Tag Archives: Economy

New place, new member, new officers, new name? @ VLCIA 2014-07-15




Six years in the making!
Finally VLCIA meets in its new office near the hospital.
Georgia Power VP Terri Lupo

was just appointed to VLCIA by the Lowndes County Commission
(without ever showing up and speaking).
On this VLCIA agenda is the annually expected officer nominating committee report.
Plus “Proposed VLCIA Name Change”.
How about SolarTown?

Hm, this move uptown leaves their old building to

Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline.
Has VLCIA ever developed an opinion on that boondoggle?

Here’s

the agenda. Continue reading →

Millage Hearings for Lowndes County

Even though the County Commission

already voted on the budget for spending your tax money


(and still hasn’t published that budget),
it will have public hearings on the millage before final
adoption of that number that decides how much tax you pay.
While the proposed millage rate
is still low compared to other counties
it’s curious that while

the Lowndes County Board of Education has published at least a summary
of its new budget
the Lowndes County Commission has not.

According to the county’s online

calendar and Current Events (but not its Public Notices nor the VDT’s online public notices),
these meetings are scheduled: Continue reading →

Solar Power Hot Topic on LAKE blog

Some like pithy posts, and others like long historical
summaries: see
the Solar Hot Topic for the latter.


I’ve just added links about solar parking lots, Oakland, CA, Dublin, GA and Lowndes High Schools, and super-lobbying group ALEC’s efforts in every state
legislature to oppose solar power.

Solar will win, simply because it’s already cheaper than anything else
and the prices keep going down. The fossil industry will delay as long
as possible to suck up more profit, but even Wall Street has turned
against fossilized utilities that aren’t doing renewables yet. We the
people will win. We just need to stop the fossil junkies from doing more
damage before they lose. The sun is already rising.

-jsq

Videos: budget, baords, and approvals @ LCC 2014-06-24



None of the appointees spoke, but all were appointed unanimously,
and they unanimously approved

a landfill expansion item without ever seeing a site plan.
Ray Devery and Barry Barr to the

Library Board,
Sheila Wakeley to the

South Georgia Community Service Board,
and
John Sineath to the

Valdosta-Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals,
even though Valdosta’s web page says he’s a city appointee.

They also unanimously approved everything else: a

grant for help getting a grant,
re-evaluation of

all rural agricultural tax assessments,
the annual

mosquito testing contract with VSU,
and the

landfill public hearing clarification item
about the hearing of the

public notice already posted for 17 July 2014.

Here’s
the agenda, with some notes, and links to the videos.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: second and final budget hearing @ LCC Budget 2014-06-24



The Chairman refusing to publish a draft of the budget before the hearings
didn’t get any more people to show up.
Only a handful of people where there who didn’t work for the county,
and
no citizens spoke.
I still don’t see the budget on the county’s website, two weeks later.
I guess you can look at the LAKE video of

Finance Director Stephanie Black’s presentation
and hope it has the parts you want to see.

We didn’t know about

the first budget hearing on 17 June 2014,
but here are videos of the 24 June 2014 budget hearing.

Continue reading →

Lowndes School Board raises millage, balances budget, publishes summary

Not two, but three public hearings on the LCBOE higher millage rate,
10 AM and 6 PM on July 15, 6 PM on July 22.
That rate still puts Lowndes
in the middle of school millage
for counties statewide.
And they published a budget summary before the hearings.

Kristin Finney wrote for the VDT today,

Lowndes schools approves budget:
System ups millage rate,
picked up by AP as

Lowndes schools approves budget, Continue reading →

Videos: 5 board appointments, budget, and 4 For Approval @ LCC 2014-06-23



The county’s

response to the weekend storms (straight-line event, not tornado)
was less confused than its proposed board appointments.
They vote Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM, including on the
budget.

Likely return of Ray Devery to the

Library Board as Chairman,
and reappointment of Barry Barr.
Sheila Wakeley for the

South Georgia Community Service Board,
but even the Commissioners had no bio for her.
John Sineath for

Valdosta-Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals,
even though Valdosta’s web page says he’s a city appointee.
None of the applicants spoke.

A

grant for help getting a grant,
re-evaluation of

all rural agricultural tax assessments,
the annual

mosquito testing contract with VSU,
and the

landfill public hearing clarification item
apparently is about the hearing of the

public notice already posted for 17 July 2014.

Here’s
the agenda, with some notes, and links to the videos.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

5 board appointments, budget, 4 For Approval incl. Landfill @ LCC 2014-06-23



The second and last

Budget Hearing is 5PM Tuesday 24 June 2014, just before the Regular Session.

But first, at
the Monday morning Work and Tuesday evening Regular Sessions,
4 appointments to 3 boards,
and four obscure For Consideration items about a grant,
a schedule,
a contract,
and a landfill public hearing that may or may not be the one of the

public notice already posted for 17 July 2014.

Here’s
the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: DFCS and ZBOA appointments + guns, lawyers, and money @ LCC 2014-06-10



They wouldn’t say

what they would do to secure their own building after July 1st
when the Georgia guns-everywhere law goes into effect.
A split vote for not opposing the

Hahira annexation
recommended against by the Planning Commission
plus unanimous approval of everything else under

For Consideration, including
declaring some Finance computers surplus.
They voted to approve their

opaque selection of auditing services
and to buy

an unnamed firewall replacement
among other things for unknown amounts.
Maybe somebody should bring that up at the county Budget Hearings.

They reappointed
Lonnie Denton to a sixth five-year term on the

Lowndes
Division of Family and Children Services (he spoke)
and Willie Houseal and Gretchen Quarterman each
to a third three-year term on the

ZBOA (they spoke yesterday morning).
Also Public Hearings for

well and septic
and

a special events change to the ULDC.
in their Luke Bryan balancing act.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also the
videos of the

Work Session of the previous morning
and the

videos of the 27 May 2014 Planning Commission meeting.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

56% increase shale gas 2012-2040; 100% 200% increase solar 2012-2014

Projected 56% fracked methane increase over 28 years sets a Wall Street
analyst a-twitter,
while solar already went up 400% in four years
and will continue to do so for the next decade.
Which would you rather bet on?
More “natural” gas pipelines

that would take twice the land to produce as much power as solar panels,
or just go straight to installing the solar panels, faster, cheaper,
and with local jobs and reduced electric bills?

David Alton Clark wrote for seekingalpha 20 June 2014,

Kinder Morgan: Is The Party Over?



1) Shale gas provides the largest source of growth in U.S. natural gas supply.

A 56% increase is expected in total natural gas production from 2012 to 2040 resulting primarily from increased development of shale gas, tight gas, and offshore natural gas resources.

He claims U.S. demand is still leading production,
but: Continue reading →