Category Archives: Economy

Budget Work Session @ LCC Budget 2015-05-18

Update 2015-05-18: Still no agenda posted as the meeting starts; not online; not on the outside of the building; not on the inside of the building. Is this legal?

An all-day Commission meeting with no agenda. And no draft budget that the public can see.

PUBLIC NOTICE-BUDGET WORK SESSION

Date: May 18, 2015
Time: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Location: Lowndes County Commission Chambers
Address: 327 N. Ashley Street, 2nd Floor
Valdosta, GA 31601

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a Budget Work Session for Monday, May 18, 2015, at 8:30 a.m. For questions please call County Clerk, Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400 or pdukes@lowndescounty.com

Over on the Finance Department web page, it Continue reading

China reduced CO2 emissions by 8% in 4 months

The carbon bubble is popping faster than most people imagined, and renewable sun, wind, and water power is taking over.

Ari Phillips, ThinkProgress, 15 May 2015, It Only Took Four Months For China To Achieve A Jaw-Dropping Reduction In Carbon Emissions,

China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, so small decreases in its emissions seem like monumental feats when compared to other countries. According to a new analysis, in the first four months of 2015, China’s coal use fell almost 8 percent compared to the same period last year — a reduction in emissions that’s approximately equal to the total carbon dioxide emissions of the U.K. over the same period.

The analysis, published by Greenpeace and Energydesk China, reviewed data from a number of sources, including China’s industrial output, and found that China had reduced its coal output by 6.1 percent in the first four months of 2015. The research team calculated that the drop in coal use translates into a nearly 5 percent drop in domestic CO2 emissions.

Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst who worked on the Greenpeace report, told RTCC that the report shows that China’s industrial output and thermal power generation are falling while renewable energy sources like hydro, wind, and solar are growing fast.

Niall McCarthy, Forbes, 12 May 2015, China’s Revolution In Wind Energy [Infographic], Continue reading

Why can’t we have our own energy system?

Good question.

EWA, 7 May 2015, The Tesla Battery Heralds the Beginning of the End for Fossil Fuels,

Rather than wondering “Can we have our own energy system?” people are going to be wanting to know “Why can’t we have it?”

This is why early adopters like Alton Burns and George Bennett matter: other people start asking: why can’t we have that? And now that HB 57 is finally law, lots more people can have solar power without mortgaging the farm. Then they ask this question: why can’t we have storage?

The Tesla Energy program unveiled last week is Continue reading

GA Gov. Nathan Deal signs solar financing law

The sun is finally rising on Georgia, and if that is possible, Florida can follow, and the southeast, the U.S., and the world.

Today is a historic day, when even a governor who took campaign finance funds from a long list of fossil fuel pipeline companies, the governor of the most corrupt state (least stringent ethics laws), when that governor finally signed a law that even the most corruption-prone legislature, after squelching similar bills for a dozen years, finally passed as HB 57 unanimously in both houses.

Dave Williams, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 12 may 2015, Gov. Deal signs bill letting solar installers offer customers third-party financing,

Georgia property owners will get more affordable options for installing solar panels at their homes and businesses under a bill Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law Tuesday.

The legislation, which sailed through the General Assembly unanimously, will let solar installers offer customers third-party financing of installations. That’s a major change from the old law, which required customers to pay up front.

Already two years ago the Georgia Public Service Commissioners, even though overwhelmingly campaign-funded by the industries they regulate, required Georgia Power to buy twice as much solar energy as it wanted. This year Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company’s annual report says its main source of new revenue for both 2013 and 2014 was solar power. And Georgia has already leaped from far behind to become the fastest growing solar market in the nation, with numerous Georgia Power solar utility-scale installations and smaller ones like for Alton Burns in Thomas County and today for George Bennett in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. This new law Gov. Deal just signed will accelerate that growth even more.

