The local newspaper didn’t look past PG&E’s news about unit 2 coming back up (lightning strike) to notice that unit 1 had been down (pipe leak) a few weeks before.
David Sneed wrote for the San Luis Obispo Tribune 16 July 2013, Diablo Canyon’s Unit 2 reactor back at full power, Continue reading
Will the recent increase in solar requirements by GA PSC on Georgia Power produce any more solar projects in Valdosta? And what’s in the VLCIA annual report? Maybe a list of jobs created?
Here’s
the agenda.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Agenda, Tuesday July 16, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Apparently we still don’t know why this happened:
At approximately 7:50am on Sunday, March 31, 2013, a 600-ton generator stator fell onto the turbine deck and then about 30 feet to the train bay floor as was being lifted out of the Unit 1 turbine building at the Arkansas Nuclear One plant. One worker was killed and four others injured when the load fell.
Dave Lochbaum wrote for Union of Concerned Scientists 18 June 2013, Fission Stories #139: Arkansas Nuclear One Fatal Event,
The NRC reviewed U.S. nuclear plant experience with lifting loads with cranes between 1968 and 2002. The NRC reported that about two load drops per year happened during this period with ten incidents causing deaths. The NRC’s review concluded that there had been only three very heavy load drops (defined as a load weighing more than 30 tons). ANO-1 makes four.
While accidents can also happen with wind turbines or even installing solar panels on rooftops, a single solar or wind accident doesn’t Continue reading
224 years ago today French citizens, mainly workers, stormed the notorious prison the Bastille and released all the prisoners. They did this in support of the National Assembly recently reluctantly permitted by King Louis XIV, to gather arms, and because the Bastille had a reputation for holding political prisoners who had spoken up and then been locked up on the authority of lettres de cachet, arbitrary royal indictments. The next month that Assembly abolished feudalism (which had permitted those lettres de cachet), and then agreed on The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 26 August 1789:
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to Continue reading
Hahira declared a moratorium on water and sewer taps in a subdivision
financed by Guardian Bank, apparently in hopes of getting the bank
to do something about a drainage problem there.
Instead, the bank is suing Hahira, echoing a lawsuit the county is pursuing
about a contract let when the bank’s Chairman was Lowndes County Chairman.
According to Stuart Taylor in the VDT Friday, Guardian Bank’s chairman said, perhaps using the royal “we”:
“We’re a little disappointed with Hahira,” said Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Guardian Bank. “We’ve actually helped them build up their tax base up there…Over the years, we’ve encouraged builders to be up there.”
Me, I think Hahira should have Continue reading
“In order to respect the popular will, the government of” the city of Heshan refused to proceed with a $9 billion uranium processing plant. That happened after this, yesterday:
The cancellation, unusually fast, demonstrates the increasingly important attention given by the authorities to environmental concerns that are often expressed at the local level. Several projects of petrochemical plants and metal processing have recently been postponed or relocated.
Yes, I know the plant may just be relocated somewhere else. But with enough such demonstrations it won’t be built. How about some of this respect for the popular will about, for example, the natural gas pipeline through Georgia from Alabama to Florida, or the new nukes at Plant Vogtle?
Le Monde, today, Continue reading
The most interesting developments were not on the agenda.
Commissioners approved dollar amounts
for two purchase orders
that were completely different
from the ones they were quoted the morning before, with no discussion:
the County Attorney quoted the new figures, asked for approval,
and immediately got it.
Commissioner Richard Raines still didn’t want to enforce
a neighborhood covenant
yet it was Commissioner Raines
who made the motion last fall to let
an Exclusive Franchise
with
Advanced Disposal Services;
a covenant the county is now trying to enforce
by having the County Attorney
sue local business Deep South Sanitation.
They said nothing about
that 100 foot wide pipeline barrelling through the county.
They could have the County Attorney investigate that, but they aren’t.
They approved meeting for millage rate approval 8:30 AM Friday 26 July 2013:
that’s for the property taxes they collect, which presumably
partly go to pay the County Attorney.
And the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak on a technicality.
Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes. See also videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 8, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
They approved setting millage rates 8:30 AM Friday 26 July 2013 that’s for the property taxes they collect, at the 9 July 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
7. Reports-County Manager
County Manager Joe Pritchard reminded Commissioners they were required to set a date to set tax millage. Finance Director Stephanie Black said:
You can have it as early as the 26th of July, but it has to be done and ready for the tax commissioner by July 31st.
County Manager wanted to know if there would be a quorum present for 26 July 2013 at 8:30. Chairman asked for a show of hands, and got two, which is not a quorum. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall checked his calendar and said he could also attend, and three is a quorum. Commissioner John Page asked if this was the day they previously had been advised in an email. Answer: no, that was Thursday, and this date is a Friday. County Manager also clarified that they couldn’t set their millage until the School Board did. Commissioner Marshall noted he had previously been told the 25th, and once again staff admitted that was so. Three days later, there is still nothing on the county’s online calendar for 26 July 2013.
Video is here.
-jsq
Commissioners approved dollar amounts for two purchase orders that were completely different from the ones they were quoted the morning before, with no discussion: the County Attorney quoted the new figures, asked for approval, and immediately got it at the 9 July 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
- For Consideration
- Video Arraignment for Magistrate and Juvenile Court Contract
- Enterprise and Backup Storage Solution Scope of Work
Chairman Slaughter said they would “conjoin a and b together”.
What we have at this time are the work orders and what we would like to get at this time is a motion to approve and ratify the purchase orders.
County Attorney Walter G. Elliott asked to clarify: Continue reading
“All right, we’ll take one more!”
said County Chairman Bill Slaughter
in a public hearing
at the
9 July 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
The Commission declined to enforce a covenant for the neighbors,
but it is still playing enforcer for a garbage company owned by
investors in New York City.
5. Public Hearing — REZ-2013-07 Leatherwood, 2402 or 2406 James Rd. R-1 and R-21 to R-10, LC Water and Sewer, ~0.71 acres
County Planner presented the case
the same way he did the previous morning at the Work Session.
This time they had a copy of the agreement with the neighbors signed by
the applicant.
The neighbors still wanted the Commission to guarantee that covenant.
