Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
More are still uploading. All the local candidate videos that LAKE took
on 5 Oct 2009 are now in the playlist, as of 10PM 25 Oct 2009.
Videos taken at the 15 Sep 2009 political forum are already online.
Both Georgia Senators are holding a workshop in Savannah Monday October 26th
about federal grants.
To attend, you must register today, October 22nd.
I called Isakson’s office, and the woman who answered the phone said they hold one of these a year.
Last year it was in Atlanta, next year she thinks probably Macon.
So this year this is the only one.
Hm, I wonder how much of this is stimulus money that these two senators voted against?
Anyway, here’s the text of the press release of 7 October:
Continue readingIsakson, Chambliss to Host Federal Grants Workshop on October 26 in Savannah
The new development regulations were proposed in light of plans for the Gateway to Hahira project, which include a Harveys Supermarket. While the developer for the project has promised that its design will match the integrity of the small town, downtown atmosphere, there are no regulatory provisions in place to ensure this.Or they could just trust the developers of a project bigger than downtown Hahira that it will preserve the Mayberry character of Hahira. The Lowndes County Real Estate database shows that Hahira Gateway LLC owns much more land north of 122 than it does in the angle south of 122.“During a previous work session, council members learned that there could be design overlay guidelines adopted along that corridor,” Sumner said. “Therefore, regulations are being developed and will go to the planning commission before they are presented to the council for consideration. This moratorium (or hold) just ensures that we have time to adopt the guidelines at the November meeting before anything is done along the gateway corridor.”
I’m not sure this is what the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce wanted to hear, but it’s something that could benefit all of us:
Bruce Bailey, energy conservation advisor for Colquitt EMC, said, “Conserving energy and making things more energy efficient is much more cost effective than having to build a new power plant to supply more power, so we are recommending that as a leading public policy. If our future does include more and more conversions to renewable energy sources, it’s going to be very important that we don’t short-circuit our economy in the short term.”Story by Matt Flumerfelt in the VDT, 15 Oct 2009.Bailey said it’s important that any policies implemented utilize proven and effective technologies, and he warned that the price for doing nothing could be high.
Something to consider when planning development:
The closer you live to nature, the healthier you’re likely to be.That’s Amanda Gardner, writing in USA Today. A few other points:For instance, people who live within 1 kilometer (.6 miles) of a park or wooded area experience less anxiety and depression, Dutch researchers report.
The findings put concrete numbers on a concept that many health experts had assumed to be true.
“It’s nice to see that it shows that, that the closer humans are to the natural environment, that seems to have a healthy influence,” said Dr. David Rakel, director of integrative medicine and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Children and poor people suffered disproportionately from lack of green acres, the researchers found.And what affects the most vulnerable affects all:
More green space may also be a way for whole communities to become healthier.The cypress pictured is much like those in the swamp on Val Del Road that the county let a developer cut down last year.
Green money is pouring into Austin, Texas, which now has to decide how to
spend it.
Sandra Zaragoza,
writing in Portfolio.com, looks into what to do with it:
Last week, American Youthworks, a nonprofit aimed at at-risk youth, received $1.4 million in federal funds to build a green charter high school that will prepare students for jobs in solar-panel installation, green facilities management, and other jobs.Education, solar, weatherization; who could argue with those things?In the last few years, Austin Community College received $99,031 from Workforce Solutions for solar and weatherization training and, more recently, $59,800 from the Department of Labor to increase the number of women in green job training programs.
And ACC is hoping to bring more funding to Central Texas in federal grants. ACC is part of a group of Texas community colleges that have applied for $3.5 million in funding to build solar-energy training programs.
But do those functions create new jobs? Continue reading
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.Thanks to Seth R. Gunning for bringing this up.
Michael E. Kanell and Ty Tagami, writing in the AJC about
More than 16,000 flood-related claims filed in Atlanta area,
quote Robert Klein, professor of risk and insurance at Georgia State University:
Moreover, the maps that set out those high-risk areas are “woefully inadequate,” he said.And maybe somebody should do something about that continued development and sprawl.Maps should be recalibrated to account for continued development and sprawl, he said: destruction of trees, paving of roads and parking lots, addition of new homes to older areas and landscaping all change the way water drains — or doesn’t drain.