Financing is the biggest hurdle I hear local people cite
as stopping them from going solar.
There are companies that lower that hurdle.
Like SolarCity in California and Oregon, Mosaic, also in California, handles financing. Mosaic has some interesting additional community wrinkles. No, not just their heavy use of facebook and other social networking. Also this:
Together we all go solar. from Solar Mosaic on Vimeo.
Also ways for individuals and groups to buy into panels Continue reading
Found on IEDC for 18 April 2011 and also on SEDC with no date, this job posting:
Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (Valdosta, GA)Digging around on cb-asso.com finds this detailed job description. It’s four GIF images (copies here) of a VLCIA logo and three pages of a four-page flyer.
A very exciting opportunity with a successful industrial authority with numerous assets.
Greater Valdosta is the business, cultural, educational, medical, leisure, and retail hub for thirteen South Georgia and North Florida counties and more than 1.2 million citizens. Valdosta and Lowndes County are quickly becoming the fastest growing area in Georgia and are home to Moody Air Force Base; two Regional Medical Centers; and Valdosta State University, a regional university with over 13,000 students.
Starting salary $100,000 to $125,000, DOQ.
See cb-asso.com for a complete Position Profile.
The Authority’s website is www.industrialauthority.com
Brief excerpts: Continue reading
Downtown Valdosta Farm Days begin two weeks from tomorrow:
Bringing the best of the country to the heart of the City!There’s a calendar on their website, along with how to become a vendor.Downtown Valdosta Farm Days is a bi-weekly farmers’ market featuring local farmers and artisans and also serves to educate the community about eating local, nutrition and food choices.
Downtown Farmers Market
First and Third Saturdays from May to September
9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Lowndes County Courthouse Square, Downtown Valdosta
More on this story as it develops.
-jsq
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
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.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
-jsq
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
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:
Continue readingBobbi 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
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
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
This kind of municipal government action enables subdivision building.
From the
agenda:
6. Bids, Contracts, Agreements and ExpendituresThey approved staff’s recommendation for the low bid.… Consideration of bids for the completion of the Madison Highway Utility Extension Project.
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