Category Archives: Transparency

Agenda: Two rezonings and a lease @ LCC 2013-03-11

REZ-2013-03 Rezoning for Jeremy Valler, Knight s Academy Rd. R-21 to R-A, Well/Septic, ~10.4 Five minutes, or maybe ten each for Monday’s Work Session and Tuesday’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission?

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — February 25, 2013
    2. Regular Session — February 26, 2013
  5. Public Hearings
    1. REZ-2013-03 Rezoning for Jeremy Valler, Knight’s Academy Rd. R-21 to R-A, Well/Septic, ~10.4 acres
    2. REZ-2013-04 Doug Thompson Property, 3432 Bemiss Rd. C-H (conditional) to C-H, Comm. Well & Comm. Sewer, 1.28 acres
  6. Bid — Land Application Site (LAS) Farm Lease
  7. Reports-County Manager
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

-jsq

SC Edison knew San Onofre nuke steam generators were flawed before installation

Southern California Edison knew the new steam generators were defective years before then even installed them in the San Onofre nuclear reactors, acccording to a report just released. These are the generators that failed and caused both San Onofre reactors to shut down. SD Edison wants to restart one of them, and this document came out in that process. Southern Company would never do this, right? We shouldn’t worry about failed concrete or 15, no now 19, months delay while the Georgia legislature won’t even limit charges to Georgia Power customers for cost overruns. Nope, no worries.

Friends of the Earth PR 8 March 2013, San Onofre: Secret Report Confirms Edison Knew of Major Problems; Friends of the Earth: ‘Bombshell’ for plans to restart crippled reactor

WASHINGTON—March 8—A secret Mitsubishi Heavy Industries report released today confirms that Southern California Edison knew about serious problems in the radically redesigned replacement steam generators for the San Onofre nuclear reactors years before the defective equipment was installed, yet failed to make changes to fix the problems. The report was released today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) revealed its existence and demanded it be made public.

The report documents that Edison knew

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Down and Low NRC Reactor Status 6 March 2013

104 100% total
4 3% newdown
17 16% newlow
6 5% newtop
16 15% down
32 30% low
72 69% top
Since the last time I reported on NRC nuclear reactor statuses, 23 February 2013, six are back up, four are newly down (total of sixteen down), seventeen are newly running low (thirty two low). That’s 30% below 100% power, and only 69% (72 out of 104) running at full power. And that’s not counting Vogtle 3 and 4, which Georgia Power customers are paying for while never getting any power from them. This still doesn’t look like the 24/7 nuclear power we were promised, and it’s not too cheap to meter, either. Meanwhile, solar is already at grid parity without subsidies in India and Italy and will be soon in the rest of the world.

Newly down since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013

Newly down since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013
Newly down since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013: FitzPatrick, Indian Point 3, Brunswick 2, Monticello.

Newly low since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013

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Sinkholes in Florida, and in Lowndes County, Georgia

The sinkhole that formed under a man’s bed and pulled him in has made a lot of news in Florida, plus another one a few miles away. But the news seems to neglect why those sinkholes are forming. Could it be the same reason sinkholes are forming in Lowndes County, Georgia? And will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about that before we see news about somebody here falling into a sinkhole?

Will Hobson, Laura C. Morel and Jodie Tillman wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 1 March 2013, Seffner sinkhole 911 call: ‘Bedroom floor just collapsed’,

Jeremy Bush just went to bed when he heard what sounded like a car hitting the house. Then screams from his brother Jeffrey’s bedroom.

“Help me! Help me!”

Someone flipped the lights. Jeremy, 36, threw the door open, revealing a sight that defied belief: The earth had opened beneath his brother’s bedroom and was swallowing everything in it. The tip of Jeffrey’s mattress was the only thing left, and it was sinking into a churning sinkhole.

The Tampa Bay Times has a long series on what happened afterwards, rescue workers who didn’t find him, the demolition of the house, objects found, etc. They never quite get around to saying why the sinkhole was there. They first say (Shelley Rossetter 2 March 2013),

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Tourism Authority met this morning @ VLCCCTA 2013-02-27

Did you know the Valdosta-Lowndes County Convention Center and Tourism Authority was meeting this morning? Well, if you happened by the Convention Center you would find this Announcement on the door:

Announcement

Picture by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2013.

Most boards post an actual agenda on the door, but this one is just an announcement. If they posted that on their website or their facebook page I can't find it.

