Tag Archives: Georgia

Press Conference 10AM 7 July 2011 —Friends of Valdosta City Schools

Press release received yesterday:
Friends of Valdosta City Schools, Inc.
P.O. Box 5514
Valdosta, Georgia 31602
allen306@bellsouth.net
(229) 244-8268
Sam Allen, Chairman
Valdosta City Schools Superintendent Emeritus
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
June 30, 2011

Press Release:

Friends of Valdosta City Schools, Inc. (FVCS) will be holding a Press Conference on the steps of Valdosta City Hall (216 E. Central Ave) at 10:00 AM on Thursday, July 7, 2011 to formally announce its opposition to the current effort by the “Community Unification for Educational Excellence” (CUEE) group to Consolidate the Valdosta City School System with Lowndes County School System. We are inviting all citizens of both Valdosta and Lowndes County who support the opposition of Unification/Consolidation of the school systems.

Sam Allen, Chairman
229-244-8268

They have a facebook page.

While I think FVCS is making one of CUEE’s mistakes in thinking this is all about Valdosta, FVCS’s event is something I can get behind. Maybe FVCS will even come out with what they are for.

-jsq

Keep the business of our county in order —Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 28 June 2011

Should it take more than six months to find the county ordinances that code enforcement needs?

Gretchen Quarterman thanked County Clerk Paige Dukes for helping her in the “neverending answering to my list of questions.” She noted that:

The chairman thinks I’m badgering, but really I’m not. This body makes ordinances, and some of the ordinances are on the website. If you go to the state website, and find out where all the laws of the state are; go to the city of Valdosta’s website, and find out where all the laws of Valdosta are. Go to our website and only find out some of the ordinances.

Paige says she has been diligently working on this and I absolutely positively believe her. And I know it’s very complicated But I really encourage y’all as a body — I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job — but to keep the business of our county in order. Thank you.

She’s been trying to get public access to all the ordinances since December. The county doesn’t even have a list of all the ordinances.

Should it take more than six months to find the local laws that code enforcement needs? Chairman Ashley Paulk and 2 of 3 voting Commissioners, Crawford Powell and Richard Raines, are businessmen. Could they run a business when resolutions of the board were nowhere to be found?

-jsq

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

“Once the investigation is complete and closed all documents will be provided to you.” —Custodian of Records

More from Susan Leavens:
—– Forwarded Message —- From: “King, Shirley”
To: “sleavens4@bellsouth.net”
Sent: Wed, October 27, 2010 2:21:02 PM
Subject: Open Records Request
Ms. Leavens, as you requested under the Georgia Open Records Act, please find message from the custodian of records for Animal Protection attached.
If we may assist you any further, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Thanks.
Shirley J. King
Open Records Coordinator
The attached PDF is here on the LAKE website. Interestingly, although that message from Patricia Mitchell, “Animal Protection Office Custodian of Records” says
“Once the investigation is complete and closed all documents will be provided to you.”
it also says:
“By policy the department only retains 2 years (2008 & 2009) inactive files and 1 years (2010) active files.”
So if the investigation takes more than 2 years, do the earlier files about it start to vanish?

-jsq

Budget Hearing wrapup: no questions were entertained from citizens

Paulk and Pritchard wrapped up the budget hearing, quite well, except at the very end, when about 2 seconds were allowed for citizens to say they wanted to speak before the hearing was ended. So that’s two budget hearings with no citizen input: the first one nobody knew about, and this one where nobody was permitted to speak.

Chairman Ashley Paulk thanked county employees for their cooperation. He noted that even the constitutional officers, who could appeal their budgets, had not. He noted the jail accounted for about half the sheriff’s budget, calling it an expensive operation. He said that his office had accounted for 3 of the 8 layoffs last time, and fortunately there were no more this time. He said: Continue reading →

Google says delaying solar will cost U.S. millions of jobs

If it’s true for the country, it’s true for south Georgia. So moving ahead with solar will gain jobs.

David Worthington wrote for smartplanet 28 June 2011, Google: delay on renewables will cost U.S. trillions, over million jobs:

Google has published an analysis of the economic benefits of renewable energy innovation. It has concluded that even a five year lapse without a national clean energy policy would cost the United States an aggregate US$2.3-3.2 trillion in unrealized GDP gains and 1.2-1.4 million net jobs.
The study was about renewable energy in general, but: Continue reading →

LHS Jazz Band at Valdosta Brown Bag Lunch, 9 May 2011

Local music, local lunch, local community.

Here’s a playlist.


Lowndes High School Jazz Band,
Valdosta Brown Bag Lunch Series at the Historic Lowndes County Courthouse.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 May 2011.

-jsq

Budget presentation —Stephanie Black @ LCC 28 June 2011

More than half of Lowndes County expenditures go to law enforcement, including sheriff, courts, and the jail.

At Tuesday’s budget hearing, Lowndes County Finance Director Stephanie Black presented the proposed 2012 budget to the Commission.

Here are the details of the budget, as photographed by Gretchen from the single copy provided for the public to see by the county clerk.

Here are photographs of her slides.

Here’s a playlist of the videos.

A couple more videos of this hearing to come of remarks by Chairman Ashley Paulk and County Manager Joe Pritchard in this budget hearing, plus a related video from the Citizens Wishing to be Heard later that same day.

-jsq

Sumter County may go solar: where’s Lowndes County?

Sumter County gets it about solar power, independence and jobs. Where’s Lowndes County?

So how big is this National Solar project that Sumter County may get? Steve Leone wrote for Renewable Energy World, Seven Communities Waiting for the Sun in Southeastern U.S.:

The project will be a network of 20 solar farms, each of which will span 200 acres and generate 20 MW. It would be much larger than the 80 MW solar power plant in Ontario, Canada, currently the world’s largest.
The finalists are:
The communities selected by National Solar Power as finalists to become the location of the development are Gadsden, Hardee, Osceola and Suwannee counties in Florida, Sumter and Tatnall counties in Georgia and Guilford County in North Carolina.
And Lowndes County isn’t even in the running. Why not? Continue reading →

Sumter County in running for 20 MegaWatt solar farm

Sumter County gets it that solar means energy, independence, and jobs.

Sharinda Williams wrote for WALB 29 June 2011, Sumter in Final seven for new solar plant:

Sumter county is in the running of being the home of the worlds largest solar power farm.

WALB spoke with a representative of the company National Solar that explained how if chosen for this new development it can impact the area greatly.

Sumter county is one of 7 areas in the southeast that will be chosen to house the new solar farm.

This farm has the potential of adding hundreds of jobs as well as giving cleaner cheaper energy to over 32 thousand homes.

-jsq

PS: This post owed to Clayton Freeman.

Mayor Fretti Ethics Hearing

George Boston Rhynes sent this video of the Valdosta City Council’s ethics hearing about Mayor Fretti’s travel expenses. George remarks:
Searching for the truth in a web of questions….
The first citizen voice heard is Roy Taylor, whose investigation instigated this hearing, and whom the VDT since informs us (in their paper edition) has donated to almost every Valdosta City Council member.

Here’s the video. -jsq

The rest of George’s videos of this hearing are posted here.

-jsq