County Manager Joe Pritchard announced at this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session that the county and the cities had reached an agreement and resolution in time to announce a ballot referendum for SPLOST VII. He said the city of Valdosta already acted upon the agreement Thursday, and he expected the other cities would follow suit. He said Commissioners had a breakdown in front of them of projects to be paid for by the Special Projects Local Option Sales Tax. No Commissioners had any questions.
5.d. SPLOST VII Agreement Part 1 of 2: Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.
County Chairman Ashley Paulk volunteered a laconic explanation of how an agreement was reached:
While the Industrial Authority has been busily spiffing up its various Industrial Parks, everyone may have forgotten they have some competition west of town. Back in December 2010 Attorney Jack Langdale convinced the Commission in case REZ-2010-15 to rezone about 542 acres from R-1 to I-S, M-2, M-1, and P-D, which they did with fifteen conditions, which you can see in their minutes from 14 December 2010. As I recall it, one of the most convincing arguments was that the Langdales' own Kinderlou Subdivision is next door, so they wouldn't be doing anything to damage that, thus other neighbors could rest assured. Anyway, the next step was before the Commission at their Work Session this morning, for a vote tomorrow evening at their 5:30 PM Regular Session.
County Engineer Mike Fletcher presented agenda item 5.c., about Cameron Lane.
In December of 2010 the Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning case for the industrial park located off of highway 84, state route 38 west, near Wetherington Lane. The developers are beginning their master plan for the industrial park and will be utilitizng Cameron Lane as an entrance off of State Route 38 into the park. The developers are requesting to demolish Cameron Lane and rebuild a boulevard type entrance to serve the industrial park.
Attached are plats in front of you that show the existing and the proposed layout. The developer will be responsible for the acquisition of the the additional right of way that is required, as well as all engineering and construction costs for Cameron Lane. The new infrastructure will be built to county standards amd then will be brought back before the Commissioners for executive acceptance of infrastructure.
Commisioner Raines wanted to know if the county needed to deed the road over to the developer while all this was being done. Fletcher assured him the contractor would be responsible for everything.
5.c. Cameron Lane widening for industrial park on US 84 W @ LCC 2012-07-23 Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.
Apparently Cat Creek Road is sinking, and the county has to fix it fast. At least for this latest engineering emergency they didn’t no-bid it: they actually took bids. They vote tomorrow night.
There’s an existing triple line of 36 inch storm drain that goes under Cat Creek Road between Radar Site and Vienna Church. These storm pipes are failing under the road, causing the pavement to sag over the pipes. The project will be to remove the existing pipes, headwalls, realign the new cross drains, skewed to be more in line with the natural run of the creek, install new cross drains and concrete headwalls, and then repave that section of Cat Creek Road.
If the repairs do not take place immediately, Cat Creek Roiad is toing to have to be closed. This repair is considred to be an emergency. Quotes were obtained in lieu of bidding the work. We had four people we had requested proposals from. Two proposals were turned in: one from Reames for $59,640 and one from Scruggs for $66,257. The other two bidders were nonresponsive.
Commissioners had no questions. At least for this latest emergency, the county didn’t just award a no-bid contract; it did at least request bids.
5.b. Emergency repairs on Cat Creek Road Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.
board as the firm that will lead the design team for the new main library branch that will be moving next to the new municipal auditorium at Five Points.
Lowndes County Commissioners will vote Tuesday on the selection.
“The selection committee felt that the firm that was selected was the most qualified for the project as well as had the lowest estimate,” said Chad McLeod, Lowndes County project manager.
Though the selection process for agencies was directed by Lowndes County, the library board had input in the selection.
“The process to build the library began nearly three years ago at the county’s urging,” said Kay Harris, Library Board chairman.
Requests For Proposals (RFP’s) were advertised for 30 days, with 35 RFP’s requested by various agencies and architectural firms. Ten completed RFP’s were submitted to the county.
And when do we the taxpayers get to see these ten completed RFPs? Not unless somebody files an open records request and somebody else makes them available: it’s the county way!
Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company (SO) is bragging about selling a 100 MW biomass plant to Austin Energy. Funny how SO’s press release doesn’t mention Austin Energy’s buyer’s remorse. Let’s see why Austin Energy should regret buying biomass.
Southern Company SO announced today that the nation’s largest biomass plant is putting electricity on the grid in Texas. Southern Company President, Chairman and CEO Thomas A. Fanning joined state and local dignitaries today at the company’s Nacogdoches Generating Facility to mark commercial operation for the 100-megawatt unit.
Austin Energy is receiving energy from the plant through a 20-year power purchase agreement.
The PR goes on about local jobs and taxes, which could have been produced through building solar or wind generation. How much did that biomass plant cost Austin Energy? Funny how that’s not in the PR!
Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez wouldn’t mind a do-over on the $2.3 billion, 20-year energy contract the council approved in 2008.
The contract calls for Austin Energy to buy the entire output from the Nacogdoches Generating Facility, a 100-megawatt wood-waste-fueled biomass power plant.
“When the contract was initially brought to Council, it appeared to be a good deal to help us reach our adopted goals for renewables,” Martinez said.