Gretchen says they did have a quorum ( unlike last month) and they were quite welcoming of her and the LAKE video camera. However, they did not provide her with an agenda. She says they didn't give anything to the VDT reporter, either.

-jsq

Proposed abandonment of a portion of County Road 16/Old State Rd. —Brett Huntley @ LCC 2013-02-25

Received today; he sent it to all the Commissioners. -jsq

To the commission on the proposed idea of road abandonment on County Rd. #16:

On the morning of 2/25/13 after the county commission’s morning work session, my wife and I spoke with Joyce Evans and Bill Slaughter on some of our concerns and new found technical information about road abandonment, Georgia state waterways, and what the county and state are expected to protect.

During our conversation we were told that for unexplained legal reasons the county would have to give the road back to the land owner. At this time my thoughts and questions come back to: Why if for legal reasons do we have to give the land back or away, and why are we even having to have a public hearing on this matter, if the public has no say?

Also during this conversation Bill mentioned

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Work Session this morning? Lowndes County web site down again @ LCC 2013-02-25

Is there a County Commission Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM? Can't find out from the county's website: it's down again. Is this a good way to demonstrate that Internet access is "one of the number one issues"?

Firefox First noticed about 7AM, http://www.lowndescounty.com/ not responding, same as three weeks ago. Once again I also tried it from somewhere far away geographically and on another ISP, with the same results as last time.

Alert!: Unexpected network read error; connection aborted.

So it looks like the Lowndes County Commission's website is down. Speaking of far away, why does it seem to be hosted in Dallas, Texas?

Well, let's see if there's any information on their facebook page. Nope; still content-free.

Here's a response Gretchen got from County Clerk Paige Dukes when she inquired after the last outage:

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Broadband on the table @ VLCIA 2013-02-19

Internet speed and access (appearing as Broadband) played a starring role at the 19 February 2013 meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA), with a surprise cameo by Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter (appearing as himself) and a bravura performance by Angela Crance of Wiregrass Tech, with a strong supporting role by VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland, and Mary Gooding standing in for VSU. Internet access (as "telecommunications infrastructure") came up in Project Manager Allan Ricketts' report as a requirement for a Fortune 500 customer service operation and for a National health care service provider, both considering locating here, also as bandwidth, as a requirement for jobs. That was the main theme of Executive Director Andrea Schruijer's report, especially in rural parts of our county, especially for a home-based call center. Even Rotary Clubs need broadband.

VLCIA is also helping find potential sites for several utility-scale photovoltaic solar installations.

The Industrial Authority Board was down to three members, barely a quorum: Mary Gooding, Chairman Roy Copeland, and Tom Call. Whereabouts of Norman Bennett and Jerry Jennett were undetermined. I can't complain; I was in bed with a sinus infection.

Here's the agenda (such as it is), with links to the videos and some notes, often in separate posts.

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Rotary Clubs need broadband @ VLCIA 2013-02-19

Bill Slaughter, Dennis Marks, John Page, Gretchen Quarterman @ Valdosta Rotary Club 2012-09-12

Before the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013 meeting, Gretchen told Bill about how she’s now videoing at Rotary and putting playlists on the web with some delay. Bill and Gretchen (and Commissioner John Page) go to the same Valdosta Rotary Club. This is yet another use of Internet access: attracting participants to local community groups, and getting their speakers to a wider audience.

-jsq

 

I don’t want to say we don’t have broadband —Andrea Schruijer @ VLCIA 2013-02-19

Unfortunately, Andrea Schruijer made clear that much of what had just been said at the the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013 hadn’t been heard.

It’s not that we’re saying we don’t have broadband. We have connectivity; that’s not the issue. We have great partners that help us with that.

Well, local “leaders” need to learn to say it: “we don’t have broadband!” Many of the people of Lowndes County and even more in the surrounding counties can’t afford Internet access at all, as Idelle Dear told the Lowndes County Commission. And the “great partners” Ms. Schruijer bragged about will never provide it for us without a lot of prodding, because AT&T and Verizon and Sprint and Comcast and Mediacom don’t think anything outside the Atlanta beltway has enough population density to bother with, and even in Atlanta all people get is U.S.-style low-speed low-reliability Internet connectivity that would never even be on sale in Japan or France or Korea or Finland or even Estonia.

Tom Call illustrated my point when he talked about a residential project where a provider installed cable and claimed they were providing voice, TV, and Internet access, but then didn’t actually have the capacity for Internet when people started using it.

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