Category Archives: Community

Georgia and Florida Railway (GFRR) – Valdosta to Willacoochee Rehabilitation $6.25 million T-SPLOST

Now here’s a T-SPLOST project I like:
upgrading the railroad that runs


from Valdosta to Moody AFB
and on to Ray City and Nashville in Berrien County,
and Willacoochee in Atkinson County.
This proposal is to aid freight, but with this upgrade to the track,
the same track would be even more readily usable for passenger rail.
That same track was used for passenger travel up into the 1950s.
My mother used to catch the train at Barretts (just north of Moody) to go visit her relatives in Pearson (a bit east of Willacoochee).

It’s true the project sheet talks about “potential customers in the region”:

This project will provide for more efficient train operations along
the rail corridor to accommodate the increase rail traffic serving the
existing and potential customers in the region.

However, rail promotes development in existing population
centers and at stations, unlike all along automobile roadways.

This project is also another example of how
the economic area of Moody AFB includes

Continue reading →

$12M to widen US 41 N is more than $7.5M for a bus system

There is no public transit in Lowndes County, except for the
tiny MIDS bus system (I like it, but it’s small).
Meanwhile,
the county proposes to spend more in a new sales tax to widen one road,

$12 million dollars for Old US 41 North,
than

a bus system would cost, $7.5 million.

One short stretch of road vs. a three-line bus system to connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown,
Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall.

Road and bridge proponents usually mutter that a bus system won’t pay back
for years, if ever.
And that’s right: bus systems usually operate at a loss because local
governments subsidize them for the social and economic benefits they bring,

such as these:

This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve
access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use
of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.

Employment, safety, and less sprawl, all from a bus system.

What road and bridge proponents don’t ever mention is:

Continue reading →

Filming of public officials

Two weeks ago today a U.S. appeals court ruled that

citizens can video police.


The actual decision is broader than that.
It’s not just about police, it’s about
“The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a
public place”.

Quoting from

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit, No. 10-1764,
August 26, 2011.

Page 8:

The First Amendment issue here is, as the parties frame

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

it, fairly narrow: is there a constitutionally protected right to
videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First
Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other
circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative.

It is firmly established that the First Amendment’s
aegis extends further than the text’s proscription on laws

Continue reading →

Videos of entire Lowndes County Board of Education meeting of 30 August 2011

Here’s

a playlist of the entire 30 August 2011 Lowndes County


Board of Education meeting of 30 August 2011.
As you can see, it really was almost all about approving

a resolution against school consolidation.
We’ve already posted that resolution and the unanimous vote.

The actual resolution is a model of such things:
simple and easy to read, yet complete enough to cover the territory,
and leaving no doubts as to the board’s position.
Congratulations to LCBOE on that resolution!




Playlist, called meeting, Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 30 August 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman

for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Let me also take a moment to thank some LCBOE staff.

Continue reading →

Videos of entire VBOE 29 August 2011 meeting



Here’s a
video playlist
for the whole meeting: teacher hiring, board member training,
and a statement against school consolidation, with additional
comments by many citizens.
Many of these videos have already been published in the

VBOE 29 August 2011 category in this blog.




Videos of entire VBOE 29 August 2011 meeting

education, referendum, consolidation, statement,

Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.

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

The playlist also includes other video material,
such as

Continue reading →

Jack Kingston has a green tongue —Gretchen Quarterman

VDT LTE today. -jsq

Georgia has gained enough population in the past ten years to add
a congressional seat. This means redrawing the Congressional


district lines not only to balance population, but to also add
another representative in Congress. Lowndes County has been split
between the first and second districts, and all spring rumors of
where we might end up were circulating. Eventually we saw a draft
map that had Lowndes completely in the 8th District,






Before

along with
other counties along Interstate 75. That map made some sense south of Macon.
Some communities of interest were preserved (most of the Lowndes-Valdosta
MPO was in the same district) and the hospitality corridor of I-75
was in one district, along with the rural farms that surround it.
Valdosta to Macon is easier to traverse than Valdosta to Savannah,
or Valdosta to Columbus.

But then Congressman Jack Kingston stuck out his green tongue.

Continue reading →

School Consolidation Public Forum tonight: VHS PAC 7-8:30 PM

The first Public Forum presented by Valdosta City Schools on
the subject of School Consolidation is tonight at
Valdosta High School’s Performing Arts Center (PAC), 7PM to 8:30 PM.
That’s after the Valdosta City Council meeting,
so you can even go to both.

The Valdosta Board of Education

voted last week to oppose school consolidation.


Note plenty of FVCS people there, many

speaking against consolidation.
If there were CUEE people present, they were awful silent.

If “unification” is about education,

where was CUEE at that meeting or at the Lowndes County Board of Education
meeting the following day when
LCBOE unanimously passed a resolution supporting VBOE in opposition to consolidation?
Maybe CUEE will show up tonight and say something.
Unless VDT is right, and CUEE can’t answer the relevant questions.

-jsq

Waste Not, Want Not —Michael Noll

VDT LTE today. -jsq



We can only prosper as a society if we work together. Despite the
differences we might have, we share so much more in common. Yet it seems
that we prefer to fall into separate camps, that we seek to view issues
in black and white, and that we like to belong to those who have “got
it all figured out”. Just pick your side (liberal, conservative)
and you “know” who got it all wrong.

I have been humbled by the wide-ranging support WACE received to stop
a biomass plant that was once considered a done deal. In the end what
mattered was the realization by people across all ages, racial and
ideological lines that we want to breathe clean air, and that we don’t
want to waste millions of tax dollars on a project that will lead to
increases in respiratory illnesses, heart diseases, and cancer. Thus
the people spoke up, and with the help of elected representatives and
the Industrial Authority “no biomass” became the consensus.

In the last couple of months I noticed another issue many agree on.

Continue reading →

First thing they’ll do, is sell that stadium —? @ VBOE 29 August 2011



This is the clearest statement of the football argument I’ve heard.
This is the same speaker who already mentioned

quality of education, property taxes, and property values,
so this is just one argument among many.
The speaker is associated with FVCS, and if I went to VHS,
I’d know his name right away; I’m an LHS graduate.

The first thing they’ll do is sell that stadium.
They’d be crazy not to do….
They’re not going to pay upkeep on two stadiums.
Look at Tallahassee, Macon: all the schools play at one stadium….

…

Don’t let those people run the show.
Don’t let them take the power away from us.

…

If one day it makes good economic sense for y’all to
make the decision to sell that property to Valdosta State
and build another stadium and we can come out ahead,
I think that’s a great idea.

Like my granddaddy said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

By “those people” I don’t think he means the Lowndes County Board
of Education; I think he was referring to CUEE.

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it —? @ VBOE 29 August 2011



Research quality of education, property taxes, and property values
after school consolidation, and you’ll find down, up, and down,
said this speaker.
Didn’t get his name; sorry.

I don’t have kids, but I have plenty of friends that do.
that are in Valdosta city school system,
and they like the direction that the school system is going.
They like the quality of education that their children are getting at this time.

My grandfather used to say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It ain’t broke, so why are we going to let them try to fix it?

Do the research; I’ve done the research.
Do the research on other communities that have consolidated two systems.
When you get a big huge system, the quality of education goes down.
Check it out. Research it.

Property taxes go up.
Property values go down.
Do the research.

You know, the research CUEE either

did and rejected, according to Sam Allen
about the questions

VDT claims CUEE can’t answer.
There are answers; just not ones CUEE likes.

Here’s

the video:




If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it @ VBOE 29 August 2011

education, referendum, consolidation, statement,

Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.

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

-jsq