Tag Archives: History

Proposed abandonment of the only public access to the Alapaha River in Lowndes County —April Huntley

Received Monday; she sent it to all the Commissioners; I added a few links. -jsq

To the Lowndes County Commission:

My name is April Huntley, and I have lived in Naylor for over 13
years. I have used the boat ramp at the end of Old State Rd. that

April Huntley
gives access to the Alapaha River for most of those years. Until
yesterday, when I spoke to Phillip Connell, I didn’t know I was
trespassing when I swam in the river. I thought this was public
access. I thought this belonged to Lowndes County.

I thought about this some more and questions rose up in my mind. Why
hadn’t the game wardens and sheriff deputies that came to check the
area at times notified me and others we were trespassing? Why would
Lowndes County not claim their ONLY boat ramp to the Alapaha River
for the benefit of their residents?


Commisioners Raines and Powell
Ok, so I had these questions, but then I started thinking about the
Commission work session I attended yesterday morning, and when

I talked to Commissioner Powell and Raines afterward. They told me

that despite what the tax assessor has on their website and in their
records, their attorney viewed the deeds showing Phillip Connell
bought the property from Dr. Acree 2 or 3 years ago. His lawyer (I’m
assuming Mr. Connell’s) filed something wrong and that’s why it
isn’t showing up with the tax assessor. The story when

Chairman Bill Slaughter

I spoke to
Bill Slaughter, Commission Chairman, Friday afternoon was that we
need to prove ownership because he and Commissioner Evans had walked
the property with Phillip Connell. Mr. Connell says he owns both
sides of the road.

So from Friday afternoon to
Monday morning deeds have been found to
prove ownership of the land? And these deeds contradict tax records?
So is it 2 or 3 years? Doesn’t a deed have an exact date on it? Who
has been paying the taxes for the last 2 or 3 years? Wouldn’t
somebody notice if they were paying taxes on land they didn’t own
for 2 or 3 years?

In light of these new discoveries, the people immediately request
information on what exactly the lawyer filed wrong which caused
Phillip Connell’s supposed property along Old State Rd. not to show
up in the tax assessor’s records, the exact date Mr. Connell
purchased the property from Dr. Acree which gives him ownership of
the land on both sides of Old State Rd. and the deeds. Most
importantly the people request to know when and why Lowndes County
lost the boat ramp to private property.

Oh, one more question, did the state of Georgia build the boat ramp
with prison labor?

Commissioners, I respectfully request this information and that you
deny the proposed abandonment of .17 miles of County Road 16, Old
State Rd., leading to the Alapaha River.

Sincerely,

April Huntley

Please deny abandonment of Old State Rd. leading to the Alapaha River —Brett Huntley

Received Monday; he sent it to all the Commissioners. -jsq

To the Lowndes County Commission:

My name is Brett Huntley. I have lived in Naylor Georgia for 13
years. I am also a business owner in Lowndes County.

Brett Huntley

In the past 13 years I have used the location at the end of Old
State Rd. as an entry point to the Alapaha River for all kinds of
outdoor recreation. An example of these things are fishing, camping,
boating, hiking, canoeing and family get togethers.

This location is the only public access point to the Alapaha River
in Lowndes County. It would deeply sadden me to lose this place that
I have grown to love over the years.

I would also like to not only suggest keeping this location open to
the public, but ask the county to consider spending money on it. It
would benefit the county to fix this location so it can be easier
maintained and the public can access it.

I would also like to point out that this time the idea of shutting
down the entry point to the river has been a lot more under the
radar. I would like to know why a counter has not been placed across
the road to show proof of how many people use this location. Also
why was the sign notifying the public of this matter not put up
until the last minute?

Thank you!

Brett Huntley

Please deny abandonment of Old State Rd. leading to the Alapaha River —Travis Bennett

Received Monday; he sent it to all the Commissioners; I added a few links. -jsq

To the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners:

My name is Travis Bennett, and I’ve lived in Naylor for 9 years. One
of the reasons I moved to Naylor was the river.

