Also, aren’t they supposed to say what an executive session is for?
- Project Report-Allan Ricketts
But at least they do post an agenda now!
So, when will they be posting minutes?
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading A familiar scene from the Big Apple reaches Southern Georgia. It’s called “Occupy Valdosta.” More than 100 protesters take to the streets to fight corporate greed and social injustice.
Greg Gullberg wrote Friday for WCTV, Occupy Wall Street Comes To Valdosta,
Chanting before banks, monuments and courthouses, the rally reached its summit at the Chamber of Commerce.WCTV’s low estimate of 100 who chanted “no consolidation” on the Chamber’s doorstep is several times Continue reading
There the crowd cried two familiar words: ‘No Consolidation’.
In a demonstration designed to fight corporate greed and social inequality, the protest ultimately turned to the fate of the school systems and the children of Valdosta.
“My children go to city schools. I live in the county. I can’t vote. That’s not right,” said Susan Smith.
A letter last week asked, “Do you have solar energy yourself?” Why yes, I do.Continue readingWhen we installed solar panels on our farm workshop in 2009, the closest certified solar installer was in Marietta. There were only four in the state. Now there are forty. Georgia may yet catch up with North Carolina and even New Jersey!
Hannah Solar had all the paperwork ready when Okra Paradise Farms applied for a USDA REAP grant for more solar panels a few weeks ago. Much to our surprise,
Today in the VDT David Rodock wrote, Georgia Power discusses nuclear, solar, energy costs
Yet another dignitary visits without telling the public first.Georgia Power president and CEO Paul Bowers visited Valdosta late last week to talk nuclear energy, solar and what the company has been doing to cut energy costs for their customers.
Anyway, much of the story is about how cost-effective and safe Continue reading
Make your taxes go up, and you’ll end up paying more taxes. This is just one way that people making minimum wage are going to lose their home. Don’t be fooled! If you’re a voting resident of Valdosta, vote no on November the eighth on school unification. Thank you.
Picture of Sam Allen at MLK Monument in Valdosta
by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
Hm, CUEE (or somebody) did a radio ad with a fake Morgan Freeman pushing consolidation, using MLK’s name. Here’s a picture and video of Sam Allen in front of the MLK monument, If FVCS or somebody wanted to use them…. (As usual, just remember to cite LAKE as the source.)
Here’s the video:
Vote No on Unification —Sam Allen @ MLK Monument
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Occupy Valdosta protests issues,
The occupy wall street movement that’s spreading around the country arrived in south Georgia.That’s her with the big camera in front of the palm tree, come to see what democracy looks like.
More than 100 demonstrators marched through the streetsThere you have it: WALB links school consolidation to corporate greed.of Valdosta Friday.
They’re protesting issues from corporate greed to unemployment all the way down to local issues including school consolidation.
How’s this for an ad linked to Martin Luther King Jr.?
Sam Allen says Vote No School Consolidation at the Martin Luther King Monument
Videos and pictures of Occupy Valdosta by John S. Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
Back to Jade Bulecza: Continue reading
Erin Hurley spoke for Occupy America to Bank of America.
It’s national Take Your Money Out of Bank of America Day.Nobody came out to respond.
Who got bailed out?
They did!
Who did it?
We did it!
All right!
[laughter]
They are the 1%; we are the 99!
Here’s Part 1 of 2:
Take your money out of Bank of America Day –Occupy Valdosta Part 1 of 2:
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Then everyone headed on to the MLK monument.
Here’s Part 2 of 2:
Take your money out of Bank of America Day –Occupy Valdosta Part 2 of 2:
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Tony Daniels called for accountability at the MLK monument:
Stand up! Make the Bank of America be accounted. Make the Industrial Authority be accounted. Make the United States government be accounted.
Here’s the video:
Make the Industrial Authority be accounted —Tony Daniels at MLK Occupy Valdosta
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
I think this passage on page 3 sums it up:
Indeed, what qualifies the Chamber of CUEE to talk about education? Judging by their track record, nothing does.In other words, we can offer a great education, provide incentives for students to perform, make modifications to education to help students succeed, and provide technical help, but if the child is homeless, left home alone for long periods of time, living in a high crime area, living in a home with substance abuse, or just downright defiant, there is only so much the school can accomplish in helping these students succeed. Good parental, home and community environments are critical to the success of underprivileged children.
Therefore, CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce’s efforts are focused on the wrong methods of improving our school statistics. Unification will not accomplish any of their stated goals, but will create an enormous financial burden on the community and its families during this time of recession and high unemployment. The business community and volunteer organizations should instead focus on providing educational awareness and success clinics in low income areas. They should organize efforts to reduce poverty by bringing in industry with good wages and sponsoring basic community literacy and vocational training and tutoring. They should focus on programs to promote the value of education. They should organize drug awareness and rehabilitation programs in low income areas. They should focus their efforts in decreasing poverty. They should focus on encouraging community diversity. If they will do this, the educational problems will take care of themselves in good systems like Valdosta and Lowndes.
However, CUEE and the Chamber have insisted on pushing forward with their unification agenda despite the certain negative effect it will have on the community and the education of our children. They deny there will be any negative effect, but they have no personal accountability if they are wrong. They ignore all relevant studies and dismiss the results as being misleading. Then they state their own misleading and false assertions and claim them to be FACTS.
This Handbook is a great resource, and I applaud David Mullis for producing it.
-jsq
The latest Lowndes County Lunch and Learn
was yesterday, with County Clerk Paige Dukes
answering the top 50 questions the county receives.
Code Red! Road paving! Tax Assessment! CHIP grants!
Some of these things affect all of you, and many of them could help you specifically.
Gretchen was there and videoed most of it, as well as asking some followup questions.
Among other surprising answers was that the new Commission districts as shown on the maps on the county website have still not been approved by the Department of Justice. All of the Commissioners and several of the staff travelled to Atlanta a few weeks ago to tweak the lines. Paige assured us that tweaking would be completed in time for next year’s Commission elections.
Paige noted Carmella Braswell is the go-to person for many questions about what to do if you want to sink a will or put up a building. She addressed the CHIP grant in question 3, in the second video below, noting Carolyn Selby’s comments at a previous Commission meeting: Continue reading