Category Archives: Community

National attention on GA HB 282 against muni broadband: needs GA leg. to vote it down

Another bad idea from ALEC already passed in SC and NC and is now in the GA
legislature, getting coverage in several national technical
and political blogs:

HB 282, which would effectively forbid
municipal broadband if any commercial carrier offers 1.5Mbps.
It's up for a hearing this week: time to call your state rep.

Timothy B. Lee wrote for ArsTechnica 14 Feb 2013,

Bill would ban muni broadband if one home in census tract gets 1.5Mbps:
Approach could leave some Georgia residents without a viable broadband option.



Incumbent broadband providers are pushing legislation that would
restrict Georgia towns from building municipal broadband networks.
Under the proposal, if a single home in a census tract has Internet
access at speeds of 1.5Mbps or above, the town would be prohibited
from offering broadband service to anyone in that tract.

State-level restrictions on municipal broadband networks are

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Why cant we keep and restore something that is very important to a community of people? —April Huntley

Received Friday. April Huntley also sent it to the Lowndes County Commissioners.
I have added a few links and pictures. -jsq

Dear Editor,



I’m not sure if people know or care that there is

another Dollar
General about to pop-up in Lowndes County. This time it will be in
Naylor. I’m not sure if this will be an improvement or not.

Something I am also aware of and hold an opinion about is the

proposal to abandon a road in Naylor that leads to the Alapaha
River. This is

the only public access to the Alapaha in Lowndes
County. It is a place of history, recreation and fun for many
people.

The spot where County Road 16, Old State Rd., dead ends at the
Alapaha River is an area of rich history for Naylor and

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Internet speeds into jobs

Something good out of Chattanooga?
The city with the fastest metropolitan Internet access
plans to turn that into jobs.

Elizabeth Prann wrote for Fox 26 January 2013,

City turns Internet speeds into jobs, that Chattanooga



is home to most advanced smart grid in the nation, customers are
enjoying Internet speeds that are almost 100 times faster than the
national average. Most Internet users in the U.S. have access to
about 4.5 megabits of Internet speed.

We wish!
OK, you can get spees that fast here:

with Verizon 4G LTE,
not too many places via land access.

So what’s Chattanooga got that’s better?

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Thank you for helping the community —April Huntley

Received Wednesday from April Huntley to Joyce Evans. -jsq

Good morning, Commissioner Evans!

Thank you very much for helping the community get the public hearing


for the closure of Old State Rd. tabled until next meeting! I hope
we will all be able to work together to find a lasting solution that
will enable the residents of Lowndes County and surrounding areas to
continue to enjoy this beautiful spot on the Alapaha River. I hope
you agree that this is not a standard road abandonment since it
affects a body of water. I hope you have a great day, and I look
forward to speaking with you soon!

Thank you again!

April Huntley

Renewable energy much needed in Georgia —John S. Quarterman

My op-ed in the VDT today; I’ve added links, plus some more after the op-ed.



Finally! Kewaunee, Calvert Cliffs, and now Crystal River
permanently closing say it’s time for Georgia to stop wasting money
on Southern Company’s already over-budget and increasingly-late
nukes and get on with solar power and wind off the coast: for
jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and plenty of
clean water.

February 2013:

Duke Energy is closing the Crystal River nuclear
reactor

(Tampa Bay Times, 6 Feb 2013),
160 miles south of us, because

nobody wants to pay to fix it:
between “$1.5 billion and $3.4 billion,
plus what it costs to buy power to replace
what Crystal River would have produced while it is
being repaired”

[Charlotte Business Journal, 11 Jan 2013].
November 2012:

NRC terminated Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs 3

(NRC 1 Nov 2012)
after

Constellation Energy dropped out because the cost “is too high
and creates too much risk for Constellation”

[Bloomberg 10 Oct 2010].

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Ways to fix the trash problem

I commend Commissioner John Page for
his op-ed in the VDT today,


attempting to do what no other Commissioner has tried:
to explain the trash issue.
Indeed, like him, most of the people I talked
to while campaigning for Gretchen were for keeping
the waste collection centers open, and of those
the vast majority were willing to pay more,
which is the main reason the previous Commission
made a big mistake in closing those centers.
Unfortunately his letter seems to indicate nothing can be done.
Well, here are some things that can be done.

