Category Archives: Economy

Videos: Brookwood reappears, 3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-27

County Planner Jason Davenport said at Monday morning’s Work Session that the Comprehensive Plan Update should be a Public Hearing, so it needs to be listed as such for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session. I guess that is more than 24 hours notice, but did they send a notice to the newspaper? How were people to know, and why was this left to the day before when this schedule has been known for months to all the local planners?

Not on the agenda, the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago popped up in Reports.

The county has had a board member listed for VLPRA for a year after his term actually expired.

Plus a special Continue reading →

3 board appointments, 2 road abandoments, Comp Plan Update, Budget Adoption @ LCC 2016-06-27

Sheriff or VLPRA? Invisible budget, visible Comp Plan Update, 1 road abandonment + apparently another, and sewage not getting sprayed. All Monday morning 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

The LAS Pump Control Panel is for the sewage spray field, aka Land Application Site: cost $18,500. Lowndes County does not have a wastewater treatment plant, just an LAS, east of Moody Air Force Base’s Grassy Pond west of I-75 and Lake Park.

The Update for the 2016 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan has gone through quite a process of community input, thanks to SGRC.

Can’t say the same for the Adoption of Fiscal Year 2017 Budget, for which the county had a budget meeting with less than 24 hours notice, followed by two budget hearings that those who attended say lasted fifteen minutes each with six slides presented. And the most recent budget document on the county’s website is from 2016.

There’s only one road abandonment listed as such on the agenda (a Portion of Beaver Lane), but Continue reading →

Budget Meetings with less than 24 hours notice @ LCC Budget 2016-06-01

Does 9:28 AM to 8:30 AM the next day sound like 24 hours notice to you? And as usual there’s no draft budget posted. Also no agenda.

From: listserv@civicplus.com
Date: 31 May 2016 09:28:22 -0500
Subject: New Event Budget Meetings For cp-stcity2.civicplus.com

A new Event now appears on our site. Please click on the link below to go directly to the new posting.
http://www.lowndescounty.com/Calendar.aspx?EID=160

The actual event posting says “There will be no votes taken at these meetings.” Which probably gets them off the hook for the Georgia Open Meetings Law, but still doesn’t indicate they want the taxpayers to see what they’re doing.

Budget Meetings Continue reading →

Nature Nates and GEDA @ VLCIA 2016-05-17

On tonight’s Development Authority agenda, I’m guessing GEDA is Georgia Economic Development Association. Nature Nate, you may recall, is the first occupant of Miller Business Park. I continue to suggest the Development Authority put solar panels on much of that unused business park land and turn the business parks into profit centers instead of continual money sinks to service all those bonds that funded them.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, May 17, 2016 5:30 p.m.
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda Continue reading →

Solar price drops setting invisible price limit for ever-dirtier fossil fuel extraction

A fairly insightful piece on the how oil price rises drive more fossil fuel production, currently fueled by debt because wages of most workers have been falling, still misses two big points: solar prices continually plumetting now undercut all fossil fuel prices, and dirtier fossil fuel extraction and its massive colonial invasion of pipelines are meeting resistance everywhere, including at the regulatory-captured puppet agencies like FERC.

“Tyler Durden”, ZeroHedge, 13 May 2016, Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog, The Real Oil Limits Story – What Other Researchers Missed, Continue reading →

18-wheeler on Hambrick Road, and No Trucks Over 10 Wheels sign

This is what Gretchen meant when she told the Lowndes County Commission trucks too big use Hambrick Road as a short cut, when GA 122 is 0.4 miles farther up Cat Creek Road.

You can see who owns this particular truck, but it’s far from the only one. And in case you had any doubt where this is, Continue reading →

Mutual aid, Variance, Remerton Mills Quitclaim @ RCC 2016-04-04

Only the smoke stack remains, yet Remerton Mills still took up most of the Remerton City Council agenda when Gretchen videoed there this month. The Humane Society wants to house dogs temporarily and house an adoption site for cats. This also requires a variance. Yes, apparently Remerton has more room for animals than Valdosta.

Here are links to the LAKE videos of each item, from the agenda. Also notice Remerton has Citizens to Be Heard first, like both Lowndes County and Valdosta used to have only a few years ago. Continue reading →

Halliburton says fossil fuels unsustainable, lays off a third worldwide, including management

You know things are bad for fossil fuels when the biggest profiteer of them all takes an axe to itself. The fewer fossil fuel boondoggles (including more pipeline projects going belly-up), the faster investment will keep moving to renewable sun, wind, and water power, for profits, and we get clean air and water and less global warming.

“Tyler Durden”, Zerohedge, 22 April 2016, Halliburton Fires One Third Of Global Staff: “What We Are Experiencing Today Is Unsustainable”,

In a brutally frank and painfully honest first quarter operational update, Halliburton president Jeff Miller poured freezing cold water all over the “oil is stabilizing, and everything is going to be awesome” narrative. After explaining that the firm has laid off one-third of its global employees, and pointing to the collapse in sequential revenues across every business unit, Miller exclaimed: “What we are experiencing today is far beyond headwinds; it is
unsustainable.”

Due to the deadline of its merger agreement with Baker Hughes Halliburtion has delayed its earnings conference call until May 3rd and so gave an operational update. The healdlines were horrific:

Project Max and many others 6PM this evening @ VLCIA 2016-04-19

Is the mysterious Project Max a glass container plant as everyone seems to think? An agenda suddenly appeared It’s on the agenda that suddenly appeared on the Development Authority’s website this afternoon after Gretchen called to ask where it was. She will be there with the LAKE video camera.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, April 19, 2016 5:30 p.m.
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda Continue reading →

A Tour of Remerton

Welcome to Remerton

Welcome to Remerton

Jessica Freeman, planner and probation officer in Remerton, invited me to get to know Remerton a little better. “It’s not just college student housing and bars.”

Remerton City Hall

Remerton City Hall

I met up with her at Remerton City Hall. She showed me around the new construction, which includes a second payment window for the busy days when water bills are due. It seems that everyone wears more than one hat on the city staff.
Remerton City Council Chambers

Remerton City Council Chambers

If you haven’t been Continue reading →