Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Crawford Powell is a big man

According to David Rodock in the VDT today

about last night’s

County Commission

regular session:

Only one citizen, Dr. Michael Noll, came forward to speak with
commissioners. Noll asked commissioners to speak with Industrial Authority
board members about the 22.2 acre tract of land that is being considered
for purchase by Wiregrass Power LLC. Noll is concerned the company will
use the land to pursue previous plans to construct a biomass facility,
a proposal which has seen considerable negative community backlash over
the last year.

“I think commissioners made this very clear that the Industrial
Authority should have been done with this project,” said Paulk. “I
don’t think we’ve changed our mind. I can’t speak for the City of
Valdosta, but I think they’re prepared to make some moves and make
a statement on their behalf in the immediate future. It’s a project
that didn’t work and when things don’t work, move on to things that
do. That’s my personal opinion.”



District 3 commissioner Crawford Powell offered his insight on the issue,
“The issue the Industrial Authority has is they had a contractual
agreement on the sale of the property and so they’re trying to work
through that but I don’t think there’s any particular excitement on
their behalf to continue down that road.”

According to usually reliable sources, it was Crawford Powell
who

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Dancing Around the Issue —Dr. Noll

Received this morning on

Biomass plant land offer
.
-jsq



It is unbelievable that despite all the concerns in our community about
biomass, the Industrial authority is still considering to sell the
land to a company like

Wiregrass Power LLC.

This is the same company
the Industrial Authority once stated



it had no faith in anymore.

This is the same company

that just missed another deadline as stipulated by
their contract.
And this is the same company that apparently does not
have the best interest of our community in mind.

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The horse from the shelter Ruby —Susan Leavens

Received 28 June 2011. -jsq


This was Ruby, she was seized from her owner by me because she had a
hole in her back and her body condition was a one (1) on the Henneke
scale per the American veterinarian standard rating scale. There was no
feed or grass/hay on scene. While in the protective custody of Lowndes
County Animal Shelter
she got maggots in the wound on her back. Ruby also had

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Videos of LCC work session of 11 July: regular session tonight

Here are videos of the Lowndes County Commission work session
of Monday morning.
They’re not labeled yet.
If the Commission did its own videos, they could do that….
The regular session, at which they will vote, is this evening at 5:30.
Agenda after

this playlist of the Monday work session:




Work Session, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 July 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s the
agenda:

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Falsified logs at the animal shelter?



Previously

I’ve posted briefly
about

the notarized statement by Susan Leavens of 5 May 2010.

Here is more detail, with pictures. The statement alleges animals smothered, strangled, stabbed in the eye, cut, torn, beaten, slapped, thrown. Improper drug use “who signed this thing?”. Racial profiling and discrimination. Unresponsive county officials and threats from them. Oh, yes, and falsified logs of euthanasia.

“And it was time for the abuse, neglect and deceitfulness to stop.”

Susan Leavens stated:

“On 4/28/2010 I came in from checking traps around 1030 am, I was told while euthenizing a cat, the syringe I was draw pentosol out didn’t matter
what mattered was the 10cc syringe, so if it was not enough to euthenize the
animal then set it aside it would die.
But the 10cc one is the one that needed to come out right.
I said “WHAT!”
Tim Cook explained that to me he went and got Ryan Curtis
and he explained the very same thing, he said even
if you don’t have a full cc of pentosol, say it’s a cc on the log because the
10 cc syringe mattered not what we were using to euthenize with!
It was very apparent that human[e] euthanasia was
not important that the numbers were.
This was very disturbing to know we were being made to make the animals suffer because the numbers might be off!”

In the statement she names multiple people she says were witnesses
to the falsification of euthanization log entries,
and even to the complete rewrite of a log and shredding of the previous copy.

Her statement also describes:

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Timing confusion —John S. Quarterman

Sent to all four Commissioners and the County Clerk Sunday evening:

Dear Commissioners,

There seems to be confusion as to how long citizens get to be heard.
The policy says five minutes.

Yet in at least a couple of recent examples,
citizens were cut off at less than that,

4 and a half minutes for me on 28 June 2011


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJseMtJvJE8

4 minutes 39 seconds for Jessica Bryan Hughes on 24 May 2011


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZxieSV6Yz8

You can see the times on the YouTube videos.

This timing confusion may be because

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Three rezonings and three board appointments: Lowndes County Commission

Lowndes County Commission work session Monday morning and regular session
Tuesday evening.
Here’s the
agenda:


LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 11, 2011, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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Lowndes County could stop biomass plant

VDT is not quite right when it says Only city can stop biomass. The Lowndes County Commission could do it.

According to Ashley Paulk, a few months ago VLCIA approached the Lowndes County government, asking them to ask VLCIA not to extend Sterling Planet’s contract for the biomass plant. Chairman Paulk refused to accept that hot potato and instead laudably told the community what was going on. Yet there was a bit of a good idea in what VLCIA was asking. Lowndes County could pass an ordinance such as VDT is suggesting banning the incineration of human feces.

Remember, Lowndes County rezoned the land for the plant. It’s time to review that rezoning to see if in light of new information it should be rescinded. According to the VDT, Wiregrass Power LLC supplied a fake timeline, so it wuld not be interesting to know what else they said wasn’t true?

For that matter, wasn’t the rezoning to build a certain biomass plant according to a certain plan which has no expired? Maybe the rezoning is already null and void and the Commission just needs to declare it so.

Short of that, the Lowndes County Commission could demand transparency from VLCIA:

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Only city can stop biomass —VDT

VLCIA has once again passed the buck on biomass, and the Valdosta City Council
could pick it up and finally deal with it.

VDT editorial yesterday:
after the



In a recent Valdosta council meeting, longtime councilman Sonny Vickers
asked if there was any way to put the biomass issue to rest once and for
all. The good news, Councilman Vickers, is that there is and it’s all
in the city’s hands.

The Industrial Authority signed an agreement with Wiregrass Power LLC
which allows the company to purchase the land from the Authority and
proceed with the project on its own. Although the Authority hasn’t
yet voted on the issue, it appears that they don’t have a choice and
may be compelled to honor the agreement.

Compelled? Give me a break!
VLCIA has an attorney, and one of its board members is an attorney.
If they can’t find a way to break a land purchase contract because
conditions have changed, they need new legal counsel.

Why didn’t they discuss that in

their yet another special called meeting Thursday morning
,
in which they apparently discussed that
offer from Sterling Planet to buy the proposed biomass plant site?

VDT continued:

And once the land is purchased,
as long as the company complies with existing zoning laws, there is not
a way to prevent the plant from being built.

Oh, but there is.

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we are to go home, never ask questions —Barbara Stratton

This morning on

Lowndes County has transparency issues
:



This is typical of all elected & appointed government bodies locally. The
common opinion is citizens are only valuable for voting. After we vote
we are to go home, never ask questions, never complain, & never comment
until it is time to vote again. The common consensus is we are not capable
of understanding what our elected/appointed officials are doing so we
need to stay out of the process totally. This is nanny state government
via local venues. We the people are reduced to you the unendowed &
unimportant. John – Our political views are usually polar opposites,
but we are always 100% agreed on shinning the light on government
black-outs. Keep up the good work.

-Barbara Stratton