Tag Archives: LAKE

5.b. Emergency repairs on Cat Creek Road @ LCC 2012-07-23

Apparently Cat Creek Road is sinking, and the county has to fix it fast. At least for this latest engineering emergency they didn’t no-bid it: they actually took bids. They vote tomorrow night.

At this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session, County Engineer Mike Fletcher described the Cat Creek Road project:

There’s an existing triple line of 36 inch storm drain that goes under Cat Creek Road between Radar Site and Vienna Church. These storm pipes are failing under the road, causing the pavement to sag over the pipes. The project will be to remove the existing pipes, headwalls, realign the new cross drains, skewed to be more in line with the natural run of the creek, install new cross drains and concrete headwalls, and then repave that section of Cat Creek Road.

If the repairs do not take place immediately, Cat Creek Roiad is toing to have to be closed. This repair is considred to be an emergency. Quotes were obtained in lieu of bidding the work. We had four people we had requested proposals from. Two proposals were turned in: one from Reames for $59,640 and one from Scruggs for $66,257. The other two bidders were nonresponsive.

Commissioners had no questions. At least for this latest emergency, the county didn’t just award a no-bid contract; it did at least request bids.

Here’s the video:

5.b. Emergency repairs on Cat Creek Road
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.

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Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012 @ LCC 2012-07-23

At the Monday morning Work Session, County Manager Joe Pritchard reiterated that there would be a Public Hearing on Millage 5PM 24 July 2012. He added that the millage is “less than calculated rollback”, Two weeks before, at the previous Work Sessioni and Regular Session, he already said staff did not anticipate any increases in millage.

This time he added these details:

MillageRecipient
7.31 Lowndes County
1.00 Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
1.25 Parks and Recreation (VLPRA)
9.56 Total

Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know whether the school board was only the unincorporated area. He got two answers: “yes”, and “it’s not the city of Valdosta.” Those are not the same answer, since people from some of the cities, such as Hahira, Lake Park, and I think Dasher, go to county schools and are taxed for that. I don’t know about Remerton. Valdosta has its own school system and its own school tax. All the school taxes are separate (and greater than) the county taxes in the table above.

Here’s the video:

Announcement of Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.

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Austin Energy’s Biomass Buyer’s Remorse

Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company (SO) is bragging about selling a 100 MW biomass plant to Austin Energy. Funny how SO’s press release doesn’t mention Austin Energy’s buyer’s remorse. Let’s see why Austin Energy should regret buying biomass.

SO PR 18 July 2012, Southern Company brings nation’s largest biomass power plant on line: Nacogdoches facility contributes to Austin Energy renewables goal

Southern Company SO announced today that the nation’s largest biomass plant is putting electricity on the grid in Texas. Southern Company President, Chairman and CEO Thomas A. Fanning joined state and local dignitaries today at the company’s Nacogdoches Generating Facility to mark commercial operation for the 100-megawatt unit.

Austin Energy is receiving energy from the plant through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The PR goes on about local jobs and taxes, which could have been produced through building solar or wind generation. How much did that biomass plant cost Austin Energy? Funny how that’s not in the PR!

The City of Austin owns Austin Energy, and the Mayor and City Council are its Board of Directors. Vicky Garza wrote for the Austin Business Journal 20 July 2012, Austin Energy’s buyers remorse for biomass,

Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez wouldn’t mind a do-over on the $2.3 billion, 20-year energy contract the council approved in 2008.

The contract calls for Austin Energy to buy the entire output from the Nacogdoches Generating Facility, a 100-megawatt wood-waste-fueled biomass power plant.

“When the contract was initially brought to Council, it appeared to be a good deal to help us reach our adopted goals for renewables,” Martinez said.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

$2.3 billion for 100 MW is about $23 per Watt. How does that compare to the 30 MW Webberville solar farm Austin Energy opened this year? Continue reading →

SPLOST VII, Millage, Library, and two road repairs @ LCC 2012-07-23

Two kinds of taxes: Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday 8:30 AM and Regular Session Tuesday 5:30 PM, with a property tax millage hearing 5PM before the Regular Session. Apparently the cities and the county have come to some agreement about Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) VII. Road repairs are being contemplated for Cat Creek Road and Cameron Lane. And there’s something about an RFP for an architect for the library.

Update: SPLOST, not LOST. -jsq

Here’s the agenda.

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LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

TSPLOST — There are ways to get more road ‘bang’ for buck

MJDOnline editorialized today, The TSPLOST — There are ways to get more road ‘bang’ for buck. Most of it is about Cobb County, but some of it may sound familiar:

THOSE PUSHING the TSPLOST have bungled the job despite their gargantuan $8 million war chest. They have muddled their message (is it congestion relief or a jobs program?) and even managed to fumble the project list. Cobb voters don't know whether they're voting for a rail line or a bus line. And even though the proposal now specifies the latter, the overwhelming suspicion is that if the TSPLOST passes they'll be stuck paying and paying and paying for the former instead.

Better to vote down this TSPLOST and hope and pray that it also fails region-wide, than possibly come back in two years with an improved project list that can get the public's buy-in. As it is, the bulk of the Cobb projects on the current list would likely be on a future local Cobb road SPLOST list if there were no such thing as a regional TSPLOST. Which begs another question: Why should Cobb abdicate control over its road program to the Atlanta Regional Commission or a regional roundtable in the first place? Who knows better than Cobb residents what our transportation needs are?

What do you think? Does GDOT in Atlanta know better than we do what we need around here?

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Invent batteries to the price point of the electricity market —Donald Sadoway

MIT Prof. Donald Sadoway thinks he’s found a way to build electric-grid-scale batteries out of dirt.

