Tag Archives: LAKE

Videos: Health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-21

Vice Chair Richard Raines ran the work session, calling the meeting to order and moving briskly through the first item (minutes for approval). Commissioners asked questions on most of the other items. -gretchen

In the Library item Commissioners discovered even they didn’t get the whole board packet. After the meeting, Gretchen filed an open records request for the agenda packet, but if the county runs true to form she won’t get it until after they vote in the Regular Session tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM. Insurance plan and health plan took more than 20 minutes, with many questions from Commissioners.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

You gonna take him, too? –police illegally arresting journalist

It all started with someone handing out DVDs in a Federal Reserve museum, continued with people being arrested on a public sidewalk for doing nothing, and ended with a judge reaffirming that yes, you can video police.

John [?] wrote for Next News Network a 19 October 2013, Federal Reserve Bank Settles Counterclaim with Journalist,

In May of 2011 in Missouri, Bruce Baumann was peacefully passing out DVDs with his local media chapter, WeAreChange Colorado, outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City. However, when Baumann and fellow activist Ronald Lewis attempted to enter the Federal Reserve’s money museum, they faced resistance from the private bank’s security, which led to both of their arrest. Although this resulted in ongoing litigation for nearly 30 months following the incident, Baumann was confident that he would not only be successful in defeating the charges, but he would also be victorious in trampling the Federal Reserve Bank with a counterclaim.

Unbeknownst to Lewis, his name was previously recorded on a list Continue reading →

Striping and citing @ LCC 2013-10-08

Catching up with the Regular Session of 8 October 2013, why is the county going to pay $150/month for a traffic signal and $2200/month for offramp lighting (both at Exit 22, North Valdosta Road) when they could install solar panels and batteries once and pay nothing ongoing?

They tabled Nottinghill like the Planning Commission did. They voted to let Barrington subdivision sprawl into the county with no conditions, taking staff’s recommendation instead of one about a fence by the Planning Commission.. They voted to rotate the mostly ceremonial Vice Chairman position every eight months. They decided on a price for tentants in the Leila Ellis Building and will get around to drawing up a lease agreement. Commissioners finally did get that list of roads for striping. Fiddling changes to percentages evidence for juvenile justice and hardware and software for fining people coming off of I-75.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes. See also videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Request pipeline town hall –Tim Bland to LCC

Received yesterday. Tim Bland wrote “This is what I emailed to all of the commissioners on Friday.” I added a few links and pictures. -jsq

Commissioners,

I would like to start by thanking Demarcus Marshall for attending the meeting held by Sabal Trail at Wiregrass Tech on Wednesday. It is nice to know that some of our elected officials are concerned about this project.

After talking with many of the affected landowners at this meeting, it appears that there is a general misconception about the certainty of this proposed pipeline. The officials from Sabal Trail, both in writing and in person, are telling landowners that this pipeline is coming and there is little any of us can do to prevent it. This appears to be the main reason for the high approval rating for the initial surveys. We were told that if we did not willingly participate in the survey, there would be little consideration given to our input and opinions when the pipeline is built. We were also told Continue reading →

Another October LAKE meeting Tuesday 22 October 2013

Pipeline and local governance: Water (sinkholes, aquifer recharge, runoff, drinking water, and wastewater), trash (how about that Exclusive Franchise!), and money (no-bid contracts and plus SPLOST VII). If you want to help, we have a little list of tasks you can do. Why another meeting in October? The first one was at a time when many of the regulars couldn’t come, so here’s one for them.

What: Another October LAKE Meeting
When: 6:15PM Tuesday
after the Lowndes County Commission meeting
7 October 2013
Where: Michael’s Deli
1307 N Ashley St.
Valdosta, GA 31601

If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.

-jsq

Against rate hike and solar fee by Georgia Power

If you missed Savannah, Columbus tomorrow, then Gainesville, Athanes, and Atlanta: you can speak up against Georgia Power’s attempt to charge you for saving them money by generating solar power.

Mary Landers wrote for SavannahNow Friday, Ga. Power proposed rate hike, solar fee blasted,

“Unconscionable” and “theft” were two of the words used Thursday evening to describe a residential rate hike and fee on solar installations proposed by Georgia Power.

More than 50 people attended a meeting sponsored by Georgia Watch and the Sierra Club at the Coastal Georgia Center to discuss the issues.

The rate hike, proposed in July, would have average residential customers paying almost $8 more a month. Some homeowners with solar panels would pay a new monthly fee of about $22 by Georgia Power’s estimations.

Video by WJCL News: Continue reading →

Cancelled due to lack of agenda items: Valdosta City Council meeting @ VCC 2013-10-24

The internal email from the City Clerk (see below) has a bit more detail than the website notice.

From: Teresa Bolden
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 4:26 PM
Subject: COUNCIL MEETING CANCELLED

Good afternoon — I just wanted to let you know that the Council Meeting scheduled for October 24th has been cancelled due to a lack of Agenda Items.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks! Teresa
Teresa S. Bolden, CMC
City Clerk
P. O. Box 1125
Valdosta, GA 31603-1125
Phone: (229) 259-3503
Fax: (229) 259-5411

-jsq

Lowndes vs. Florida Pipeline

The VDT got some good quotes from Spectra and from landowners, and even from a Lowndes County Commissioners at the Spectra dog and pony at Wiregrass Tech last week. Not the whole story, though; this one has legs.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT today, Lowndes residents oppose Fla. pipeline,

Andrea Grover (Spectra), Matthew Woody (VDT) Sabal Trail Transmission held an open house at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College last week to explain the Florida natural gas pipeline expected to run through South Georgia.

Sabal Trail had bulletin boards depicting aerial photos with the proposed 600-foot corridor mapped out with two red dotted lines running parallel to one another. In the center of these dotted lines, there was a brown line which highlighted an existing pipeline.

He got a bit more detail from Spectra rep Andrea Grover about Option A (the current proposed pipeline path) vs. Option B: Continue reading →

Health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-21

The county is considering an insurance plan ( Section 125 or cafeteria or flexible benefit), presumably related to the health plan they’re also considering. They may abandon Green Lane. The only family living on Green Lane appears to be Alphonso Simmons Jr.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Press freedom is not opposed to freedom –AP

Press freedom is an essential part of liberty, and without liberty there is no security. It’s good to see the CEO of AP speaking up about this, after Julian Assange, Bruce Schneier, and Benjamin Franklin.

Colleen Slevin wrote for AP yesterday, AP CEO: Press freedom v. security a ‘false choice’,

Governments that try to force citizens to decide between a free press and national security create a “false choice” that weakens democracy, and journalists must fight increasing government overreach that has had a chilling effect on efforts to hold leaders accountable, the president and CEO of The Associated Press said Saturday.

Gary Pruitt told the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association that the U.S. Justice Department’s secret seizure of records of thousands of telephone calls to and from AP reporters in 2012 is one of the most blatant violations of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution the 167-year-old news cooperative has ever encountered.

The Justice Department action involving the AP resonated far beyond the U.S., including Continue reading →