Travis Bennett
When I moved here
there were picnic tables and trash cans down there. It was really
nice to have a picnic and family get together!

I live less than a mile from the boat ramp. My step son, Levi
Giddens, and I go down and fish all the time. He loves fishing that
river!

I’ve worked with

the local DNR officer, Keith, on the litter and
unruly people. In the past couple of years the river has stayed a
lot cleaner. So I’m not sure why it is being said it is trashed down
there.



I am disappointed that it took until late last week to get the
public hearing sign up. I was at

the last hearing on this and spoke
with Joyce Evans. She stated the river should remain open. I hope
she still thinks the same thing. I just wanted to state a few things
I was thinking about.

Thanks!

Travis Bennett

Speak at the work session? —April Huntley

Received Friday; she sent it to Chairman Slaughter.
He didn’t let her speak at the Work Session, but he did talk to her. -jsq

Dear Mr. Slaughter,

I am writing you to follow up on a message I left with your office
this morning. I would like a chance to speak at your Monday morning
work session about the matter of the proposed abandonment of a
portion of Old State Rd. leading to the Alapaha River and also have
Mr. Connell present. I have been circulating paper and online
petitions to the community to display the public use and enjoyment
of this area. I do understand the concerns of some of the
surrounding land owners about trash and trespassing. I am working on
a project to get the community, individuals in the public, to make
donations to purchase a portion of Dr. Acree’s land which will be
donated to Lowndes County Parks and Recreation. The community would
also like to work to resolve issues on trespassing and the trash
dumping. I hope that we can work together on this issue and keep
this beautiful, historic area an asset to Lowndes County. Thank you
for your thought and consideration!

Sincerely,

April Huntley

Keep County Road 16, leading to the Alapaha River open to public access —Christopher L. Graham

Received Sunday; he sent it to all the Lowndes County Commisioners. -jsq

My name is Christopher L. Graham I’m a citizen of Naylor. I am
concern about the river shutting down to the public. Because it is

Christopher L. Graham
the only public access to the Alapaha river in Lowndes county.
Because then we have to go to lake land in Lanier county to there
public access boat ramp to put in or go to Stateville in Echols
county to there DNR public access boat ramp to put in. The
Hotchkiss Bridge or now people are calling it Hotchkiss landing is a
good check point for the fisherman. I’m concern because there is
not many public a ccess on this Alapaha river. Well if Naylor ever
expands there wouldn’t be any water recreation use in this
community. That is not good for our community. People all over this
area use this public access for fishing & they bring there kids and
there family together to have a family picnic, swimming. People go
down there to relax and listen to the water hitting the rocks and
hear the birds making different noise. This is a nice place to take
picture of the nature. The Hotchkiss Bridge is a top location for
bird watching in the State of Georgia. Birding enthusiasts
interested in experiencing the many wonderful bird families in the
surrounding areas of Hotchkiss Bridge. The Hotchkiss Bridge has a
historic value to our community. It use to be the old major highway
to go to the next town. Many of our community had there ancestry use
that old Hotchkiss Bridge. I know the bridge has been gone for many
years. Now it’s a public boat ramp. The Hotchkiss Bridge has history
and It would be a good asset for Lowndes county to have….

P.S. I would like a park down there and a sign that tell the history
of the old Hotchkiss Bridge.

Vermont Yankee may be next nuke to close



UBS predicts Entergy will close its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant soon:
that’s the same Entergythat couldn’t keep the power on during the SuperBowl
and that

can’t keep Pilgrim 1 nuclear reactor up in Massachusetts during a winter storm
(down 3 days now, for the third downtime in a month).
A few days later, UBS
set Entergy up on a quarterly earnings call to mention that
Vermont Yankee had already been taken off the New England energy
capacity auction, which would make it easy to replace.

San Onofre still down in California,

Dominion Power closing Kewaunee in Wisconsin,

NRC terminated Calvert Cliffs in Maryland,

Duke closing Crystal River in Florida,
and maybe Vermont Yankee next?
How about

we pass HB 267 to stop Georgia Power charging for cost overruns
for Vogtle 3 and 4 and see how long before Southern Company stops that project?

