Tag Archives: LAKE

Videos of Mayors and County in Hahira @ LOST 2012 05 02

The five local cities (Valdosta, Hahira, Remerton, Dasher, and Lake Park) presented their case in terms of changed demographics from the 2000 to the 2010 census. Much of the presentation was explained by Hahira City Manager Jonathan Sumner.

Lowndes County wasn’t interested in discussing, and is waiting for arbitration, which will happen in 60 days (presumably from when they started negotiating). The VDT writeup protrays that as a surprise, but it’s what County Chairman Ashley Paulk has been saying since before these negotiations began.

I would have preferred to hear what services the cities do now or could with more tax revenue provide that would benefit the entire county.

Even more, I think the local governments could spend their time together better talking about how to increase the pie, for example through solar energy for municipal revenue or through county-wide fast Internet broadband access, either of which would help attract knowledge-based jobs, which would provide employment and increased tax revenue.

However, I salute the cities and the county for being transparent about their positions, as you can see in these videos.

Here’s a playlist:

Videos of Mayors and County in Hahira
LOST Negotiation,
Mayors and County in Hahira, Lowndes County Commission (LOST),
Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Videos @ GLPC 2012 01 30

Here are videos of the entire 30 January 2012 Regular Session of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). You’ll have to figure out what they’d doing, because they don’t post agendas or minutes.

Here’s a video playlist:

Videos
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 30 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Minutes on website? @ GLPC 2012 01 30

Whatever happened to the agendas and minutes of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) that used to be on the SGRC website? Gretchen asked at the January GLPC meeting whether they would be posted again. The chair said he didn't know. County Planner Jason Davenport added:

The regional commission used to do the minutes on the website for us. We have the minutes. Ms Gretchen, if you'll email us, we have the ability to email those minutes back to you, but we don't have plans right now to put those minutes back on the web.

The chair suggested "Maybe at some point in the future would be good." Jason Davenport reiterated that they had no plans to do that.

Here's the video:

Minutes on website?
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 30 January 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

That's similar to what he told me by email back on 28 November 2011:

Last year the agreement between the SGRC and the various local governments regarding the GLPC responsibilities changed. This website is a result of those changes. I have your request and will plan on getting direction and clarification about how to deal with these types of requests.

There has been a little bit of improvement. The GLPC chair faxed LAKE the April agenda.

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Ocilla prison nearly sold at auction: better due diligence would be a good idea

A business our Industrial Authority wanted to get us into still risks bankrupting Irwin County: a private prison. Maybe we should do better due diligence around here and invest in better business ventures.

AP reported 23 April 2012, South Ga. detention center nearly sold at auction,

A privately owned detention center that houses hundreds of illegal immigrants in south Georgia is struggling with finances, and narrowly avoided being auctioned this year.

How bad is it?

Continue reading →

What actually gets companies to locate in Chattanooga?

So we heard about Chattanooga all during the school “unification” referendum. I turns out Chattanooga really does have something that attracts business (no, not a unified school system; if you want to go back into that, I’ve got the references available). What really attracts businesses to Chattanooga is fast Internet broadband access.

Christopher Mitchell wrote for Planetizen 30 April 2012, Should Your City Build Its Own Broadband Network?

While on a site selection visit in Chattanooga, a CEO asked about broadband access. When told that the slowest tier on Chattanooga’s community fiber network was 30 megabits per second, he turned to his IT adviser for a translation. Upon hearing “that’s more than we can get in our headquarters presently,” the company cancelled its other planned visits and located its new site in Chattanooga.

That’s right, Chattanooga really does have one thing going for it: high speed Internet access.

Why does that matter?

Continue reading →

Videos @ VCC 2012 01 05

Here are videos of the entire Regular Session of the Valdosta City Council of 5 January 2012.

There were actually two meetings:

  1. With the old Mayor and Council (agenda and minutes).
  2. With the newly elected Mayor and Council (agenda and minutes).

Here’s a video playlist:

Videos, Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Where is SGMC in state hospital summit?

