Category Archives: Economy

Georgia is CCA’s model partner

“Primary site?” Really?

The initial writeup in the VDT quoted CCA as being all coy about if a need arose from the state they would be ready to deploy the private prison in Lowndes County:

“This is (for) a future need that we don’t even know what it’ll be yet,” Frank Betancourt, CCA’s vice president of real estate development said. “There’s no ground breaking to announce. When the need (for a facility) does arrive, we can be the first ones to offer (our services).”
Yet if you look on CCA’s own website under partnering:
CCA has been a great partner with us for nearly a decade now. Coffee Correctional Facility and Wheeler Correctional Facility certainly meet the standards of the Georgia Department of Corrections. I particularly appreciate CCA maintaining exemplary accreditation status with both the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare. I look forward to a continued long relationship with them.”
—Commissioner James E. Donald, Georgia Department of Corrections
And over in Decatur County people actually asked about this, and were told Continue reading →

Record year for U.S. solar power

Wendy Kotch wrote in USA Today 10 March 2011, U.S. solar industry reports record 2010 growth:
The U.S. solar power market grew a record 67% last year, making it the fastest-growing energy sector, the industry reports Thursday.

…

“This remarkable growth puts the solar industry’s goal of powering 2 million homes annually by 2015 within reach,” Rhone Resch, SEIA president and CEO, said in announcing the findings.

That curve is the inverse of this other one of the plummeting cost of solar electricity. Needs no fuel, fouls no air; costs less, powers more: go solar!

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Organic food market booming

What continued to grow right through the recession? Local and organic foods, especially sold through farmers’ markets and traditional supermarkets.

Carol Hazard wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 21, 2011, Organic, natural food catching on:

U.S. sales of organic foods and beverages grew from $1 billion in 1990 to $24.8 billion in 2009, according to the Organic Trade Association.

The sector saw double-digit growth — often more than 20 percent — every year over the past decade except 2009, at the tail-end of the recession. Even then, organic sales rose 5.9 percent from the previous year while total food sales increased only 1.6 percent.

The article didn’t link to the study, but here it is: Industry Statistics and Projected Growth.

Further from the Times-Dispatch article:

National grocers are pumping up their organic and natural food selections. Even Wal-Mart and its Sam’s Club warehouse division are paying attention.
Continue reading →

Kia and school unification in Troup County, Georgia: any connection?

The only example in Georgia that CUEE claimed of good effects of school unification was Troup County, Georgia, where a few people are convinced that the Kia plant would not have come to town if the schools hadn’t unified. That’s one county out of 159. And it’s hearsay anecdotal evidence. So let’s look for any actual evidence.

The county’s own announcement of the Kia plant opening says nothing about schools, much less unification. Troup County’s web page about their Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development does mention education, but says nothing about school unification. Their county history page mentions the Kia plant but nothing about education being a factor, much less school unification.

Even if that anecdotal connection between school unification and the Kia plant had some evidence behind it, that’s not an example of improved education!

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How to power the world with Wind, Water, and Sun

…a new study just published in the journal Energy Policy states that the world can provide for all of its energy needs, including electric power, transportation, heating/cooling, etc using only wind, water, and solar (WWS) energy by the year 2030.
By water the study authors, Mark Z. Jacobson (pictured) Mark A. Delucch, mostly mean hydroelectric power, which would involve building more dams, with all their environmental problems. Still, it’s an interesting study demonstrating that true renewable energy could power the world: no coal, no oil, no nuclear.

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Angela Manning and her extended ovation @ VCC 24 March 2011

It’s Sunday, so let’s see what a local preacher thinks about the biomass plant. Mayor Fretti asked if there were any Citizens Wishing to be Heard, and a preacher said, “yes”. No, not Rev. Rose. He last spoke to the Valdosta City Council back on 10 February, and left in disgust. Besides, the Council thinks people are frightened of little old him.

This time, 24 March 2011, Angela Manning, minister of the 1500-member New Life Ministries in Valdosta near the proposed site for the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant, read from the Valdosta City Council’s own mission statement and asked,

How do you adhere to your mission statement?
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Wiregrass Tech: fastest growing and award winning

According to Community College Week Magazine,
Valdosta Technical College (which is now Wiregrass Georgia Technical College) earned the honor as being the fastest-growing college in the nation among colleges with enrollments of equal size.
Its size range is enrollments 2,500 to 4,999 (see page 8.) Enrollment went up at Wiregrass Tech 45% between Fall 2008 and 2009.

Also, the Technical College System of Georgia named Wiregrass Tech Technical College of the Year for 2010.

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Private prisons do not increase local employment

According to an empirical study, siting a private prison in a rural county does not increase employment. (Big Prisons, Small Towns: Prison Economics in Rural America by Ryan S. King, Marc Mauer and Tracy Huling, February 2003.)

Their Key Findings:

Overall, over the course of 25 years, we find no significant difference or discernible pattern of economic trends between the seven rural counties in New York that hosted a prison and the seven rural counties that did not host a prison. While prisons clearly create new jobs, these benefits do not aid the host county to any substantial degree since local residents are not necessarily in a position to be hired for these jobs. The most significant findings are as follows:
They go on to detail effects on unemployment during economic recovery, downturn, and boom, and in each period Continue reading →

Wiregrass Technical College @ VLCIA 15 March 2011

Wiregrass Technical College wants to expand onto some land owned by the Industrial Authority, using SPLOST funds.

Chairman Jerry Jennett:

The point is they’re landlocked.

And so what you want to do is you want to take what your tract is now and have the ability to expand your building in the future. You want to move your training facility now and….

More transcription after the video:


Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director,
Allan Ricketts Program Manager, 15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Roy Copeland: Continue reading →

What’s the value of inmates?

Cheap labor. And not just unskilled labor. Brennan Leathers wrote in The Post-Searchlight on 18 February 2011, Inmate housing a hot topic about how overcrowded nearby prisons are and about haggling over what the local jail wants to charge to house prisoners, and ended with this:
“Working our inmates the way we do has greatly benefited the county,” [Warden Elijah] McCoy [of the Decatur County Jail] said. “We can construct buildings from the ground up and wire them. We perform all of the county’s maintenance and operate some of the equipment at the county’s landfill.”
One of the comments from Decatur County way back in July 2010 was:
Not only prison jobs, but it would also be a boost for many small businesses in the area. The construction part would also be a good shot in the arm.
Local construction people who think it will be a good deal to build a private prison maybe should think they may be putting themselves out of a lot of jobs after it’s built.

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