Category Archives: Community

Charles Darwin won 16% against Paul Broun (GA-10)

Occupy Athens, which a few weeks ago couldn’t draw more than a few
people to its General Assembly, has pulled off some electoral theater
seen nation-wide:
write-in candidate Charles Darwin drew 16% of the vote against
evolution-denier Paul Broun in Congressional district 10.

Natalie Jennings wrote for the Washington Post 9 November 2012,

Charles Darwin earns nearly 4,000 write-in votes against Ga. Rep. Broun,



Darwin, who was the original proponent of the theory of evolution
and died in 1882, got nearly 4,000 write-in votes against the
incumbent Broun, according to the

Athens Banner-Herald. Broun, a
physician, is a creationist who in September said evolution was
based on “lies straight from the pit of hell.”

And here’s part of what one of Occupy Athens wrote online today:

Continue reading →

What people are interested in having their pennies spent on —Gretchen Quarterman

Received yesterday on

Allocate resources in a yearly budget? -jsq

As I was out campaigning, it was interesting what people are


interested in having their pennies spent on. Many want better
sidewalks and safer places to ride their bikes. One Valdosta police
officer particularly commented on the dangerous bike riding
conditions (especially on North Oak Extension). Many in the
un-incorporated areas want increased fire protection and it seems
that everyone better drainage (and I don't mean simply open ditches
for rain water) and still others would like to see some soccer
fields.

It seems like we should be able to do some prioritizations and then
save up for these things. I guess that will be up to the new
commission chairman and members and they will have to figure out how
to move forward without a SPLOST immediately in 2014.

Personally, I'd like to see a public accounting of how the previous
SPLOSTS were spent. And not in big categories, but the actual
details… But that's just me.

-Gretchen Quarterman

-jsq

Allocate resources in a yearly budget?

Received today on

SPLOST VII lost. -jsq

After reading this post, a question came to mind. Have we the
citizens of Lowndes County


actually been encouraging our elected
officials to be fiscally irresponsible with public funds by allowing
SPLOST to continue? if elected officials had to allocate resources
in a yearly budget, we may actually encourage our officials to
allocate resources towards public projects that would be desirable
by the public rather than a priority in pthe minds of our elected
officials.

-Bill Grow

SPLOST VII lost



Speaking of

transparency,
Lowndes County voters defeated SPLOST VII 18,864 to 17,923 (51.28% to 48.72%).

Kay Harris in the VDT today quoted Ashley Paulk with this reason:

The defeat came as a surprise to Mayor John Gayle but not to Lowndes
County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk, who said he warned the
mayors of the five municipalities that if they continued to argue
over

LOST, the local option sales tax, that voters would turn
against SPLOST in retaliation.

“I told them at the beginning if they didn’t stop arguing over
a few percent of the LOST and refused to leave the numbers as is by
taking the county’s offer, that taxpayers were going to turn against
the SPLOST,” said Paulk.

“Voters are disenchanted with the way their local governments
have gotten greedy and they’re tired of the arguments over money.
They voted SPLOST down because they don’t trust us with their tax
dollars, and it’s a real shame.”

I would agree
bickering over the
LOST pie was one of the reasons
SPLOST lost, and add to that the opaque back-room processes by which
the SPLOST VII projects were selected.
While the library needs updated and expanded facilities,

the lack of documented decision process
for the architect

and lack of adequate explanation for that
probably didn’t help, either,
nor did
the county’s puzzling lumping of the library in with Parks and Rec.

which they later tried to clarify.
Perhaps the voters are

tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension.
And I’m using the library as just one example. I could equally cite the
project for a farmers market under the overpass, which I think is a bad idea
because the farmers market already has a fabulous location at the historic
Lowndes County Courthouse, and so far as I know none of the vendors who sell there
were even asked if they wanted a new location, much less the public who buy there.

At the public-not-invited
SPLOST VII kickoff speeches
the last speaker said they were not there

Continue reading →

Precincts on Election Day 2012 in Lowndes County, Georgia


Naylor
There’s an election going on!
Here are some pictures of precincts around Lowndes County today.
I’ve seen no lines, and everything seems to be flowing smoothly.
Except there are multiple reports that when people call the Board of Elections
to ask where they vote they’re getting a “this number disconnected” message.
Apparently there are ten phone lines down there but only three people
answering them, and the phone is not rolling over properly.
Given all the recent changes in precincts, this is a problem.


Ready for you to vote at Pine Grove

Sara Crow voted at Pine Grove (Clerk of Court, Lowndes County)
Around 1PM Sara Crow said she heard at Pine Grove that about 900 people had
already voted there today.


Rainwater
I’m not blogging much today because I’m out helping

Gretchen for Lowndes County Commission Chair.
If you’ve got something interesting,

send it in;
I’m checking in frequently.

Here’s
a slideshow:


Everyone Matters, so go vote!

Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 November 2012.


Everyone Matters, so go vote!
Everyone matters, so go vote!

-jsq

Fair bidding practices and community public input —Barbara Stratton

Received today on

County trash plan already failing. -jsq

Yet another example of government contracting not following the fair
bidding practices or allowing community public input. Even if you
attend government meetings no bid information is made public & even
if bids are referred to the amounts are always in those elusive
"packets before you" that only the members have access to.

In a recent Hahira City Council meeting the city attorney ruled that
the city council did not have to put out the garbage service for
bids & that it did not even have to have a contract. As of December
31, 2012 the city collection services will not be under contract at
all so who knows what the rates may be or if a lower bid would have
saved citizens money?


Barbara Stratton
I've been involved in government contracting for years & I can tell
you that the recent path government bodies have endorsed is leading
further & further away from the bidding procedures that were enacted
to prevent good old boy politics & kick backs & is opening the door
wide for public/private partnerships that never answer to the
citizens.

The state attorney general's office which should regulate bidding
practices will not interfere with county or municipal issues unless
a citizen is willing to pay $500 to a lawyer to present the case to
them. They justify this as catering to "home rule" but in actuality
they are turning a blind eye because it is within their jurisdiction
to rule on non-adherence to proper bidding practices.

If the state believes in "home rule" why is Governor Deal pushing a
state charter school board amendment that will take away local rule?
The state seems to pick & choose its standards.

-Barbara Stratton

-jsq

County trash plan already failing

The recently

adopted-by-stealth Lowndes County waste disposal plan
is already failing.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT yesterday,

Garbage carts vanish,


VDT picture of bag of solid waste
Some residents in unincorporated Lowndes County have complained that
their garbage cans have been taken up, leaving them without a way to
dispose of their trash until Jan. 1.

Allgreen Services, one of the waste management companies ousted out
of unincorporated Lowndes County with the Oct. 9 Commissioners
decision to award a waste contract bid to Veolia Environmental
Service, has begun picking up the waste carts in anticipation of the
holiday season.

“We hate to have to remove them, but we have to,”
Allgreen General Manager Sam Sullivan said. “We thought about
waiting a month, but the problem is if we wait until the end of the
year, we would be removing the carts around Christmastime. We didn’t
want to be out there then.”


I don't think it could get any easier, said Richard Raines
Funny how there was no mention of this possibility in

the County Commission meeting that adopted this new solid waste plan.
“I don’t think it could get any easier,” said Commissioner Richard Raines.
It looks like it’s not getting easier for county residents who want
to dispose of their trash.

This is currently on

the county’s own front page:

Continue reading →

The power of going solar —John S. Quarterman


Solar panels on farm workshop --John S. Quarterman
My op-ed in the VDT today. Remember
to vote today or Tuesday.
-jsq

This spring,

the University at Buffalo turned on 750 kilowatts of
solar electricity.

Rutgers U., in New Jersey, installed 1.4
megawatts in 2009 and started on 8 MW this summer. Down here with a
lot more sun, how about solar panels on VSU parking lots?

There’s

plenty of private solar financing available. Also in New
Jersey, a company installed 6 MW of solar on high school land and
leased the power to the school supplying most of its needs win-win.


You can go see a solar farm already working fine here,

200 kilowatts at Mud Creek Wastewater Plant.
Why not do the same


View Larger Map


at Lowndes High School, where all the world on I-75 could see,

attracting business to our community?

Why not?

Continue reading →

WALB on Lowndes County Commission Chair candidates


Gretchen Quarterman billboard

WALB says we have a choice for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission.

Lydia Jennings wrote for WALB yesterday,

Meet candidates vying for Lowndes Co. Commission Chairman,


Gretchen Quarterman
Bill Slaughter and Gretchen Quarterman are two very different
candidates. Both are running for Lowndes County Commission Chairman.
Slaughter is the CEO of Waller Heating and Air Conditioning and
Quarterman is a farmer and owner of Okra Paradise Farms.

“I’m very curious, I have a math and science background so I’m
always asking why do we do it this way, not just what do we do, but
why do we do it, what problem are we solving,” said Quarterman.

Continue reading →

LibertYOUtbreak @ LO 2012-10-27


Open, non-partisan forum
A local group, LibertYOUbreak, met at Valdosta High School Saturday
for a series of brief talks of opinion on issues by a variety of local people.

The first talk,
Why No on Amendment 1 by J.C. Cunningham for GA House District 175,
has already been posted separately.
Here’s

a video playlist for the rest.


LibertYOUtbreak

Talks, Liberty Outbreak (LO),

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

VHS PAC, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 October 2012.

First they showed an animated movie,

The American Dream by the Provacateur Network,
which is mostly about money as debt.
As I remarked to one of the organizers afterwards,
that’s also the theme of

Debt: The First 5,000 Years,
by David Graeber, one of the founders of Occupy Wall Street
(here’s a

video interview with him,
and

a text interview).
The cartoon movie, while presenting that theme in some depth,
only briefly mentions Wall Street
and focuses on the Federal Reserve and an octopus-like long-lived financial
villain it calls Red Shield, which is English for Rothschild.
I find that last a bit far-fetched, not to say outdated,
considering that recent research shows that the real current
octopus-like set of interconnected corporations looks more

like this.
But then plenty of things were said in the recent local
political forums that I didn’t agree with, either.

-jsq