There are some major problems with this article, but let’s first begin with the points one can agree with:
Mr. Putnam is correct when he says that natural gas is a much cleaner source of energy than coal and oil. It is also true that natural gas is a “bridge fuel” which can buy us time to develop new technologies. However, here are the points that are missing (or were glanced over) simply because we are, again, looking for a quick fix to our dependence on foreign oil, while doing little to address issues that really matter:
Neither Mr. Putnam nor the VDT seem to fully understand or recognize the environmental damage fracking does. This new technology is not only responsible for our nation’s current natural gas surplus, but also comes at an enormous price to both people and the environment.
Time and again we are talking about the need to become independent of foreign oil, yet little attention is paid to the need to conserve. Instead we continue to ‘live it up” and consume more energy per capita than any other western nation. If you are addicted to a “drug” (as in an overly consumptive lifestyle) hopping from marijuana to heroin won’t help your general problem.
It is time to finally put the pieces of a larger energy puzzle together because at the end of the day natural gas, too, is a finite source. But how will we ever get there when a) entities like Southern Company (i.e. Georgia Power) refuse to embrace truly clean sources of energy production like solar and wind, when b) people like Mr. Putnam and papers like the VDT only present a one-sided view of an important and complex issue, and when c) we, the consumers, refuse to accept our responsibilities in this whole mess as if we had a God given right to be wasteful?
Two kinds of taxes: Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday 8:30 AM and Regular Session Tuesday 5:30 PM, with a property tax millage hearing 5PM before the Regular Session.
Apparently the cities and the county have come to some agreement about Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) VII. Road repairs are being contemplated for Cat Creek Road and Cameron Lane. And there’s something about an RFP for an architect for the library.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012, 8:30 a.m. REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2012, 5:30 p.m. 327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
THOSE PUSHING the TSPLOST have bungled the job despite their gargantuan $8 million war chest. They have muddled their message (is it congestion relief or a jobs program?) and even managed to fumble the project list. Cobb voters don't know whether they're voting for a rail line or a bus line. And even though the proposal now specifies the latter, the overwhelming suspicion is that if the TSPLOST passes they'll be stuck paying and paying and paying for the former instead.
Better to vote down this TSPLOST and hope and pray that it also fails region-wide, than possibly come back in two years with an improved project list that can get the public's buy-in. As it is, the bulk of the Cobb projects on the current list would likely be on a future local Cobb road SPLOST list if there were no such thing as a regional TSPLOST. Which begs another question: Why should Cobb abdicate control over its road program to the Atlanta Regional Commission or a regional roundtable in the first place? Who knows better than Cobb residents what our transportation needs are?
What do you think? Does GDOT in Atlanta know better than we do what we need around here?
MIT Prof. Donald Sadoway thinks he’s found a way to build electric-grid-scale batteries out of dirt.
Electric utilities complain solar and wind power are not baseload, capacity, energy sources because they are intermittent. You know, if they weren’t busy running up cost overruns that could easily exceed the entire annual budget of the state of Georgia, maybe the utilities could solve this problem. Meanwhile, Prof. Sadoway, instead of looking for the snazziest coolest most efficient new method of energy storage, defined the problem in terms of the market:
the demanding performance requirements of the grid, namely uncommonly high power, long service lifetime, and super low cost. We need to think about the problem differently. We need to think big. We need to think cheap.
Then he set parameters on the solution:
If you want to make something dirt cheap, make it out of dirt. Preferably dirt that’s locally sourced.
He cast about for possible precedents and found aluminum smelting gave him some ideas for using low density liquid metal at the top, high density liquid metal at the bottom, and molten salt in between. Choosing the right metals is the trick, which he thinks he’s found: magnesium at the top, and antimony at the bottom.
Is Sadoway right? Will his battery work at grid scale? I don’t know. But he’s asking the right questions, and it’s worth a try.
Has Dr. Sadoway achieved the holy grail of renewable energy? Judge for yourself. Our attention is compelled by the degree of his certainty and the seeming simplicity of the approach. Watch MIT’s Donald Sadoway explain his vision here (link).
Seems to me there are at least two major approaches:
Patrick Davis provided some explanation of what the suspension issue was at the Brooks County Board of Elections, and then asked a bigger question: where are the traditional media when sunshine is needed?
The main reason behind the suspension is centered around his alleged participation in qualifying and certification irregularities along with accusations of voter disenfranchisement of local citizens in regard to a sample ballot for the upcoming July 31 election.
Collins insists it is a misunderstanding, and Nancy Duncan, the chairperson of the Brooks Board of Elections, echoes those sentiments and urged the Board of Elections not to involve the Secretary of State and/or other authorities.
County Manager Joe Pritchard announced at this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session that the county and the cities had reached an agreement and resolution in time to announce a ballot referendum for SPLOST VII. He said the city of Valdosta already acted upon the agreement Thursday, and he expected the other cities would follow suit. He said Commissioners had a breakdown in front of them of projects to be paid for by the Special Projects Local Option Sales Tax. No Commissioners had any questions.