Andrew Stein wrote for vtdigger 6 February 2013 (updated 7 Feb),

In report, financial firm forecasts that Entergy may close Vermont Yankee,

In an investment research letter, the Swiss financial services
company UBS Securities anticipates Entergy Corp. will retire one of
its nuclear power plants in 2013, and it cites “Vermont Yankee
as the most tenuously positioned plant.”



UBS representatives met with Entergy’s new leadership team on Feb.
1, the same day Leo Denault became CEO and chair of the board for
the Louisiana-based company that operates the Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant.

And that’s how a clean-broom new CEO often signals his intentions:
by bringing in outside experts to provide him cover for what he
already intends to do anyway.
And this new-broom CEO

is Entergy’s former Chief Financial Officer
who as CFO has repeated fiddled with Vermont Yankee to try to
make it less unprofitable.
What did those experts say?

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 →

Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer —Sierra Club



Sierra Club, one of the oldest, largest, and most influential
grassroots environmental activist groups in the U.S.,
has been

tentatively anti-nuke since 1974,
observing now that none of its conditions of
energy conservation, reactor safety, nuclear fuel disposal,
weapons proliferation,
or adequate regulation have ever been met,
has come out unequivocably against nuclear power.


Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer

The Sierra Club remains unequivocally opposed to nuclear energy.
Although nuclear plants have been in operation for less than 60
years, we now have seen three serious disasters.


Tragically, it took a horrific disaster in Japan to remind the world
that none of the fundamental problems with nuclear power have ever
been addressed.

Besides reactor safety, both nuclear proliferation and the required
long-term storage of nuclear waste (which remains lethal for more
than 100,000 years) make nuclear power a uniquely dangerous energy
technology for humanity.

Plenty of links in

that Sierra Club page.

Sierra Club is one of the first two of the 99 sponsors of

the Forward on Climate rally,
high noon Sunday 17 February 2013 on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
I’ll be there.
How about you?

-jsq

Duke Energy is closing Crystal River nuclear reactor



Finally!
The reactor
only 160 miles from here
that

nobody wanted to pay to fix
is closing for good: Duke is closing Crystal River.
After Kewaunee and Crystal River closing, which one is next?
San Onofre?
The never-opened Vogtle 3 and 4?

Ivan Penn wrote for Tampa Bay Times today,

Duke Energy announces closing of Crystal River nuclear power plant,

Duke Energy announced early Tuesday it will permanently close the
Crystal River nuclear plant that has been shut down since late 2009.



The company said it is reviewing alternatives, including building a
new natural gas plant, to replace the power produced by the nuclear
facility.

Duke's four coal-fired plants will remain in service at the same
Citrus County complex where the nuclear plant, known as CR3, is
located.



How about they build
offshore wind farms
and solar farms
instead, like

TEPCO is doing near Fukushima?
Those can be built on time and on budget, use no fuel, and cause no pollution.
And how about

rooftop solar for jobs and energy independence?

There's more in

the article,
including this:

Continue reading →

Why must the small business owner be discarded? —Deep South Sanitation

Cary Scarborough, owner of a local sanitation business, previously

asked the Commission not to grant a monopoly on waste collection.
He was quoted in

today’s VDT article,
and he has elaborated on his company’s facebook page.

To the Commission,

13 November 2012:



Don’t do this to private enterprise, to an individual. If it’s done
to me, it will get easier later down the road to do it to someone
else.

In

the VDT:

“I have not been told by the County that what I’m doing is
illegal,” Scarborough said. “But I realize they’ve drawn
up an ordinance, and they’re probably going to say that it’s
illegal. If they come after me, I guess they have to come after
me.”

Scarborough believes that if the citizens aren’t required to
contract with Advanced Disposal, they are then allowed to choose.

“If the citizens can choose, why can’t they choose me?”
he said.

On Deep South Sanitation’s

public facebook page:

“REGARDING THE ISSUE OF THE TRASH ORDINANCE IN LOWNDES COUNTY”

Continue reading →