Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland, Chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton, Attorney, Tom Davis, CPA, Allan Ricketts, Project ManagerS. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager, Lu Williams, Operations Manager,
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.
Dario Orlando, CEO of
Steeda Manufacturing,
which currently makes performance parts for Mustangs,
told the Industrial Authority at its
21 August 2012 Regular Session
that Steeda
is moving into making medical parts, plus selling to GM,
and into new geographical markets.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.
Allan Ricketts, VLCIA Project Manager, explained that
Steeda had requested a second extension, and an amendment to reduce
the requirement of number of jobs from 40 to 30.
We certainly think that is justified in the very difficult economic climate
and conditions that we’ve had over the past couple of years,
and certainly acknowledging that in that very challenging economic time,
we’ve had steady continued growth by Steeda.
And so now we’re up to about 23 employees there.
I think it is also significant to note […] that
Steeda has now moved its entire manufacturing operation to Valdosta.
That move represents about a million five investment in the community.
Actually specifically it is $1,480,950
in some very unique manufacturing equipment.
I think it is important to understand
that some of this manufacturing equipment provides a great resource here
that two of the current projects that we are chasing are very interested in.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.
Dario Orlando then remarked that things were going very well, and:
We’re expanding into other markets
like I’d mentioned before the commencement of the meeting.
We’re moving into medical manufacturing because we do have the most advanced
manufacturing capabilities here in Valdosta.
Furthermore, we’re starting to supply General Motors
with performance parts,
the GM performance brand.
We opened up another company here in Valdosta called LSR Performance.
I was telling Allan this morning… that we’re all going to be looking back at this day.
I plan to have a couple of hundred employees here in the next five years.
A new analysis by Stanford researchers reveals that there is enough
offshore wind along the U.S. East Coast to meet the electricity
demands of at least one-third of the country.
The scientists paid special attention to the Maine-to-Virginia
corridor; the historical lack of strong hurricanes in the region
makes it a favorable site for offshore wind turbines. They found
that turbines placed there could satisfy the peak-time power needs
of these states for three seasons of the year (summer is the
exception).
“We knew there was a lot of wind out there, but this is the first
actual quantification of the total resource and the time of day that
the resource peaks,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and
environmental engineering at Stanford who directed the research.
“This provides practical information to wind farm developers about
the best areas to place turbines.”
Valdosta Daily Times,
September 12, 2012
Mill to come down:
Buildings to be razed, historic tower to remain
by Quinten Plummer
VALDOSTA — The iconic smoke stack will still tower over the
City of Remerton, according to local officials, but
the majority of
the historic Remerton Mill complex will be demolished and converted
into a park
after the City Council gave the mill’s owners the
go-ahead for demolition during Monday evening’s regular session.
This is not a factual statement: the city council’s motion is as
follows: Councilman Bill Wetherington made the following motion
which was unanimously voted in by the council members present that
night (note that councilman Sam Flemming was not in attendance)
“I move to approve the certificate of appropriateness 2012-04 for 1853
W. Gordon to be issued and effective as of October 25th 2012 for a
period of one year from that date with the condition that the cotton
mill smokestack remains intact and shall continue to remain intact
in accordance with title 18 of the code of City of Remerton.”
The mill’s ownership group simply wants relief from its obligations
to the property, and Remerton
Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph said the
restoration of the mill is just too large of a project for a city of
Remerton’s size.
The Chamber, the Industrial Authority, and various other local leaders
say they want knowledge-based jobs, or creative jobs.
We won’t get those just by teaching students to show up on time and
do what they’re told: that’s how you train factory workers,
not knowledge-based employees.
For creative jobs we also need Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.
How do you measure Tolerance?
One key component is the concentration of gays and lesbians.
So today’s
South Georgia Pride Festival
is a good sign for creative jobs in south Georgia!
The map above shows how metros across the U.S. score on the
Tolerance Index, as updated for The Rise of the Creative Class,
Revisited. The chart below shows the top 20 metros. Developed by my
Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Kevin Stolarick, it ranks U.S.
metros according to three key variables—the share of
immigrants or foreign-born residents, the Gay Index (the
concentration of gays and lesbians), and the Integration Index,
which tracks the level of segregation between ethnic and racial
groups.
Do you recognize that shape in the middle of south Georgia?
That’s the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area,
consisting of Lowndes, Echols, Lanier, and Brooks Counties.
Looks like about 0.4 on the Tolerance Index.
So sure, we’re no Austin, Texas, but we’re in the same range as oh,
Charlotte, NC.
If you want to help promote creative jobs in south Georgia,
there’s a festival going on today:
South Georgia Pride Festival
noon until 6PM
John W Saunders Park
1151 River Street
Valdosta, Georgia
food and music all day
In the medium term, the value of conventional gas is in providing
reliable baseload power to supplement unpredictable renewables,
which depend on the sun shining or the wind blowing.
Danish state-owned utility
DONG Energy, which has relied heavily on
coal-fired power generation, sees a combination of gas and
renewables as the way to go.
“We see gas-to-power and wind energy as the ideal mix, together
comprising clean and stable energy. Wind energy as the clean energy
source, and gas-to-power as the balancing power,” Carsten Krogsgaard
Thomsen, DONG Energy’s acting CEO, said.
Yesterday morning’s County Commission Work Session
started on time!
In addition to the open records and open meetings items,
it included a report from KLVB, two rezonings, typo fixes and date changes
in the ULDC, a vanity road name change, an alcohol license and an
alcohol ordinance change, a USGS river gauge, surplus vehicles,
purchase of a new fire truck, and more!
They vote on all this tonight at their Regular Session, 5:30 PM.
Here’s
the agenda.
In
yesterday morning's Work Session,
County Finance Director Stephanie Black
proposed a letter of understanding
for Morgan-Keegan to act as underwriter for
approximately $17 million
to refund the original bonds done for this building as well
as the water-sewer bonds only if the terms are favorable and
the net value savings are at least 3%.
Current projections show a savings of
$1.2 million or a little over 7% at this time.
Chairman Ashley Paulk remarked that:
The bond market has changed drastically.
At least the county palace that former Chairman Rod Casey got
a former commission to approve at his last Commission meeting
now won't cost we the taxpayers quite as much as we thought.
They vote on this tonight.
County to renegotiate bonds for the county palace
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 September 2012.
He gave a brief verbal report, which he said
was a summary of a report he submitted last week
(which we the taxpayers haven’t seen).
He said at their Rivers Alive event last year
they had a record number of sites cleaned: seven.
Great American Cleanup, KLVB’s signature event
used to be 1 day, but this year was 3 days.
Valdosta asked for help with a creek project.
Helped emergency management after the
tornadoes,
through
Ashley Tye and a group called Vision 388(?).
Traditional cleanup day in Valdosta, Lowndes County, and Lake Park.
Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know how much time commitment was involved.
Answer: an hour per board meeting and helping out with events and committees.
Here are videos of the
21 August 2012 Regular meeting.
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
Here's
the agenda.
