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Dear Mr. Pritchard: How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off? —John S. Quarterman

I sent this today. -jsq

 

From: John S. Quarterman <questions@quarterman.com>

Cc: bslaughter@lowndescounty.com, jevans@lowndescounty.com, rraines@lowndescounty.com, cpowell@lowndescounty.com, dmarshall@lowndescounty.com, jpage@lowndescounty.com, questions@quarterman.com

Subject: How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off?

Dear Mr. Pritchard,

You may recall that at the Lowndes County Commission meeting
of the 8th of January 2013, I asked the following:

“When this building complex was opened in 2010, the county put out a


double-sheet flyer saying it was completely paid off out of SPLOST money,
with zero dollars owed. I’m wondering how it is that then, either in
November or

December, the Commission just before your one here, refinanced
bonds that included I think it was six or seven million dollars for this
very building complex? I’m very confused by that. I wonder if someone
could clarify how we’re paying on something that was completely 100%
paid off with zero owed.”

I asked Commissioner Crawford Powell this question at the going-away
reception for former Chairman Ashley Paulk on 14 December 2012, and
he referred me to you for an answer. It has been more than two weeks
since I asked in a Commission Regular Session and I have received
no answer. So I ask again.

Specifically:

Continue reading →

Rooftop solar: the most direct route to clean energy industries


Austin vs. San Antonio in solar power
Around here I hear local leaders say “we’ll never be Austin.”
Well, Austin may be letting San Antonio pass Austin as far as rooftop solar
and the jobs that generates.
It’s not a matter of size or pre-existing advantages.
It’s a matter of political will.
Do we have that will here?

TexasVox
wrote a white paper in February 2012,

Solar Austin: Rooftop Solar & Job Creation,

…the most direct route to attracting and encouraging the
development of clean energy industries is through the


the scale of future development will be orders of
magnitude greater than what has occurred to date.

mass deployment of local rooftop solar, which is probably why solar has
by far the most significant presence of any clean energy generation
technology in Austin.

But the paper’s point is that Austin is falling short.
Look at the graph:
Austin seems to have settled for linear growth in solar power,
while San Antonio gets it about
compound growth.
As San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro
said in 2011, solar power is in

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KLVB Alapaha River cleanup at Old State Road in 2007

So if Old State Road to the Alapaha River has, according to

the criteria recited by County Engineer Mike Fletcher,
“ceased to be used by the public to the extent that
no substantial public purpose is served by it”,
why did Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) do a cleanup there in 2007?
Is the removal of that section of road
“from the county road system… in the public’s best interest”?

Jessica Pope wrote for the VDT 30 September 2007,

River cleanup,

Saturday’s Alapaha River cleanup will be held in cooperation with
Rivers Alive, a statewide annual volunteer waterway cleanup that
targets Georgia’s 70,150 miles of streams and rivers each October,
and Hands On Georgia Week 2007, which will culminate on Saturday
with Hands on Atlanta Day, the largest volunteer service day in the
country. A number of volunteers will spend the day cleaning
Georgia’s waterways, building wheelchair ramps, collecting cans of
food for Georgia’s food banks and as picking up trash along
Georgia’s highways.


Anyone interested in participating in the Alapaha River cleanup
Saturday should head on U.S. 84 East past Naylor, turn left on Good
Hope Road then turn right on Old State Road. Small boats and canoes
are welcome. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., and participation
waivers must be signed.

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Get a job —Lowndes County to waste site workers

Continuing to ignore its responsibilities to protect public health, safety,
and well-being,
the Lowndes County government proceeded with its plan
to trash rural residents’ waste collection sites,
and told part time workers there to get a job.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today,

Trash centers dumped:
Final week to make trips to county recycling centers,

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners near the end of 2012 voted


to approve a contract with Advanced Disposal to serve as the sole
waste company to conduct curbside trash pick-up in unincorporated
Lowndes County. Some citizens remain critical of the change in
service, which will cost $12.80 per month, and many are trying to
get their last loads to the collection/recycling centers before they
close….



Full-time employees at the recycling stations, which are already
employees of Public Works, said County Clerk Paige Dukes, will be
moved to different positions within the department. Part-time
employees will need to find new jobs.

Why might citizens be critical?

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January 2013 LAKE meeting: Let’s Eat Cafe, Valdosta

Local governance: Water, trash, and money.

What:
Monthly LAKE Meeting

When: 7 PM, Tuesday

29 January 2013

Where:
Let's Eat Cafe

2102 W. Hill Ave.

(just west of I-75,

at the Shell station)

Valdosta, GA 31601
View Larger Map

Don't let the location fool you:
Let's Eat is locally owned, and serves a lot of locally-grown food.

Agenda, not necessarily in this order:


  1. Roads and river access


  2. Solid waste disposal


  3. Local government transparency


  4. Zero owed in 2010; why $8.9 million owed now on county palace?


  5. Distributed solar power for jobs
    including

    GA SB 41
    vs.
    failing nuclear power


  6. Fast Internet access everywhere

  7. Other

If you're on Facebook,
please Like the

LAKE facebook page.
You can sign up for

the meeting event there,
Or just come as you are.

-jsq

I-75 as the Governor Melvin Ernest Thompson Memorial Highway?

Did you know the legislature is likely to rename much of Interstate 75
through Lowndes County in honor of a former governor,
and spend $4,500 for signs to do so?

