I spoke to Karan Rawlins of the
Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health
(bugwood.org)
at the
SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference
in Tattnall County 26 January 2013 (coming to Lowndes County next year).
At the mention of
Chaste Tree, she picked up a copy of
A Homeowner’s Guide to Preventing the Introduction and Spread of Invasive Plants in Georgia,
and turned to page 6, which says:
The Valdosta Tree Commission is offering Chaste trees
“to citizens at wholesale prices with the hopes of planting 100 trees in the city limits”, but this may actually be a bad idea, since this
species is exotic, does not support local insects and birds,
and in Texas has become invasive.
The Tree Commission’s writeup says this tree:
“has no serious pest problems and attract butterflies to the garden.”
That first phrase is a red flag after reading
Dr. Douglas Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.
Local insects mostly cannot eat exotic plants,
and local birds eat local insects, so planting exotic trees
may look good, but is not helpful to native insects and birds.
Yes, Chaste trees may attract some butterflies,
but how many, compared to native trees?
And “no serious pest problems” means not many native insects munching
on the leaves or stems of the tree.
So what to plant instead? See next post.
The City of Valdosta posted PR 3 January 2013, VTC Offers Chaste Trees at Wholesale Prices to Encourage Tree Planting,
Continue reading
Last week I went to the Rainwater Conference Center to attend the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center & Tourism Authority Board
Meeting.
I had discovered the time and date of this meeting by asking at the information booth at the Conference Center one day when I was there for another event.
I arrived slightly before the 8:00 appointed time and was greated
warmly by
Councilman Tim Carroll
and
Conference Center Director Tim Riddle.
Being the Conference Center, they served a hot breakfast
(other morning boards have fruits and sweets but this was something
that you might get up for).
As 8:00 came there was apparently not a quorum, so calls went out to missing members to see if one more could be attacted. At 8:15 it was clear that there would be no additional members coming so no formal meeting was held, no votes were taken but an informal review of the agenda was performed:
Continue readingSusan Crawford has a plan for getting us fast Internet access for jobs, community, education, and health care.
Susan Crawford wrote for Wired 2 October 2012,
We Can’t All Be in Google’s Kansas: A Plan for Winning the Bandwidth
Race,
about how the incumbent telephone and cable companies that provide
our Internet access aren’t going to help:
They have no incentive to do so. Because they never enter one another’s territories, they don’t face the competition that might spur such expansion.
Instead, incumbent internet access providers such as Comcast and Time Warner (for wired access) and AT&T and Verizon (for complementary wireless access) are in “harvesting” mode. They’re raising average revenue per user through special pricing for planned “specialized services” and usage-based billing, which allows the incumbents to constrain demand. The ecosystem these companies have built is never under stress, because consumers do their best to avoid heavy charges for using more data than they’re supposed to. Where users have no expectation of abundance, there’s no need to build fiber on the wired side of the business or build small cells fed by fiber on the wireless side.
If the current internet access providers that dominate the American telecommunications landscape could get away with it, they’d sell nothing but specialized services and turn internet access into a dirt road.
So what is her plan?
Continue readingOnce a year busloads of people go to Atlanta from Lowndes County and Valdosta to lobby their legislators with small birds. It’s curious we only hear about this from Valdosta, not Lowndes County. -jsq
Bird Supper 2013 Tickets on Sale NowContinue reading
Posted Date: 1/3/2013
Sementha Mathews, Public Information Officer
Phone: (229) 259-3548
E-mail: smathews@valdostacity.comTickets are on sale for the 2013 Bird Supper, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, at the historic Georgia Railroad Depot, in Atlanta, beginning at 5 p.m. The tradition—over 50 years old—brings together hundreds of state officials and local business, professional and government personnel for a dinner of quail and important conversation.
The event, sponsored by the City of Valdosta and the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners, allows local professionals the opportunity to have an impact on the current legislative agenda through face-to-face conversations with those who will make some very important decisions impacting our local area and entire state.
Tickets may be purchased
And now a word from award-winning Valdosta City Clerk Teresa Bolden. -jsq
Good morning — I wanted to let you know that the Work Session scheduled for January 8th and the Council Meeting scheduled for January 10th have both been cancelled due to the lack of items on the Agenda. Our next Regular Council Meeting will be held on January 24th.
And now for some good local news: Valdosta City Clerk Teresa Bolden has been recognized by an international institute.
Valdosta city PR 18 December 2012, Valdosta City Clerk Teresa Bolden Earns CMC,
City of Valdosta Clerk Teresa Bolden has earned the designation of Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC), awarded by the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC), Inc. IIMC grants the CMC designation exclusively to municipal clerks who complete the demanding education requirements and who have a record of significant contributions to their local government, their community and state.
“In light of the speed and drastic nature of change these days, lifelong learning is not only desirable, it is necessary for all in local government to keep pace with growing demands and changing needs of the citizens we serve,” said City Manager Larry Hanson. “Teresa performs her duties with the highest degree of professionalism and integrity and is a great credit to our city and to her profession. We are fortunate to benefit from her talent and ability.”
As an example of Clerk Bolden’s work, here is baldosta’s apparently complete online list of ordinances.
-jsq
Bainbridge City Hall now hums with solar energy, Tristan Baurick wrote for Kitsap Sun 2 August 2012:
City Hall’s array of 297 rooftop solar panels is expected to produce the equivalent of 20 percent of the building’s energy needs, according to Joe Deets, executive director of Community Energy Solutions, the Bainbridge nonprofit group that spearheaded the privately-funded project.
“This is a great day for Bainbridge,” Deets said.
How many solar panels do you see on Valdosta City Hall? Well, that’s a historic building. But how about City Hall Annex? The parking lot? The formerly “100% Paid by SPLOST” Lowndes County palace that we’re now paying almost $9 million in bonds for? Nope, not a solar panel in sight.
Oh, sorry, that’s Continue reading
Why should businesses have to pay an additional license fee
for Sunday alcohol sales, if the only justification is
to raise money to pay for administering that license?
That was a topic at yesterday morning's
Lowndes County Commission Work Session
for agenda item
6.a.
Revision to the Lowndes County Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance.
Finance Director Stephanie Black mentioned the things we already heard from the staff, brown bagging, social hosts (serving alcohol at private events to underage drinkers), and the Sunday package sales. She said for the voter-approved Sunday alcohol sales the license fee would be $250, plus a requirement for an immigration affidavit. Commissioner Powell took exception to that additional license fee, which would be on top of a license fee already necessary for the rest of the week. Black and Chairman Paulk defended it as necessary to collect money to administer the license fee. Powell wondered if they'd need the money if they didn't have the license fee. Paulk said the city of Valdosta charges $1000 for a Sunday license. Powell said he disagreed with that, too.
Here's the video:
Additional license fee for Sunday alcohol sales?
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.
-jsq
Why did SPLOST in Houston County, Georgia win by a landslide while SPLOST VII in Lowndes County lost?
Houston County’s SPLOST passed in March 2012 by a landslide. Christina M. Wright wrote for The Telegraph 6 March 2012, UPDATE: Houston officials celebrate landslide SPLOST approval,
“This is a ‘thank you’ for the voters,” said Houston County Chairman Tommy Stalnaker as Warner Robins Councilman Paul Shealy presented the black and white sign. “They are the real victors of this thing tonight.”…
Unofficial results showed the SPLOST received 10,029 ‘yes’ votes to 4,799 ‘no’ votes. More affirmative than negative votes were cast in every precinct.
That’s 67.6% to 32.4%, and a difference: Houston County local elected officials thanked the voters. Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk, who rushed through a SPLOST vote a year early, Continue reading