Projects, PR, and Planning at Industrial Authority this evening

Today is the third Tuesday of the month, so the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Board of Directors meets tonight. A list of specific projects, a PR position, and a strategic planning presentation are on their agenda.

I see they held a special called meeting 16 December 2011, but at least they listed it on their web page. Maybe they’ve got control of their technical glitches.

Appended is the schedule for 2012, and the agenda for tonight’s meeting.

-jsq

Meeting Schedule

All Meetings will be held at 5:30pm in the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street, unless otherwise notified.

Special Called Meeting

**December 16, 2011**

Meeting Schedule for 2012

January 17, 2012
February 21, 2012
March 20, 2012
April 17, 2012
May 15, 2012
June 19, 2012
July 17, 2012
August 21, 2012
September 18, 2012
October 16, 2012
November 20, 2012
December 18, 2012
**Please note date change**
Here’s tonight’s agenda.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

If Gov. Deal can investigate school elections, why not jail deaths? — George Rhynes

George Rhynes suggests that if Gov. Deal can investigate a school board election in Brooks County, he could also
issue another Executive Order and STOP the jail deaths in the Valdosta, Lowndes County Jail. (30 Jail deaths from 1994-2009) Today the general public is told that the public does not have a right to know under the law.
In this video George goes into many years of evidence regarding jail violations.

-jsq

Public hearing doesn’t mean the public gets to know anything

Jane Osborn wrote:
Requesting such a hearing before January 24 would give the opportunity to have all this information presented and for questions to be asked and answered.
Except that’s not the way it works around here. Public hearing locally means the chairman or mayor or whoever says “Who wants to speak for?” and maybe somebody speaks. And then “Who wants to speak against?” and maybe somebody speaks. It doesn’t mean that the Commission or the Council or the Authority presents anything for the public to consider.

Witness the hearing the Lowndes County Commission held in December on the documents related to the Comprehensive Plan. The only reason the public knew anything about what was in those documents was that Gretchen got them from somewhere else after the Commission refused to supply them in response to an open records request. The Commission never distributed any of the relevant documents to the public. Only one citizen spoke, perhaps because nobody else knew what to speak about.

Almost none of the local municipalities or boards or authorities routinely present to the public the information that is in the packets they see before the discuss or vote. There are rare exceptions, such as the VLMPO and other organizations or projects administered by the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC). SGRC is a state agency, not a local agency. Why does Lowndes County and all its municipalities and boards avoid transparency?

Why can’t you, the public, see what’s in a rezoning request before Continue reading →

Prisoner call centers

Prisoners answering the telephone for your government? Yes, apparently.

M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com and Bill Lambdin of WNYT-TV wrote yesterday for MSNBC, Inside the secret industry of inmate-staffed call centers,

When you call a company or government agency for help, there’s a good chance the person on the other end of the line is a prison inmate.

The federal government calls it “the best-kept secret in outsourcing” — providing inmates to staff call centers and other services in both the private and public sectors.

The U.S. government, through a 75-year-old program called Federal Prison Industries, makes about $750 million a year providing prison labor, federal records show. The great majority of those contracts are with other federal agencies for services as diverse as laundry, construction, data conversion and manufacture of emergency equipment.

We’ve heard of Prison Industries before. The Georgia prisoners who struck back in January 2011 work for Prison Industries, allegedly for no pay.
But the program also markets itself to businesses under a different name, Unicor, providing commercial market and product-related services. Unicor made about $10 million from “other agencies and customers” in the first six months of fiscal year 2011 (the most recent period for which official figures are available), according to an msnbc.com analysis of its sales records.

The Justice Department and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons don’t

Continue reading →

Southern Company has 3 biggest CO2 plants in U.S.

David Ibala wrote for the AJC 11 January 2012, Study: Southern Company plants are 3 biggest greenhouse gas emitters
Two Southern Company coal-fired electric generating plants near Atlanta are the biggest contributors to global greenhouse gases in the United States, and a third Southern plant in Alabama is the third-biggest emitter, an analysis of environmental data found Wednesday.

The nation’s No. 1 producer of carbon dioxide — the heat-trapping gas that is held chiefly responsible in models of global warming — is Plant Scherer in Juliette, about 65 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, according to the Associated Press analysis of data reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 2010.

That’s the plant that supplies most of our power in south Georgia, whether you get it through Georgia Power or Colquitt EMC.
The No. 2 producer is Plant Bowen, just west of Cartersville, about 50 miles northwest of central Atlanta, and the third-largest is Plant Miller in Quinton, Ala., about 165 miles west of Atlanta near Birmingham, the AP said.
The story also notes (as a picture caption):
Georgia Power recently installed pollution-control equipment, called baghouses, to curb mercury pollution at Plant Scherer. EPA rules that will regulate mercury likely will lead to the utility to install additional baghouses at other coal-fired plants
Hm, that’s exactly what Southern Company said it was incompetent to do. Apparently it figured out to do what other power companies already knew how to do.