Luis Martinez, NRDC, 12 May 2015, The Sun Also Rises in the Southeast, Continue reading

Videos: Bottled water, prisoner details, board appointees, and Easter Seals @ LCC 2015-05-11

One appointee bowed out, architect selection and public defender to the courthouse were clarified, and dog kennels were discussed, in these LAKE videos from yesterday morning’s 11 May 2015 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission, with a few notes. See also the agenda, plus a new item 6 f. Server Replacement/Network Core Replacement. Continue reading

Bottled water, prisoner details, board appointees, and Easter Seals @ LCC 2015-05-11


Picture by Michael Rivera, CC

Why is the county accepting Bids for Bottled Water Service? If its own water, or Valdosta’s, is good enough for the taxpayers, shouldn’t it be good enough for Commission and staff? They’ve also got a Bid for Coffee Service, but we don’t grow coffee here, as far as I know, so that’s not the same issue.

With many local people needing jobs, why does the county continue to renew an Annual Contract Renewal for Prison Work Details?

Looks like Joseph G. Stevens will be reappointed to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority. Both G. Norman Bennett and incumbent Anthony Payton want to be appointed to the one slot opening on the Valdosta-Lowndes County Airport Authority. Their applications were not included with the agenda, so who can say which one is most qualified?

I guess they didn’t decide to relocate the Public Defender’s Office into the historic Lowndes County Courthouse, since on the agenda is a three-year Lease Agreement for the Public Defender’s Office at its present location.

Looks like J. Glenn Gregory will provide the Architectural Services for the Lowndes County Civic Center Renovations and the Architectural Services for the Naylor Community Center, both funded via SPLOST VII. Both apparently without competitive bids.

Here’s the agenda, which also has Declaration of Surplus Items and Authorization for Sale/Disposal and Easter Seals Southern Georgia Presentation (Work Session Only).

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015  8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2015 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Billboard and building locations @ ZBOA 2015-05-05

Today at 2:30 PM, Fairway wants to put its billboard back up at the new overpass: way up. Will ZBOA approve a 60-foot-high billboard? Plus in the county, a building location variance and a Family Ties variance.

Here’s the agenda, from the City of Valdosta website.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563

Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 671-2430

AGENDA
May 5, 2015
2:30 p.m.

Continue reading

Tesla announces prices for home battery

Power generation for both traditional electricity uses and transportation is changing.

Michael Liedtke and Jonathan Fahey wrote for AP and Inc. 1 May 2015, Elon Musk Unveils Tesla’s Ambitious New Home Battery System: “Our goal here is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy,” Musk told reporters gathered in Hawthorne, California.

The batteries are likely to become more useful if, as expected, more utilities and regulators allow Continue reading

Highway-Commercial and Planned Development in Valdosta @ GLPC 2015-04-27

One case on St. Augustine Road and the other on Slater Street due east of VSU and a block north of Drexel Park and One Mile Creek. Here’s the agenda.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING
AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue
Monday, April 27, 2015 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

CALL TO ORDER, INVOCATION, PLEDGE

  1. Approval of the Minutes: February 23, 2014

CITY OF VALDOSTA CASE:

FINAL ACTION by the City of Valdosta Mayor-Council
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Valdosta City Hall, 216 E. Central Street, Valdosta, Georgia
Council Chambers, 2nd Floor
5:30 p.m.
Continue reading

Videos: Trash, Vallotton agriculture, animals, body armor, HEAT, water, and a canopy road @ LCC 2015-04-14

ADS trash collection price and performance wasn’t on the agenda, but even former Commissioner Richard Lee stood up to speak about it two weeks ago at the April 14th 2015 Regular Session, along with two other citizens David Eaton and me. See also VDT trash story. The VDT didn’t pick up on Ann Swayze’s smoot and soot concerns also being related, because nobody stood up to complain about burning in Foxborough before the collection centers closed.

Commissioners did the right thing and unanimously rezoned Vallotton Farms back to Estate Agriculture, like it was before county-wide rezoning happened. It wasn’t like the County Planner said, “it has developed around it in an urban way”. The subject land and landowners didn’t do that: other people have built subdivisions around it the the county’s active promotion. And for once agriculture won, after landowner attorney Bill Langdale, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, and I spoke up for it.

They’re even going to preserve the canopy on Boring Pond Road and I thanked the County Engineer for that.

The two Sheriff’s requests for Continue reading