I know that there are many “newcomers” to the area which supported
consolidation until they connected the dots and realized this has nothing
to do with improving our children’s education.
If Mr. Paulk was a “normal citizen” he would know if you call the
sheriff’s department for a animal problem he would know they call animal
control! And it is up to the animal officer if they want to give the dog
back to the owner… Officers have done it many times. It is under the
discretion of the animal control officer. Poor Ashley should know what
the ordinance says I mean he was the sheriff for many years as he has
indicated many times and since he is the County Chairman now one would
think he would know what the orinance says. This poor guy was given wrong
information by the County Chairman on how to fix the problem… perhaps if
the man caught the dog and brought it to the shelter he would be better
off. The owner would have to show proof of rabies vaccination and pay
impound fees. $25 impound fee, $12 for a voucher if the dog does not
have proof of current rabies vaccination. The prices are not much but it
is incontinent. If it is not sterilized (spay or neutered) it doubles
on each impound… fees can rack up pretty fast $25, $50, $100 and so
on. The sheriff’s office is not going to handle owner involved cases,
if the dog was returned to the owner it was not a stray. Sorry Ashley
Paulk you’re so wrong on this one!
If we are to believe Fox News and the Tea Party, solar doesn’t work
because the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra went belly up, despite the
fact that it received $535 million in subsidies. While wasting an enormous
amount of tax dollars on a company with a flawed business concept should
raise everyone’s eyebrows, the conclusion that the Solyndra mess means
“solar doesn’t work” is mind-boggling. It’s like saying “cars don’t
work” because Chrysler went bankrupt in 2009, or “T-shirts don’t work”
because Fruit of the Loom filed for Chapter 11 in 1999.
Solar is one of the most attractive renewable sources of energy throughout
Nolen Cox seems to think CHIP grant recipients don’t work.
Chairman Paulk declined to let Mrs. Cox speak because he said in a letter
to the Commission she called them idiots.
When he let Nolen Cox speak, Cox said:
I think it’s interesting that the comments
about the CHIP grant comes after the vote.
Y’all must be an all-wise group.
Chairman Paulk referred to that as sarcastic.
Cox disagreed.
Paulk said it was in his opinion and he decided such things there.
Cox asserted that:
to get a $300,000 grant it takes about $420,000
of tax money accumulated from citizens.
He didn’t cite any source for those figures.
He did claim the Commission was luring people into homebuying
while home prices are going down.
Somebody had to work for the money that they didn’t get
to give to somebody who didn’t work.
Sounds like he was saying CHIP grant recipients don’t work.
I wonder how they pay their mortgages then, since CHIP grants
as near as I can tell only help with down payments?
I thanked the Commission for doing the right thing about the
CHIP grant.
And for at least three people sitting up front (Evans, Paulk, and Pritchard)
lowering their monitors so citizens (and even
cameras) could see their faces.
Then I relayed the news about the
$1.5 billion investment in Gadsden County, Florida
for a 400 MW solar project.
Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment,
and customers for the electricity.
Unlike the failed local biomass project,
National Solar Power’s Gadsden County project already has
Progress Energy signed up as a customer for its electricity.
I recommended that the Commission go on record as being in favor of such
projects locally.
Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar –John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
that the prison privatization plan the Florida legislature added to the
state budget is unconstitutional on a key point of all prison privatization schemes.
Her ruling agreed with the
Florida Police Benevolent Association,
which is a union of correctional workers.
The privatization of 29 prisons in the southern portion of the state
from Manatee County to Indian River County to the Florida Keys should
have been mandated in a separate bill and not in proviso language in
the budget, as lawmakers did in the must-pass budget approved in May
and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, Fulford ruled.
“This Court concludes that if it is the will of the Legislature to
itself initiate privatization of Florida prisons, as opposed to DOC,
the Legislature must do so by general law, rather than ‘using the
hidden recesses of the General Appropriations Act,’” Fulford wrote
in
her order issued Friday morning.
The order doesn’t say Florida can’t privatize prisons,
rather that it can’t do it by hiding it in the budget process.
But alleged budget savings are the only reason privatization backers
are willing to admit to, so that’s no small matter.
And if prison privatization is such a money-saver, why did the prison companies’ cronies in the statehouse try to do it like this:
Continue reading →
This grant will serve people who are in the 80% or below median income bracket.
These people probably would not be able to afford purchasing a house
without down payment assistance.
And especially in today’s economic times these people need a hand up.
Instead of renters, they become taxpayers, and that certainly helps our economy.
Thanks for accepting the CHIP grant –Carolyn Selby @ LCC 27 Sep 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
A citizen (didn’t get his name; sorry) stood up to remark on the stray dogs
that kept getting loose in his neighborhood, and how when animal control came
they just took the dogs back to their owners, who let them loose again.
Chairman Ashley Paulk had no hesitation in saying the sheriff should be called
on the owners.
Stray dogs and the law @ LCC 27 Sep 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Twice Tuesday Ashley Paulk broke a tie to vote for assistance state-funded
assistance for poor people for affordable housing.
Joyce Evans made the motion, Crawford Powell said nothing,
Richard Raines was absent, and Paulk seconded and broke the tie for.
Tuesday the Lowndes County Commission considered a routine acceptance of a
Community HOME Investment Program (CHIP)
grant.
The previous morning at the work session, Commissioner Raines had
(according to the VDT) said he was against it.
(This is the same Richard Raines who thought
NOAA Weather Radios were “wasteful spending” back in March.)
However, Raines was not at the regular session Tuesday;
presumably he was on one of his many sales trips.
Twice, Commissioner Evans made a motion related to CHIP,
and Commissioner Powell did nothing.
Twice, Chairman Paulk exercised his privilege in such a case
and broke the tie, seconding and voting for the CHIP grant.
Tuesday the Lowndes County Commission voted to renew a land lease contract
with a saddle club for I’m pretty sure they said $100 a year.
Commissioner Powell made the motion.
Yet he said nothing at all a few minutes before and after when two
votes came up about routine acceptance of a
Community HOME Investment Program (CHIP)
grant to help relatively less affluent people afford housing.
Commissioner Raines, who grandstanded about CHIP the previous
morning at the work session, apparently had no problem with the
saddle club subsidy.
He didn’t show up Tuesday to vote for or against either.
Now I have nothing against the saddle club; I know little about it. It’s the double standard that bothers me.
If you have trouble hearing what is said in this video,
thank the Commissioners for
the award they gave LAKE.
Commission votes to subsidize saddle club
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
