Available on LAKE’s web pages are wall-sized precinct maps, actually two parts (left and right) of one big wall map, as two PDF files (each between 4 and 5 megabytes) and as a variety of JPEG image sizes in a flickr set.
| Left Side | Right Side |
|---|---|
| left side PDF | right side PDF |
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-jsq
So I’ll give you my opinion, like I gave it to the County Commission,
and at the end of this post there’s a chronological list of links to
all the NOAA Weather Radio posts so far.
But first, what do these radios do? According to NOAA:
NWR is an “All Hazards” radio network, making it your single source for comprehensive weather and emergency information. In conjunction with Federal, State, and Local Emergency Managers and other public officials, NWR also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (such as chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages).So these radios provide all the types of information J.L. Clark referred to. There’s more information in that NOAA web page.
I spoke after J.L. Clark on 22 Feb 2011. There is no video, because LAKE had only one camera at that meeting. From memory, here is the gist of what I said.
I live out on the edge of the county. I remember when Ashley Paulk moved in next door.Continue reading
The week after Commissioner Raines
said NOAA Weather Radios were “wasteful spending”
and the commission voted 2:1 against them,
J.L. Clark asked the Commission to “think before you act”.
Clark pointed out that nobody said anything when the state effectively raised property taxes. He read off a list of other grants the county has accepted, and asked:
Are you going to return those grants? I think not.He brought up a recent earthquake and pointed out those radios would be quite useful in such a natural disaster.
I ask the Commissioners to think before you act, and not to react to you-know-what.The commissioners made no response. Here’s the video:
-jsq
Are NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending”?
We’ve already seen staff present the case for about 5,000 NOAA Weather Radios at $21.50 each, paid for out of grant money. They made that case at the 8:30AM 7 Feb 2011 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
At the regular session the next day (5:30 PM Tuesday 8 Feb 2011),
citizen Nolen Cox spoke against the NOAA grant and more generally said
“just say no to grants”.
He also went on at some length about how he didn’t believe in climate change.
Nevermind that the fifth U.S. or British board of inquiry has
reconfirmed yet again that the data and analysis for climate change
are solid.
EMA Director Ashley Tye summarized the case for NOAA Weather radios,
according to the minutes,
stating Lowndes County had been awarded $107,500.00, in Hazard Mitigation grant funding for the purchase of 5,000 NOAA weather radios to benefit all of Lowndes County. Mr. Tye added that Alert Works had presented the low bid in the amount of $21.50 per radio.Finally, the Commission had some discussion. According to the minutes: Continue reading
We’ve already heard about NOAA Weather Radios from two different citizens,
Nolen Cox
and Ken Klanicki.
What are they talking about?
As usual, much of the discussion was in the work session
(8:30 AM Monday 7 Feb 2011), available here in two parts.
In Part 1 staff talks about buying about 5,000 NOAA weather radios so the citizens can get weather news. Low bidder would charge $21.50 per radio.
In Part 2, staff notes that the grant would require that the radios can’t be earmarked, so people could come to the county office to pick up radios, and staff proposes to have several community events throughout the community, well-advertised, for people to pick up radios and staff to answer questions about them.
One of the commissioners notes:
That’s almost $108,000 tax money what happens to that grant money if, we say you know, it might not be a good idea […] what happens to that?Continue reading
Rich McKay wrote for the ajc,
Carbon limits a boon for traders:
Proposed emissions standards may galvanize business in Georgia.
The carbon-emitting companies pay the farmers to not cut down the trees or to plant new trees. The idea is that the trees, which gobble up carbon, will store up the carbon from the atmosphere and offset what the smokestacks spew.
Blake Sullivan, of the Macon-based Carbon Tree Bank, has 26,000 acres of forest in the state under contract for carbon banking.Why is this suddenly a business? Continue reading“Georgia has an abundance of forests right here, and trees are like the lungs of the Earth,” he said. “They inhale carbon and exhale oxygen. We can be part of the solution right here in our own backyard.”
Continue readingSAVE says Biomass spells bad news for Valdosta and VSU
By: Erin Hurley
How many of y’all have heard of the Biomass Plant that has been proposed for Valdosta? Many of ya’ll probably don’t know what Biomass is; I know I didn’t until about two years ago when this project first started. The Biomass plant is an incinerator that will burn sewage, sludge and tree “debris” in order to create energy. What’s the big deal, right?
Some people compare LAKE to Wikileaks, so let’s go there.
Julian Assange, like
Wendell Berry,
links the civil rights movement and the environmental movement.
He
then says:
“For the Internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time. We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state. The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness. Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.”
LAKE’s motto is:
Citizen dialog for transparent processThat makes Assange’s proposition
“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state”sound very familiar to us.
Locally it’s more a matter of elected and appointed bodies ignoring their chartered responsibilities to the public good and the general welfare. Well, many people are also tired of the permit inspection brigade, but that’s another story.
Assange also adds: Continue reading
Georgia Senate Bill 16
Lowndes County; provide for a board of commissioners; powers and composition
has
passed the House on Feb 10th and the Senate on Feb 28th
and is now waiting for the governor to sign it.
Here’s the summary:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend and supersede the laws pertaining to the governing authority of Lowndes County; to provide for a Board of Commissioners of Lowndes County; to provide for the powers and composition of the board of commissioners; to provide for election districts, qualifications, terms of office, and filling of vacancies of commissioners; to provide for meetings and quorum; to provide for the responsibilities of the chairperson; to provide for a vice chairperson and the vice chairperson’s responsibilities; to provide for submission pursuant to Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended; to provide for severability and effective dates; to provide for the repeal of existing enabling legislation; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.The actual bill still has to be approved by U.S. DoJ “pursuant to Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended”: Continue reading
How much are those bonds
VLCIA has committed we the taxpayers to?
According to VLCIA’s FYE 2011 Annual Financial Report it looks like the bonds started out as about $15,000,000, and are
Meanwhile, VLCIA has
That’s an interesting number to contemplate while other arms of local government are scraping to pay salaries and provide services. One of those other arms of local government is the Lowndes County Commission, which appears to be co-guarantor for those bonds.-jsq