Category Archives: Government

VDT on Foxborough v. McDonalds

It looks like the strategy I recommended to the Foxborough opponents to McDonalds worked: go to the County Commission work session and you may get in the newspaper. Kay Harris writes in the VDT about Issues with development, Neighborhood upset about commercial encroachment:
According to Vince Schneider, the spokesman for the residents, the majority of the neighborhood is opposed to the possibility of a McDonald’s restaurant openin g there. The property is currently listed with Lowndes County as owned by First State Bank, but the county engineer, Mike Fletcher, confirmed Monday at the Lo wndes County Board of Commissioners work session that he has received a plat fo r the proposed development.

Schneider appeared before commissioners at the work session to request they rec onsider the commercial zoning in the area.

Many of the residents only found out aboout the proposed McDonalds from a cryptic mention by Kay Harris in the VDT a few weeks ago. Naturally, the VDT ends the current story on a note of finality: Continue reading →

Good Meeting, Foxborough vs. McDonalds

Vince Schneider of Foxborough Avenue sums up the sense of a well-attended meeting (7PM Thursday July 8 2010) at which residents said they don’t want a McDonalds at the entrance to the Foxborough neighborhood. Vince will be speaking at the County Commission meeting Tuesday at 5:30 PM July 13, and also at the work session Monday at 8:30AM July 12.

See you there.

-jsq

Foxborough vs. McDonalds

I spent a few hours walking around Foxborough Ave. and Amberley Trail this afternoon, just south of North Valdosta Road. Did you know there’s a McDonalds proposed for Foxborough Ave., with a second entrance off of Old US 41? I didn’t until this afternoon.

The only mention of this project I can find in the VDT is this cryptic note by Kay Harris in her June 27, 2010 Business This Week:

The McDonalds project on N. Valdosta Road next to the Foxborough entrance should be finalized soon….

Neighbors immediately to the south of the project say that:

This property has not yet closed. Projected closing is the first week of August. Corporate McDonalds says construction will begin in October.
They also tell me this will be a 24 hour a day 7 day a week fast food restaurant. Numerous residents mentioned safety concerns about the added traffic on the Foxborough Ave. entrance to the subdivision, and about pulling people off of I-75 into their neighborhood.

They’re holding a neighborhood meeting about it tomorrow (Thursday 8 July): Continue reading →

Center of Innovation – Energy

Where’s Waldo? And where’s the state renewable energy strategy for Georgia, or for the southeast, or for just south Georgia? Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) Project Manager Allan Ricketts found another candidate.
“Forests Dominate Georgia’s Land Use”
That’s the title of slide 10 of 21 in Center of Innovation – Energy (CIE) by Jill Stuckey, Director. Actually, massively pesticided planted pines dominate south Georgia’s land use; not the same as actual forests with species diversity and diverse ages of trees. The same CIE slide equates
Georgia Forestry = Biomass Energy
That is what the state government seems to want it to be.

Back on slide 9, solar is defined as a southwestern regional energy source; nevermind that the solar map on that page shows Georgia with the same insolation as most of Texas (more on that later). And wind is defined as a central U.S. regional strength, nevermind that even Georgia Power has started exploring the possibility of wind off the Georgia coast.

I get it that Georgia has trees and forestry is a big industry in Georgia. I’m a tree farmer myself. I’d love to be convinced that biomass from trees is one good way to go. But at what costs? And compared to what? Continue reading →

State Energy Strategy of Georgia

Among the questions local citizens asked the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) was where is the south Georgia, state, or southeast U.S. renewable energy strategy? VLCIA Project Manager Allan Ricketts looked, and he couldn’t find it, either. He did find this list of “renewable energy strategy” hits from a GEFA search. At least one of those links points us to http://www.georgiaenergyplan.org/, which now gets us
Are you interested in buying this domain name?
The state has apparently abandoned that domain. Is that an indication of how seriously Georgia takes renewable energy?

Here’s something that looks promising: State Energy Strategy for Georgia (SESG), December 14, 2006, Governor’s Energy Policy Council, GEFA. It says it’s an energy strategy, but it’s mostly about transportation of existing fuels such as natural gas. Towards the end of the document in Figure 2 (shown above) the SESG illustrates the pit we’re in: about a third of Georgia’s energy comes from coal, another third from petroleum, a sixth from natural gas, and so little from renewable sources they apparently weren’t worth putting on the pie chart.

The SESG does contain this: Continue reading →

Nix on biomass plant in Traverse City, Michigan

Looking farther afield in Cadillac, Michigan than schools and realtors, there are some people who aren’t completely pleased with the local biomass plant:
Complaints are more frequent along Mary Street, a short stretch a few hundred yards south of the plant. Residents there deal with more intense noise and odors.

Craig Walworth’s home is among the closest to the plant. He walked up to his Jeep — a vehicle he cleaned the day before — and dragged his finger through a layer of film on the hood.

“Every morning, you have that to look forward to,” he said. “I clean my screens three times a year during the summer because they clog up.”

Nonetheless he didn’t say it affected his property values. However, that’s not the only issue.

Meanwhile, about an hour north on the edge of Lake Michigan, in Traverse City local activism caused cancellation of a proposed biomass plant: Continue reading →

Greyfield Villas

Entrance sign Previously discussing the Glen Laurel subdivision on Old Pine Road near Bemiss, several of the people speaking against at the County Commission meeting mentioned the Greyfield subdivision. That’s Greyfield Villas; see the entrance sign in the picture on the right. It’s in Lowndes County but not in Valdosta; somebody correct me if I’m wrong abo ut that. In that picture it’s hard to read the sign in the background on the north side of North Oak Street Extension. Here’s a closeup:

FOR RENT by Blake Taylor

For Rent. Just inside we see a dumpster with For Rent signs on the houses on either side: Continue reading →

Highland Renewable Energy Strategy

Previously writing about biomass and carbon dioxide I said I’d supply an example of the sort of thing I’m looking for as a regional analysis for renewable energy, including biomass, solar, wind, wave, tides, and others. Here it is: the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy approved by the Highland Council at its 4 May 2006 meeting. It’s a 58 page document about renewable energy strategy and planning guidelines, considering numerous types of renewable energy, pros and cons of each, power distribution, effects on environment, protected areas, etc., illustrated copiously with detailed maps. And updated: Continue reading →

Jailing Too Many People Costs Too Much

John Schmitt, Kris Warner, and Sarika Gupta write about The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration:
The United States currently incarcerates a higher share of its population than any other country in the world. We calculate that a reduction in incarceration rates just to the level we had in 1993 (which was already high by historical standards) would lower correctional expenditures by $16.9 billion per year, with the large majority of these savings accruing to financially squeezed state and local governments. As a group, state governments could save $7.6 billion, while local governments could save $7.2 billion.

These cost savings could be realized through a reduction by one-half in the incarceration rate of exclusively non-violent offenders, who now make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population.

A review of the extensive research on incarceration and crime suggests that these savings could be achieved without any appreciable deterioration in public safety.

There’s a 19 page PDF report published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, but that one graph pretty much spells it out: incarceration went up abruptly starting in the early 1980s and continued up, while crime did not. What we have here is a very expensive policy mistake.

And where does most of the cost come from? Continue reading →

Glen Laurel and Comparable Subdivisions

An interesting series of exchanges here. First Coy Brightwell compared the proposed Glen Laurel subdivision (on Old Pine Road) to the existing Greyfield subdivision (off Oak Street Extension) with a number of specific points: run down quickly, rental property, etc.:

Then a Mr. Mulligan gets into an interesting discussion about code enforcement: Continue reading →