According to
Community College Week Magazine,
Valdosta Technical College (which is now Wiregrass Georgia Technical College) earned the honor as being the fastest-growing college in the nation among colleges with enrollments of equal size.Its size range is enrollments 2,500 to 4,999 (see page 8.) Enrollment went up at Wiregrass Tech 45% between Fall 2008 and 2009.
Also, the Technical College System of Georgia named Wiregrass Tech Technical College of the Year for 2010.
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Let’s meet
the CUEE board and ask them a simple question.
The Chair, Leroy Butler, named them in this order: Rusty Griffin (Vice-Chair), George Bennett, Tom Kurrie, Walter Hobgood, Johnny Ball, Jack Edwards, Jud Rackley, Gene Godfrey, and “last but certainly not least” Ruth Council. (Not named but listed on CUEE’s website are David Durland, Terry Hunt, and Ronnie Mathis.)
As I told Rusty Griffin, I congratulate CUEE on holding public meetings about their plans.
Here’s the question:
How many of the current CUEE board are from the county outside of Valdosta?Continue reading
Wiregrass Technical College wants to expand onto some land owned
by the Industrial Authority, using
SPLOST funds.
Chairman Jerry Jennett:
The point is they’re landlocked.More transcription after the video:And so what you want to do is you want to take what your tract is now and have the ability to expand your building in the future. You want to move your training facility now and….
Roy Copeland: Continue reading
Do you think the Valdosta and Lowndes County School Systems
should be consolidated?
I don’t, but CUEE does, and they’re having an “official kick-off”
6PM tomorrow, 24 March 2011, at the Gazebo Room,
James H. Rainwater Conference Center, 1 Meeting Place, Valdosta.
Note at the top of the invitation:
It’s Your Decision. It’s Your Choice.Well, not if you live in the county outside Valdosta, it’s not. CUEE is promoting a referendum for Valdosta voters in November 2011 for Valdosta to give up its school system: Continue reading
don’t interact with their communities.
Well, paraphrasing what Yakov Smirnoff used to say,
in Lowndes County, community interact with officials!
Here is her comment from 15 March 2011 on this blog:
Not to be rude, although honesty is very often perceived that way these days, but, the industrial authority executives rarely thank their communities. In the six states I’m most familiar with, these fellows see themselves as beholden only to their employers. After all, they work with their directors, elected officials, a few bankers and city/county department heads. Rarely do they come in direct contact with the average voter, employee or homeowner, although all those people often pay a large part of their salaries and office operating expenses. Despite the public funding, these groups are usually tight lipped about how they do business and rarely provide the public with records or audits. We’ve all put up with that manner of doing business for so long we now see it as just that — the way you do business. We’d never accept that from a nonprofit organization, a charity group or most elected officials. Shame on us all.Susan, you’re helping by reading, and you’re helping more by posting. Many local officials have noticed LAKE and this blog because they know people read it.
Anyone who wants to help still more, you, too, can go to a meeting. The Industrial Authority is a good one to attend, but I hear the Tree Commission isn’t trying as hard to enforce things, and does anybody know anything the Hospital Authority does? The Airport Authority? Continue reading
If you go to lowndescounty.com, pull down Government at the top,
select Board of Elections, then
Election Results, you can select a format for displaying
election results.
And the results at 8:50 PM 15 March 2010 are:
| BOE SALES TAX QUESTION | VOTES | |
| YES | 82.66% | 2,931 |
| NO | 17.34% | 615 |
| Total Votes: 3,546 |
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If you’re not yet convinced to get out and vote today to continue
the 1% ESPLOST local sales tax that pays for school buildings, books,
band instruments, and sports equipment for the Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia school systems,
here are two Facebook pages:
And
where you can vote.
And here’s
lots of detail on where the money goes.
The two school boards are setting a standard for local government transparency in posting a detailed notice in the newspaper five times,
holding information sessions, going to other people’s meetings and speaking,
handing out flyers, etc.
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To find your polling place go to Secretary of State Poll LocatorThe version of their precinct list below actually has map links for each precinct. I have omitted the photographs of the polling places.Click Precincts for Map Locator and Driving Directions provided by Google Maps.
| Precinct 1 | Newsome St. Church, 202 S. Newsome St., Hahira |
| Precinct 2 | Old Pine Grove Elementary School Gym, 4023 Pine Grove Road, Valdosta |
| Precinct 3 | Westminister Presbyterian Church, 3019 Country Club Road, Valdosta |
| Precinct 4 | Northside Baptist Church Gym, 200 E. Park Avenue, Valdosta |
| Precinct 5 | Jaycee Park Activities Building, 2306 Jaycee Shack Road, Valdosta |
| Precinct 6 | Naylor City Hall, 8753 Georgia Highway 135, Naylor |
| Precinct 7 | Wood Valley Community Center, 1907 Gornto Road, Valdosta |
| Precinct 8 | Rainwater Conference Center, One Meeting Place, Valdosta |
| Precinct 9 | New Clyattville Fire Station, 5080 Madison Highway, Clyattville |
| Precinct 10 | Mildred Hunter Community Center, 509 S. Fry St., Valdosta |
| Precinct 11 | Dasher City Hall, 3686 US Hwy 41 S. Dasher |
| Precinct 12 | South Lowndes Recreation Center, 6440 Ocean Pond Ave, Lake Park |
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Speaking to the Lowndes County Commission on 8 March 2011,
Nolen Cox said businesses produce money and government consumes it,
and he doesn’t like taxes.
He appears to be opposed to the ESPLOST election.
He’s the same fellow who introduced the topic of climate change denial in a Lowndes County Commission meeting.
Here’s the video.
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To be published on February 11, 18, and 25, 2010 and March 4 and 11, 2010.That’s five times the Lowndes County Board of Elections is publishing the details of the ESPLOST one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes.
This is significant money: not more than $165 million dollars over five years,
$94,875,000 for Lowndes County schools, and $70,125,000 for Valdosta schools.
There are only two main ways of raising money for public schools:
sales taxes, or property taxes.
The local school boards use both.
This is the sales tax part.
Well, there is a third way. Continue reading