Tag Archives: LAKE

More from Myrtle Beach

Lorena Anderson writes in the SunNews more about Brad Lofton’s new job, including a very interesting tidbit about how he left his previous job. Georgia man tapped to bring businesses, jobs to Myrtle Beach area: Lofton gets three-year deal to lead MB agency:
A Georgia native with experience attracting industries and jobs to his home state has signed a three-year contract to lead the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation.

Doug Wendel, EDC board president, said the board voted unanimously Thursday afternoon to offer Brad Lofton the job. He will announce the change to his current employer, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, on Tuesday, Wendel said.

Lofton will begin work on the Grand Strand on April 15, bringing to an end the EDC’s search for a new chief executive, which began more than a year ago.

The EDC will pay Lofton about $121,000 a year to bring new industry and jobs to Horry County.

Look what else they mentioned: Continue reading →

Movin’ on up!

Arrived via google alert for keyword “Valdosta”:
Those on the committee to hire a new EDC director seem so certain they will offer Lofton the job that he is already making plans to announce he’s leaving Georgia next week, and can start work here in mid-April.
Lofton? Yes, that Lofton:
Brad Lofton, a Georgia native and moneymaker for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority in his home state, is being introduced around Horry County today as the leading candidate for the executive director of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation.
The story is Economic development agency likely has new director, by Lorena Anderson, in the Myrtle Beach SunNews.

Hm, somebody is counting at least one chicken that hasn’t hatched:

Lofton has been with the Valdosta group since 2006, and has brought millions of dollars’ worth of business and jobs to that county, Wendel said, including an energy plant that uses biomass and is now getting federal renewable energy credits; ….
Also notice what they don’t list as a positive: the solar plant. Perhaps an indication of somebody’s priorities.

-jsq

ESPLOST election, now through 15 March 2011

Update 7 Mar 2011: election date fixed in this post title and text.
Here’s how to announce public finances:
To be published on February 11, 18, and 25, 2010 and March 4 and 11, 2010.
That’s five times the Lowndes County Board of Elections is publishing the details of the ESPLOST one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes. This is significant money: not more than $165 million dollars over five years, $94,875,000 for Lowndes County schools, and $70,125,000 for Valdosta schools. There are only two main ways of raising money for public schools: sales taxes, or property taxes. The local school boards use both. This is the sales tax part.

Well, there is a third way. Continue reading →

LAKE as a news medium

We are the media, and you can be, too!

According to the OPEN Government Act of 2007:

[T]he term ‘a representative of the news media’ means any person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience. In this clause, the term ‘news’ means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Examples of news-media entities are television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large and publishers of periodicals (but only if such entities qualify as disseminators of ‘news’) who make their products available for purchase by or subscription by or free distribution to the general public. These examples are not all-inclusive. Moreover, as methods of news delivery evolve (for example, the adoption of the electronic dissemination of newspapers through telecommunications services), such alternative media shall be considered to be news-media entities.
It’s pretty obvious LAKE qualifies as a news medium with its blog, On the LAKE Front, as well as its web pages and its facebook page.

Here is the bill’s full text. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy and 17 others, ranging from Sen. Barack Obama to Sen. Johnny Isakson. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush 31 December 2007.

Of course that’s really just a detail, having to do with the Wikileaks comparison.

Most of what LAKE does has more to do with Georgia law, about open records requests and this passage, O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1-c.:

“Visual, sound, and visual and sound recording during open meetings shall be permitted.”

None of that requires a news medium. Any citizen can file open records requests or record public meetings. Remember, you are the media!

-jsq for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

NOAA Weather Radios needed on the edge of the county –John S. Quarterman

So I’ll give you my opinion, like I gave it to the County Commission, and at the end of this post there’s a chronological list of links to all the NOAA Weather Radio posts so far.

But first, what do these radios do? According to NOAA:

NWR is an “All Hazards” radio network, making it your single source for comprehensive weather and emergency information. In conjunction with Federal, State, and Local Emergency Managers and other public officials, NWR also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (such as chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages).
So these radios provide all the types of information J.L. Clark referred to. There’s more information in that NOAA web page.

