Same old
agenda tonight at the Industrial Authority (only the dates
change each month).
It’s now buried
three levels down on their website,
but at least
they’ve started archiving old agendas.
Still no minutes, though,
going on two years since
the VDT publicly exposed VLCIA’s expensive price tag for old minutes.
-jsq
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Agenda
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
A Georgia Senate committee needs to take it up
a bill that would greatly ease financing
solar power for your housetop or business roof.
Sen. Jack Murphy is the chair, and you can contact him today.
GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act, was read to the Senate 16 January 2013 and referred to the Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities. Here’s contact information for the Chair of that Committee:
Continue readingAnother bad idea from ALEC already passed in SC and NC and is now in the GA legislature, getting coverage in several national technical and political blogs: HB 282, which would effectively forbid municipal broadband if any commercial carrier offers 1.5Mbps. It's up for a hearing this week: time to call your state rep.
Timothy B. Lee wrote for ArsTechnica 14 Feb 2013, Bill would ban muni broadband if one home in census tract gets 1.5Mbps: Approach could leave some Georgia residents without a viable broadband option.
Continue reading
Incumbent broadband providers are pushing legislation that would restrict Georgia towns from building municipal broadband networks. Under the proposal, if a single home in a census tract has Internet access at speeds of 1.5Mbps or above, the town would be prohibited from offering broadband service to anyone in that tract.
State-level restrictions on municipal broadband networks are
Received Friday. April Huntley also sent it to the Lowndes County Commissioners. I have added a few links and pictures. -jsq
Continue readingDear Editor,
I’m not sure if people know or care that there is another Dollar General about to pop-up in Lowndes County. This time it will be in Naylor. I’m not sure if this will be an improvement or not.
Something I am also aware of and hold an opinion about is the proposal to abandon a road in Naylor that leads to the Alapaha River. This is the only public access to the Alapaha in Lowndes County. It is a place of history, recreation and fun for many people.
The spot where County Road 16, Old State Rd., dead ends at the Alapaha River is an area of rich history for Naylor and
Local governments here probably don’t want to get into the news
for the cost of their upcoming retreats, Lowndes County Commission
this month, and Valdosta City Council next month,
like Roswell alrady did.
Pat Fox wrote for the AJC 15 Feb 2013, Record shows $4,800 tab for Roswell retreat,
Roswell city officials ran up a tab of at least $4,800 for their three-day work retreat this month at the Reynolds Plantation, 106 miles away in Greensboro.
Financial records from five north Fulton cities show these planning sessions can run the gamut, from a shoestring event for $700 in Sandy Springs to more than $10,000 for Johns Creek.
The Roswell retreat, held Jan. 31-Feb. 2, included nine people — Mayor Jere Wood, six council members, City Administrator Kay Love and a facilitator, who did not charge for his services. All spent two nights at the Reynolds facility near Lake Oconee.
Perhaps stay close to home where hotels aren’t necessary.
-jsq
Something good out of Chattanooga? The city with the fastest metropolitan Internet access plans to turn that into jobs.
Elizabeth Prann wrote for Fox 26 January 2013, City turns Internet speeds into jobs, that Chattanooga
is home to most advanced smart grid in the nation, customers are enjoying Internet speeds that are almost 100 times faster than the national average. Most Internet users in the U.S. have access to about 4.5 megabits of Internet speed.
We wish! OK, you can get spees that fast here: with Verizon 4G LTE, not too many places via land access.
So what’s Chattanooga got that’s better?
Continue reading
The
Austin reporting program is in addition to
the posting a City Council agenda more than a week in advance
(here’s the 28 Feb 2013 agenda already on 16 Feb 2013)
and
including the entire board packets
with working papers and other backup documentation
with the minutes.
Austin
televises and webcasts its meetings live,
with close captioning and transcripts online.
They don’t limit the number of citizens who can speak,
or the subjects they can speak on, and they televise and webcast
all of them as well.
Plus citizens can speak on specific agenda issues,
and Austin
has an online forum for citizen suggestions on which citizens can vote
on the ones they like.
Is there still back-door politics in Austin? For sure. But you can see a lot more of what is going on in Austin than they can about the local governments here, and citizens have a lot more input.
If Valdosta and Lowndes County (and Hahira and Lake Park and Dasher and Remerton) want to be treated like a major MSA, they might consider following Austin’s lead. Instead of decreasing citizen input by exiling all citizen speakers to the end of a meeting and limiting the number who can speak, while not even putting board packets online, consider continually increasing local government transparency and citizen input.
-jsq
The central city of a major MSA,
Austin, Texas, publishes its own video reporting on
local issues, like this one on local energy efficiency.
AustinEnergy has brought back its best offer ever deal, which allows customers to receive both rebates and a loan to make energy efficiency improvements. The rebates can total as much as $3200, and can cover as much as a third of the cost of the improvements, including the air conditioning unit. Remaining costs after the rebates can be financed through a low interest loan through the Austin Credit Union.
The best offer ever is financed in part by a $10 million better buildings grant from the U.S. Department of Energy….
Here’s the video:
Continue readingReceived Wednesday from April Huntley to Joyce Evans. -jsq
Good morning, Commissioner Evans!
Thank you very much for helping the community get the public hearing
for the closure of Old State Rd. tabled until next meeting! I hope we will all be able to work together to find a lasting solution that will enable the residents of Lowndes County and surrounding areas to continue to enjoy this beautiful spot on the Alapaha River. I hope you agree that this is not a standard road abandonment since it affects a body of water. I hope you have a great day, and I look forward to speaking with you soon!
Thank you again!
April Huntley
Tabled! The applicant requested and the Commission unanimously voted
to table
the proposed closing of Old State Road to Hotchkiss Crossing
on the Alapaha River
until their next meeting, which is in two weeks, Tuesday 26 February 2013.
A waste company executive suddenly rescheduled so he could come back
and apologize to the public.
All this and 3 rezonings and 3 contracts at the Lowndes County Commission
Regular Session Tuesday 12 February 2013, plus people haven’t forgotten
about animal shelter issues.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes. See also the videos of the Work Session of the previous morning.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor