Tag Archives: Georgia

Three appointments, a well, special events, and an annexation @ LCC 2014-06-09

An appointment to the Lowndes Division of Family and Children Services and two to ZBOA. Public hearings for well and septic and a special events change to the ULDC. The Hahira annexation recommended against by the Planning Commission is under For Consideration, along with a request to declare items surplus and several purchase requests.

Here’s the agenda.

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 →

Courthouse Preservation Committee Meetings

At different times of day so people with different work schedules can attend, and actually asking for suggestions: you can tell these meetings were organized by Judge McClane, not by the Lowndes County Commission.

Update 2015-03-21: Videos of Hearing 1, 9 June 2014, videos of Hearing 2, 10 June 2014, videos of Hearing 3, 12 June 2014, and Committee Report 12 January 2015.

On the county’s front page:

The Lowndes County Historical Courthouse Preservation Committee will host a series of public input meetings, beginning next week. The meetings are being held in an effort to gather any ideas citizens may have regarding possible future uses for the historic Lowndes County Courthouse. Once the information is gathered, the committee will present their recommendations to the Board of Commissioners. Next week’s meeting schedule is as follows: Monday, June 9, 6:00 p.m.; Tuesday, June 10, 3:00 p.m.; Thursday, June 12, 1:00 p.m. All meetings will be held in Commission Chambers, Lowndes County Administrative Building, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta. For more information, please contact Amanda Smith, at 229-671-2400 or asmith@lowndescounty.com.

These meetings are also listed in the county’s calendar, but if you click on any of them you get a blank page.

The VDT has more details today, Continue reading →

Sinkholes in Alachua County, FL

Curious how sinkholes get reported throughout the Floridan Aquifer in Florida and south Georgia yet seldom do the stories mention the aquifer and its porous limestone.

Kristy Wolski wrote for WTEV 2 June 2014, Sinkholes open up in Alachua County,

Several sinkholes have opened up in Alachua County.

The sinkholes are on a private property in the Jonesville area. They vary in size and at least three are visible from the fence at the property line.

The largest of the sinkholes is located on the edge of a retention pond. Alachua County Environmental Protection Director Chris Bird told Action News it was created by heavy rainfall.

“Created by” heavy rainfall? Seems like something is probably happening underground to contribute to that. Like pumping water out.

-jsq

Twice the acreage than solar for Sabal Trail pipeline to produce the same power @ FERC 2014-03-05

According to Sabal Trail’s own numbers, twice as much land for the entire three-pipeline Spectra -> Sabal -> FSC proposed gouge through three states as would be required to produce as much solar power.

STT’s solar acreage estimates from their Draft Resource Report 10: Alternatives (RR10) of November 2013, Continue reading →

A Suwannee County Commissioner publishes agenda packets

Commissioner Ricky Gamble publishes the entire agenda packets even though the Suwannee County Commission does not.

Suwannee County itself publishes the basic agenda, such as the current one for 3 June 2014, and so does the Suwannee County Democrat.

That newspaper also for the agenda packet links to Commissioner Ricky Gamble’s website, which has a page with Commission agendas, including Continue reading →

Solar freakin’ roadways

Solar Roadways has raised $1,884,633 in six weeks from Earth Day to now on a goal of $1,000,000 in indiegogo (which was already a record for most contributors with 36,000 people at $1.5 million). Yes, to all those who have asked me, I think it could work. Add solar roadways to rooftop solar and solar farms and wind, and the EPA’s new CO2 rule (which doesn’t even do much about coal for years and does nothing about about “natural” gas) will seem like a quaint baby step in a few years after this happens: Continue reading →

Energy Policy Act of 2005 considered harmful

The same Energy Policy Act of 2005 that subsidized dirty oil and fracked methane including LNG exports also funded that oxymoron “clean” coal such as Southern Company’s Plant Ratcliffe in Mississippi, ethanol production lining the pockets of Monsanto, and the $8.3 billion loan guarantee to Georgia Power for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle.

2005 was a very long time ago in solar PV years: prices are halved, and installed solar power production is up more than ten times and growing exponentially like compound interest. We need to stop throwing money at dirty, water-sucking, centralized baseload 20th century non-solutions and get on with clean 21st century distributed solar and wind power for jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and water, not to mention less climate change.

-jsq

Frontage, trees, daycare, and Wal-Mart @ ZBOA 2014-06-03

Two Lowndes County cases ( road frontage and tree protection), and two Valdosta Valdosta cases (daycares on busy streets and Wal-Mart parking). The county cases are both variances from the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) and the city cases are both variances from Valdosta’s Land Development Regulations (LDR), and both the ULDC and LDR are supposed to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

Here’s the agenda. The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes online in real PDFs.

Valdosta -Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430

AGENDA


Tuesday, June 3, 2014
2:30 p.m.
Continue reading →

Videos: Regional water council meeting in Valdosta @ SSRWPC 2014-05-21

Anticipating water and wastewater needs, coordinating with Florida and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, comparing water usage to available resources in the face of droughts, floods, and climate change, Georgia’s regional water management council for this area considered all this and more when it met in Valdosta to finalize a document: Regional Assessment of Implementation Status. Here are videos of the whole meeting.

Slight changes at Southern Company @ SO 2014-05-28

Solar car charging station at the Southern Company Stockholder Meeting: that’s new. Other solar changes were detectable, if you knew what to look for, and with hints from SO CEO Tom Fanning and new R&D VP Larry Monroe here are some, while we’re waiting on SO for video and transcript.

Two demonstration solar charging cars were on the lawn outside the breakfast tent: Continue reading →