Mr. Quarterman, what can we do, do we have to go to the state legislature
to get a law passed to force these so-called public officials to answer
questions and respond to the citizens?
First of all, my compliments to anyone such as Leigh Touchton
who has been doing politics around here longer than me for asking
my opinion, because that indicates they are pretty good at it
and are probably asking many people their opinions.
My answer: carrots along with sticks, and shine some light!
That all builds political capital, which will be needed for elections.
We need many people building a community doing many things.
If I knew a simple answer that would change things magically overnight,
I’d recommend it, but I don’t.
I don’t even know if I know a long answer, but I’m pretty sure that
any answer will require a community, because
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This comment from Leigh Touchton came in last night on
It’s not over until it’s over. I have added links and pictures. -jsq
I asked VLCIA Board member Roy Copeland afterwards whether this means
the biomass incinerator is STILL going to be built? He shrugged and
walked away.
Karen Noll asked Allan Ricketts what does this mean, since we all
heard Lowndes County Commission Chairman Paulk give us a very different
scenario at the last LCC meeting, and his remarks were covered in the
Valdosta Daily Times. Mr. Ricketts said he was not aware of Chairman
Paulk’s remarks.
It is a little known fact of the attack on Libya that some of the
components of the cruise missiles being launched into the country
mayl have been made by prisoners in the United States. According to
its website, UNICOR, which is the organization that represents Federal
Prison Industries, “supplies numerous electronic components and service
for guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability Missile
(PAC-3)”.
In addition to constructing electronic components for missiles, prison
labor in the United States is used to make electronic cables for defense
items like “the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing (BA) F-15, the General
Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s (TXT) Cobra helicopter,
as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems”.
Traditionally these types of defense jobs would have gone to highly paid,
unionized workers. However the prison workers building parts for these
missiles earn a starting wage of 23 cents an hour and can only make a
maximum of $1.15 an hour.
Maybe you’re out of a job.
Can you compete with 23 cents an hour?
The Quitman 10 were arrested in Brooks County for alleged irregularities
with absentee ballots, the day after two of them were elected to the
Brooks County Board of Education.
Saturday (tomorrow) a statewide rally for them will be held in Macon:
When:
Saturday at 11:00pm – Sunday at 2:00am
Where:
Stewart Chapel AME Church, 887 Forsyth Street
Who:
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Robert Brown, Rep. Tyrone Brooks, Sen. Vincent Fort, Rep. David Lucas, Ms. Helen Butler
As one of many speakers at the Wiregrass Solar commissioning this morning,
Sonny Murphy said many good things about solar, and then, almost alone
among the speakers, he volunteered some remarks about the biomass plant,
in which he made it pretty clear he intends to go ahead with it.
About solar, he praised Hannah Solar for perseverance:
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The Top 10 states that would benefit from solar deployment through
generating and exporting energy to other states are:
Arizona
Colorado
Georgia
Texas
Hawaii
Arkansas
Wyoming
Alabama (tie)
Missouri (tie)
California
This is according to a
study from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University,
“Optimal Deployment of Solar Index,”
published in The Electricity Journal,
This article found on WACE facebook page;
thanks for locating it, WACE!
I had
heard that some Board members were elected with intention to support
consolidation but that I hadn’t heard anything about that from any of
them when they were running.
They didn’t say much about it when they were running, either.
Back in 2009, the only one who got elected who was asked about this issue, Jeana Bealand, pretty
much dodged the question at AAUW’s
Lowndes County Political Forum on 15 September 2009.
This was the forum that was the day after the VBOE meeting that drew 400 people
because of Superintendent Cason’s decision about President Obama’s speech.
Very few of those 400 people showed up at the forum to ask questions of their
likely school board members.
Maybe more people should take an interest in who is going to represent them on their school board.
Jeana Beeland answers a question about school system consolidation
Lowndes County Political Forum, AAUW, 15 Sep 2009
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Tonight I went to the VBOE meeting and delivered the offical NAACP letter
stating our branch’s opposition to consolidation. I asked Chairman Warren
Lee if he would discuss with VBOE attorney Gary Moser and let me know
whether they are “allowed” to take a position on this. The reason I
asked this is because one of my friends says that Dr. Cason told her
that “they are not allowed” to take a position on this. To my mind,
employees might not be able to take a position, but elected officials
representing voters ought to clearly state their position on an issue
as important as school consolidation.
The new case decided yesterday (REZ-2011-05 – Laurel Brooke),
was also represented by Bill Nijem, who got up and started
speaking for it, and after a bit said:
First let me introduce myself, there are new faces up here.
Bill Nijem. I represent the applicant.
Assuming that Commissioners
should just know who he is may not sound like a good start,
But, as he already said, nobody was speaking against this rezoning.
Why is that?
I would like to note when the applicant first submitted this application,
it was submitted as planned development,
and worked with Mr. Davenport,
we did tweak the site plan somewhat, made larger lots, and now it’s R-10.
And that’s what the opponents of the Glen Laurel rezoning asked for.
At least a couple of them were present this time.
Gretchen talked to them later, and they told her that since
this subdivision had what they asked for last time,
they had no objections this time.
Bill Nijem even discussed traffic and accidents, which you may recall
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Should the County Commission approve rezoning for a subdivision
just because developers say they won’t compromise any more?
Bill Nijem presented Moody and schools nearby and the proposed
house price as arguments for the Glen Laurel subdivision,
plus county services, which, remember,
were put in for them to use.
This was afterPine Grove Elementary closed
and moved farther away.
My answer: carrots along with sticks, and shine some light!
That all builds political capital, which will be needed for elections.
