Category Archives: Community

$30,000 saved by library furloughs, $millions for building construction —Idelle Dear @ LCC 2013-01-08



Idelle Dear noted we’re up to 12 library furlough days,
and reported a flaw in that picture to

the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

I looked across the street
and there are millions of dollars being spent on the construction of the
hospital, construction of the VSU Health Sciences building.
And yet what is happening, because
this is a mandatory furlough for all employees,
is that people who are employed by the South Georgia Regional Library,
most of whom are minimum wage, work part time,
rely on the income: they are going to lose out….

We’d heard about these

state-mandated furlough closings
at a library board meeting.
Idelle Dear spelled out some of the consequences, and made
some telling comparisons.

Something is wrong with this picture,
and I realize there are different kinds of money,
but something is wrong with this picture if we can spend
millions and millions of dollars on construction of these buildings
and yet shut down the library and the employees who are in low income
are going to be affected.

She said she wasn’t sure most people even knew about all this.
And she heard somebody had said most people have Internet at home, but

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Stripe some roads! —Former Commissioner Richard Lee @ LCC 2013-01-08



The ghost of Commissions Past, in the form of former Commissioner
Richard Lee, pointed his finger at the Commission and staff
at

the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Richard Lee congratulated the current Commissioners
on being willing to serve.
He pointed at Commissioner Joyce Evans as having been to this rodeo before.
He said they could trust County Manager Joe Pritchard.
And he asked them to find money to stripe roads.

So if y’all can find some coins, and
Mr. Prichard has a real knack for doing that,
we’d appreciate it up in my end of the county.

That’s curious, since Mr. Pritchard can’t seem to

to keep the solid waste collection stations open
,
or for

to keep libraries open
,
or even for
a bus for 4-H
without children doing much of the heavy lifting.

But Mr. Lee is confident Mr. Pritchard can find funds to stripe roads
in Mr. Lee’s neighborhood!

Here’s

the video:

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Community Calendar —Jane F. Osborn 2013-01-05



The latest update (Winter 2012) is online for the community calendar
produced by
Jane F. Osborn

who organizes the
Valdosta Civic Roundtable
. She wrote:

…the calendar is not produced for civic roundtable, it is just a project of mine for the many counties that lost a source of information when 2-1-1 was discontinued.

She also remarks:

Note that the calendar runs nearly 60 pages, so you may not want to
print it. Please be sure to send in notices of community events open
to the public. Jane

Jane F. Osborn, MSSW

Valdosta, GA

229-630-0924

LAKE will attempt to remember to update new ones in
this web page

as Miss Jane sends them. We hope you, dear readers, will remind us if we don’t.

-jsq

Plant the seeds for viable water future

This AJC op-ed is about coastal wetlands, but
much of it applies to wetlands such as cypress swamps and streams
in Lowndes County and the rest of central south Georgia,
especially since

our state water plan for the Suwannee-Satilla Region

points us at

County-Level Population Projections from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget

that project 45% growth in Lowndes County population in 20 years to 156,650 people by 2030,
which means near doubling in 30 years to 2050. -jsq

David Kyler wrote for the AJC 29 December 2006,
“Plant the seeds for viable coastal future”,

Recent population projections for the Georgia coast issued by

2010-2030 Change in Population of Georgia Counties

Georgia Tech say nothing new. We’re growing at almost 20 percent a
decade, meaning a near doubling every 35 years.

The Center for a Sustainable Coast projected a population of about 1
million by 2030 for the 11 counties in the coastal region as defined
by the Department of Natural Resources, somewhat higher than the
844,000 predicted by Georgia Tech. This compares with a population
of 538,469 reported in the 2000 Census report.

But the accuracy of projections is not the point. Increased
population will result in more land clearing and environmental
disturbance than in the past—there will be larger homes,
bigger lots and fewer people per household.

National studies show up to twice as much land is

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Education at Wiregrass Tech and startup funding, Chamber quarterly luncheon @ VLCoC 2012-12-18



Education at Wiregrass Tech, startup competition and awards by Guardian Bank,
and more!
Chamber president Tim Jones invited me to the quarterly luncheon of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce,
held 18 December 2012 at the Rainwater Conference Center.
I counted about 70 people there, and only maybe a dozen were Chamber
board and staff, so that was a very well-attended meeting.



Keynote speaker

Dr. Ray Perrin
,
president of

Wiregrass Technical College
said:

“Strong education systems are the heart of economic development.”

He congratulated

VSU on the recent football win,

as well as the various other local school systems, government bodies,
and businesses, and proceeded to give an overview of what Wiregrass Tech is
and what it does, which includes everything from automobile repair
to computer science; from adult education for high school equivalency
to advanced courses, in the eleven counties it serves,
through the campuses in Valdosta, Fitzgerald, and Adel, as well as
at Moody AFB and online overseas.
He noted that changes in the HOPE scholarship and economic improvement
had decreased enrollment, but Wiregrass Tech still has a large
student body and is adding programs, such as in nursing
and respiratory therapy.
Plus a 97.5% placement rate.

