Category Archives: VLCIA

Are all these medical associations and doctors lying? –Dr. Noll

In the new era of good feelings, Dr. Noll asked the Lowndes County Commission whether they thought all the medical associations and doctors who oppose biomass plants are lying, same as he later asked the Valdosta City Council. He also offered to discuss with biomass proponent Nolen Cox, who spoke immediately before. Here’s the video.


Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 8 February 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Wiregrass Solar LLC –J. Stephen Gupton, VLCIA, 15 Feb 2011

Deploying on a solar plant does require a bit of legal work, and the attorney’s report at the February VLCIA board meeting mostly consisted of talk about completion of lease and sublease agreements with Wiregrass Solar LLC. What’s that, you may wonder, if you’re used to hearing about Wiregrass Power LLC, the shell corporation VLCIA contracted with for the biomass plant. That one still exists, but according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Wiregrass Solar LLC was registered 19 May 2010. The agent is the same as for the other shell cojmpany: Tammi Cody, 3500 Parkway Lane Suite 500, Norcross GA 30092. The agent county is given as Gwinnett.

Here’s the video:


Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director,
Allan Ricketts Program Manager, 15 February 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Turning on Wiregrass Solar –Col. Ricketts

At the February VLCIA board meeting, Col. Ricketts said groundbreaking for the solar plant is scheduled for February 21st with production less than two months after that.

Here you can see his timeline slide.

It’s a bit hard to read, but he mentioned at least these items:

  • Site preparation starts 16 Feb 2011.
  • Groundbreaking Monday 21st Feb 2011.
  • Commissioning ceremony and turn the switch on Wednesday 16th April 2011.
Apparently deploying a solar plant takes a lot less time than some types of projects. You can watch and listen to his presentation: Continue reading

Georgia native helps inspire Egyptian revolution: MLK in Arabic

Georgia native son Martin Luther King continues to inspire non-violent resistance to oppression, now in Arabic comic book form in Egypt. Egyptian activist Dalia Ziada obtained rights to translate The Montgomery Story from 1958 into Arabic. She says:
When, at first, we went to print the comic book, a security officer blocked publication. So we called him and demanded a meeting. He agreed, and we read through the comic book over coffee to address his concerns. At the end, he granted permission to print and then asked: “Could I have a few extra copies for my kids?”
Continue reading

Air pollution and children –Dr. Noll, VCC, 10 Feb 2011

Dr. Noll talks about air pollution and children. He asks if the council thinks numerous medical associations and doctors are lying to us. Mayor Fretti asks if that’s a rhetorical question. Dr. Noll indicates Rev. Rose and others seem quite disappointed in lack of response. Mayor Fretti falls back on process.


Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Environmental apartheid and envieronmental racism –Leigh Touchton, VCC, 10 Feb 2011

NAACP reiterates charges of environmental racism, despite claims from Brad Lofton, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, that “all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.” Leigh Touchton, president of the local NAACP chapter, presents to the Valdosta City Council research published by Robert D. Bullard about environmental apartheid.


Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She posted the appended as a comment on the previous LAKE post about Robert D. Bullard’s report.

-jsq

Dear Mr. Quarterman:
Continue reading

VLCIA board meeting today

The Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority board meets tonight:
All Meetings will be held at 5:30pm in the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street, unless otherwise notified.
I would post a link to their agenda, if they had it online, but they don’t.

Meanwhile, here they are.

-jsq

Roy Copeland
Roy Copeland
Tom Call
Tom Call
Mary B. Gooding
Mary Gooding
Norman Bennett
Norman Bennett
Jerry Jennett
Jerry Jennett,
Chairman

Brad Lofton’s cell phone records August 2010 – January 2011

These records were obtained by open records request and given to LAKE. They are available online as a flickr set, which provides various sizes, ranging from tiny to huge. Brad Lofton is the Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. These are presumably the records for the phone we’ve seen frequently mentioned as “Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone” -jsq

Prior restraint –Prof. Jane Elza

This LTE appeared in the VDT today. Here is context in case you haven’t been following this subject. -jsq
Dear Sir,

The County Commission has recently passed a resolution that will prohibit discussion of issues the commissioners consider closed by citizens in the “citizens will be heard” section of the Commission meetings. While apparently reasonable on its face, the restriction is designed specifically to prevent any more discussion of the Biomass plant. Commissioners have been quoted in the paper as saying they just don’t want to hear anymore about it. A law designed to prevent a citizen from discussing a particular subject is prior restraint. I taught Constitutional law at VSU for 28 years and I think this resolution is unconstitutional for that reason. One cannot separate the intent from the prohibition.

I can also argue that the restriction itself is unreasonable because

Continue reading

Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare –John S. Quarterman

Sure, everyone wants jobs for the people right now and jobs so the children don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those children need to drink?

This is the problem:

“What I believe the three most important things are, not only for our community, and our state, and our country, but for our country, thats jobs number 1, jobs number 2, and jobs.”


Brad Lofton, Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I shook Brad Lofton’s hand after that speech and told him I liked it, because I did: in general it was a positive speech about real accomplishments. I’ve also pointed out I had a few nits with that speech. This one is more than a nit. This one is basic philosophy and policy.

Now one would expect an executive director of an industrial authority to be all about jobs. And that would be OK, if Continue reading