Here is the
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)
2012 Executive Director’s Report,
provided to LAKE by KLVB Executive Director Aaron Strickland.
This is the report he discussed at the
10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
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The Chamber, the Industrial Authority, and various other local leaders
say they want knowledge-based jobs, or creative jobs.
We won’t get those just by teaching students to show up on time and
do what they’re told: that’s how you train factory workers,
not knowledge-based employees.
For creative jobs we also need Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.
How do you measure Tolerance?
One key component is the concentration of gays and lesbians.
So today’s
South Georgia Pride Festival
is a good sign for creative jobs in south Georgia!
Richard Florida wrote 16 July 2012 for The Atlantic, The Geography of Tolerance,
The map above shows how metros across the U.S. score on the Tolerance Index, as updated for The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited. The chart below shows the top 20 metros. Developed by my Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Kevin Stolarick, it ranks U.S. metros according to three key variables—the share of immigrants or foreign-born residents, the Gay Index (the concentration of gays and lesbians), and the Integration Index, which tracks the level of segregation between ethnic and racial groups.
Do you recognize that shape in the middle of south Georgia?
That’s the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area,
consisting of Lowndes, Echols, Lanier, and Brooks Counties.
Looks like about 0.4 on the Tolerance Index.
So sure, we’re no Austin, Texas, but we’re in the same range as oh,
Charlotte, NC.
If you want to help promote creative jobs in south Georgia, there’s a festival going on today:
South Georgia Pride Festival
noon until 6PM
John W Saunders Park
1151 River Street
Valdosta, Georgia
food and music all day
Who knows, the Mayor of Valdosta might even be there; what do you think? He certainly gave the festival plenty of earned media.
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Europe has no shale gas, so, unlike the U.S., natural gas will not be getting in the way of quickly moving to renewable wind and solar energy.
Barbara Lewis and Henning Gloystein wrote for Reuters 23 August 2012, EU Green Energy Drive Says No To Shale Gas, Looks Towards More Renewable Power Sources,
In the medium term, the value of conventional gas is in providing reliable baseload power to supplement unpredictable renewables, which depend on the sun shining or the wind blowing.
Danish state-owned utility DONG Energy, which has relied heavily on coal-fired power generation, sees a combination of gas and renewables as the way to go.
“We see gas-to-power and wind energy as the ideal mix, together comprising clean and stable energy. Wind energy as the clean energy source, and gas-to-power as the balancing power,” Carsten Krogsgaard Thomsen, DONG Energy’s acting CEO, said.
Meanwhile, Windpower Monthly reported 13 August 2012, Dong issues 2012 profit warning,
Continue reading
Yesterday morning’s County Commission Work Session
started on time!
In addition to the open records and open meetings items,
it included a report from KLVB, two rezonings, typo fixes and date changes
in the ULDC, a vanity road name change, an alcohol license and an
alcohol ordinance change, a USGS river gauge, surplus vehicles,
purchase of a new fire truck, and more!
They vote on all this tonight at their Regular Session, 5:30 PM.
Here’s
the agenda.
5.a. Unsurprisingly, the County Manager suggested the County Clerk be appointed the Open Records Officer now required by state law. 5.b. They also have a resolution before them about review and approval of minutes of executive sessions, but of course they don’t allow we the taxpayers to see that before they vote on it.
They considered adopting subdivision infrastructure for 5.c. Glen Laurel and 5.d. Crestwood.
6. Videos of the KLVB report and of applicant Emily Macheski-Preston are in a separate blog post.
7. Public Hearings:
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In
yesterday morning's Work Session,
County Finance Director Stephanie Black
proposed a letter of understanding
for Morgan-Keegan to act as underwriter for
approximately $17 million
to refund the original bonds done for this building as well
as the water-sewer bonds only if the terms are favorable and
the net value savings are at least 3%.
Current projections show a savings of
$1.2 million or a little over 7% at this time.
