2110 North Patterson Street
Valdosta, GA 31602-2580
(229) 259-9972
Here is your VLCIA Board:
Roy Copeland |
Tom Call |
Mary Gooding |
Norman Bennett |
Jerry Jennett, Chairman |
I expect to be there. Will you?
-jsq
PS: Maybe I’ll get an answer to my question.
News Talk 105.9 FM posted this:
Exclusive Audio: Mayor Fretti on Biomass
“Kay Harris is absolutely wrong, writing emotionally again.”He’s apparently referring to the VDT editorial I interpreted here.
He goes on to say it wouldn’t matter if the city refused to supply water to the biomass plant. Yet another variant on the popular local favorite: “there’s nothing you can do.”
Technically, no doubt he’s right: they could just sink a well instead. Politically, it would make a world of difference if the plant’s host city said it wouldn’t supply water. Not to mention I suspect the county would have to approve such a well.
At the least, the City of Valdosta could do what Gadsden County, Florida did: Continue reading
The VDT explains how to effect change, if anyone is listening.
Editorial, 13 Jan 2010,
Powerless to stop the power plant:
This week as the rhetoric around the proposed biomass facility has continued heating up, leading up to last night’s forum, one of the main themes has been that “government should do something.”
While the Times does not condone or condemn Chairman Paulk’s actions in the commission meeting Tuesday night, understanding the situation may help shed light on the issue. The county is powerless to do anything to stop this power plant. The only governmental entity with any power over the project is the city, and that’s only in the form of the services being extended and the water being sold to the company, as well as the sewage sludge that’s being burned. They too are powerless at this point to stop it.
The editorial continues with the tired old excuse “they can be sued”.
Don’t they have insurance for that?
If the whole thing goes as bad as some opponents predict,
they could be sued for the kind of financial disaster
that faces Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
There is one governmental entity that does have the power. Ah, here it is: Continue reading
Last night the County Commission Chairman turned a routine event invitation
into front page news in the VDT this morning:
http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x1162624684/Paulk-No-more-biomass:
Lowndes County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk called a halt Tuesday evening to commissioners hearing biomass comments during public portions of regular board meetings.LAKE has videos; here’s a playlist, and here it is embedded: Continue reading
That’s one thing on the
8:30 AM agenda for this morning.
Work sessions are where most discussion among the commissioners usually occurs.
The actual vote will be in tomorrow’s (11 Jan) 5:30 PM regular session.
Background on the contentious rezoning for the Glen Laurel subdivision is in the continuing series in this blog.
-jsq
|
Roy Copeland |
Tom Call |
Mary Gooding |
Norman Bennett |
Jerry Jennett, Chairman |
He’s on the board of Homeland Defense Corp., which does “Custom Automated Mosquito and Insect Misting Systems” and says this:
Thomas B. Call graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. After a career in the agricultural chemicals industry, Tom branched out into real estate. Today, he is the owner of Coldwell Banker Premier Real Estate, and owns a number of successful businesses specializing in residential and commercial real estate development. www.Valdostarealtors.com(Also on that board are Continue reading
We’ve seen Brad Lofton write
I will not debate you over e-mail
and
We will not, however, debate you over e-mail
meanwhile refusing to put tax-funded presentations and videos
up for public view through the VLCIA website,
and offering personal meetings instead.
Having experienced one of those personal meetings down at VLCIA HQ,
and
having heard from others who have attended them,
I know of no substantive debate that happened at those indoctrination sessions, either.
Any attempt at debate or even to get Lofton to produce the
scientific evidence he claims he has ends with a proclamation like
this one from September:
We’re moving forward with permits in hand.or this one from December:
We’re moving forward now, and we are looking forward to the ground breaking which will be Spring of 2011.
But let’s not be too hard on VLCIA staff. At the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting, it became clear Continue reading
A local planning organization that studies advertises frequent meetings
for input and studies facebook usage data to see what people care about?
That’s the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO),
which holds frequent and repeated hearings on major projects.
Next week it’s having its regular
Policy Committee Meeting
1:30PM to 4:30 PM, Tuesday 11 Jan 2010,
at the SGRC office at 327 West Savannah Ave., Valdosta.
You can see what they’re up to
about traffic congestion, busses, trains, bicycles, Moody access, conservation, or other issues,
and voice your concerns.
Continue reading 
On 28 Dec 2010
Brad Lofton wrote:
No one but WACE has made any claims about our efforts to substantiate this project.Who are all these people, then, asking questions at the VLCIA’s 6 Dec 2010 event?
For example, this one, following up about the Environmental Impact Study he requested back at the EPD air quality hearing (see video of that event). He didn’t get an answer then, and at VLCIA’s 6 Dec event he still only got allusions to studies and standards that were not produced.
You can see Brad Lofton in that video, listening. Did he forget so quickly?
What about SAVE’s event at VSU at which Dr. Sammons spoke? What about the well-attended Biomass Town Hall that Pastor Angela Manning organized? And other events.
What about my question at the 6 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting? Continue reading
In these two videos, Col. Ricketts responds to materials sent to VLCIA
by WACE.
He dismisses certain material as being
from Massachusetts
or being from
“folks come into the community.”
That’s rather rich, since as near as I can tell,
all of VLCIA’s “expert” panelists at their
6 Dec 2010 event
were from not from around here.
Some were from states a thousand miles from here.
Maybe somebody can transcribe
Brad Lofton’s enumeration of those “experts” from the board meeting,
since as near as I can tell VLCIA has provided no written list of them.
And of course Sterling Planet is located in Atlanta, not Lowndes County.
In the first video, Col. Ricketts says he’s responding to WACE materials: Continue reading