Category Archives: Community

What a successful Chamber of Commerce looks like

Here’s what

a successful Chamber of Commerce looks like:

State Sen. Bill Montford, right, congratulates Gadsden County Chamber of
Commerce Executive Director David Gardner on the National Solar Power’s
massive solar farm project.


With the excitement of a massive solar-energy farm coming to the community
still fresh on their minds, Gadsden County businesses are looking ahead
to the potential such a project could have on the local economy.

Monday’s announcement by National Solar Power was a discussion topic
Wednesday at the “Go Gadsden” breakfast of the Gadsden County Chamber of
Commerce. The invited speaker, state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee,
told the gathering the project’s impact will extend well beyond the
county.

“This is good for Gadsden County, but it’s good for all of North Florida,”
Montford said during the breakfast at the Florida Public Safety Institute
in Midway. “We believe it’s just the beginning.”

I look forward to seeing

Myrna Ballard
in such a picture.
Or
Andrea Schruijer.

-jsq

Why We Oppose Consolidation —Lowndes County Schools

From their website:

Lowndes County Schools will be hosting a forum entitled Why We
Oppose Consolidation on October 4, 2011 at 7:00pm in the Lowndes High
Cafeteria. All community members invited to attend.

Some people have been confused by LCBOE’s image version of this meeting announcement:


The meeting starts at 7PM on the fourth of October, which is Tuesday.

They’ve also put the LCBOE resolution
online in plain text.


Here’s the earlier LAKE transcription from our

video of Supt. Smith reading the resolution.
Here are
videos of that entire LCBOE meeting,
including

the unanimous vote to adopt the resolution.

-jsq

Consolidation has nothing to do with improving our children’s education —Etta Mims

Received Thursday. -jsq

I know that there are many “newcomers” to the area which supported
consolidation until they connected the dots and realized this has nothing
to do with improving our children’s education.


See also
Valwood, CUEE, and the Chamber.

-jsq

Solar: Infinite and Clean —Michael Noll

In today’s VDT. -jsq

If we are to believe Fox News and the Tea Party, solar doesn’t work


because the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra went belly up, despite the
fact that it received $535 million in subsidies. While wasting an enormous
amount of tax dollars on a company with a flawed business concept should
raise everyone’s eyebrows, the conclusion that the Solyndra mess means
“solar doesn’t work” is mind-boggling. It’s like saying “cars don’t
work” because Chrysler went bankrupt in 2009, or “T-shirts don’t work”
because Fruit of the Loom filed for Chapter 11 in 1999.

Solar is one of the most attractive renewable sources of energy throughout

Continue reading →

…to give to somebody who didn’t work —Nolen Cox @ LCC 27 Sep 2011



Nolen Cox seems to think CHIP grant recipients don’t work.

Chairman Paulk declined to let Mrs. Cox speak because he said in a letter
to the Commission she called them idiots.
When he let Nolen Cox speak, Cox said:

I think it’s interesting that the comments
about the CHIP grant comes after the vote.
Y’all must be an all-wise group.

Chairman Paulk referred to that as sarcastic.
Cox disagreed.
Paulk said it was in his opinion and he decided such things there.

Cox asserted that:

to get a $300,000 grant it takes about $420,000
of tax money accumulated from citizens.

He didn’t cite any source for those figures.
He did claim the Commission was luring people into homebuying
while home prices are going down.

Somebody had to work for the money that they didn’t get
to give to somebody who didn’t work.

Sounds like he was saying CHIP grant recipients don’t work.
I wonder how they pay their mortgages then, since CHIP grants
as near as I can tell only help with down payments?

I guess he didn’t hear Carolyn Selby’s point that

CHIP grants turn renters into property tax-paying owners.
Seems like that would help keep Nolen Cox’s property taxes low.

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar just to the south —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011



I thanked the Commission for doing the right thing about the

CHIP grant.
And for at least three people sitting up front (Evans, Paulk, and Pritchard)
lowering their monitors so citizens (and even
cameras) could see their faces.

