Tag Archives: Government

Surprise trash talk: repeat scheduled for tomorrow! @ LCC 2013-02-11

Not on the agenda, Veolia, excuse me, ADS, stood up to talk about trash collection Monday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session. All of the new Commisioners had questions, some of which were answered. A repeat performance is scheduled for Tuesday evening: don’t miss it!

Dave Shepler, regional manager of Advanced Disposal (not on the agenda)

He said ADS wanted to start March 1 in order to give people time to mail in their cards and sign up, but the February 1st date was “what the county wanted to do.” About 400 accounts that had slow delivery, even though they called in very early; “coding error”. Can deliver about 200 carts a day, one crew is doing nothing but handling complaints. Some carts delivered without pickup information; he blamed that on the wind. Missed pickups. When the Bemiss center (presumably the one at Pine Grove) was closed over 3,000 people had not signed up, and there is trash on the ground that ADS is picking up. After 30 days Continue reading →

News about Hotchkiss Landing @ LCC 2013-02-11

After the Monday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session was over, a couple of Commissioners indicated to inquiring citizens that they had seen a contract by which Acree Investments LTD sold land on both sides of Old State Road to the Alapaha River to Phillip Connell. This contract has not been filed with the county, and that’s why the Tax Assessors’ database doesn’t show it. I confirmed later today with Dr. Acree that he had sold 16 acres to Phillip Connell several years ago. Very interesting; if it is even Old State Road they’re considering closing (see below).

Public Hearing sign on Old State Road What sort of public hearing is it going to be tomorrow evening when this new information was not revealed to the public even in the Work Session, and the only way the public could find out was by going and asking a Commissioner personally?

In positive news, various Commissioners expressed approval of the idea of Continue reading →

Acree Park at Hotchkiss Landing?

How about if Lowndes County buys the land next to Old State Road at Hotchkiss Crossing on the Alapaha River and turns it into Acree Park? That would be a much better solution to the trash, tresspassing, and hunting problems there than closing the road. And Lowndes County itsels claims it has plenty of money available for just such a purpose.

As we’ve seen, Lowndes County’s own Comprehensive Plan says the county has $500,000 in Acquisition Funds Available to “Adopt, implement, and update provisions of the Greenspace Initiative Plan to include land acquisition and resource enhancement/protection.” And that it plans to “Continue preparation and implementation of the Withlacoochee River Greenway Plan.”

What say the county acquires parkland at Hotchkiss Landing from Continue reading →

What does Lowndes Comprehensive Plan say about river corridor protection?

Future Development Map Lowndes County 2030 Comprehensive Plan Is the Lowndes County Commission a “Qualified Local Government”? Georgia state law says perennial river corridors shall be protected, all of the major rivers in Lowndes County (Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Little) qualify as perennial, and GA EPD rules say to be a “Qualified Local Government” a comprehensive plan including River Corridor Protection Plans with protection for a natural vegetative buffer area bordering each protected river is required.

GA DCA keeps a list of all the comprehensive plans in the state. Here’s Lowndes County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The main document is the Community Agenda and here is the map. Hm, the map shows a light blue color for “Park/Recreation/Conservation” for parts of the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers in Lowndes County, but not all. What about the rest of those rivers in the county?

What does the Community Agenda say? It doesn’t mention any River Corridor Protection Plans. However, it does say this:

Continue reading →

Ways to fix the trash problem

I commend Commissioner John Page for his op-ed in the VDT today, attempting to do what no other Commissioner has tried: to explain the trash issue. Indeed, like him, most of the people I talked to while campaigning for Gretchen were for keeping the waste collection centers open, and of those the vast majority were willing to pay more, which is the main reason the previous Commission made a big mistake in closing those centers. Unfortunately his letter seems to indicate nothing can be done. Well, here are some things that can be done.

Let the contract lapse.

Commissioner Joyce Evans insisted on the contract with the sole provider being only for one year. Let it lapse after that year!

Publish the contract.

What’s in the contract? How do we even know it’s for only one year? The new Commission already had to do over a decision of the previous Commission (remove license fee from Sunday alcohol sales) because the ordinance written up afterwards wasn’t what they thought they passed. Publish the contract and let everyone see!

Publish an accounting for the waste collection sites.

Commissioner Page wrote:
The county was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year because the fees for the permits were not bringing in enough money to fully fund the sites.
How do we know that? Continue reading →

Pilgrim nuke shut down in winter storm again this weekend

Entergy, the company that blacked out the Super Bowl, now has taken down Massachusetts’ Pilgrim nuclear reactor in a winter storm. And that’s not the first time this year. Plus, what will happen with sea level rise to that nuke on the coast?

Beth Daley wrote for Boston.com this morning, Pilgrim nuclear plant shuts down in storm, Pilgrim Station nuclear plant automatically shut down in the thick of the storm Friday night after losing power, according to a statement by Entergy, the plant’s owner.

Authorities said there is no danger and backup diesel generators are powering safety systems.

“The plant is in a safe, secure condition and will remain on backup power supply until off-site power is restored,” the statement said.

But that’s hardly the whole story. Pilgrim Station has been down about a week lately, and at 80% still other days, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC):

Continue reading →

HB 267 Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant

As promised, a bipartisan bill was filed Thursday to stop Georgia Power from charging for nuclear cost overruns on Plant Vogtle; this could free up some financing for Georgia to move ahead on solar and wind power.

2013-2014 Regular Session – HB 267 Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant; change calculation that utility can recover from customers,

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 46-2-25 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the procedure for changing any rate, charge, classification, or service and the recovery of financing costs, so as to change the calculation used under certain circumstances to determine the costs of financing associated with the construction of a nuclear generating plant that a utility may recover from its customers; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

The bill would add this text to Georgia Code:

…provided, however, that in the event the amounts recorded in the utility’s construction work in progress accounts plus the amount of all financing costs accrued on any construction work in progress accounts exceeds the costs approved by the commission in the original certificate of the nuclear generating plant granted under Code Section 46-3A-5, the cost of equity portion of the financing costs shall be calculated using a rate no higher than the utility’s actual cost of debt.

Let’s see what Georgia Power does to fight this one. So far, it’s Continue reading →

Hotchkiss Landing Road Closing, 3 rezonings, 3 contracts @ LCC 2013-02-11

Monday morning and voting Tuesday evening at the Lowndes County Commission, three rezonings, three contracts, and the proposed closing of the part of Old State Road leading to Hotchkiss Landing on the Alapaha River, with all its complications such as why did Code Enforcement do nothing about that road being blocked for many months? And why was there no public hearing sign on the road until (I hear) it suddenly appeared late yesterday?

Here’s the agenda. -jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Why did Lowndes County do nothing about a blocked public road?

Old State Road at the Alapaha River is a county-maintained public road. How could Lowndes County not have known that it was blocked by two huge blocks of concrete Seen by google earth 2012-01-24 at Hotchkiss Landing from late 2010 through at least early 2012? Why did Code Enforcement do nothing about it?

These blocks of concrete have to be quite heavy. This is not random litter, and no partier or hunter or 4-wheeler would have any motivation to block the road, much less with blocks this size. Who would? Why didn’t the county find out and do something about it?

-jsq

About that flyer

Sent Wednesday. -jsq

Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:43:49 -0500

Dear Mr. Pritchard,

Thank you for your message of 1 February.

Yes, the binders of the documents for the closings of the various bonds are the sort of financial instruments I requested in my message of 28 January, and that Chairman Slaughter listed in his letter dated 18 January (that I received 28 January). Monday 11 Feb 2013 after the Work Session will be a good time for me to inspect and copy those binders. I will bring a camera and a photocopier. If that time will not work, please advise me of times that would.

Yes, there are other documents I would like to inspect. Please provide

Continue reading →