Leadership Lowndes Class of 2015 was there,
and Gretchen Quarterman spoke about
the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference.
Everything else went as predicted
with the rezonings and pretty much everything else unanimously approved,
at the Tuesday 10 October 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Category Archives: Economy
Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09
These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
and they’re voting right now on
the annual grant paperwork
for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc.,
on a
commercial and a
subdivision rezoning, both previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission.
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two
Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the
hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC),
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a
Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for
each agenda item,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.
Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke yesterday about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings.
Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the agenda.
It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:
I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.
Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to
regular routes on the bus system.
Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Don’t Frack Georgia –sing along
Alton Paul Burns
commented yesterday on
Fracking south Georgia and north Florida?
Mr Emmet Carlisle wrote a song about fracking Florida “Don’t Frack Florida”. So in support of that movement I wrote another verse:
The battle is on in Bama & Georgia too
Spectra wants to run a pipeline through,
They could care less ’bout me or you,
And they lie to FERC more than they have too,More Solar energy, Yeah that’s the thing
To everyone this message we bring,
We don’t need Spectra’s pipeline, That’s a fact!
And we don’t have to Frack!-apb
So this would be the chorus for that verse: Continue reading
Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09
The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and
they’re doing
the annual grant paperwork.
Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak this morning about the
Courthouse Preservation Committee; see
LAKE videos of its public meetings.
Tuesday the County Commission will decide
the rezonings, one
commercial and one
subdivision, previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission:
will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission?
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two
Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the
hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC),
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a
Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for
each agenda item,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.
It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:
I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.
Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system. Continue reading
Fracking south Georgia and north Florida?
Potential fracking in north Georgia was too close, but what about right here in south Georgia? Florida has a snowballing anti-fracking movement. Looks like Georgia needs one, too.
Dan Chapman, AJC Online Athens, 10 March 2013,
Gas drillers turn to Georgia,
Jim Kennedy, the state’s geologist, says another company is considering the shale gas fields of the Mesozoic Basin that covers 60 percent of the Coastal Plain in South Georgia.
Most of the story is about proposed fracking in north Georgia that we noted back in 2013, plus fossil fuel industry propaganda about how great they say that would be for the local economy, with very little about the immense destruction, environmental hazards, and invasions of private property that would ensue. The AJC version of that Dan Chapman story didn’t seem to have Continue reading
Renewables outcompete oil –National Bank of Abu Dhabi
A Middle East bank says:
Renewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in new generation in the period 2000-2013.
And that’s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks thrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities. The report recommends aligning policy and finance:
To deliver a sustainable energy system for the long term, the financial community and policymakers need to work collaboratively: stimulating and de-risking investment, and developing innovative structures which can support the financing of future energy.
With that collaboration, the Middle East and North Africa could see this kind of energy deployment scenario: Continue reading
Videos: Day 3 of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-05
The
Airport Authority got inserted among the judges and lawyers,
and the
Coroner’s Office failed to turn in a budget.
The day was mostly sitting around waiting,
because most of the actual presentations were only a few minutes each,
yet were scheduled hours apart,
in the last day of the
three days of
“Budget Hearings” which aren’t really hearings because nobody from the
public can speak and they don’t have a budget to hear yet.
See the first day for
the agenda.
Here are links to videos of each item with some notes by Gretchen, followed by a video playlist. No video for the first item, EMS, due to camera failure; sorry. For the rest, as the Chairman said, referring to Gretchen and the LAKE camera:
We have our videographer back there, so we’re ready.
Hm, maybe LAKE should submit a budget request to the county…. Continue reading
Videos: Day 2 of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-04
Maybe Georgia should fund mental health facilities instead of
local jails having to act as mental hospitals.
On a positive note,
Agriculture is an $81M industry in Lowndes County.
Law, taxes, and education, in the second day which was only in the morning,
of the
three days of
“Budget Hearings” which aren’t really hearings because nobody from the
public can speak and they don’t have a budget to hear yet.
See yesterday for
the agenda.
Here are links to videos of each item with some notes by Gretchen,
followed by a video playlist.
And one more day to go today. Continue reading
Videos: Day 1 of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-03
It’s good the Commission is having these meetings where they can
hear directly from the various department heads.
And with LAKE’s videos, you the citizens can hear what the departments
are asking for.
Also, why are these called budget hearings? The public doesn’t get to speak, so they are not actually public hearings, and they are not the state-required budget hearings before passing a budget: they don’t even have a draft budget yet. And the next time the Commission rushes citizen speakers to finish, remember this 14 minutes of dead air or the several others like it in yesterday’s meeting.
They met in the Commission Chambers, nevermind the address on the Commission’s calendar yesterday, and still says for today’s meeting.
There’s still no agenda posted, except for paper copies in the Commission building, which read as below. Continue reading
Three days of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-03
Billed
back in December as “Commission Meets with Constitutional Officers,
Elected Officials, and Outside Agencies”
and two weeks later than originally scheduled, it’s
three days of what is on the County’s calendar now as
Budget Hearings,
today, Wednesday,
and
Thursday,
all three days at the Lowndes County Governmental Building,
300 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA 31601.
There’s no agenda posted.
At least these meetings are on the county’s calendar before the last minute, which is an improvement on last year. However, last year they did publish an agenda. Here are videos of last year’s similar hearings.
-jsq