Then I relayed the news about the

$1.5 billion investment in Gadsden County, Florida


for a 400 MW solar project.
Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment,
and customers for the electricity.
Unlike the failed local biomass project,
National Solar Power’s Gadsden County project already has
Progress Energy signed up as a customer for its electricity.
I recommended that the Commission go on record as being in favor of such
projects locally.

Here’s

the video:




Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar –John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Judge rules against Florida prison privatization


Judge Jackie Fulford ruled yesterday for the Second Circuit Court of Florida

that the prison privatization plan the Florida legislature added to the
state budget is unconstitutional on a key point of all prison privatization schemes.
Her ruling agreed with the

Florida Police Benevolent Association,
which is a union of correctional workers.

Judge rules prison privatization plan unconstitutional
Dara Kam wrote for Post on Politics yesterday,

Judge Rules Florida Prison Privatization Unconstitutional,



The privatization of 29 prisons in the southern portion of the state
from Manatee County to Indian River County to the Florida Keys should
have been mandated in a separate bill and not in proviso language in
the budget, as lawmakers did in the must-pass budget approved in May
and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, Fulford ruled.

“This Court concludes that if it is the will of the Legislature to
itself initiate privatization of Florida prisons, as opposed to DOC,
the Legislature must do so by general law, rather than ‘using the
hidden recesses of the General Appropriations Act,’” Fulford wrote
in

her order issued Friday morning.

The order doesn’t say Florida can’t privatize prisons,
rather that it can’t do it by hiding it in the budget process.
But alleged budget savings are the only reason privatization backers
are willing to admit to, so that’s no small matter.

And if prison privatization is such a money-saver, why did the prison companies’ cronies in the statehouse try to do it like this:

Continue reading →

Thanks for accepting the CHIP grant —Carolyn Selby @ LCC 27 Sep 2011



Carolyn Selby stood up to thank the Commission for accepting the

Community HOME Investment Program (CHIP) grant.

This grant will serve people who are in the 80% or below median income bracket.
These people probably would not be able to afford purchasing a house
without down payment assistance.
And especially in today’s economic times these people need a hand up.
Instead of renters, they become taxpayers, and that certainly helps our economy.

Here’s

the video:




Thanks for accepting the CHIP grant –Carolyn Selby @ LCC 27 Sep 2011

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Stray dogs and the law @ LCC 27 Sep 2011



A citizen (didn’t get his name; sorry) stood up to remark on the stray dogs
that kept getting loose in his neighborhood, and how when animal control came
they just took the dogs back to their owners, who let them loose again.
Chairman Ashley Paulk had no hesitation in saying the sheriff should be called
on the owners.

Here’s

the video:




Stray dogs and the law @ LCC 27 Sep 2011

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

CHIP Grant: Twice Ashley Paulk Broke the Tie @ LCC 27 September 2011



Twice Tuesday Ashley Paulk broke a tie to vote for assistance state-funded
assistance for poor people for affordable housing.
Joyce Evans made the motion, Crawford Powell said nothing,
Richard Raines was absent, and Paulk seconded and broke the tie for.

Tuesday the Lowndes County Commission considered a routine acceptance of a

Community HOME Investment Program (CHIP)
grant.
The previous morning at the work session, Commissioner Raines had
(according to the VDT) said he was against it.
(This is the same Richard Raines who thought

NOAA Weather Radios were “wasteful spending” back in March.)
However, Raines was not at the regular session Tuesday;
presumably he was on one of his many sales trips.
Twice, Commissioner Evans made a motion related to CHIP,
and Commissioner Powell did nothing.
Twice, Chairman Paulk exercised his privilege in such a case
and broke the tie, seconding and voting for the CHIP grant.

The first CHIP vote was

9.a. Resolution of Intent to Submit a 2012 CHIP Grant Application and Commitment Letter

Here’s

Part 1 of 2:

Continue reading →