She
asks about
preschools, apartment complexes, etc.
I am for green energy, but I am against infant mortality. To VLCIA, City Councillors, County Commissioners, try planning with the community in mind.A: It’s in an already-industrial area.
See also Phyllis Stallworth’s
previous letter.
See also VLCIA executive director Brad Lofton on
“some opposition has crept up”.
-jsq
-jsq
The Lowndes County Commission Tuesday
voted in
and
Chairman Paulk announced
new
Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
Interestingly, since the Commission rushed through these new rules after the last meeting, there was no time to completely implement them, so the first thing the Chairman did was to set them aside for this meeting.
-jsq
Metro Atlanta cities want to air their business in living rooms. Alpharetta agreed to spend $68,000 for a video recording system in its council chambers. Dunwoody will shell out $93,000 for a digital video recording system, enabling residents to view city council and planning commission meetings live from home.Continue readingWhile not every city electronically records its council meetings, the practice has become increasingly popular.
“It’s an overall trend of cities, going where people are to share information, to keep people in touch,” said Amy Henderson, Georgia Municipal Association spokeswoman.
Here
I discuss with the mayor
about the Valdosta City Council videoing their entire meetings and putting
them on the web for everybody to see.
The mayor indicated costs of streaming was an issue;
I recommended putting it on YouTube or Vimeo and letting them handle that part.
I think the AJC article he mentioned is this one:
Meeting access video grows among city councils,
by Patrick Fox, 18 Jan 2011.
This comment by the mayor was amusing:
The worst thing you could do would be to have one camera in the back that has room audio.Touche, Mr. Mayor! :-) What do you think, is a noisy video from the back of the room more useful than no video at all? Can you see him waving his arms around? Continue reading
Connie Littlefield remarks that
Legalizing marijuana makes pot smoking uncool:
I was in Amsterdam because my documentary, Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey, was being screened as part of a Cannabis Tribunal. Former NYPD detective Frank Serpico, who is in my film, travelled with me.Her film is DAMAGE DONE: The Drug War Odyssey, here describe on the LEAP site: Continue readingWe were invited to speak because Damage Done is about a group of cops, including Frank, and Canadian Senator Larry Campbell, who believe that the War on Drugs does more harm than the drugs themselves.
We presented a copy of our film to the chief of the Amsterdam-Amstelland Police, who told me that he became a cop because of Frank.
I wonder if there is any way for the Industrial Authority, County Commission and City Council to now do the right thing for Lowndes County. How can they save face?Reading the scientific data makes it clear that an error was made, and clearly this data wasn’t made available to those who have been charged with finding appropriate industry for us, industry that will raise the quality of life for the citizens of Lowndes County by providing good jobs. They can be excused for an industry that provides only a few jobs. Jobs are jobs, after all. But how can we help them apologize to all of us and thank those citizens who have spent so many hours of their own time gathering information and providing a forum to educate us? I wish it were possible.
Luana Goodwin
Valdosta
From: Leigh TouchtonAttached was a PDF file. Here’s an excerpt. Continue reading
Subject: NAACP Georgia State Conference asks EPA for review of Wiregrass permit
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:39:26 -0500
To: [numerous parties]Apparently some people have incorrect information about the Georgia State NAACP Conference position. Please see attached.
Brad Lofton says
“all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.”
I guess he hasn’t looked at the local NAACP’s
front page on the web.
Continue readingValdosta NAACP Claims Environmental Racism
The Valdosta-Lowndes branch of the NAACP unanimously passed a resolution of Environmental Racism concerning the siting of Sterling Planet’s Wiregrass Power, LLC, Biomass Incinerator, slated for construction in Valdosta, Georgia, next to the Mud Creek wastewater treatment plant. This incinerator is sited in a predominantly black community: within 2 miles of the incinerator are 2 predominantly black elementary schools, J.L. Lomax with 607 students and Southeast with 304 students, and one predominantly white elementary school, Moulton-Branch with over 500 students. The “Little Blue School” Head Start program serves over 165 children ages 3-5. There are 7 large black churches including Valdosta’s largest African-American church, New Life Ministries, pastored by Dr. Angela Manning, who has organized one Town Hall against the Biomass incinerator. Other churches include the Church at Pine Hill, Morning Star Baptist, Evangel Temple, Church of God of Prophecy, and others, with congregations numbering hundreds. In the area is Sands-Horizon assisted living facility which serves over 60 families, 2 large apartment complexes, Brittany Woods and Park Chase, as well as Valdosta’s largest and most affuent black residential community.Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, Brad Lofton, rejects the claim of environmental racism, and at the September 27, 2010, Valdosta Board of Education meeting called Valdosta NAACP President Touchton “irresponsible” for making the public claim. He says there are seven times more white people who live around the proposed plant. He did not address the fact that school children and church members do not show up on census forms.
The incinerator will emit 87-89 tons per year of tiny particulate
On 6 Jan 2011, Brad Lofton made a joke out of
“some opposition that has crept up” that he claims called him an
“environmental racist”.
He says “we just provided the facts”
and
“all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.”
Lofton has been misquoting like this since September. Back then he was willing to name the chairman of the local NAACP. He doesn’t mention that Leigh Touchton responded to him back then:
I did not call the Industrial Authority an environmental racist. What I stated quite clearly was that the siting of the Biomass Incinerator in a predominantly black neighborhood constitutes environmental racism.In her response, she went on to rebut Lofton’s alleged facts. He has never to my knowledge responded to the points Touchton raised in her rebuttal. Instead, he goes around making a joke out of the NAACP.
-jsq