Let the contract lapse.

Commissioner Joyce Evans insisted on the contract
with the sole provider being only for one year.
Let it lapse after that year!

Publish the contract.

What’s in the contract?
How do we even know it’s for only one year?
The new Commission already had to

do over a decision of the previous Commission
(remove license fee from Sunday alcohol sales)
because the ordinance written up afterwards wasn’t what
they thought they passed.
Publish the contract and let everyone see!

Publish an accounting for the waste collection sites.

Commissioner Page wrote:

The county was losing hundreds of thousands
of dollars each year because the fees for the permits
were not bringing in enough money to fully fund
the sites.

How do we know that?

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About that flyer

Sent Wednesday. -jsq



Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:43:49 -0500

Dear Mr. Pritchard,

Thank you for

your message of 1 February.

Yes, the binders of the documents for the closings of the various
bonds are the sort of financial instruments I requested in

my message of 28 January, and that Chairman Slaughter listed in

his letter dated 18 January
(that I received 28 January). Monday 11 Feb
2013 after the Work Session will be a good time for me to inspect
and copy those binders. I will bring a camera and a photocopier. If
that time will not work, please advise me of times that would.

Yes, there are other documents I would like to inspect. Please provide

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Members of the press or citizens are not welcome at library board? —George Boston Rhynes

Received today.
To quote

a VDT editorial of 3 March 2012:

When officials act like they have something to hide, they often do….

Here’s George’s Open Records Request.
-jsq


George Boston Rhynes
February 7, 2013

George Boston Rhynes (229-251-8645)

5004 Oak Drive

Valdosta, Georgia 31605

TO: Valdosta-Lowndes County; South Georgia Regional Library
Director/Chair person along with Board Members Respectively, Georgia
News Media Outlets concerned about open government and the sunshine
brightness…

SUBJECT: An open records request on behalf of the general public
right to know…

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Petition the Commission: Provide solid waste and recycling collection centers

Seen today; I’ve added some links.
Yesterday I also saw (and signed) a paper version. -jsq


Lowndes County Commission: Provide solid waste and recycling collection centers.



 Petition by

April Huntley

Naylor, GA

The County

is responsible for protecting the health and safety of the public.
They

have made decisions to

close all the county dump sites
and license

one out of state waste collection company with

little, if any public input.
There is

concern among citizens of
more

trash being on roadways,
more

expense on their part, being forced to

pay for a service the county should provide and

not having choice
in collection companies which

may put small business owners out of business
while backing a large out of state company.

To:

Joyce Evans, District # 1 Commissioner

Richard Raines, District # 2 Commissioner

Crawford Powell, District # 3 Commissioner

Demarcus Marshall, District # 4 Commissioner

John Page, District # 5 Commissioner

Bill Slaughter, County Commission Chairman

Provide solid waste and recycling collection centers.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

I have obtained the binder of the documents —Joe Pritchard

The County Manager has found the legal documents on
issuance of the
the bonds Chairman Slaughter listed in his letter of 18 January.

Received yesterday (as a *.docx file, and still to the wrong email address,
but this time including both residence and postal addresses),
County Manager Joe Pritchard followed up on his

email of 29 January,
in which he had seemed puzzled about the term

"financial instruments"
(it's a standard term in business and investing)
such as

I asked for 28 January.
I thank Mr. Pritchard once again for responding.
(I thanked Chairman Bill Slaughter in person the other day.)
The relevant correspondance about the flyer that Mr. Pritchard
previously wrote

was created by the VDT is still missing.
I will ask for that Monday, when I respond to Mr. Pritchard's most courteous
offer to inspect the financial instruments.

Here's Mr. Pritchard's letter.
-jsq


Joe Pritchard
February 1, 2013

John Quarterman

6565 Quarterman Road

3338 Country Club Road #L336

Valdosta, GA 31605

Dear Mr. Quarterman:

To follow up my email of yesterday, I have obtained the binder of
the documents executed at the closing of the $15,500,000 CVDA

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