Tag Archives: Economy

Suddenly an agenda! @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10



You can go to the rest of the budget meeting, which is tomorrow.
Some time after this morning when I looked for it,
today’s

budget meeting

magically appeared on

the calendar

and in

Current Events

on the Lowndes County front page.
It shows most of the day tomorrow also as budget meetings.
And at 5:30PM tomorrow (Tuesday) there’s still the
County Commission Regular Session.

Plus in the middle of all that, the Airport Authority
is having a Board Meeting at the Commission Chambers.

Only a little more than a year ago, Continue reading

Budget meeting inside Lowndes County today @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

$

After this morning’s
Work Session,
there’s an all-day budget meeting.
All county departments, including constitutional officers, are reporting.

From Gretchen on the scene:

So far we have heard Board of Elections and Public Defender.
Next up the Sheriff.

This is apparently not a public meeting, and there was no public notice
that I can find.
Apparently it was mentioned at the February retreat.
Some candidates for County Commission are there, in addition to
current Commissioners and staff.

You may wonder as I do why this is not a public meeting.

-jsq

Solar power record installation and acceleration in 2013 in U.S.

Solar power is already second only to methane in new energy generation,
and solar is increasing its growth rate much faster than “natural” gas.
Solar is going to win, and quickly.
How many unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipelines will we let
the fracking industry gouge through here before we get on with solar power
for local energy, local jobs, and local lower electric bills?

Mike Munsell wrote for greentech solar 7 March 2014,

US Solar Market Grew 41%, Had Record Year in 2013:
The U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of PV, according to the Solar Market Insight Year in Review report.



According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries
Association’s

Solar Market Insight Year in Review 2013
, photovoltaic
installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over
2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts. In addition, 410 megawatts of
concentrating solar power came on-line.

Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating
capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. Additionally,
the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, ending the year
15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.

At the end of 2013 there were more than Continue reading

FBI investigating CCA about Gladiator School again

Indefatigable reporter gets FBI to investigate profiteering
private prison company: again.
CCA already
lost the contract for Idaho State Prison
and two other CCA prisons have closed.
Maybe this time the FBI will shut CCA down.

Rebecca Boone wrote for AP yesterday,
APNewsBreak: FBI investigates prison company,



The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections Corporation
of America over the company’s running of an Idaho prison with a
reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School.”

The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho’s largest prison
for more than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it
had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours
in violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees
falsified reports to cover up the vacancies. The announcement came
after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed
guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing
requirements.

The Idaho State Police was asked to investigate the company last
year but didn’t, until Continue reading

Videos: quick agenda and then pipeline @ LCC 2014-02-25



The

County Manager’s report
was
about FERC’s Scoping Meetings starting next week;

two citizens
spoke about the pipeline.
The Chairman

refused to let another one speak because she hadn’t turned in a form
,
and then he

spent 20 minutes after the meeting

telling her what the county wasn’t going to do.

We sort of found out where is the

unopened right of way off of US 41 South
.
The

special tax lighting districts
item went quickly this time.
We found out how much the county’s
sewer lift station at a subdivision with a private golf club

will cost to replace
.
This is the subdivision for which the

Nelson Hill Wells
were drilled as possible replacements.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos from the previous morning’s Work Session
.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading

There’s nothing we can do about the pipeline –Bill Slaughter @ LCC 2014-02-24



“There’s nothing we can do,”
said Lowndes County Commissioners
about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline,
after the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak during
the

25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session
.
But there are things local governments can do, as other local
governments and elected officials have already demonstrated.

Citizen Carol Singletary drove 100 miles to get there.
As Chairman Bill Slaughter asked for a motion
to adjourn the meeting,

she said she called in to say she wanted to speak
.
Slaughter responded,

You have to fill out the paperwork and everything in order.

Phillip Singletary said he did, and it was in the Commission Chamber
entranceway.

The Chairman did not relent; “just do it next week; next time”.
Nevermind that he has let people speak who hadn’t turned in the paperwork
before the meeting started (we have videos).
He even

let pipeline reps speak from the audience without coming up to the podium

and didn’t let any citizens speak at the Spectra sales pitch
back in December.

Commissioner John Page moved to adjourn, and added that he would
like to see Ms. Singletary after the meeting.
Chairman agreed, somebody seconded, and they voted to adjourn.

Do elected Commissioners now have to get a vote of the Commission
to talk to citizens?

Here’s

the video of that part
.

After the meeting, Continue reading

FERC pipeline Scoping Meeting tonight in Valdosta: testify for your community

A local affected landowner and the chair of a local political party
ask you to come tonight at 6PM at the Holiday Inn on West Hill Avenue
to testify to the federal agency that decides on a permit
for the proposed yard-wide hundred-foot right of way
methane pipeline that a company from Houston wants to gash through here.
First a presentation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
then citizens can stand up and be recorded by a court reporter.

As directly affected local landowner Carol Singletary

pointed out on WALB Sunday
,



“When you have it within 100 feet of your home, you cannot
have any sense of security there. There are alternate routes that
aren’t being considered. So I want to get those on the table and
some strong considerations given to those.”

As Gretchen Quarterman pointed out for the Lowndes County Democratic Party

on WCTV yesterday
,

“The Georgia Democrats feel that there’s a moral obligation to
leave the world as beautiful and majestic as we found it and the
pipeline, it does not do that”, says Gretchen Quarterman,
Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee.

More from the LCDP
Press Release yesterday, plus more meetings and more ways to testify, Continue reading

Solar panels in Stow, Massachusetts



In snowy Massachusetts
you can finance a solar system with little money down
and complete payoff in 11 years.
Get the Georgia legislature to pass

HB 874
and we’ll be able to do this in sunny Georgia, too.

Used with permission from howeowner Carl Howe. -jsq

People seem interested so I’ll share details of our solar
installation in Stow, MA.


Full disclosure: I know the president of our solar installation firm
socially (he’s a friend of a friend of ours), and like many solar
installers, they do pay referral fees if others sign up based on a
recommendation from an existing customer. Should anyone decide to
do business with our installer, New England Clean Energy, please
mention my name.

We used New England Clean Energy from Hudson MA. I believe that they
are one of, if not the, highest quality installer in our area. They
have more than 300+ installations in MA and NH. Of course,
SolarCity and others are also in the region, Continue reading

Broadband, outsourcing, trash, and fire @ LCC 2014-02-28


The second day of the Commission retreat is finished.
Reporting from location, Gretchen noted:

1PM: BroadBand

Chairman Bill Slaughter has a five year goal of making broadband
available. Some possibility of creating a fibre ring.
He says he’s working with the City of Valdosta.

Well, a year ago in February he said broadband was

“one of the number one issues”
,
but in October he said
“we have broadband”,
so it’s anyone’s guess what his opinion will be in a few months.

1:06PM: Outsourcing

Commissioner Crawford Powell wants to outsource more county services.

That’s working so well, after all; see the next note.

1:19PM: Trash evaluation

Continue reading

Solar financing HB874 on GA House Energy Committee for Monday



The bipartisan distributed rooftop solar financing bill,

HB 874, the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014
,
is on the agenda for Monday for the


House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications
Committee,
according to Claudia Musleve Collier.



The Committee member from closest to here is

Carol Fullerton (D 153) Albany
.
Here are

the rest of the committee members
.
Call ’em up!

-jsq