Category Archives: History

Do you miss him yet? Brad Lofton in SC

He may be gone, but he’s still up to his old tricks, and he’s using us for a reference.

Adva Saldinger wrote in The Sun News 8 May 2011, Lofton hits ground running in new post; CEO asking taxpayers for $1.6 million:

The new Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. president and chief executive is by many accounts aggressive and personable, and he says, ready to take charge and bring much needed jobs to the area quickly.
Brad Lofton said he will bring 500 jobs in the first 18 months, and an average of 500 jobs each year over the next five to 10 years.

And a pony!

Has anybody verified the jobs Lofton claimed he brought to Lowndes County? Continue reading →

“Solar power at one time was a theory, and now it’s in practice” —Sen. Tim Golden

State Sen. Tim Golden used Yogi Berra to illustrate that solar power is no longer just a theory: it’s now implemented in practice.

Yogi said, and I quote:
In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.
…
I thought about that quote because solar power at one time was a theory, and now it’s in practice.

A very good point.

(This is also where Sonny Murphy got the idea to quote Yogi Berra.)

Sen. Golden mentioned that he and Sonny Murphy grew up with Gov. Nathan Deal.

He said he met Pete Marte of Hannah Solar at the governor’s office the previous day, at the signing of HB 346, which includes solar tax credits. That’s the bill that Wes Hudson said “extends the renewable energy tax credit to the year ending Dec. 31, 2014, and for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 it newly expands the total statewide credit amount from $2.5 million to $5 million in each of the years 2012-2014.”

Sen. Golden once again said we’d gone from theory to practice.

He lauded Jimmy Carter for putting solar panels on the White House Continue reading →

Come back and expand on this one —Valdosta Mayor John Fretti

Yes, let’s celebrate Hannah Solar and this solar array! But why do people have to keep gilding the lily and claiming it’s the largest in the state when it wasn’t even back at groundbreaking? So if Valdosta Mayor John Fretti and County Commissioner Crawford Powell have agreed to expand this solar array if somebody leapfrogs it, time to get cracking! It was already leapfrogged before it was built.

After lauding his class of Leadership Lowndes over others, Mayor Fretti complimented various local organizations and said:

…not only that it has a good quality of life, it has the infrastructure that is needed for industrial recruitment, but that you will be successful when you locate in Valdosta-Lowndes County, and I think Hannah Solar is evidence of that.

All true, and note which comes first: “a good quality of life.”

Mayor Fretti quoted the first law of thermodynamics (conservation and conservation of energy) and remarked:

But now we have some energy sources in our area that we can take advantage of. Unfortunately we don’t have an ocean for tidal power. Unfortunately we don’t have geothermal as much as other areas of the country.
We do have sunlight. Certainly not as much as some areas of the country, but we have an abundance enough that we could put out what is currently the largest array in the state of Georgia.

That’s all good stuff, except this wasn’t the biggest solar array in the state even the last time Mayor Fretti stood on the same spot and said the same thing.

Maybe he (and everyone) should double-check what VLCIA tells him.

Brad Lofton knew Continue reading →

Rezoning on Old Pine Road again: is anything different this time?

Has anything changed since the contentious Glen Laurel rezoning on Old Pine Road? Maybe yes.

The new case decided yesterday (REZ-2011-05 – Laurel Brooke), was also represented by Bill Nijem, who got up and started speaking for it, and after a bit said:

First let me introduce myself, there are new faces up here. Bill Nijem. I represent the applicant.

Assuming that Commissioners should just know who he is may not sound like a good start, But, as he already said, nobody was speaking against this rezoning. Why is that?

I would like to note when the applicant first submitted this application, it was submitted as planned development, and worked with Mr. Davenport, we did tweak the site plan somewhat, made larger lots, and now it’s R-10.

And that’s what the opponents of the Glen Laurel rezoning asked for. At least a couple of them were present this time. Gretchen talked to them later, and they told her that since this subdivision had what they asked for last time, they had no objections this time.