AP wrote yesterday, Hospital CEOs to discuss state of care in Ga.,

The chief executives of three major Georgia hospitals are getting together to discuss the future of health care in the state.

Probably a good idea. Which hospitals?

CEOs scheduled to sit on the panel are Tim Stack of Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Don Faulk of Central Georgia Health System in Macon and Maggie Gill of Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah.

Where is SGMC CEO Randy Sauls? What about what he described on 5 April 2012:

“…the vast array of services offered at SGMC. We are a progressive hospital with many services that are unique to South Georgia.”

So who organized the hospital CEO discussions?

The Executive Forum, an outreach program of Mercer University’s business school, will host the hospital CEOs….

Hm, maybe VSU could host some hospital CEOs. Maybe unlike Mercer’s Forum, they could make the discussion open to the public. Maybe even invite questions from the public.

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New nukes increasingly bad business bet for Southern Company and Georgia Power

Harvey Wasserman wrote for HuffPost 9 April 2012, America’s 2 New Nukes Are on the Brink of Death,

The only two U.S. reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.

If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.

The much mythologized “nuclear renaissance” will be officially buried, and the U.S. can take a definitive leap toward a green-powered future that will actually work and that won’t threaten the continent with radioactive contamination.

Those are the stakes. And in that high-stakes poker game, it seems Southern Company is doing a little bluffing.

In Southern Company’s (SO) Q1 2012 Earnings Call 25 April 2012, its CEO Thomas Fanning revealed another little flaw in the project:

Continue reading →

Videos, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission March 2012-03-26 @ GLPC 2012 03 26

Here are videos of the entire March regular meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). I would include a link to the agenda, but they don’t publish those anymore. They don’t even have a website anymore. So you’ll need to watch and try to figure out what’s going on.

They meet again tonight. For that meeting, we’ve got an agenda.

Here’s a video playlist for their March meeting:

Videos, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission March 2012-03-26
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Fixing the illusion of certainty in Georgia Power’s decision-making

Why is it so hard to get a company like Georgia Power or The Southern Company to get on with solar and wind power for clean energy, for national energy independence, and, most importantly to such corporations, for their own profit? Why instead do they keep investing in coal and natural gas and wasting our tax and customer dollars on nuclear financial boondoggles? Why did Cobb EMC back new coal plants until they had their nose rubbed in national shame about corruption and do nothing about solar until their shareholders revolted and changed a majority of their board? We don’t even need to wait for that forensic audit the new Cobb EMC board wants to get the big picture. Such companies consider what they’re used to to be low risk, and anything new to be risky. Why are they so stodgy, and how do we change that?

These companies have many decades of experience with coal and natural gas, so they consider them less financially risky. (Details like neighbors dying disproportionately from cancer cost a little bit to buy up property, but that’s nothing compared to readily predictable profits.) Even nuclear such companies consider not risky to them, since they’ve got the federal government and their own customers guaranteeing all the financial risk through Construction Work in Progress charges on their bills for power they’re not even receiving from the new nukes and agreement from Georgia PSC that cost overruns like those caused by concrete sinking into the dirt can be passed on to the customers.

Neal Stephenson wrote for World Policy Journal September 2011, Innovation Starvation,

The illusion of eliminating uncertainty from corporate decision-making is not merely a question of management style or personal preference. In the legal environment that has developed around publicly traded corporations, managers are strongly discouraged from shouldering any risks that they know about—or, in the opinion of some future jury, should have known about—even if they have a hunch that the gamble might pay off in the long run. There is no such thing as “long run” in industries driven by the next quarterly report. The possibility of some innovation making money is just that—a mere possibility that will not have time to materialize before the subpoenas from minority shareholder lawsuits begin to roll in.

But if the old ways turn out to be suddenly risky, change can come. Funny how Cobb EMC changed its tune after subpeonas started raining down for its former CEO Dwight Brown. Sure, he got off on a technicality, but it turns out Cobb EMC shareholders didn’t like Continue reading →