Category Archives: Economy

Change order, KLVB, and Pipeline @ LCC 2014-04-08

$78,892.56 for an unbid change order for Val Del Road. The Board of Tax Assessors’ appeal to a Board of Equalizations decision to grand PCA an unusual depreciation was approved by the Lowndes County Commission by a rare split decision, 2 to 1. Greg Powell of Langdale Industries appointed to KLVB. And Citizen Noll recommended the Commission pass a resolution or ordinance about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline.

Three voting Commissioners (Raines was absent and Page vacated his seat) unanimously approved three rezonings with nobody speaking for or against. They granted permission to the Sheriff’s office and to Emergency Management to apply for equipment grants. There was a weather report, and a report on an animal adoption event the previous weekend.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Defibrilators from Homeland Security @ LCC 2014-04-07

The KLVB presentation told us up to three states dump in the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County, for which the county gets some unspecified amount of tipping fees, which go to fund KLVB. An appointment to KLVB was added to the agenda, although nobody deigned to reveal who was “that individual that has requested to serve on that board”. The Homeland Security grant application turned out to be for defibrillators.

Here’s the agenda, with a few annotations and links to the videos.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
AMENDED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Golf and aviation @ VLCIA 2014-04-15

Some interesting stuff on there, such as the South Georgia Golf Classic, which appears to actually be 2-4 May 2014 (even though that event’s facebook about still refers to last year), and the South Georgia Fly-in, which apparently already happened on April 4th. I wonder what is the Presentation by Mr. Ben Futch about? And VLCIA’s May meeting has a time change, to when this agenda does not say.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, April 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

U.S. Rep. Bishop to listen to landowners about Sabal Trail pipeline

Maybe Lowndes County Commissioners can ask Rep. Austin Scott (GA-08) to do what Dougherty County Commissioners have successfully asked Rep. Bishop (GA-02) to do: those two Congressional districts cover the entire Georgia part of the proposed path of that methane pipeline. And maybe they could help Greenlaw get the FERC scoping period extended and get the GIS data from Sabal Trail.

Carlton Fletcher wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop to take part in pipeline listening session: Metting called to address safety, other concerns surrounding controversial natural gas pipeline,

Two Dougherty County Commissioners and one of their former colleagues who is running to rejoin them have scheduled a listening session at 10 a.m. Thursday with U.S. House District 2 Congressman Sanford Bishop to discuss the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Gas Pipeline project and a planned accompanying Continue reading →

Videos: Garbage falling off trucks @ LCC 2014-03-25

If the County Commission hadn’t privatized garbage collection, Frenchie could have registered his complaint about garbage falling off trucks through the new turnkey government website service once it’s online. No mention of the annexation request by the City of Hahira from the Work Session.

Commissioner Powell noted the three SPLOST VII projects were “a direct reinvestment into the community of those funds”. The road resurfacing of four roads is actually mostly from a GDOT LMIG grant, but the other three, shoulder paving on Val Del Road and Boring Pond Road and a bridge replacement on Cat Creek Road are all from SPLOST VII funds. Plus some trucks for Animal Control and tablets for the Fire Department, an alcohol license, and some alphabet-soup agreements, one of which turned out to be for a grant for a victim advocate position in the Solicitor General’s office.

Here’s the agenda. See also the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

1 change order, 2 grants, 3 rezonings, 1 KLVB appointment @ LCC 2014-04-07

A non-competitive no-RFP un-explained change order, this time for Val Del Road, on the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission. Would you like to know why county staff doesn’t want to go out for competitive bids before spending your tax money? We can guess it’s about that shoulder paving they just approved $949,493.85 for to Scruggs Company. But why should we have to guess if that’s it and why they need a change order for a million dollar project at the very next Commission meeting?

We’d be able to see why if the board packets were online with the agenda, as happens in many metropolitan areas, such as Leon County, Florida, or Glynn County, Georgia, or Richmond County, Georgia. Our own Lowndes County Board of Education often links board packet items in with its agenda.

While much smaller Glynn County Continue reading →

Videos of Day 1 @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

It’s a good thing the county held these first-ever (as far as I know) comprehensive budget sessions. Here are videos of the first day. Most of the departments are asking for more money, due to increased population and increased demand for services during a period of economic downturn. Something needs to be done, and these sessions are one step in getting to doing something.

Here’s the agenda.

Sheriff Prine @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

Lowndes County Sheriff Prine talked about Administration, the Jail, the Commissary, and Enforcement at the first day of Budget Presentations to the Lowndes County Commission, 10 March 2014. Like most other county-funded departments, he asked for more personnel. The long squeeze of the economic downturn needs to be addressed somehow. These videos show how the Sheriff proposes to address them.

Continue reading →

Church parking back yet again @ ZBOA 2014-04-01

North Valdosta Church of God is back for perhaps the fourth time about the parking lot for their new building. Plus a house variance in Lowndes County and a gas station variance in Valdosta.

Here’s the agenda. The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes online in real PDFs.

Continue reading →

Time to call it: Carbon Crash, Solar Dawn

Another observer gets it that green solar power is winning. Letting a fracking deliver company turn us into “stakeholders” in a white elephant methane pipeline would be an even huger waste after the pipeline stopped being used in a decade or so because sun, wind, and water power everything by then, winning like the Internet did.

Paul Gilding wrote on his blog 19 March 2013, Carbon Crash Solar Dawn,

I think it’s time to call it. Renewables and associated storage, transport and digital technologies are so rapidly disrupting whole industries’ business models they are pushing the fossil fuel industry towards inevitable collapse.

Some of you will struggle with that statement. Most people accept the idea that fossil fuels are all powerful — that the industry controls governments and it will take many decades to force them out of our economy. Fortunately, the fossil fuel industry suffers the same delusion.

In fact, probably the main benefit of the US shale gas and oil “revolution” is that it’s keeping the fossil fuel industry and it’s cheer squad distracted while renewables, electric cars and associated technologies build the momentum needed to make their takeover unstoppable — even by the most powerful industry in the world.

Why are the fossil fuel companies still pushing, then? Continue reading →