Also in the plans is an

Allied Health Education building
100,000 square foot facility that would cost about $20 million,

for which Wiregrass Tech will be approaching the Georgia General Assembly
in the next few years.
Dr. Perrin invited feedback and requested assistance,
both financially and
in getting the word out about what Wiregrass Tech can do.




Tim Jones remarked
that he was also on the board of the

Wiregrass Tech Foundation
which was in a fundraising drive,
so anybody who wanted to donate could see him.
(And it turns out you can also

donate online
.)

Here’s

a video playlist

of the entire meeting, followed by a few notes.

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Bainbridge beats Valdosta!


Bainbridge City Hall now hums with solar energy
,
Tristan Baurick wrote for Kitsap Sun 2 August 2012:



City Hall’s array of 297 rooftop solar panels is expected to produce
the equivalent of 20 percent of the building’s energy needs,
according to Joe Deets, executive director of Community Energy
Solutions, the Bainbridge nonprofit group that spearheaded the
privately-funded project.

“This is a great day for Bainbridge,” Deets said.

How many solar panels do you see on Valdosta City Hall?
Well, that’s a historic building.
But how about City Hall Annex?
The parking lot?
The

formerly “100% Paid by SPLOST” Lowndes County palace that
we’re now paying almost $9 million in bonds for?

Nope, not a solar panel in sight.

Oh, sorry, that’s

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Food as tourism: Buffalo now has a “brewery district”



It’s not all

fracking shutdowns in Buffalo
;
now for some good news:
food and drink as tourism.
We could do that!

Don Postles wrote for WIVB yesterday,

Brewery district” now open for tours
,

Downtown Buffalo is looking to attract more visitors, and a new
concept called the Buffalo Brewing District could be the answer.

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Farewell Chairman Ashley Paulk @ LCC 2012-12-14



At the county’s farewell reception for retiring Chairman Ashley Paulk Friday,
Attorney General Sam Olens gave him something to hang on the wall,

Paulk said a few words
,
County Manager Joe Pritchard

read a letter from incoming Chairman Bill Slaughter
,
and

Pritchard said a few words
and gave Paulk a rocking chair, in which he declined to sit.

At some later date maybe I’ll post a retrospective about my neighbor
Ashley Paulk, but for now I think the many posts in this blog will serve,
and meanwhile I look forward to seeing what the new Commission will do
with new Commissioners Demarcus Marshall (District 4), John Page (District 5),
and new Chairman Bill Slaughter.

Here’s

a video playlist:


Farewell Chairman Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 December 2012.

-jsq

Augusta high tech job growth: second in the country

What is Augusta doing that attracts so many high tech jobs?

Orlando Montoya wrote for GPB News 7 December 2012,

Augusta High Tech Ranks Nationally
,


A national group working to promote entrepreneurship says Augusta
has the second highest growth rate of high tech jobs in the past
five years.

Only Boise, Idaho grew tech jobs faster.

San Francisco based Engine Advocacy says between 2006 and 2011,
Augusta increased its technology sector jobs by 81%.

City officials credit the area’s low cost of living.

If that was the only key,
Lowndes County and Valdosta MSA would lead the country….
What else?

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Zero owed in 2010; why $8.9 million owed now on county palace? @ LCC 2012-12-11

If Lowndes County owed $0 (zero dollars) on the county palace in November 2010,
why are we paying on

$8,965,000 in bonds
for it in December 2012?
If that palace was “100% Paid by SPLOST” in 2010,
why in 2012 is the county pledging our property tax dollars to pay those bonds?


Zero balance on the county palace?

In November 2010:


$22,380,000


Judicial Building Cost


$6,728,000


Administrative Building Cost


100%


Paid by SPLOST


$0


Balance Owed

So says a double-page flyer about “the Lowndes County Judicial &
Administrative Complex”

Flyer from November 2010

produced by the Valdosta Daily Times for Lowndes
County in 2010 and signed “Highest regards, Joe Pritchard, County Manager”.
There’s no dateline, but it invites the public to a dedication of the Complex
“on Friday, November 12, 2010.”


Preliminary Official Statement Dated November 20, 2012

from Morgan Keegan about the $8,965,000 in Refunding Revenue Bonds
(Lowndes County Judicial/Administration Complex)
Series 2012, which says this:

The Bonds are payable solely from payments to be made by Lowndes County,
Georgia (the “County”) pursuant to an Intergovernmental Contract,
dated as of December 1, 2012 (the “Contract”), between the Issuer
and the County. Under the Contract, the County has agreed to levy and
collect an annual tax on all taxable property located within the County
as may be necessary to produce in each year revenues which are sufficient
to make the payments required by the Contract.

So which is it?

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