We previously discovered who was on the Valdosta-Lowndes County
Land Bank Authority Here’s the video:
Joyce Evans and Frank Morman reappointed to Land Bank Authority
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
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The Lowndes County Commission appointed
Edward Rawls, retired professional engineer and
Blake Waagner, owner of Valdosta Bike Center
to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
Citizens Advisory Committee.
Commissioner Crawford Powell surprisingly said:
I think the perspective from the bicycle group would be interesting on the MPO.Interesting development!
Also, the Commission continued the tradition which I believe was started by Commissioner Joyce Evans of attempting to get all applicants for appointed boards to introduce themselves. I think that’s a good thing.
Here’s the video:
Bicycles noted in appointment to VLMPO Citizens Advisory Committee
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
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Ariel Schwartz wrote for Inhabitant.com 17 August 2009, Solar Sunflower Field Energizes Austin, Texas
A retail lot in Austin, Texas recently sprouted a stunning field ofsolar sunflowers that soak up the sun’s rays to provide shade while generating a steady stream of renewable energy. Designed by public art team Harries/Heder, the installation consists of 15 flower-like solar photovoltaic panels located on a pedestrian and bike path between the village of Mueller and Austin’s highway I-35. According to Harries/Heder, the flowers are “an icon for the sustainable, LEED certified Mueller Development and a highly visible metaphor for the energy conscious City of Austin.”
Are these solar sunflowers practically profitable? Perhaps:
In addition to providing shade for walkers and bikers, the solar flowers collect energy during the day to power the installation’s blue LED lights at night. Leftover power is sent to the grid to offset the cost of maintaining the installation.But practicality of this particular field of solar flowers is not the point.
This is the point: Continue reading
A little reading in local histories of the area or talking to people
who were involved even a generation or two back indicates that Lowndes
County has always been a cliquish sort of place, mostly run by old boys,
for reasons that made some sense in the early days (lack of resources,
mainly), but doesn’t so much anymore in these days of I-75 and I-10,
airport, railroads that still go everywhere, Moody AFB, VSU as a regional university, technical and community colleges,
two hospitals and medical industry, TitleTown, Grand Bay WMA, Wild Adventures,
and south Georgia sunshine we can export to Atlanta and points north.
Here are a few books about the old days, all available in local libraries and possibly in local bookstores: Continue reading
“Our membership in ALEC expires this spring and for a number of reasons, including limited resources, we have made the decision not to renew.”and Intuit (Turbo Tax and Quicken) also decided to let its ALEC membership lapse.
Reasons such as petitions by numerous organizations asking companies
to ditch ALEC?
We seem to have a case of the cheese fleeing the rat ship….
(Sometimes I wish I could draw.)
Here’s another petition for corporations to ditch ALEC. Let’s not forget ColorofChange’s petition about voter suppression.
And how about ALEC board member UPS, based in Atlanta?
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Water and sewer take decades for return on investment, and roads and bridges probably aren’t any better. That’s worth remembering whenever solar, busses, or trains come up.
David Rodock wrote for the VDT Sunday, Commission wraps up annual retreat: Utility payments, road projects and waste disposal discussed
The cost of one mile of construction for water takes 23 years for a return on the initial investment; sewer takes 21.3 years.
The VDT didn’t specify the similar return times for road paving or bridge construction, but it’s a safe bet they’re at least as long. The farther water or sewer lines or roads or bridges are from population centers, the more they cost both directly in installation and indirectly in trips for fire and sheriff vehicles, and especially school busses. The county commissioned a report on that several years ago, as Gretchen reminded them last year. In the particular rezoning case on Cat Creek they were discussing then (Nottinghil), they made a decision to table which seems to have caused the developer never to come back with that particular sprawl plan. I congratulated the Commissioners at that time, and I congratulate them again on not promoting sprawl.
Sprawl costs the county, payback takes years, and longer the farther out it goes. What if we did something different? More on that later.
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Historic Davids get approval for slingshot against power company Goliath.
Judge allows lawsuit over Georgia Power surcharge to go forward,
Fulton Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville’s ruling Thursday allows the lawsuit filed by former Gov. Roy Barnes and ex-Republican House Speaker Glenn Richardson to go forward.
The complaint said Georgia Power has improperly collected sales tax and fees on a surcharge created by a 2009 law. They say it has added up to as much as $100 million in costs to ratepayers.
This lawsuit opposes Georgia Power’s Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) that is already charging gapower customers for the Plant Vogtle nukes that won’t produce any power for years yet. If this lawsuit wins, they may not ever be built.
But you don’t have to wait for this lawsuit, or for the legislature to ban CWIP. You can oppose CWIP by paying for it in a separate check.
Maybe soon we can get rid of Georgia Power’s territoriality law so we can, like we could in 46 other states, generate our own solar or wind power and sell it to whomever we choose.
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These are videos of the Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 March 2012. They vote at their regular session tonight, 5:30 PM.
See also these special presentations:
Here’s a playlist of everything except the above two special presentations.
Videos
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
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Update 21 May 2012: Fixed meeting date. See also Planning Commission discussion of this item.
An issue of conservation records came up at the 28 February 2012 13 March 2012 Lowndes County Commission meeting, regarding a rezoning at Lake Alapaha, in far northeast Lowndes County, near the Alapaha River.
County Planner Jason Davenport described the problem, which came up in a request to rezone a piece of property that was partly zoned RA (Residential Agriculture) and partly Conservation:
We did get help from the clerk’s office to try to clear up when this property was zoned and why it was zoned conservation. I just don’t have anything [unintelligible]. We have minutes that say one thing and a zoning map that says another.
He said they had had limited time to investigate, and had not been able to resolve this issue.
That issue is still on the table. I would just remind you that in the grand scheme it is a minor issue.
Commissioner Richard Raines made the motion:
For my part I’m for rezoning the entire property RA and eliminating the conservation.
And that’s what they did. Which raises issues of what we should do.
Here’s a playlist:
Conservation records
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2012 13 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
The issue here is at least fourfold:
Continue readingSee separate items on the appointment of Sheila Cook to the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases Region Four Planning Board and “We expect you to run a clean, quiet establishment” —Ashley Paulk.
Other notable parts of this meeting were when
staff
said conservation status was a small detail and
and
Commissioners
proceeded to get rid of it in a rezoning.
At the end of the meeting,
County Manager Joe Pritchard
didn’t listen to Commissioner Powell’s request
and proceede to recount details of
road paving property signatures
until Chairman Paulk nudged him that the question was about
tornadoes, after which Pritchard
gave a recap of
Ashley Tye’s tornado report of the previous morning.
Here’s
the agenda.
Here’s
a playlist:
Videos
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission, (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
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