Most of the county budget goes to law enforcement.
This does not include the larger budget of the Lowndes County School Board. I also don’t think it includes dedicated millage such as the one mil that goes to the Industrial Authority.
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John S. Quarterman
Jade Bulecza reports for WALB that
Teachers take outdoor learning to the classroomTeachers take outdoor learning to the classroom:
About 25 teachers from Lowndes County schools were out at the Pine Grove Farm in Thursday identifying trees and looking at leaves.Maybe later they could even take the students out to the trees!It’s part of project learning tree, an environmental education program.
Renee Galloway says students don’t really get out of the classroom in language arts and reading, so she’s glad she’ll have new lessons to bring to her class.
“Hopefully, our teachers can take back the importance of the timber industry to Georgia’s economy to their classrooms,” said Joy Cowart, a Project Learning Tree facilitator.That’s one good lesson. Others might be the diversity of native forests and the economic and natural benefits of reforestation.
Carrie Teegardin and Bill Rankin
write in the AJC about
A billion-dollar burden or justice?
AJC investigation: Georgia leads nation in criminal punishment:
Georgia taxpayers spend $1 billion a year locking up so many criminal offenders that the state has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation. When it comes to overall criminal punishment, no state outdoes Georgia.They note that scare tactics made that happen.
But today, many public figures with strong anti-crime credentials are asking if that expenditure is smart, or even if it’s making Georgians safer. The debate about crime and punishment, once clearly divided along party lines, is now a debate in which conservatives often lead the charge for change.Continue reading
The animations add the demand for wood for 5 proposed biomass incinerators in Massachusetts to the current wood demand, which is mainly for lumber and cord wood. The animations demonstrate the land area in western and central Massachusetts that would be required to be logged to satisfy the total demand for these 5 plants which would add only about 1 percent to Massachusetts’ electrical generating capacity (see calculations below).
Quite a price for such a small percentage of electricity generation. Solar, wind, and wave could generate far more electricity, even in far northern Massachusetts.
And the animation above is a conservative projection. Follow the link for
…the extreme case where all forested land in central and western Massachusetts would be made available for biomass cutting – including rare species habitat, scenic landscapes, public “protected” land, and other protected open space. In this case, all forested land in central and western Massachusetts would be logged in only 16 years.
In Georgia, that would include places like Reed Bingham State Park.
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The VDT published on May 18
Projects in the works:
Industrial Authority reviews and discuss items at meeting,
by Kara Ramos,
in which there is this paragraph:
WIREGRASS POWER, LLC(VLCIA is the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. Brad Lofton is its executive director.)The project should be approved and issued an air quality operating permit in the next 14 days, according to Lofton. A power purchase agreement should also be complete by June 1, 2010. The VLCIA granted an eight month extension for the project to begin construction.
We know from previous reports that this wood and sewage sludge incinerator is expected to produce a maximum of 25 long-term jobs. Many questions were asked at the air quality hearing about particulates, CO2, mercury, and other pollutants. The answers ranged from “we don’t monitor that” to Continue reading
With fountains and bridges: Continue reading
Where’s all this change coming from and going to?
The dark green is labeled “Evergreen Forest” and decreased from 31.81% in 1991 to 26.47% in 2005. Meanwhile, the light pink labeled “Low Intensity Urban” went from 5.37% to 8.57%. Other changes include the red “High Intensity Urban” slice going from 1.15% to 1.98%. But the biggest change is piney woods being paved over for urban sprawl.
Could this have some effect on flooding?
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John S. Quarterman
On April 28 Deneige Broom wrote, Proposed Plant Raises Air Quality Questions:
A Biomass plant could bring business and money to the area. But some want to be assured their health won’t suffer in the name of progress.Some good quotes in there:
Dr. Brad Bergstrom attended the hearing wants concrete answers.Continue reading“There’s not going to be anything in the permit that will say, you can only burn this much sewage sludge,” said Bergstrom. “The company plans to only burn a small percentage but once they get their permit, that could change.”
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Air Protection Branch issued a
Press Release on April 12, 2010 announcing a meeting:
EPD will hold a question and-answer (Q&A) session and a public hearing on Tuesday, April 27, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room in the Valdosta City Hall Annex. The city hall annex is located at 300 N. Lee Street.The subject is “on Proposed Biomass-Fired Power Plant Application Submitted by WireGrass Power, LLC”
You can also submit questions and comments in writing: Continue reading
Apparently the media campaign discussed in the January article didn’t happen, since it’s not mentioned in either of the later articles.
The February writeup does brag about the Industrial Authority’s “newly-designed Web site”. Well, it’s fancy, all right. Continue reading