Friends of Valdosta City Schoolds (FVCS) had a table at the 100 Black Men BBQ, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Their No School Consolidation signs now have both a Viking and a Wildcat paw on them, and they have Viking stickers and Wildcat stickers.
FVCS @ 100 Black Men BBQ, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Their consolidating CUEE competition was nowhere to be seen.
-jsq
Roy Copeland and Willie Head have announced the winners,
but the food, music, and community continue untii 6PM today.
100 Black Men BBQ
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
Lowndes County Courthouse, Valdosta, Georgia, 6 August 2011.
Plenty more pictures in the
flickr set.
Videos to come.
-jsq
Valdosta school board member Annie Fisher advocated saying no to school unification
and instead finding out how to desegregate the schools and improve education for everyone.
She already suggested
some things to do.
Here’s
the video:
Put energy into things that are right for all children —Annie Fisher @ FVCS 7 July 2011
No school consolidation,
Press Conference, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Darien can also do solar panels at a wastewater treatment plant:
Pat Prokop reported for WTOC 4 August 2011,
Darien water treatment plant gets solar panels:
A McIntosh County water treatment plant is going green and saving hundreds
of dollars in utility bills.The city of Darien’s wastewater treatment plant outfitted the facility
with solar panels. The city was able to invest more than $1 million
on renovations and upgrades to the wastewater collection system, lift
stations and treatment plant.
Prokop put a bunch of pictures on facebook.
Where did Darien get the money?
John Gates, director at the Humane Society of Lowndes County,
noted that county law enforcement doesn’t seem to know much
about animal laws and regulations, in addition to the problems at the
shelter.
This part caused Joe Pritchard’s head to jerk back:
I think our animals in the community deserves the same rights
as my children, myself, or your animals.
If your animal is in the shelter, it should receive the same
courtesy that you would give it at home.
Chairman Paulk clarified:
If you did certify the ACOs,
they’d still have to be attached to an agency, which means they’d
have to be attached to the Sheriff’s office.
I think it’s interesting that he’s listening to the idea.
Here’s
the video:
Valdosta school board member Annie Fisher
pointed out CUEE members sent their chidren to private schools
and now they’re meddling in public education.
She listed some real issues, such as
Valdosta city schools remain segregated,
focussing on tests just to meet AYP,
and we need
to remove students from the prison to the classroom.
“How can we equally educate each child?”
Yes, let’s forget “unification” and focus on that.
Here’s
the video:
The members of the CUEE, they send their children to private schools —Annie Fisher
No school consolidation,
Press Conference, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
You thought maybe I made up the three points I proposed to improve education?
Nope, unlike CUEE, I’ve been paying attention.
-jsq
Received 27 July on
Shouldn’t the people running the facilities … be held accountable? -jsq
I guess this answered my question,
What is the legal definition of animal cruelty in Georgia?-Susan Leavens
She quoted the whole thing, which is quite long.
I found this passage particularly interesting. -jsq
Local law enforcement (municipal or county police department or county sheriff’s department) enforces the criminal provisions of Cruelty to Animals, O.C.G.A. §16-12-4.
The next comment contained the clarification below. -jsq
Received today on
When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are.
-jsq
“You won’t receive an open-records request if you answer questions
honestly and in accordance with the law.” What an honest statement;
perhaps some of this too.GEORGIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE IX. COUNTIES AND MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS
SECTION II. HOME RULE FOR COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES
(c) The power granted to counties in subparagraphs (a) and (b) above
shall not be construed to extend to the following matters or any other
matters which the General Assembly by general law has preempted or may
hereafter preempt, but such matters shall be the subject of general law
or the subject of local acts of the General Assembly to the extent that
the enactment of such local acts is otherwise permitted under this
Constitution:(1) Action affecting any elective county office, the salaries
thereof, or the personnel thereof, except the personnel subject to
the jurisdiction of the county governing authority.(2) Action affecting the composition, form, procedure for election or
appointment, compensation, and expenses and allowances in the nature
of compensation of the county governing authority.(3) Action defining any criminal offense or providing for criminal punishment.
Received today on
When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are. -jsq
I commend the VDT for its persistence in pursuing requests for information
on many subjects. However, as John mentioned some subjects such as CUEE
don’t seem to elicit the same due diligence in pursuing true facts. The
VDT continues to support CUEE agendas even though it has been well
established that the CUEE committee did not follow true priority of law
when it ignored the
1983 GA constitutional law requiring all involved
systems in a consolidation action be allowed to vote. CUEE still persists
in following a 1926 statute that says only city voters are allowed to vote
& the VDT continues to support their efforts. It seems to me a failure to
acurately report all facts exists for both the CUEE committee members &
the VDT staff.
Since a costly voter referendum action has been activated
& supported by both entities in spite of & in the face of priority of
law objections it is my opinion a crime or crimes have been perpetuated
upon the citizens of Lowndes Co. & a Grand Jury investigation should be
convened to address these criminal actions.-Barbara Stratton
Go VDT!
There are so many potential applications of today’s
editorial in the Valdosta Daily Times,
from animals, to prisons, to zoning code enforcement, to biomass:
But there are still those who don’t understand the purpose of
a newspaper, and it’s clearly not to be a marketing tool for the
community. In addition to reporting the news of the day, a newspaper’s
job as a member of the “fourth estate,” so deemed by Thomas Jefferson,
is to hold public officials accountable for their actions.
“When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are.” To The Times and its editorial board, it’s far worse for the
community’s image to have public officials knowingly lie, illegally
withhold public documents and try to bully those who are only after
the truth.When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are. You
can’t be accused of lying if you don’t lie. You won’t receive an
open-records request if you answer questions honestly and in accordance
with the law.Companies looking to settle in a community are understanding when it
comes to crime, as it happens everywhere. But far more interesting to
them is the honesty and integrity of the community’s officials.If an entity will lie and withhold information from the local news media
and the citizens, why would industry expect any different?There was an old game show called Truth or Consequences. Too often, some
entities ignore the truth and are surprised by the consequences. Sadly,
the public too often feels the consequences when it could use a little
truth.
Now let’s see them apply the same standard to CUEE,
or can the VDT not see through the bogus claims of an organization it supports?
-jsq
