Azalea Festival 2018-03-10.

When: Saturday and Sunday, 10 and 11 March 2018,
WWALS will be at Azalea Festival today and tomorrow,

Free: Yes, it’s free to get in.

Parking: Continue reading →

Hagan Bridge, Franklinville, Withlacoochee River 2018-02-11

Two new fallers, an unscheduled creek upstream and confluences of several more downstream, the Withlacoochee River Roundabout, (some around it twice), a nice drizzle, and a fine time was had by 19 paddlers from 2 years old to 70-plus on the balmy winter Withlacoochee River, Sunday, February 11, 2018.

paddlers and banners

I am worried, though, since Continue reading →

Hahira is sixth resolution supporting GA HR 158, now in statehouse 2018-02-01

HR 158 may be scheduled for a vote in the Georgia House as soon as tomorrow. Help dedicate state fees to their intended purposes: please contact your Georgia House Representative or Georgia State Senator (follow the links for contact information) and ask them to pass HR 158. If you don’t know who your Georgia Representative or Senator are, see Georgia My Voter Page.

Hahira is the most recent of six local governments representing the majority of the population in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, in five Georgia House districts and two Senate districts, that have passed a resolution supporting Georgia HR 158 against state fee diversions, with five stories and an editorial in the biggest circulation newspaper in the Basin. More local resolutions passed elsewhere in the state, but that ain’t bad for the Suwannee River Basin.

Camera, City Council

  1. 2018-01-08 Lanier County, House District 176 (Jason Shaw), Senate District 8 (Ellis Black) Continue reading →

WWALS booth at Azalea Festival, Valdosta, GA 2018-03-10-11

Come help WWALS celebrate spring with 25,000 of our south Georgia and north Florida friends, at the Azalea Festival in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.

When: 10AM-6PM Saturday 10 March 2018
10AM-5PM Sunday 11 March 2018

Volunteer: WWALS members can help at the table!

Where: Drexel Park
30.846771, -83.285066
Patterson at W. Brookwood Drive, Valdosta, GA
(across Patterson from VSU)
That’s on One Mile Branch, which flows into Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River, the Suwannee, to the Gulf.

Event: facebook, meetup

Sign with map, Early
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS at Azalea Festival 2017.

What: Valdosta Daily Times, December 19, 2017:

The festival attracts vendors from throughout the country with Continue reading →

Pictures, Azalea Festival 2017-03-11-12

It was a weekend of family fun, with 25,000 of our closest friends and the froggy toss game, in Drexel Park, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, Spring 2017, on One Mile Branch, upstream of where we did the Cleanup, then flowing into Sugar Creek, and then the Withlacoochee River, just upstream of the newly-rediscovered public access off of Gornto Road, then into the Suwannee River, to the Gulf.

Gretchen, children, game, Froggy toss

The WWALS booth will be back at Azalea Festival Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11, 2018.

Not too busy yet, Early

Continue reading →

Hahira: against GA state fee diversions and for WLRWT 2018-01-30

Tonight, a resolution supporting the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, and a resolution for Georgia HR 158 against state fee diversions, (the one already passed by three counties and two cities in the Suwannee River Basin), on the agenda at the Hahira City Council Work Session (and Thursday at the Regular Session). Both will be introduced by Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.

When: 6:00 PM, Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Where: Hahira Courthouse, 301 W Main Street, Hahira, GA 31632

What: Work Session, Hahira City Council

Continue reading →

Hotchkiss Road Landing, Old State Road, and Naylor Boat Ramp

Common question: isn’t Hotchkiss closed? Answer: the old Hotchkiss Landing in Lowndes County is closed, private, and don’t go there! Caution! But Hotchkiss Road Landing in Lanier County is open as always, do go there to get to the Alapaha River. Boat landing And there’s a new park at US 84, with a Naylor Boat Ramp being built by Lowndes County, as urged by WWALS.

600x450 Bret Wagenhorst, Dave Hetzel, Gretchen Quarterman, at Hotchkiss Road, in Alapaha River Outing, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 24 August 2014
Bret Wagenhorst, Dave Hetzel, Gretchen Quarterman, at Hotchkiss Road (open, do go there Boat landing), in Alapaha River Outing, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 24 August 2014.

Previously there was some discussion of using a different name for Hotchkiss Road Landing in the Alapaha River Water Trail, but then nobody would know what we were referring to, since that’s what it’s always been called, down at the end of Hotchkiss Road off of US 84.

For those relatively new to WWALS, WWALS was heavily involved in Continue reading →