Industrial Authority board meetings have turned into sidewalk cultural events. This was outside the 17 May 2011 meeting.
A couple of different signs:
Susan Wehling with her traffic signal stop biomass sign,
and a Honk for Clean Air sign.
-jsq
There’s more in the story about other foods available in the market.Last weekend Lenny’s Market marked opened for the summer season, showcasing fresh local produce and much more well into the fall. On Saturday some early offerings were available by a few local producers, including William and Lydia Overholt and their daughter Eunice. The Overholts own Willso Farm Bakery and Eggs in Montezuma and have been selling at Lenny’s Market for the past three years.
“We like to be here every week, Saturdays mostly,” William said.
The Overholts arrived around 7:30 a.m. with fresh picked Vidalia type onions, beets, romaine lettuce, cabbage and zucchini, ready to sell.
“They’re picked the day before we come down,” William said.
Lydia said that they will have more things as the summer progresses like green peppers and eggplant.
They also have entertainment. One of my high school friends says a Led Zepellin cover band brought in some of us old fogies, and they often have more current music.
-jsq
This post owed to Clayton Freeman.
Speaking About organizing & activism- We can make them dichotomous, in order to speak about them more distinctly; but my intent (in the comment turned blog-post) was not to insinuate that the two are anti-thetical or opposing to one another in many ways at all.
That is not to say, though, that the work of one doesn’t clearly look much different from the work of the other.
I hesitate to use metaphor, because while they might be good heuristic learning tools, they too often are or become justificatory and prevent us from communicating clearly.
I will refer instead to this narrative, the basis of what I was attempting to communicate about my perception between the differences in activism work (all good and well) and organizing. http://beyondthechoir.org/diary/51/activism-vs-organizing-reflections-on-gramsci-pt2
-Seth Gunning
I found this over in NO COAL PLANT IN BEN HILL COUNTY! with this comment by Dan Corrie:
This Georgia Tech announcement emphasizes how quickly technology is changing toward healthier energy production and away from coal. I would hate to see our South Georgia stuck with a contaminating, health-harming coal plant for 50 years while so much progress would be going on during that time.The article by Daniel E. Frank dated 18 May 2011 appears on a law firm’s page, Georgia Tech Clean Energy Speaker Series: “High-Voltage Grid of the Future”: Continue reading
Danny Carter wrote in the Albany Herald 14 May 2011, Solar power meeting set: A solar power conference is scheduled for Tuesday in Albany.
We already did a smaller version of this, but what have we done since? Continue readingMAGE SOLAR, looking for both customers and installers, is hosting a program at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Albany Civic Center.
Susanne Fischer Quinn, communications manager for MAGE SOLAR, said there are just 13 certified installers of solar panels in Georgia.
The opportunity for growth in this area is tremendous, she said. Tuesday’s program will open with remarks by Jeff Sinyard, chairman of the Dougherty County Commission, and Albany City Commissioner Roger Marietta
Then, a panel of representatives from MAGE, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Georgia will present information about solar power in Georgia.
Partly due to
MAGE SOLAR at Lowndes High School
(thanks, Jerome Tucker!), the Valdosta – Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce (VLCoC) has taken an interest in renewable energy.
ReKasa Deen,
Business Development Director,
already heads the Chamber’s
Opportunity Central:
The Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber is positioning Metro Valdosta as Opportunity Central with opportunities for business to grow and thrive, career opportunities for well-educated young professionals and opportunities for cultural interests and active lifestyles.
The key phrase I keep hearing from
VLCoC president Myrna Ballard
is
“knowledge-based businesses and jobs.”
As it says on a recent
Opportunity Central blog post:
New jobs follow bright and creative professionals…Ms. Ballard and Ms. Deen have repeatedly said they see renewable energy as a source of jobs for graduates of our local high schools and colleges.
What do they mean by renewable energy? Continue reading
Continue readingBeyond changing the messaging on signs, which I think is a great idea, I think what the research reflects is a fundamental change in the approach to the work.
A key to community organizing work, as opposed to activism,
Skipping in to the Industrial Authority office to file an open records request,
I noticed all five board members in the board room having a meeting.
So I asked whether an appointed board was bound by the same state law
as for an elected body that it had to announce meetings in advance.
Lu Williams said that it was a special called meeting,
that they sent a notice to the VDT, and yes, they were bound by
the same rule.
I asked if I could have a copy of the agenda of the meeting in progress. She said they had all the copies in there but she would get me one later.
A few minutes later I went back and asked if they were in executive session. She said yes, they already went from the open called meeting into executive session to discussion personnel.
However, I did pick up a copy of tonight’s agenda, and typed it in, so, for apparently the first time ever, here is the agenda for a VLCIA board meeting on the web before the meeting. -jsq
Continue readingValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
And this is just the start of what’s going to happen to Georgia as long as that law is in effect.Legendary rock guitarist Carlos Santana, in town to be honored for a “Beacon of Change” award at Sunday’s MLB Civil Rights Game at Turner Field, called the state’s new immigration law “anti-American.”
Santana took his turn at the podium on the field in a pre-game ceremony before the Braves-Phillies game to criticize the immigration bill just signed into law by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Friday.
“I represent the human race,” the Mexican-born Carlos Santana said. “The people of Arizona, the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
The Georgia immigration law, HB 87, cracks down on illegal immigration by increasing enforcement powers and requiring many employers to check the immigration status of new hires.
But what do you really think, Carlos? Continue reading
Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet said he hopes to expand the Wiregrass
Solar array in Valdosta to an additional megawatt, taking it from being
one of the largest in Georgia to one of the largest in the southeast.
This is the man
Sterling Planet Chairman Sonny Murphy singled out for praise.
This is the expansion project
Sonny Murphy promoted in the Sterling Planet press release.
Alden Hathaway knows what needs to be done, and
Pete Marte and Hannah Solar stand ready to do it.
Alden Hathaway also talked about how solar helps load distribution on the electric grid, lowering electric rates for everybody. He remarked that once power companies realized that, they’d be for solar. More on that later.
But meanwhile, let’s ask Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Crawford Powell when they’re going to do this: Continue reading