Yet another reason to end the failed War on Drugs: by far most U.S. wiretaps are for that one reason. Sure, a wiretap helped catch a Mexican drug lord. But without the War on Drugs, there would be no drug lords, just like alcohol bootleggers vanished after Prohibition ended.
Brian Anderson wrote for Motherboard 15 July 2014, Almost 90 Percent of All US Wiretaps Listen for Suspected Drug Deals,
Earlier this year, Continue reading
They talked about a new website; is it up yet?
Nope, according to
http://www.hahira.ga.us/cityofficials.html
Wayne Bullard is still Mayor, Rose Adams is still on the Council, and new
Council members Kenneth Davis and Mason Barfield are nowhere to be seen.
However, former Council member Bruce Cain has vanished,
even though he’s
the actual Mayor per last November’s election.
Here are some videos from the May 15th special called meeting
of the Hahira City Council where they talk about that proposed new website.
Here’s a video playlist:
Videos: fire chief, teachers, web site, and chairs
Special Called Meeting, Hahira City Council (Hahira),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 15 May 2014.
-jsq
6-8PM tomorrow, Thursday 17 July 2014
Memorial Stadium, 715 Dewey St., Waycross, GA 31501
The Environmental Protection Agency, GA Environmental Protection
Division, and Georgia Department of Public Health will be present to
discuss sample collection and results from the Seven Out Tank site
in downtown Waycross.
EPD will also be available to address issues and answer questions regarding CSX.
From Satilla Riverkeeper’s facebook event. Here’s a map: Continue reading
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
The Commission awarded no-bid contracts to Lovell Engineering (for
Zipperer Road
and
Boring Pond Road)
and
ASA Engineering
(for
Coppage Road).
Three of the seven board appointees showed up and spoke:
Sam Allen and Penelope Schmidt for
Library Board,
and
and Russell Mast for
VLPRA.
The Commission appointed all of them unanimously, including
no-shows
Terri Lupo to VLCIA,
Martha Cunningham and Matt Lawrence to
Library Board,
and
Susan Prince to
VLPRA.
Chairman Bill Slaughter consistently omitted the “Valdosta”
from the names of all these boards, even though the reason VLCIA
and VLPRA exist is a state law requirement for no overlap between
uninincorporated and incorporated area taxation for such services.
There was no public hearing for Whitewater Road because the applicant withdrew it, and half of Nelson Hill was withdrawn while the other half was tabled.
Four of the nine contracts were approved all at once. Mr. Anti-Grant Commissioner Richard Raines actually made the motion to approve the EPMG grant request.
They finally posted an agenda after the Work Session. And they added another item to an amended agenda between the Work Session and the Regular Session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Here are links to the videos in the order they actually held the meeting. See the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session for more detail on many of these items.
Video. Minister Commissioner Crawford Powell gave his usual Ivory Billed Woodpecker invocation.
Video. Unanimously appointed: Martha Cunningham (not present), Sam Allen (retired Valdosta Schools Superintendent), Penelope Schmidt (10-year educator from Hahira), and Matthew Lawrence (not present).
Video. Terri Lupo, Georgia Power regional VP, was still out of town on vacation, but they appointed her anyway.
Video. They unanimously appointed Susan Prince (not present) and Russell Mast (Chairman; he said VLPRA had a positive fund balance) They didn’t appoint Dan Deaver (not present).
Video. The applicant withdrew the first part of the request, for a 75-foot high communications tower for high-speed Internet access. The second part County Planner Jason Davenport said “dealt with some of the rezoning conditions that were ultimately approved back in 2006”; they tabled it until August. I wonder how much of that second part involves retroactively approving staff variances that were made in 2009 and 2011 without any public hearings?
Video. Commissioner Richard Raines started his stint on this Commission disapproving a grant for weather radios, but he made the motion for this grant application.
Video. Commissioner Joyce Evans made the motion.
Video. The Chairman didn’t even bother to mention Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.
Here’s a video playlist:
Videos: a few appointees spoke
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 July 2014.
-jsq
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
One precinct off the list for closing, but what about others? And what’s this about an unannounced change to the date of a publicly-announced meeting of the Board of Elections?
After several people went to the 8 July 2014 Special Called Board of Elections
Meeting that I found in the VDT Public Notice listings,
and some of them talked to that board and to Lowndes County Commissioners,
apparently somebody listened.
According to Lowndes County Elections Supervisor Deb Cox to
Lowndes County Democratic Party Elections Chair Dennis Marks 13 July 2014:
Mildred Hunter is not being considered for consolidation. Deb
However, she did not say what other precincts might still be slated for consolidation.
Rumor has it that Continue reading
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
Still 9 precincts
this year like
last year, but one of the polling locations
has changed (Pine Grove to Trinity),
and the precinct boundaries have changed.
Yet again the board of elections plans
still more fiddling with precincts this year.
There was a Special Called Board of Elections meeting yesterday,
and a regular meeting is
9AM Tuesday 22 July 2014.
Let’s update last year’s polling place table. Continue reading
Terri Lupo
(Georgia Power regional VP)
for the
Industrial Authority;
Martha Cunningham,
Sam Allen,
Penelope Schmidt,
Matt Lawrence for the
Library Board,
and
Dan Deaver,
Susan Prince, and Russell Mast (Chairman) for two positions on
Parks and Rec.
Apparently the public was supposed to guess about the two
public hearings
(one about the frequently-staff-varianced
subdivision
Nelson Hill)
or the nine contracts,
since
the county didn’t post an agenda before the meeting.
Commissioner Joyce Evans did ask if the applicants would be
at the Regular Session Tuesday evening, and was told they would.
Will they speak this time, unlike
the applicants two weeks ago?
They finally posted an agenda after the meeting.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor