Scott Orenstein made a very good point at the end of the 7 March 2011
Valdosta City Council meeting:
…spirit of concern and participation in the community.
I’d just like the videographer to pan around and see how many
people are still here at the conclusion of the meeting.
And then talk about their true concern for the community.
Are they really concerned
when they get up and leave in the middle of the meeting?
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
The mayor re-opened Citizens to Be Heard at the end of the meeting
so
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Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Adjournment!
Little joke there.
But adjournment is not the end of interacting with the city government at a city council meeting.
For example,
Council Deidra White stopped on the steps of City Hall
to talk to people.
Three people were there.
All of us lived in the county outside Valdosta.
Not a single person who lives in Valdosta stayed
to talk to her.
Among other things, she said she thought she made clear at the end of
the last Council meeting that the mayor didn’t speak for her.
That was at the end of the meeting, in the
“Council Comments” item on the agenda.
However, apparently nobody stayed to hear that, either.
The 75% pot of T-SPLOST funds is what the project lists recently
submitted by Lowndes County
and the City of Valdosta are about,
according to
Corey Hull, continuing his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting.
Those are projects of regional significance
that the local jurisdictions want the voters to actually
vote on that project.
The other 25% goes to local jurisdictions, like this:
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
So what’s the evidence that these
biomass opponents are many, as the VDT says?
We could review letters to the editors in the VDT,
but let’s look at the visual evidence LAKE has recorded.
With no pro-biomass demonstrators anywhere to be seen.
Sure, a few people show up at government meetings to speak for the
biomass plant, but by my tally they are indeed very few,
and most of them are either former employees or board members
of the Industrial Authority.
Yes, LAKE has posted videos of
them, as well:
Ken Garren,
Nolen Cox.
Crawford Powell.
Or watch the people at the microphones during the
6 December 2011 VLCIA biomass “forum”
and see what you think the ratio is.
“THUMBS DOWN: To area officials who continue to refer
to the opponents of the biomass plant as a “fringe” group.
Far more citizens are concerned about the plant
than officials would like for the
public to believe. Thankfully, the city council allowed them to speak
at Thursday’s meeting, but the issue is not going away until their
health concerns are addressed.”
A year ago the VDT was solidly in the pro biomass camp.
Guess they didn’t like being fed misinformation,
any more than the rest of us did.
And that was before the VDT said
VLCIA illegally made up a document.
The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project
Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by
Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts,
the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial
Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open
Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot
produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If
he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the
Open Records Act.
Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached”
that wasn’t actually attached to
documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011.
Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT,
presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request,
even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.
Natasha Fast, co-president of
WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy,
explains why she is protesting
outside the most recent
Valdosta City Council meeting.
Natasha Fast of WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy outside the
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
What’s this about yet another sales tax decided on by
regional transportation boards and GDOT?
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization
(VLMPO)
explained T-SPLOST
at the regular monthly meeting,
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
Georgia HB 277, which was passed by the legislature and signed into law
last year,
calls for a 1% regional sales tax (T-SPLOST) to fund
transportation projects.
In two months, less than 60 days away, Wiregrass Power LLC is supposed to
break ground on the biomass facility in Lowndes County. By now, they are
supposed to have contracts with power companies to sell the electricity
to and with suppliers to purchase the wood waste. They have neither,
nor does the company have an agreement with the city of Valdosta to
purchase the wastewater from the sewage treatment plant.
And yet the folks at the Industrial Authority appear to be rather
nonchalant about the fact that this company has yet again broken its
agreement. They have the power to renogiate the terms of the agreement and
they also have the power to cancel it, but neither is happening. Instead,
they are giving the company all the leeway they need to continue dragging
this project along that the community doesn’t want.
Valid points and a great question to ponder. You may recall my quote
from Benjamin Franklin: “Waste not, want not”.
Add to that a quote from the Sierra Club: “Energy use should be
minimized through conservation and efficiency. In the near future,
efficiency is the only “energy source” which does not incur some
environmental damage and which is available immediately in generous
supply. Sophisticated building construction, efficient appliances,
recycling, modernized industrial
processes, programmable thermostats, public transit supplemented by
fuel-efficient cars, and many other innovative technologies can reduce
energy use tremendously, while saving money.”
In other words, we are wasting enormous amounts of energy and money
…spirit of concern and participation in the community. I’d just like the videographer to pan around and see how many people are still here at the conclusion of the meeting. And then talk about their true concern for the community. Are they really concerned when they get up and leave in the middle of the meeting?
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And yet the folks at the Industrial Authority appear to be rather
nonchalant about the fact that this company has yet again broken its
agreement. They have the power to renogiate the terms of the agreement and
they also have the power to cancel it, but neither is happening. Instead,
they are giving the company all the leeway they need to continue dragging
this project along that the community doesn’t want.