Bill Nijem even discussed traffic and accidents, which you may recall Continue reading →

Neither wind nor solar power “need to be purchased by Halliburton”

Continuing to see what “the indigenous” think about solar power:

Today, a number of Native tribes, from the Lakota in the Dakotas to the Iroquois Confederacy in New York to the Anishinaabeg in Wisconsin, battle to preserve the environment for those who are yet to come. The next seven generations, the Lakota say, depend upon it.
“Traditionally, we’re told that as we live in this world, we have to be careful for the next seven generations,” says Loretta Cook. “I don’t want my grandkids to be glowing and say, ‘We have all these bad things happening to us because you didn’t say something about it.’
Part of this family and spiritual obligation to preserve

Continue reading →

Dialog and VSEB —John Robinson

Mr. John Robinson pointed out that school board problems and biomass are not the only issues around here, and for example the south side of town needs money so people there can become more productive citizens. At the 21 April 2011 Valdosta City Council meeting, He specifically recommended getting Valdosta Small Emerging Business (VSEB) up and running.

Here’s the video:

Let us try to come together and find some method —John Robinson
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 April 2011,
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

George Rhynes posted a complete transcript. Here are a few excerpts: Continue reading →

Private prisons are a public safety problem

They don’t save money and they do increase escapes. Justice shouldn’t be for private profit at public expense.

W.W. wrote in The Economist 24 August 2010 about The perverse incentives of private prisons:

LAST week authorities captured two fugitives who had been on the lam for three weeks after escaping from an Arizona prison. The convicts and an accomplice are accused of murdering a holiday-making married couple and stealing their camping trailer during their run from justice. This gruesome incident has raised questions about the wisdom and efficacy of private prisons, such as the one from which the Arizona convicts escaped.

Arizona, the place Georgia just copied Continue reading →

Consolidation won’t be the magic bullet —Leigh Touchton

This comment by Leigh Touchton, President, Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP, came in last night on “I don’t see a separation”. -jsq

What NAACP has advocated for is cultural competency from our teachers, this is not necessarily a black or white issue. Often it’s more a matter of class than race; for example, far too many middle class teachers expect middle class behavior from children who are living in poverty and this is an unfair expectation. There are also deep-seated issues regarding black males that cultural competency won’t address: namely, that many black teenaged males don’t see any benefit to a high school education because so many of their family members cannot find work here in Valdosta. What’s the point to an education if one is still shut out of most successful careers?
Consolidation won’t be the magic bullet that solves these problems, there aren’t even any CUEE representatives speaking to these issues. To most of our members, we think these issues will get worse rather than better if the two systems were to merge.
-Leigh Touchton

This is not representative of the people —John S. Quarterman on CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011

I didn’t intend to say anything Monday, but since Rev. Bennett named me in his introduction I thought it necessary to stand up and make it clear that I do not support CUEE’s plan for school system unification.

After some examples of things on which I agreed or disagreed with Ashley Paulk, the VDT, the Chamber of Commerce, and VLCIA, I mentioned that after an SCLC meeting Rusty Griffin told me that nobody who was not for unification would be accepted on the CUEE board.

I praised the upcoming Thursday meeting about education, but pointed out that commitee would not report back before the proposed unification vote, and the CUEE board still had only one member from the county outside Valdosta, so:

This is not diversification, this is not representative of the people, this a small pressure group, and nothing personal against you, a small pressure group that is trying to decide for the rest of us.

Once again, why I’m opposed to CUEE’s unification scheme: Continue reading →

Rev. George Bennett is a big man @ LCDP 2 May 2011

He admits in public when he’s proven wrong by new knowledge.

At the LCDP meeting 2 May 2011 Rev. Bennett praised Ashley Paulk for revealing what has been going on with the proposed biomass plant. Then he says he had years ago suggested we should get one of those. He had approached Wesley Langdale, who said:

It’s not economically feasible to do it.

So he was surprised when he discovered a group proposing to finance such a plant. And he later learned that there were many health problems with biomass plants, and he now thinks it would be wrong to build it.

So as my mother would say, Rev. George Bennett is a big man!