Not on the agenda, discussed for fifteen minutes, then suddenly
approved:
more funding for the Airport Authority,
at the
14 July 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Which was similar to the previous morning’s transportation study
discussion, except the Commission didn’t vote that time on any possibility
of funding that one.
TSA has reduced the amount of money it gives to small airports like
Valdosta and in order to have Continue reading
The county asked SGRC a bunch of questions about the $15,957 public transit and trucking studies at yesterday morning’s Work Session that
they didn’t ask about the $16,915 they spent
two weeks ago to upgrade a water main to subsize a developer.
Commissioners seemed to think VLMPO hadn’t involved them in planning
the study proposals, when in fact their own Chairman and County Manager
and Engineer had been involved all along, plus five county-appointed
citizens.
County Manager Joe Pritchard said Commissioner Joyce Evans and
Chairman Bill Slaughter had asked him to get the Southern Georgia Regional
Commission (SGRC) to explain its proposed transportation studies.
He also introduced Lisa Crib, whom he said was the new SGRC Executive Director.
Corey Hull spoke for SGRC, saying he first wanted to know their questions.
Chairman Bill Slaughter asked: Continue reading
Here’s how to convert everything from air conditioners to trucks
from fossil fuels to 100% renewable sun, wind, and water power by 2050,
generating more jobs than would be lost from dirty energy,
stopping tens of thousands of premature deaths from pollution,
saving about 4% of U.S. GDP, plus saving $3.3 trillion worldwide
climate change costs.
That’s 100% as in no coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, or biomass, just clean solar, wind, and water power: 90% by 2035, 80% by 2030, and 25% by 2025.
No new technology required: just existing solar, wind, and water
power production with batteries and hydrogen fuel cells for transportation,
plus huge efficiency savings both from using electricity directly and
through other well-known techniques.
A cleaner, healthier world is within our reach.
And when even the country’s most corrupt legislature can unanimously
pass and the Georgia governor who took campaign funds from six pipeline companies
can sign a solar financing law, while Georgia
has already become
the fastest-growing solar market in the country,
renewable energy is producing the political will to get this done.
Stanford Report, 8 June 2015, Continue reading
Back again: the James Road subsidy for a failed mega-mall that we just keep on paying,
eight years later!
Five companies showed up at the May 27th pre-bid meeting, but only one bid for
$71,192 was received from Rountree Construction for the
Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road,
said County Engineer Mike Fletcher at the
22 June 2015 Lowndes County Work Session.
The Commission
at their 23 June 2015 Regular Session
approved that yet another fix-up payment caused by
the county’s
2009 widening of James Road “from a two-lane local road with ditches to a five-lane road with curb and gutter” for the never-happened
Market Street mall and subdivision project.
And local elected officials say bus systems need subsidies?
Every road and bridge is a subsidy for private developers.
And James Road is a subsidy we just keep on paying year after year.
The county spent SPLOST VI funds and $587,000 in GDOT funds on this subsidy
for private developers,
some of them from Tampa,
while requiring local James Road property owners to Continue reading
$16,915
to upgrade a water main to subsidize a developer,
but no approval of
$15,957 to study public transportation and truck routing.
Speaking of subsidizing private developers,
there’s yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.
And the Chairman
gave an excellent demonstration of why elected officials would benefit
by interacting and even debating with citizens, instead of
jumping to conclusions and preaching at them.
Here’s the agenda,
and the
LAKE videos of
the previous morning’s Work Session
and
the budget hearing immediately before the Regular Session.
Below are the Regular Session LAKE videos with a few comments,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Only one citizen spoke at the second Budget Hearing 5PM 23 June 2015:
Gretchen Quarterman asking for approval of the VLMPO request
for funding for a public transportation study.
The Chairman said they weren’t going to, and shortly afterwards
at their Regular Session they didn’t, although they did approve more than that for a water main subsidy for
private developers.
The 5PM meeting was billed on
the county’s website as
Budget Adoption Meeting
and the previous morning by the Chairman as
a presentation by the Finance Director.
Is it a public hearing if it’s never advertised as a public hearing?
At least the proposed budget is on the county’s website,
just not where Continue reading
The Chairman said the Finance Director would make a presentation
about the
Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget
Tuesday before they voted; he said nothing about that presentation
being the second Public Budget Hearing.
See LAKE videos of the first Budget Hearing
and of
the second budget hearing.
The
Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road.
is yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.
Also five pre-bidders but only one bid, this one from Scruggs Co., for
Widening of a Portion of Old US 41 N.
Why is the county paying the cost to
Upgrade Water Main at Lake Alapaha Subdivision
from 2 inches to 6 inches?
At least we found out where and why for the
Engineering and Surveying Services for Water and Sewer.
Here’s the agenda.
Below are the LAKE videos of the Work Session with a few comments,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
According to a thesis at Georgia Southern, hospitals are the most likely
industry to form microgrids, and it’s not just
New York State doing microgrids; even Alabama has one.
South Georgia Medical Center plus VSU seems like a good microgrid opportunity.
Put solar panels on the roofs, buy some Tesla Powerwalls for backup,
experiment with some wind….
Maybe the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority could help.
And use the electricity bill money saved to fund public transportation!
Matthew S. Purser, Georgia Southern, Spring 2014,
A Technical and Economic Feasibility Study of Implementing a Microgrid at Georgia Southern University. Continue reading
Georgia could do this.
Or the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority could do it locally.
At least
one student at Georgia Southern did a thesis on a mcirogrid there.
Where’s VSU? Wiregrass Tech? ABAC?
Katherine Tweed, Greentechmedia, 9 July 2015,
New York Looks to Cement Its Lead as Microgrid Capital of the World, Continue reading
For most of June, Georgia Power has had two ads rotating on the
five LED billboards in Valdosta, saying
Giving you the power to go solar —Georgia Power
When? Tomorrow, July 1st, as
Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said
at the SO Stockholder meeting 27 May 2015.
Why then?
Because that’s when
HB 57, aka the Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act of 2015,
goes into effect.
As Tom Fanning has made his mantra since that meeting:
“If somebody wants to buy distributed generation, I want to sell it to ’em,”
Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive, 11 June 2015
Inside Georgia Power’s move into the residential solar market:
The utility says it will offer solar through an unregulated business, but installers fear possible anticompetitive impacts, Continue reading