Electric utilities complain solar and wind power are not baseload, capacity, energy sources because they are intermittent. You know, if they weren’t busy running up cost overruns that could easily exceed the entire annual budget of the state of Georgia, maybe the utilities could solve this problem. Meanwhile, Prof. Sadoway, instead of looking for the snazziest coolest most efficient new method of energy storage, defined the problem in terms of the market:

the demanding performance requirements of the grid, namely uncommonly high power, long service lifetime, and super low cost. We need to think about the problem differently. We need to think big. We need to think cheap.

Then he set parameters on the solution:

If you want to make something dirt cheap, make it out of dirt. Preferably dirt that’s locally sourced.

He cast about for possible precedents and found aluminum smelting gave him some ideas for using low density liquid metal at the top, high density liquid metal at the bottom, and molten salt in between. Choosing the right metals is the trick, which he thinks he’s found: magnesium at the top, and antimony at the bottom.

Is Sadoway right? Will his battery work at grid scale? I don’t know. But he’s asking the right questions, and it’s worth a try.

As Kyle Sager wrote for Heliocurrent 4 May 2012, Renewable Storage: Leave it to MIT,

Has Dr. Sadoway achieved the holy grail of renewable energy? Judge for yourself. Our attention is compelled by the degree of his certainty and the seeming simplicity of the approach. Watch MIT’s Donald Sadoway explain his vision here (link).

Seems to me there are at least two major approaches:

Continue reading →

I think voting on a Saturday is super extra great and convenient —Gretchen Quarterman

Gretchen reminded us to vote early yesterday. She got on TV to do that.

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV yesterday, Voting On Saturday For First Time In Ga. History

For the first time ever, Georgia voters statewide were able to cast their ballots on a Saturday. And for some it was their best chance.

Gretchen on WCTV “I think voting on a Saturday is super extra great and convenient,” said Gretchen Quarterman, Georgia voter. “To vote on Saturday is particularly convenient. You can just fit it in your errands.”

“It gives the opportunity for voters to get out and vote for those who have to work and it’s an inconvenience for them during the week,” said Sarah Stewart, Georgia Voter.

The extra day comes after the Georgia legislature shortened the early voting period for the Primaries. They took it down from 45 days to only 21.

In Lowndes County, plenty of people are taking advantage of early voting.

So what was Gretchen doing there?

Continue reading →

Where are the traditional media about Brooks County Board of Elections?

Patrick Davis provided some explanation of what the suspension issue was at the Brooks County Board of Elections, and then asked a bigger question: where are the traditional media when sunshine is needed?

Patrick Davis wrote yesterday for the Macon Examiner.com, Brooks Co. Board of Elections addresses voter disenfranchisement at meeting

The main reason behind the suspension is centered around his alleged participation in qualifying and certification irregularities along with accusations of voter disenfranchisement of local citizens in regard to a sample ballot for the upcoming July 31 election.

Collins insists it is a misunderstanding, and Nancy Duncan, the chairperson of the Brooks Board of Elections, echoes those sentiments and urged the Board of Elections not to involve the Secretary of State and/or other authorities.

As you can see, he linked who the Brooks County Board of Elections are to what they were saying in George Rhynes’ videos.

Davis linked and discussed to the timed video snippet from my blog post of Thursday; the one that shows the chair demanding of George Rhynes, “What are you doing?”

Then he brought up the bigger sunshine issue:

Continue reading →

IKEA building almost as much solar as Southern Company

IKEA has already deployed more solar power than Southern Company, and plans almost as much as SO’s total planned solar generation. Remind me, which one is the energy company? Maybe we need to elect people who will remind Southern Company and Georgia Power.

Remember Southern Company bragged earlier this month about its first big solar project coming online, 1 megawatt in Upson? IKEA plans to install that much solar in Atlanta this year on top of its furniture store:

Atlanta, Georgia: With a store size of 366,000 square feet, ft2 (~34,000 square metres, m2) on 15 acres (~6 hectares), the solar program will use 129,800 ft2 (~12,060 m2) at 1,038 kilowatts (kW) with 4,326 solar panels generating 1,421,300kWh/year. This is equivalent to reducing 1,080 tons of carbon-dioxide (CO2), 192 cars’ emissions or powering 122 homes.

IKEA plans more than that in Savannah, 1.5 megawatts:

Savannah, Georgia Distribution Centre: With a size of 750,000 ft2 (~69,700 m2) on 115 acres (~46.5 hectares), the solar program will use 187,500 ft2 (~17,400 m2) at 1,500kW with 6,250 solar panels generating 2,029,500kWh/year. This is equivalent to reducing 1,542 tons of CO2, 274 cars’ emissions or powering 175 homes.

Sure, but Southern Company already did it first, right? Nope, IKEA already powered up a megawatt in Houston, and already had some in Frisco and Round Rock, Texas, making IKEA already the largest solar owner in Texas.

As Kirsty Hessman put it in Earth Techling 8 December 2011,

They don’t call it the Sunbelt for nothing, and Ikea plans to take full advantage of the salubrious solar situation down South.

That was when IKEA was planning the Houston, Frisco, and Round Rock, Texas solar installations. Half a year later, they’re up and running. When will your new nukes be finished (if ever), Southern Company?

But back to solar. According to IKEA PR 9 July 2012, IKEA plans 38 MW of solar:

Continue reading →

Cancelled! Hahira Third Thursday 19 July 2012

Hahira Third Thursday has been cancelled for today! Hahira City Manager Jonathan Sumner tells me rain is coming, and they have cancelled the whole thing: movie, farmers' market, etc.

Here's the contact web page for Hahira. City Hall is 229-794-2330.

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