Tag Archives: LAKE

Government Affairs Council, Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, 2012-07-31

The Chamber’s Government Affairs Council (GAC) met 31 July 2012, and Gretchen was there with video camera. In the first video, they’re talking about sales tax on energy, tax holidays, and about business partnerships in support of the arts. I readily admit I have not watched these videos all the way through: we have so many videos in the queue I’m trying to work off the backlog. If any of you see something especially interesting in these videos, please let us know so we can blog about it. Even better, send us what you think so we can consider posting that.

The Chamber’s web page about GAC appears to be empty. Maybe it works in IE or something. Over on Chamberorganizer, there’s a page about Erika Bennett:

Hello, and welcome to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce. I am the Business Advocacy & Marketing Coordinator. I coordinate the Chamber’s Government Affairs Council, which watches business legislation throughout the year to ensure that Valdosta is business-friendly.

Here’s a video playlist:

Government Affairs Council, Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, 2012-07-31
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.

Here’s an update about a GAC meeting of 17 January 2012.

Here’s Chamber PR about the GAC 2011-01-11, New Government Affairs Council Gives Voice to Local Businesses:

Continue reading →

I will work for the people of Lowndes County –Jody Hall 2012-08-04

Jody Hall, running for Lowndes County Commission District 5 (west side) said at the 100 Black Men BBQ:

If I'm elected, I will work for the people of Lowndes County. I'm their employee. That's the way it needs to be.

Here's the video:

I will work for the people of Lowndes County –Jody Hall 2012-08-04
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.

-jsq

Valdosta rank in Georgia cities

Increased population is using increasing resources Recently I saw someone speculating online that Valdosta’s rank among Georgia cities was rising because its population is growing. And its population is indeed growing, as you can see in the graph on the right or the Census Bureau data in the table below right. (Compare to similar information for Lowndes County.) But not as fast as some other Georgia cities, so Valdosta’s rank is not increasing. In fact, the opposite: Valdosta has been dropping in rank.

Census Pop. %±
1860 166
1870 1,199 622.3%
1880 1,515 26.4%
1890 2,854 88.4%
1900 5,613 96.7%
1910 7,656 36.4%
1920 10,783 40.8%
1930 13,482 25.0%
1940 15,595 15.7%
1950 20,046 28.5%
1960 30,652 52.9%
1970 32,303 5.4%
1980 37,671 16.6%
1990 40,135 6.5%
2000 43,724 8.9%
2010 54,518 24.7%

Here are city ranks for the censuses from 1980 to 2000:

1980 7 Atlanta, Columbus, Savannah, Macon, Albany, Warner Robins, VLD.
1990 11 passed by Augusta, Athens, Roswell, Marietta
(Augusta and Athens cheated by consolidating with their counties.)
2000 14 passed by Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, and Alpharetta
2010 14 Sandy Springs passed Macon and Marietta dropped two,
but Valdosta remained #14

So actually Valdosta has been decreasing in Georgia city rank over time, because cities in the Atlanta metro area have been growing faster.

Now I don’t consider that a bad thing: population growth isn’t the same thing as economic growth, and economic growth isn’t the same thing as prosperity or well-being. But it’s an interesting bit of history.

Rank1980199020002010
1 Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta
2 Columbus Augusta Augusta Augusta
3 Savannah Columbus Columbus Columbus
4 Macon Savannah Savannah Savannah
5 Albany Macon Athens Athens
6 Warner Robins Athens Macon Sandy Springs
7 Valdosta Albany Sandy Springs Macon
8 Roswell Roswell Roswell
9 Marietta Albany Albany
10 Warner Robins Johns Creek Johns Creek
11 Valdosta Marietta Warner Robins
12 Warner Robins Alpharetta
13 Alpharetta Marietta
14 Valdosta Valdosta

-jsq

Second prison guard pled guilty for assaulting strikers

Conspiracy, assault with injury, coverup: another Georgia prison guard pled guilty, all in response to a strike by prisoners for decent pay. And remember, private prisons have fewer guards per prisoner and less training.

WTXL wrote yesterday, Ex-prison officer pleads guilty in inmate beatings

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday Darren Douglass-Griffin pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of inmates and falsification of records in a federal investigation.

Douglass-Griffin admitted he and other correctional officers at Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe assaulted and injured inmates in a series of incidents in 2010. He told prosecutors correctional officers beat three inmates in separate incidents to punish them. One inmate was beaten so badly he had to be taken from the prison in an ambulance.

Douglass-Griffin also said he and other officers tried to cover up the officers’ involvement by writing false reports and lying to investigators.

I say “another” because the federal Department of Justice entitled its PR of yesterday Second Former Georgia Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiring with Other Officers to Assault and Injure Inmates. DOJ didn’t say who the first to plead guilty was, but it did add:

Continue reading →

Video of stealth education panel at Lowndes High last night

Here’s George Boston Rhynes’ first video from last night’s stealth education panel. The VDT covered it, but, presumably due to its bizarre policy of not covering candidates for office, the VDT didn’t even mention that J.C. Cunningham, Democrat running for Georgia House District 175, was present, even though the VDT posted pictures and quotes from the incumbent, Republican Amy Carter, who apparently organized the panel. Charter schools were discussed; see below after the video.

Video of stealth education panel at Lowndes High last night
Video by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I and bostongbr on YouTube,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 August 2012.

