Category Archives: Economy

What will you do? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 7 April 2011

I wanted to know what the council and the protesters will do when the biomass plant is canceled. I still want to know: what will you do?

Here’s the video, followed by my points.


What will you do? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Before I started, the mayor noted that many people needed to go to an event at 7PM (he didn’t name it, but it was the 100 Black Men Annual Dinner.) He offered to proceed with scheduled business and re-open Citizens to be Heard at the end of the meeting. Nobody objected. I had already waited until nobody else seemed to want to speak.

My points: Continue reading →

Local NAACP votes to oppose private prison in Lowndes County

Leigh Touchton commented yesterday about a meeting Tuesday 19 April. She is president of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP. -jsq
Valdosta NAACP branch voted last night to oppose the private prison approved by VLCIA. We don’t need more prisons, and they do not improve economic standards in any community in which they have been located. There is a safety burden upon the community, there are human rights abuses, and the focus should be on saving the state money by rehabilitation of non-violent offenders rather than mass incarceration. When America has 5% of the world’s population but incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners, this is unacceptable. In North Carolina, private prisons have put local furniture manufacturers out of business because they cannot compete with the prison’s slave labor. These are not sustainable and it’s no mystery why most of the large Christian denominations in America oppose them.

-Leigh Touchton

Here’s Brad Lofton’s explanation of the private prison. Here are statements on private prisons by three Christian denominations. And the state of Israel has outlawed private prisons. More information about CCA and private prisons here.

-jsq

Conversation for jobs —Cristobal Serran-Pagan @ VCC 7 April 2011

Dr. Serran-Pagan suggests we have a conversation among all types of people and do the math. Let’s put the money where it will produce jobs. Solar, wind, why haven’t we been doing it? Real clean renewable sources of energy. He brings up the water the biomass plant would use.
Water is precious. Air is precious. Oil, coal, is not precious. Biomass is not precious. We have plenty of good clean, renewable sources of energy. Let’s do that…. and get rid of old models, and let’s try to do what is right for community, for our economy, and for public interest.

Here’s the video:


Conversation for jobs —Cristobal Serran-Pagan @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

About those minutes —Bobbi Anne Hancock @ VLCIA 19 April 2011

Stonewalling is a good way to get your Industrial Authority on the front page of the local newspaper (again). Here’s video of what Bobbi Anne Hancock said to the board about their minutes (and other things).

First, here’s is VDT reporter David Rodock’s excerpt of what she said last night:

Bobbi Anne Hancock, the woman who made an Open Records request with the Authority for meeting minutes from 2006 to the present day, spoke to board members during the citizens to be heard portion of the meeting.

“The majority of your costs for the request are for the five hours

Continue reading →

7.a) Community Development Block Grant —Mara Register @ VCC 7 April 2011

They don’t know yet how much it will be, since the feds haven’t said, but they have a plan for how to allocate a Community Development Block Grant. Council approved it.

If you want to see the Annual Action Plan they approved, you can, in a 30 day public examination and comment period. The total scheduled grant amount is $647,678 fromm HUD.

There’s an advisory committee: maybe you want to be on it.

Here’s the video:


7.a) Community Development Block Grant –Mara Register @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Barry Hyatt @ VCC 7 April 2011

He was a metallurgical engineer (he spelled that for them) in Pittsburgh. People there were glad of the jobs, but the air is bad now. He said that air quality is important, and biomass is a detriment to the community. He reminds the council that they were elected to become involved.

Here’s the video:


Barry Hyatt @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

6.b) Madison Highway Utility Extension Project @ VCC 7 April 2011

This kind of municipal government action enables subdivision building. From the agenda:
6. Bids, Contracts, Agreements and Expenditures

… Consideration of bids for the completion of the Madison Highway Utility Extension Project.

They approved staff’s recommendation for the low bid.

Here’s the video:


6.b) Madison Highway Utility Extension Project @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Why Georgia wants to build private prisons

Jake Armstrong wrote 4 Dec 2008 in the Florida Times-Union that Private prisons trump Georgia’s: DOC says incarceration is cheaper when done by private companies. Really? How much cheaper?
Private companies can build prisons faster and operate them for slightly less than the state, said Michael Nail, deputy director of the department’s corrections division.
Slightly cheaper. Which we already learned is by having fewer guards per prisoner. Risking public safety for small dollar savings: does that sound like a good idea to you?.

How much cheaper? Continue reading →

1 megawatt solar plant opens in Blairsville, GA

Tasha Biggers writes in the Gainesville Times that Georgia’s largest private solar farm provides electricity to Blairsville homes: Site produces 1 megawatt per year
If you live in Blairsville, part of your home’s electricity may be provided by solar energy, thanks to a recently opened solar farm on Ed King Road.

The farm, built and maintained by ESA Renewables, a company headquartered in Castellon, Spain, is privately owned and takes up 5 acres, making it the largest privately held ground-mounted solar farm in Georgia….

The Blairsville site produces 1 megawatt per year.

That’s enough to provide power for 122 houses, according to Javier Latre, director of engineering for ESA Renewables.

The buyer for the power is the TVA, which says: Continue reading →

Why solar cuts it better than any other energy source

Solar power is the fastest growing industry in the world, and south Georgia is an excellent place for it to grow and produce jobs, with plenty of rooftops and parking lots for solar panels.

This is despite the misinformation people with vested interests in other energy sources put out about solar power. After Dr. Matthew Richard made some points about solar vs. biomass, one of the members of the 6 December 2010 panel that VLCIA spent more than $17,000 to assemble to defend biomass responded that he was in favor of the nearby 300kWatt solar plant, but: well, I’m going to interleave his buts with what he’s ignoring. Continue reading →