Anyway, pumping out CO2 from coal plants is what Southern Company is doing instead of solar and wind.

-jsq

Cobb EMC backing off of coal at Plant Washington

Could Plant Ben Hill be next?

Kim Isaza wrote for MDJOnline yesterday, Cobb EMC’s pursuit cools on coal-fired power plant

Cobb EMC’s interest in building the coal-fired Plant Washington appears to be dead, and the company has begun soliciting bids for its future power supplies.

The electric cooperative has already spent $13.5 million toward permitting for the coal plant, which would be a new direction for the company from simply delivering electricity to also generating it.

On Jan. 24, Dean Alford, a spokesman for the Power 4 Georgians consortium of EMCs behind Plant Washington, is slated to address the Cobb EMC board, presumably in an effort to save the plant, for which his company, Allied Energy, got a no-bid development contract from P4G.

The Cobb EMC board could decide at that meeting whether to put any more money toward the project.

Many details of the 850-megawatt Plant Washington, including exactly why it is needed and any firm idea of what it will cost to build and operate, have been kept quiet, sparking critical questions from EMC members and environmental groups. It was proposed under former EMC head Dwight Brown, who is facing 34 criminal charges of theft and racketeering relating to his leadership at EMC.

So can somebody come up with an 850 MW solar plant to propose by 24 Jan 2012?

-jsq

Who gets to serve on the Brooks County School Board —VDT

The VDT caught up with the TV stations today on the Quitman 10 story, and provided updates and context they did not.

David Rodock wrote on the front page of the VDT today, Gov. suspends `Quitman Ten’ officials,

On Tuesday, Deal issued his order prior to the Brooks County Board of Education’s first meeting of 2012. Dr. Nancy Whitfield-Dennard, Elizabeth Diane Thomas and Linda Faye Troutman were notified of this suspension at approximately 4:30 p.m., according to sources.
That’s a bit more context than the TV stations provided.

The VDT also says who gets to serve instead:

Following the governor’s suspension this week, Brooks County school board member Brad Shealy, who is also an assistant Southern district attorney, was appointed to serve as president of the board with board member Larry Cunningham serving as vice president. Shealy served many years as the school board president prior to Whitfield-Dennard being named president last year.
That seems to be the same Brad Shealy who used to be chairman until the recent election.

The VDT adds this context: Continue reading →

No public hearing unless someone asks for it —Jane Osborn

Received yesterday on Public transportation and public records in Lowndes County,
Another issue here is that there will be no public hearing on this issue unless someone ASKS for it. Without a hearing, it just goes forward with no other public information about being presented. Anyone may ask for a hearing, but I would especially think that there are people who really need a functional system that is not just focused on people who have access to Medicaid as a payment source due to illness or disability. Requesting such a hearing before January 24 would give the opportunity to have all this information presented and for questions to be asked and answered.

-Jane Osborn

Gov. Deal suspended 3 Brooks Co. School Board members

The two local TV stations have an update on the Quitman 10: the governor has suspended the three who were elected to the Brooks County School Board. If the VDT has covered this, I must have missed it. (OK, I should look at today’s paper….) There’s also nothing about this on the Brooks County School Board website.

Jade Bulecza wrote for WALB yesterday, Governor orders Brooks Co. School Bd. suspensions

Superintendent Debra Folsom got the governor’s order Tuesday suspending the three board members.

“This is all new territory for us,” said Folsom. “We’re consulting our attorney to see what the next steps we will take to fill the positions.”

December 20 a review commission made up of the attorney general and two school board members from across Georgia were appointed by the governor to review the case.

“They heard evidence from the prosecution and from the accused and the conclusion of that they made a determination and forwarded that to the governor’s office whether to suspend or not to suspend the three school board members,” said South Georgia District Attorney Joe Mulholland.

December 30, the review panel unanimously made their decision.

That would be the same Joe Mulholland who’s been on TV saying things like Continue reading →

What is MIDS, anyway?

Here’s a bit from a VDT article about MIDS, by Malynda Fulton 11 July 2009, The bus stops here: Proposed plan will not affect county buses
Lowndes County officials assure citizens who use the county’s current transit program that they will not be affected if the proposed Valdosta-Lowndes County Transit Service Plan is implemented in the area.

The current Lowndes County 5311 Transit Program falls under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Department of Transportation. Ten percent of the program is subsidized by the state and 80 percent is subsidized by federal funds. Lowndes County provides 10 percent of the cost of each bus.

Lowndes County’s 5311 Transit Program was implemented in December 2001 with only three buses. The program now includes six buses that provide transportation throughout Lowndes County.

That may make MIDS the biggest bus system in the county. VSU may have more busses. Does Moody run busses?

More about MIDS: Continue reading →