Facebook event by Joan Martin McNeal:
When: Thursday, November 14, 2013 6:30pm
Where: City Hall, 477 Pendleton St., Waycross, GAWill we get help Or will it be just another story? EPA Meeting Scheduled for Thursday, November 14 at 6:30 PM Waycross City Hall to give us an update on Seven Out Superfund Site. They will also have on hand the Georgia Dept of Health. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!
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Received 27 October 2013. -jsq
I have had a number of folks contact me about the upcoming SPLOST VII referendum and inquiring about a MOST. Trying to talk about all of this in as few a words as I can is not easy. But to give you some perspective—the city’s general fund budget is $32M. $5.9M of the revenue for this fund comes from property taxes. Based on the city tax digest a mill is worth $1.5M. The experts say 50.2% of the sales tax is paid by out of towners. In the opinion of some folks, it is closer to 30%. Pick the experts or local guesses ….it still is a significant amount. It clearly is very beneficial to the citizens of Valdosta and Lowndes County.
By now many have heard about a MOST or Municipal Option Sales Tax.
In the first part of this year—the city of Valdosta was faced with Continue reading
LTE in the VDT today. I added the images and the links. -jsq
Albert Einstein once said that “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” This philosophy can be applied to countless social and political issues and speaks of the dangers of apathy. Add to this situation a lack of information and our society is truly in danger, as companies like SPECTRA Energy not only count on our apathy, but will also try to hoodwink us.
The Sabal Trail Pipeline currently discussed in our community is really part of a larger story, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking allows companies like Halliburton to free oil and gas trapped in geologic formations, but in a fashion that is extremely dangerous to our environment (especially
groundwater aquifers) and human health. Exempt from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, fracking has created countless problems for communities from Pennsylvania to Texas, and may soon be coming to north Georgia.
The gas pipeline under discussion is literally a tentacle Continue reading
“We have broadband”, said Bill Slaughter, while other people had different opinions on that and other topics Wednesday night at the Mildred Hunter Community Center.
Corey Hull introduced the session and a small but vocal group of citizens
discussed all
the main topic headings.
He noted that there are more than twelve plans already in place
in the various cities and counties in the Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan
Planning Area.
Yet there were many common themes in those plans, and VLMPO was looking
for other common areas in these meetings and online,
and more specifically strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
If you have a community group of any size, VLMPO can come talk to it.
They’ve been to the Chamber, to Rotary, to churches, etc.
They expect to wrap this process up in December,
with common vision and goals for the next ten or twenty years.
Local officials present included Matt Martin,
Planning and Zoning Administrator for the City of Valdosta,
and Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter.
Martin didn’t say much, but Bill Slaughter was quite vocal.
I thanked him for speaking up, even though I didn’t agree with everything he said.
He helped clarify current county codes for stormwater retention,
and Martin helped clarify the city’s codes.
As a long-time participant in local development (he’s CEO of Waller Heating and Air) Slaughter said when people are buying houses all they look at is Continue reading
Those
PHMSA fines weren’t the half of Spectra Energy’s leaks and environmental
violations.
Do we want a record-EPA-fined pipeline company running PCBs through our counties?
Don’t we have enough
PCBs in the ADS landfill in Lowndes County
that’s
in a recharge zone for the aquifer we all drink out of?
Haven’t we already
imported enough hazardous wastes from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross?
Maybe the Lowndes County Commission should hear about these things tonight.
L.A. Times, 21 October 1989, Pipeline Firm to Pay Record EPA Fine, Continue reading
Pipeline and
local governance: Water (sinkholes, aquifer recharge,
runoff,
drinking water, and wastewater), trash (how about that Exclusive Franchise!),
and money (no-bid contracts and plus SPLOST VII).
If you want to help, we have a little list of tasks you can do.
Why another meeting in October?
The first one was at a time when many of the regulars couldn’t come, so here’s one for them.
| What: | Another October LAKE Meeting |
| When: |
6:15PM Tuesday
after the Lowndes County Commission meeting 7 October 2013 |
| Where: |
Michael’s Deli
1307 N Ashley St. Valdosta, GA 31601 |
If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.
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Water was a popular topic, as you can see in these
videos of the
Candidates’s Forum by AAUW.
Same location (VSU Continuing Education Building)
as the one
Chamber held,
but this time the audience got to ask questions.
Yes, Virginia, they do all live in their districts, and some of them have widely divergent views about what cities or school boards should do.
Local AAUW President Diane Holliman gave a welcome, and then Dr. Luke Fowler moderated. Here’s the list of qualified candidates. Here’s Matthew Woody’s writeup in the VDT.
John Hogan pointed out that a road issue could really be a drainage issue, so it’s necessary to look at context.
Calvin Graham Sr. said he was retired military, lived in the district, and had been spending a lot of time volunteering. He indicated the Continue reading
Spectra Energy subsidiary Sabal Trail Transmission held
a landowner one-on-one at Wiregrass Tech last night.
Matthew Woody of the VDT was there, as was one Valdosta City Council
member, one Lowndes County Commissioner, and at least two county staff,
plus some landowners (“might as well get something out of this”,
several said at the food bar), one of whom was a match for Andrea Grover.
Matthew Woody, VDT:
Continue readingMonday in Albany, Tuesday in Moultrie, and tonight in Valdosta, the pipeline roadshow is rolling through Georgia towards Florida. These are not public hearings or town halls: the pipeline company seems to be trying to get landowners in the path to show up, but anybody can attend.
Brad McEwen wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, Residents attend pipeline forum,
Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which is a joint venture between energy giants Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc., hosted the event to give citizens an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the proposed project.
Set up like an open house, the forum had 15 Sabal Trail subject matter experts on hand to greet residents and Continue reading
Spectra Energy will tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be,
as it
cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida
through south Georgia,
using eminent domain to make you sell your land,
to deliver gas
from fracking in Pennsylvania
for the benefit of
Florida Power and Light.
Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps
Brian Fahrenthold
or
Andrea Grover a few questions,
like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers,
and what about those
fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?
Added: facebook event.
Tonight (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called yesterday. Tech’s web server still seems to be down, but Google has cached her as: Continue reading