On the panel, left to right:

Continue reading →

“It’s almost like they are out to take advantage of the rubes,” —an economist

Do big box stores count as development? Are they worth millions in tax incentives and bond investments? Maybe we can find something better for local industry and jobs.

Rumors have been flying for years about a Bass Pro store coming to Valdosta, like this one on a Georgia Outdoor News forum:

01-22-2008, 09:05 PM, bear-229
ive heard the land has been bought. very close to the new toyota lot but it has not made it to the “new locations” on the web site

That’s on James Road, in that huge proposed development that Lowndes County approved around that time.

Scott Reeder wrote for The Atlantic 13 August 2012, Why Have So Many Cities and Towns Given Away So Much Money to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s?,

Both Bass Pro Shops and its archrival, Cabela’s, sell hunting and fishing gear in cathedral-like stores featuring taxidermied wildlife, gigantic fresh-water aquarium exhibits and elaborate outdoor reproductions within the stores. The stores are billed as job generators by both companies when they are fishing for development dollars. But the firms’ economic benefits are minimal and costs to taxpayers are great.

An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.

Where does all that money come from? Bonds, usually. Which is yet another reason why last legislature’s HB 475 to give unelected bodies bond issuing privatizing power would be a bad idea.

What does all that money go for?

Continue reading →

Withlacoochee and Little Rivers peaking, 2012-08-14

We've seen the Lowndes County PR about Withlacoochee River flooding. Ashley Tye has posted on the Emergency Management page a list of links to river gauges in Lowndes County. Here are current images from each of them, going from upstream to downstream, left to right:

Little River near Hahira (SR 122)
Little River near Hahira (SR 122) 		Withlacoochee River above Valdosta (Skipper Bridge Road)
Withlacoochee River (Skipper Bridge Road)

Withlacoochee River near Foxborough (US 41)
Withlacoochee River near Foxborough (US 41)

Withlacoochee River near Quitman (US 84)
Withlacoochee River near Quitman (US 84)

You can easily see the rivers have peaked upstream at Hahira and Skipper Bridge, may be peaking at Foxborough, but the Withlacoochee is still rising downstream at Quitman.

-jsq

Flooding on the Withlacoochee?

Many of the same factors that cause the prolonged extreme drought we’ve been having (deforestation, impervious surfaces, climate change) also produce flooding when we get a little rain. The flooding map by NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, Weather Forecast Office Tallahassee, FL, 2012-08-14 shows minor flooding on the Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge Road.

WTXL yesterday posted PR from Lowndes County, Georgia, Withlacoochee River under watch due to rising water, flood warnings,

LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga.—Due to rising waters and the issuance of a Flood Warning by the National Weather Service, Lowndes County Emergency Management continues to monitor rising water levels on the Withlacoochee River at the Skipper Bridge Road stream gauge site.

Currently, the water level stands at approximately 14.3 feet and is expected to crest this afternoon at approximately 14.5 feet.

While a flood warning is in effect, the only area flooded at these Minor Flooding of Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge Road, Lowndes County, Georgia levels are woodland areas near the river. Historically, flooding does not affect local roads and/or residences until water levels reach approximately 17 feet.

Lowndes County Emergency Management will continue to monitor conditions and additional updates will be distributed as new information becomes available. While there is no cause for immediate concern, citizens are encouraged to remain aware of their surroundings.

Residents may monitor local river levels by accessing real time stream gauge information by visiting the following link: water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=tae.

For more information, please contact Lowndes County Public Information Officer, Paige Dukes, 229-292-6142 or pdukes@lowndescounty.com.

Curiously, on the County’s own Press Releases web page, there’s no mention of this PR.

-jsq

 

Another home with wind power

When we arrived, the wind company was tuning the stay wires on the windmill at the home of Karl and Clare Kuntz in western New York State.

Another home with wind power
Karl and Clare Kuntz, Pavillion, Genesee County, New York
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Clare said the wind company is Sustainable Energy Developments. She added,

Sign You can put your money in the mattress or in the bank, and get about the same appreciation. Or you can put it in wind or solar and feel good about it.

Karl said it would take about fifteen years to pay back the wind investment, and meanwhile they get more power than they use, and still will after it’s all paid for. He remarked that the wind company has also started doing solar energy, because solar now costs half as much as wind. And that’s in windy western New York, 1000 miles north of sunny south Georgia.

-jsq

There is something you can do

Anybody who has tried to do much of anything around here has run into this phrase:

There’s nothing you can do.

I was reminded of that when I read this, from the Economist 12 May 2012, Hope springs a trap,

This hopelessness manifests itself in many ways. One is a sort of pathological conservatism, where people forgo even feasible things with potentially large benefits for fear of losing the little they already possess.

The article expands on that idea:

Development economists have long surmised that some very poor people may remain trapped in poverty because even the largest investments they are able to make, whether eating a few more calories or working a bit harder on their minuscule businesses, are too small to make a big difference. So getting out of poverty seems to require a quantum leap—vastly more food, a modern machine, or an employee to mind the shop. As a result, they often forgo even the small incremental investments of which they are capable: a bit more fertiliser, some more schooling or a small amount of saving.

It may seem that the article is about the poorest of people, but that “pathological conservatism” could as easily apply to the hopelessness many people seem to have about ever getting solar panels on their own roofs, or to attracting enough business to our area to employ our high school and college graduates, or that businesses will ever come to the south side.

Yet the point of the article is that field studies by MIT economist Esther Duflo show Continue reading →