Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

Downtown Valdosta Farm Days Grows 4 June 2011

Lots of people and vendors last Saturday, buying local food in downtown Valdosta!

Every other Saturday around the historic Lowndes County Courthouse is Downtown Valdosta Farm Days, 9AM to 1PM, May through September. It’s organized by Valdosta Main Street. Amanda Peacock and shy Mara Register explain what’s going on at the beginning of this playlist showing most of the vendors and the general atmosphere of community festival.


Downtown Valdosta Farm Days Grows 4 June 2011 Part 2 of 2:
, Downtown Valdosta Farm Days,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Still pictures in the flickr set.

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Hahira Farm Days 4 June 2011

It’s that time again: Hahira Market Days.

Ms. Anderson had cut flowers:


Hahira Market Days Part 1 of 3:
Hahira Market Days, Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

A bunch of customers wanted vegetables: Continue reading →

Renewable Sustainable Energy Network —VLCoC

Had a chat today with Myrna Ballard, President of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, and ReKasa Deen, Business Development Director, about the Renewable Sustainable Energy Network. Note that word Sustainable that they’ve added since last I spoke with them. They’re moving along the idea of a series of meetings or workshops of Chamber members together with an online forum. The next step is for the Chamber Board of Directors to decide whether to approve the project or not. They’re talking to various people and organizations around the community; if you want to get involved, please contact ReKasa Deen.

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Lake Park City Council meeting and special election


Former Council Member Jeff Spradley in the audience
At their 3 May 2011 meeting, the Lake Park City Council acknowledged that one of their number had moved out of the city limits and resigned, so they had to decide whether to hold a special election or just wait until the November regular election. After long deliberation, which seemed to be decided by the precedent of Dasher going ahead with a special election, Lake Park decided this:

Mayor Walter K. Sandlin, Council Member Ronald Carter, Council Member Eric Schindler, City Attorney Rob Plumb, Mayor Pro-Tem Council Member Paul Mulkey
Due to the resignation of Council Member Spradley
a Special Election will be held
September 20, 2011 to fill the vacancy.
Qualifying period will open on June 1st and end
12 noon on June 3rd.
There is a qualifying fee of $54.00.
We have no wards. All positions are “at large”.
For more information please contact us at
229.559.7470
So if you live in Lake Park and you want to run, you need to qualify by noon today. Mayor Sandlin predicted there would be multiple qualifiers. We’ll see how it goes.

Incidentally, the entire council is up for election in November, including whoever wins the special election will have to run again in November if they want to stay on the council.

In that and other business, it is quite interesting watching this city council interact rather informally with citizens, yet taking some care Continue reading →

Diff Operating Budget —Tom Call @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Usually silent VLCIA board member Tom Call got a board meeting agenda item:
Mr. Jerry and I met on May the second to review the… I was kind of educating myself as to the current operating budget and how it applies… goes into forming next year’s budget…. There’s just a few differences from the 2011 budget to the proposed 2012 budget.
He listed a couple of items:
Line item 32: Park maintenance.
Miller Business Park is added for this year.
Below line 51: Signage.
“Improve signage at some of our entrances.”
Chairman Jerry Jennett asked board members to take it home, redline it, and bring it back for a vote next meeting.

Here’s the video:


Diff Operating Budget —Tom Call @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Clearly audible outside are people honking at the biomass protesters.

OMG! VLCIA has finally put Continue reading →

2011 Economic Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Col. Ricketts reported he was on a panel at the 2011 Economic Summit which was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, and that he got a copy of a report by the VSU Center for Business and Economic Research about how the local area compares with others.

Mary Gooding said Col. Ricketts represented VLCIA very well.

If VLCIA knew how to do PR, this would have been a great PR opportunity for them to publicize.

Meanwhile, WALB and VDT reported on the event itself.

Here’s the video:


2011 Economic Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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2011 Georgia Logistics Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Col. Ricketts reported that VLCIA participated in panel discussions at the 2011 Georgia Logistics Summit. He mentioned among topics of interest: agribusiness, technology and life sciences. He said they also got a chance to look at expansion in Savannah.

Here’s the video:


2011 Georgia Logistics Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

This would have been a great PR opportunity for VLCIA, if VLCIA knew how to do PR.

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PS: No, he didn’t really talk that fast; that’s an artifact of the video editing to separate out this item. That’s why we usually just record in short clips that require no editing.

Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Here’s what I said to the VLCIA board on 17 May 2011. Notes are appended after the video:


Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Congratulations on the Wiregrass Solar commissioning. Since this was not ever the largest array in Georgia let’s encourage Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Powell to help VLCIA expand the local array.

Referring to Mary Gooding’s comments about people who wanted to see minutes probably going to be frustrated, I pointed out that Continue reading →

Minutes online? VLCIA 17 May 2011

VLCIA is still indecisive about minutes online, but is at least talking about it. Support for publishing minutes came from a surprising source.

Col. Ricketts said he had been asked by Roy Copeland to look at putting the minutes online and had talked to local authorities (Parks & Recs, Hospital, Prison, Airport) and other economic development authorities around Georgia (Macon, Albany, Tifton, Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta) and found none of them publish minutes online. He said their concern was prospective project details.

Col. Ricketts said Chairman Jerry Jennett asked him to talk to former Executive Director Ken Garren. Ricketts said Garren said that even though Continue reading →