Chairman Ashley Paulk remarked that:
The bond market has changed drastically.
At least the county palace that former Chairman Rod Casey got a former commission to approve at his last Commission meeting now won't cost we the taxpayers quite as much as we thought. They vote on this tonight.
Here's the video:
County to renegotiate bonds for the county palace
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 September 2012.
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In
the 10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
Aaron Strickland of
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)
said there were two applicants for appointement to the
KLVB board: Emily Preston and Deanna Wagner.
They did not speak;
Emily Macheski-Preston and Deanna Wagner.
Ms. Macheski-Preston spoke (included below); Ms. Wagner did not;
maybe tonight.
He gave a brief verbal report, which he said was a summary of a report he submitted last week (which we the taxpayers haven’t seen). He said at their Rivers Alive event last year they had a record number of sites cleaned: seven. Great American Cleanup, KLVB’s signature event used to be 1 day, but this year was 3 days.
He read some statistics on numbers of volunteers and things cleaned up. He listed some future events. There’s more in the video.
Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know how much time commitment was involved. Answer: an hour per board meeting and helping out with events and committees.
Here’s
the video: video of Aaron Strickland’s aural report:
Haley Hyatt videoed
yesterday’s Remerton City Council
decision about Strickland Mill.
Citizens pled, unsuccessfully, for it to be saved.
Then the owners made a surprise offer.
Here’s Part 1 of 3:
The final plea
was made by Celine H. Gladwin.
Yet another reason why we should take water into account in any development plan: fracking for shale gas uses huge amounts of water, competing with everything else, maybe even using more than power plants and cities.
Delaware Riverkeeper and Protecting Our Waters wrote for Waterkeeper Alliance today, The Water Footprint of Shale Gas Development,
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Recent studies examining potable water supplies on a global scale, the current trends in American water consumption and the causes of depletion of this essential resource are helping us to understand that the footprint of shale gas development expands indefinitely when measured in water….
Of the seven nations where the groundwater footprint is greatest, the U.S. is one of the fastest speeding towards disaster. According
to Cynthia Barnett’s Blue Revolution, scientists say the 20th century was the wettest in a thousand years and now drier times are ahead.[3] This means that many of the management schemes we use now—based on 20th C planning—need to be changed to avoid catastrophe. So the 410 billion gallons of water America uses every day will suck the nation dry if we don’t stop over-tapping nearly every river and aquifer.
The biggest U.S. users are power plants and agriculture with private
Tonight the Remerton City Council votes on
the old Strickland Mill at
1853 West Gordon Street,
same item as
discussed 4 June 2012
and
postponed 11 June 2012.
Also, Remerton doesn’t play mysterious about
the Haven.
All that plus signs, water, and alcohol.
I will be there for about half an hour, after which I have to go video something else. Could someone else video the rest of tonight’s Remerton City Council meeting?
Here’s
the agenda,
which for some reason (I’m guessing City Clerk Rachel Tate not being available)
is a scan instead of a text-extractable PDF.
I’ve transcribed it below this time.
Continue readingCITY OF REMERTON
REGULAR SESSION AGENDA
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
5:30 PM
Apparently the Lowndes County Commission has noticed the
new provisions of the Georgia Open Records and Open Meetings laws
that
VLCIA’s lawyer explained to the Industrial Authority back in May,
seeing these two items on the agenda for Monday morning and Tuesday evening:
5.a. Adopt Resolution Appointing an Open Records Officer
5.b. Resolution Regarding Review & Approval of Minutes of Executive Sessions
Plus infrastructure for two subdivsisions, one of them the famous Glen Laurel, several well/septic rezonings, approval of USGS Funding Agreement for HWY 122 Stream Gauge (one of the four that let us know about river flooding in Lowndes County less than a month ago), a beer license, and approval of the changes to the ULDC that were discussed in the recent Planning Commission meeting, in the public hearing the public didn’t know about. And more.
Here’s
the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor