Here is one person’s opinion on the current expansion plan for the Lowndes County Commission. LAKE is also making available a
web page and an OpenOffice version of this statement.
LAKE will be happy to post other opinions on either side as part of citizen dialog for transparent process.
Vote NO on Expansion Referendum
Voters in Lowndes County are being asked in a referendum to vote YES or NO on expansion
of the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners by the addition of two
super-districts:
Shall the governing authority of Lowndes County be
changed to a six-member board of commissioners to be composed of a
nonvoting chairperson and five voting district commissioners, three
of whom shall represent the existing three districts created by
dividing Lowndes County into three districts and two of whom shall
represent additional districts to be created by dividing Lowndes
County into two districts which shall overlay the three existing
districts?
Here is my
explanation of why I am voting NO and why I think you should vote NO
too.
By Kenny R. Bush and John S. Quarterman, with videos by Gretchen Quarterman.
On Sept 15, residents of Lowndes County gathered inside VSU’s Whitehead
Auditorium for a political forum concerning the upcoming 2009 General
Municipal Elections.
It was the competing Mayberrys, Hahira and Dasher,
in the shadow of the big city of
Valdosta with its council and school board.
The 100 or so people who watched learned about the candidates.
You can too, by watching the videos of each speaker
provided by LAKE on YouTube.
Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are
probably of higher quality.
Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are
probably of higher quality.
The event was sponsored by the American Association of University Women
(AAUW) and moderated by Jim Peterson, chair of the Political Science
Department at VSU. Before the forum began, the audience was provided
note cards and encouraged to write questions for forum participants.
A three person committee then decided which four questions that would be asked
on stage for each set of candidates.
Valdosta City Council District 2
The forum began with the five candidates competing to be the newest councilman of Valdosta’s 2nd district.
Willie T. Head, the incumbent, is not running,
but five other people other are:
David G. DeMersseman, David L. Dempsey, Rodney R. Flucas, Deidra A. White, and Dr. L. W. Williams.
The first question of the night concerned annexing land neighboring
Valdosta and if candidates believed it to be a good idea or not.
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When compared to coal, per megawatt, this burning [biomass and the like] emits 1.5 times the carbon dioxide (CO2), 1.5 times the carbon monoxide (CO, a toxic air pollutant), and as much particulate matter.
Georgia already has the country’s dirtiest coal plant, at Juliette, near Macon.
Do we need still more CO2?
Maybe
the Wiregrass biomass plant planned for Valdosta is somehow more efficient than the one
near Gainesville.
If so, it would be good to hear about that; I don’t recall the topic coming up
at the Lowndes County Commission meeting in which this plant was approved.
Dr. Bussing elaborated in a recent letter:
The fallacy is in believing that plants take up all
CO2 emissions. In fact plants absorb some, the
ocean absorbs more (and as a consequence is
becoming more acidic by the year), but a
portion just stays and builds up in the
atmosphere. That buildup is associated with
global warming, and it doesn’t matter if the
CO2 comes from coal, gas or biomass.
Here’s the Lowndes County Commission (most of it), posing about the new StormReady County designation:
We love the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), WCTV, and WALB, but if they published anything about that, we missed it. They have space constraints, and we don’t. Local governments do a lot of good things (and other things) that don’t get reported in the traditional press. This is where LAKE comes in.
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