What
Gary Minchew said at the end of his last Valdosta-Lowndes County
Industrial Authority (VLCIA) meeting as a board member:
He said he’s brought over 200 jobs a year to the area. He also said he organized getting the 1 mil of dedicated tax money for VLCIA. Continue reading
We’ve seen Brad Lofton write
I will not debate you over e-mail
and
We will not, however, debate you over e-mail
meanwhile refusing to put tax-funded presentations and videos
up for public view through the VLCIA website,
and offering personal meetings instead.
Having experienced one of those personal meetings down at VLCIA HQ,
and
having heard from others who have attended them,
I know of no substantive debate that happened at those indoctrination sessions, either.
Any attempt at debate or even to get Lofton to produce the
scientific evidence he claims he has ends with a proclamation like
this one from September:
We’re moving forward with permits in hand.or this one from December:
We’re moving forward now, and we are looking forward to the ground breaking which will be Spring of 2011.
But let’s not be too hard on VLCIA staff. At the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting, it became clear Continue reading
First Norman Bennett explained that the problem was that the community
needed to unite behind the VLCIA so investors wouldn’t be scared away (no video of that; sorry).
Then Meredith Ellis, who wasn’t even signed up to speak,
begged to differ:
Continue reading 
A local planning organization that studies advertises frequent meetings
for input and studies facebook usage data to see what people care about?
That’s the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO),
which holds frequent and repeated hearings on major projects.
Next week it’s having its regular
Policy Committee Meeting
1:30PM to 4:30 PM, Tuesday 11 Jan 2010,
at the SGRC office at 327 West Savannah Ave., Valdosta.
You can see what they’re up to
about traffic congestion, busses, trains, bicycles, Moody access, conservation, or other issues,
and voice your concerns.
Continue reading
Ashley Paulk, Chairman |
Joyce Evans, District 1 |
Richard Raines, District 2 |
Crawford Powell, District 3 |
This is the Commission that as its first act held a special session to propose adding two new superdistricts.
The pictures for the two new Commissioners, Richard Raines and Crawford Powell, are from Valdosta Daily Times writeups while they were running, since the Commission’s own web pages do not yet have pictures for them.
-jsq
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:10:58 +0000Continue readingGood evening everyone.
It is obvious by now that Mr. Lofton has no proof whatsoever that biomass is “safe”. He does not have one statement by a medical organization, not one scholarly publication he can share with us that backs up his claim. (Coincidentally, the same is true for other claims, as the event on January 13 will show.)
Members of WACE (and others in the community) have tried to receive proof
The VDT and the Commission’s district maps don’t agree,
and the Board of Elections doesn’t know.
David Rodock writes in the VDT today that
County revives expanding Lowndes commission:
During a special meeting Monday, county commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to include two additional voting districts within Lowndes County.Last year, this expansion failed in the legislature on a technicality. If the Commission and staff don’t make the same mistake, it seems likely the legislature will approve these new districts.The two proposed voting districts would allow for greater representation at County Commission meetings by allowing for an expansion of the current available voting representatives from three to five, while keeping a non-voting commission chairman.
But the district map the VDT published (see above) is not the same Continue reading
Matthew Spina writes in the Buffalo News,
Fighting jail suit was costly to county:
Bill for protecting records tops $27,000
The Chris Collins team last summer tried to block the New York Civil Liberties Union’s attempt to find out how much Erie County spends fending off jail-related lawsuits.Continue readingCollins’ county attorney at the time, Cheryl A. Green, refused to turn over a trove of county records that would answer the Civil Liberties Union’s questions. She was then brought into court and thumped so soundly Erie County was ordered to both turn over the documents and pay the opposition’s legal fees.
But Erie County also was paying $250 an hour to an outside law firm in its effort to keep those public records from public view. With that bill recently paid, the cost of the failed Collins-Green stonewall can now be tallied: $27,523.
Monthly LAKE Meeting
Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy, biomass, and regular local government meetings. If you can take notes, pictures, or videos at meetings, or find out who’s meeting when, or talk about how things got the way they are, or if you have ideas about how to improve things locally to everyone’s benefit, you can help. See LAKE’s website or this blog, On the LAKE Front, for more ideas, or bring your own.
If you like, you can sign up for this event on LAKE’s new facebook page, which I hope you will like. Continue reading
On 28 Dec 2010
Brad Lofton wrote:
No one but WACE has made any claims about our efforts to substantiate this project.Who are all these people, then, asking questions at the VLCIA’s 6 Dec 2010 event?
For example, this one, following up about the Environmental Impact Study he requested back at the EPD air quality hearing (see video of that event). He didn’t get an answer then, and at VLCIA’s 6 Dec event he still only got allusions to studies and standards that were not produced.
You can see Brad Lofton in that video, listening. Did he forget so quickly?
What about SAVE’s event at VSU at which Dr. Sammons spoke? What about the well-attended Biomass Town Hall that Pastor Angela Manning organized? And other events.
What about my question at the 6 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting? Continue reading