Acting Valdosta City Manager Richard Hardy called me yesterday. This is unusual, although he does usually answer his phone if I call him.
![[Valdosta Acting City Manager Richard Hardy and City Engineer Ben O'Dowd 2023-03-25]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-04-11--seeclickfix/many.jpg)
Valdosta Acting City Manager Richard Hardy and City Engineer Ben O’Dowd 2023-03-25
Even more unusual was his news: the city may be moving ahead on keeping trash out of creeks.
First some background.
Recent adventures in Click ‘n’ Fix include this one, Continue reading
Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.
Why did Valdosta City Marshalls close this Click’n’Fix ticket when nothing has been cleaned up?
![[Trash, Two Mile Branch upstream from Ashley Street 2023-03-24]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-24--two-mile-branch-ashley-street/many.jpg)
Trash, Two Mile Branch upstream from Ashley Street 2023-03-24
It took nine days for City Marshals to make any response, then they said they would notify the property owner and closed the ticket.
I went there the next day and photographed the same trash in the same locations, plus I took more pictures of more trash upstream.
Today, March 29, 2023, when I asked why the ticket was closed and posted more pictures, the City Marshalls said “The ticket was closed because a citation was written and there is now an open case with the City Marshal’s. We have to legally give the property owner a certain amount of time to address the issue.”
That is new information, and a welcome change from just notifying the property owner.
But why did the City Marshalls again close the ticket? The problem has not been fixed.
In the next big rain, trash will wash down Two Mile Branch into Sugar Creek. If it is not caught by the WaterGoat there, it will wash into the Withlacoochee River. All along the way it is a health hazard to humans, and wildlife eat the trash, especially styrofoam, and cannot digest it. Continue reading
Thanks to Valdosta Utilities for speedily fixing a sewage smell issue that someone reported anonymously and vaguely through Click ‘n’ Fix. .
Once Valdosta Utilities addressed Click ‘n’ Fix report 13713615, they found the manhole that was open and put its cover on.
There is room for improvement. The report was on a Friday, and there was no response until Monday. It could have been an actual sewer spill, continuing all weekend. But it wasn’t.
And although Utilities asked for better location information, they found the problem anyway and fixed it.
They didn’t say it was somebody else’s problem.
They didn’t blame the person who reported it.
They didn’t ask for volunteers to clean it up.
They got out there and did their job in one day. Continue reading
Thanks to Russell Allen McBride for volunteering to clean out the WaterGoat trash boom on Sugar Creek that Valdosta bought. This is a temporary stopgap until Valdosta makes more complete plans to keep this trash from washing into the nearby Withlacoochee River, plus plans to stop trash from getting into the creeks.
Thanks again to Valdosta for buying the WaterGoat. I have said Thank You twice in City Council meetings, once in an op-ed in the Valdosta Daily Times, numerous times here, and in emails and telephone messages to city staff, Council, and Mayor.
However, apparently there is still confusion inside the city government as to cleaning out that WaterGoat. Once again: Continue reading
Have you seen a pothole, trash on a Valdosta street, or (we hope not), a sewage spill? You can report it to Valdosta from your phone with Valdosta Click ‘N’ Fix.
Update 2022-03-07: If you see a problem somewhere else in the Suwannee River Basin, here’s how to report it: https://wwals.net/report/
You can get the Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app: Continue reading
![[Report and fix in Seeclickfix]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-11-18--valdosta-sewer-smell/many.jpg)
![[Before, during, and after]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-07-03--watergoat-sugar-creek/many.jpg)
![[Title]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2016-02-10--vld-click-n-fix/title.jpg)