The Valdosta Daily Times, Lowndes County


NOTICE OF ROAD FACILITY DEDICATION



Notice is given that there will be introduced at the regular 2013
session of the General Assembly of Georgia a resolution sponsored by
Senator Tim Golden, 121 State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia 30334, (404)
656-7580, to dedicate the portion of Interstate 75 in Lowndes County
from the West Hill Avenue exit to the North Valdosta Road exit as
the Governor Melvin Ernest Thompson Memorial Highway in honor of his
achievements, accomplishments, and contributions to Lowndes County
and to the State of Georgia; and for other purposes. The estimated
cost of such dedication is $4,500.00.

00046038

1/19/13

And such a bill has been introduced in the Georgia House (not the Senate) as

HR 47, Governor Melvin Ernest Thompson Memorial Highway; Lowndes County; dedicate,
sponsored by
(1) Shaw, Jason 176th, (2) Carter, Amy 175th, (3) Black, Ellis 174th,
(4) Sharper, Dexter 177th, (5) Houston, Penny 170th.

Here's the part that ties Gov. Thompson to here:

WHEREAS, Governor Thompson was instrumental in the success of the City of


Valdosta and Lowndes County, where his leadership as a founding member of
the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority spearheaded much of the
urban development and planning for Valdosta and the surrounding areas,
including the Azalea City Industrial Park; and

And establishing Industrial Parks was a cutting-edge idea: in the 1950s.

The bill adds:

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GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act




Georgia Senator Buddy Carter has introduced a Senate bill for the current
session of the legislature,

SB 51,
“The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act of 2001”.
It attempts to fix
Georgia’s special solar financing problem,
the antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act.

Why 2001?
Apparently Buddy Carter has been introducing it every year since then.
Last year

Georgia Power’s disinformation campaign
nuked it when it was

SB 401.
Has the legislature gotten tired of Georgia Power and its parent the Southern
Company being
way late and overbudget on those new nukes?
Does the legislature want Georgia citizens to get the savings and job
benefits of

the fastest growing energy source in the country?
Will
GaSU help with SB 51, or only with GaSU’s attempt to become a solar
monopoly utility?
You can contact your legislators and tell them what you think.
Every one of them who

voted for Georgia Power’s stealth-tax rate hike for that nuke boondoggle
should vote for SB 51 to start getting Georgia on a clean path to jobs
and energy independence.

This bill is not perfect:
it counts

“generator fueled by biomass”
as

Continue reading →

Videos: Taxing alcohol on the road to the jail @ LCC 2013-01-22



One citizen actually got a response out of a Commissioner in Citizens Wishing
to Be Heard!
Unfortunately,
only half a dozen citizens where there to hear that,
or to see the Lowndes County Commission
vote on matters that affect everyone,
from abandoning a road leading to a river to an alcohol license.

Here's

the agenda,
with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

the Work Session the morning of that same day.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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Blurt it out about the ankle monitoring system —Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-01-22



A citizen actually got an answer from a Lowndes County Commissioner at

the Regular Session of 22 January 2013.
Oh, and the set

the clock
correctly to five minutes.


Gretchen Quarterman
noted

Commissioner Marshall had looked up some old minutes,
and she appreciated that

old minutes are on the county’s website,
but the last minutes there were for 9 October 2012.
Then she asked them to blurt about the

ankle monitoring program:

This morning, you had a
really great report about the
jail ankle monitoring system.
And I would really like to encourage the county to do marketing.
To call a press conference, to get some graduates from that program,
to get the sheriff,
to get the gentleman that spoke this morning,
to stand out on the courthouse steps and talk about how great it was.
People would have a really great feeling if they knew.
This morning I was the only citizen here; now we’ve got three more.
People aren’t finding out..
So if they didn’t come to this chamber, they wouldn’t know.
So I encourage you, really, do a press release, do a press conference
about that.
It’s a gigantic huge important thing. Thank you.

The Chairman started to move on, but Commissioner Evans asked if she
could answer the citizen’s question.

Continue reading →

Vote for a hearing to abandoning a road leading to the Alapaha River @ LCC 2013-01-22



Update 2013-01-25 9:48 AM: fixed an error and added some further detail. -jsq

Citing unspecified sources of information about water rights,
the Lowndes County Commission voted to move to a hearing to
abandon a road to a river they didn’t name, but which
happens to be: the Alapaha River (it was named this time).
This was at the

Regular Session of 22 January 2013.
See also the

Work Session the morning of the same day.



7.b. Abandonment of a portion of Old State Road (CR 16)

County Engineer Mike Fletcher describe the case like this:

Georgia Statute says that for an initial determination
that the section of county road has for any reason
ceased to be used by the public to the extent that
no substantial public purpose is served by it,
or that its removal from the county road system
is in
the public’s best interest.
And just to remind you, as we spoke yesterday,
the bridge that goes across the Alapaha River has been washed out;
it has not been replaced,
so there is no access across the river to Lanier County.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall remarked that this same
item had been voted down 26 October 2010(?).
Chairman Bill Slaughter asserted that the applicant had previously gotten
permission to close the road and was merely asking to extend the length;
he was corrected by staff (I think by County Manager Joe Pritchard) saying
no, it wasn’t approved.
Why doesn’t staff brief the Commission and the public on the history of a case
like this when it comes up again?

Commissioner Joyce Evans said



It was not approved because of different circumstances.
I think during that time, Mr. Fletcher,
you researched it all and you got the information
that we needed.
And that was the reason it was not approved;
we didn’t have the information that we needed
about the water rights.
Since then we have received that.

County Engineer Mike Fletcher added:

This is not considered a navigable waterway,
so therefore Mr. Connell owns the bottom of the riverbed,
so his property actually goes into the river, and not to the
high water mark.

Marshall said he’d heard from a constituent

Continue reading →