I spoke after J.L. Clark on 22 Feb 2011. There is no video, because LAKE had only one camera at that meeting. From memory, here is the gist of what I said.

I live out on the edge of the county. I remember when Ashley Paulk moved in next door.
Continue reading →

NOAA Weather Radios: “think before you act” –J.L. Clark, LCC, 22 Feb 2011

The week after Commissioner Raines said NOAA Weather Radios were “wasteful spending” and the commission voted 2:1 against them, J.L. Clark asked the Commission to “think before you act”.

Clark pointed out that nobody said anything when the state effectively raised property taxes. He read off a list of other grants the county has accepted, and asked:

Are you going to return those grants? I think not.
He brought up a recent earthquake and pointed out those radios would be quite useful in such a natural disaster.
I ask the Commissioners to think before you act, and not to react to you-know-what.
The commissioners made no response. Here’s the video:


Lowndes County Commission, 22 Feb 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending” –Richard Raines

Are NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending”?

We’ve already seen staff present the case for about 5,000 NOAA Weather Radios at $21.50 each, paid for out of grant money. They made that case at the 8:30AM 7 Feb 2011 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

At the regular session the next day (5:30 PM Tuesday 8 Feb 2011), citizen Nolen Cox spoke against the NOAA grant and more generally said “just say no to grants”. He also went on at some length about how he didn’t believe in climate change. Nevermind that the fifth U.S. or British board of inquiry has reconfirmed yet again that the data and analysis for climate change are solid.

EMA Director Ashley Tye summarized the case for NOAA Weather radios, according to the minutes,

stating Lowndes County had been awarded $107,500.00, in Hazard Mitigation grant funding for the purchase of 5,000 NOAA weather radios to benefit all of Lowndes County. Mr. Tye added that Alert Works had presented the low bid in the amount of $21.50 per radio.
Finally, the Commission had some discussion. According to the minutes: Continue reading →

NOAA Weather Radios, LCC, 7 Feb 2011

We’ve already heard about NOAA Weather Radios from two different citizens, Nolen Cox and Ken Klanicki. What are they talking about? As usual, much of the discussion was in the work session (8:30 AM Monday 7 Feb 2011), available here in two parts.

In Part 1 staff talks about buying about 5,000 NOAA weather radios so the citizens can get weather news. Low bidder would charge $21.50 per radio.


Lowndes County Commission, 7 Feb 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

In Part 2, staff notes that the grant would require that the radios can’t be earmarked, so people could come to the county office to pick up radios, and staff proposes to have several community events throughout the community, well-advertised, for people to pick up radios and staff to answer questions about them.

One of the commissioners notes:

That’s almost $108,000 tax money what happens to that grant money if, we say you know, it might not be a good idea […] what happens to that?
Continue reading →

“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.” –Julian Assange

Some people compare LAKE to Wikileaks, so let’s go there. Julian Assange, like Wendell Berry, links the civil rights movement and the environmental movement. He then says:
“For the Internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time. We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state. The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness. Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.”

LAKE’s motto is:

Citizen dialog for transparent process
That makes Assange’s proposition
“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state”
sound very familiar to us.

Locally it’s more a matter of elected and appointed bodies ignoring their chartered responsibilities to the public good and the general welfare. Well, many people are also tired of the permit inspection brigade, but that’s another story.

Assange also adds: Continue reading →

VLCIA Bonds: $15M becomes $23.5M?

How much are those bonds VLCIA has committed we the taxpayers to?

According to VLCIA’s FYE 2011 Annual Financial Report it looks like the bonds started out as about $15,000,000, and are

If I’m reading that right (I am not a CPA), VLCIA took out about $15M in bonds for which they will pay back a total of about $23.5M. Is that really $8.5M in debt service, or about 56% of the original principal? Is that a good deal VLCIA has made with we the taxpayers’ money?

Meanwhile, VLCIA has

That’s an interesting number to contemplate while other arms of local government are scraping to pay salaries and provide services. One of those other arms of local government is the Lowndes County Commission, which appears to be co-guarantor for those bonds.

-jsq