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
The owl in Hahira:
Monthly LAKE MeetingThomas says:
When: 5:30-6:45 PM, Tuesday 1 March 2011
Updated meeting location
Where: home of Thomas Ieracitano
414 East Main Street, Hahira
229-251-2462
That’s on US 122, just east of the Masonic Lodge.
“Bring a lawn chair, laptop (I will have Mediacom wireless) and your own food and drink.”If it rains or there are too many bugs or something, we will move to:
Down Home Pizza
103 South Webb Street, Hahira
229-794-1888
Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy, biomass, and regular local government meetings: you never know when news will be made!
Popular topics lately on the LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, include Continue reading
Continue readingEveryone wants jobs for those who need them and jobs for young people so they don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those people need to drink?
At the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner Brad Lofton gave a speech which I liked, and I told him so afterwards, because it was mostly about real industry with real jobs that that the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) has brought into the area.
But it had a problem:
David Rodock writes in the VDT,
Report on funds spent by Industrial Authority during biomass conference:
An open records request led to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) publicly releasing the detailed costs associated with hosting a panel discussion to answer questions about the Wiregrass biomass plant at the Rainwater Conference Center on Dec. 6, 2010.LAKE posted the detailed expense documents Monday 20 Feb 2011.The total cost for the event was $17,534.36.
The VDT article quotes Col. Allan Ricketts as saying:
“These costs included renting the center and providing refreshments. We view these costs as due diligence because they relate directly to our community. We need to make sure that a project is a good fit for our community and that it won’t do harm to our community,” said Ricketts.If they were so qualified, why wasn’t the VLCIA willing to have local people who would have charged nothing sit on the panel and debate them? Perhaps it’s because so many of the paid experts’ points were so easy to refute, as we know because so many of them have since been amply refuted?“You would want to insure that you going provide the best information available – they are the most qualified professionals you can find. You’d expect to pay them and they expect to be paid for their services.”
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George Rhynes writes about the
Quitman Ten, On Georgia State Capital Steps, Standing Strong for Georgians Right to VOTE!
I traveled to the Georgia State Capital February 22, 2011; in support of the Quitman Ten. These brave, courageous freedom fightes stood and are standing strong on behalf of Georgia Voter’s right to vote. This is a short preview of what will be posted here as a reflection of what took place at this meeting and historical event. As a concerned citizens from the South Georgia, I commend the Georgia citizens that stood in support of the Quitman Ten as they received rewards for their courage and perhaps being forced to bring South Georgia into the 21st Century along with other cities.He reminds us of the not-so-distant past: Continue reading
Editor of the Pelican Post remarks
Harvard Study Calls for New Education Priorities:
A new Harvard School of Education study, “Pathways to Prosperity,” recommends that educators place a stronger focus on vocational education and apprenticeships, rather than aim to send every high school student to college.This produces many problems: lots of people don’t get a college degree who would like to (can’t afford to go; can’t pass), lots of people who do still can’t get a job, and let’s not get into the Profzi scheme for Ph.Ds. Here’s a partial solution:“We are the only developed nation that depends so exclusively on its higher education system as the sole institutional vehicle to help young people transition from secondary school to careers,” says Robert Schwartz, academic dean of the college and co-author of the study.
“We need to do a better job exposing our students to different career pathways so that they understand what options are available to them after graduation.”
Wait! Somebody local talked about this recently:
Ben Copeland at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce.
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