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.
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.
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.
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:
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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?”
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.
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
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
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
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