What’s this about yet another sales tax decided on by
regional transportation boards and GDOT?
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization
(VLMPO)
explained T-SPLOST
at the regular monthly meeting,
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
Georgia HB 277, which was passed by the legislature and signed into law
last year,
calls for a 1% regional sales tax (T-SPLOST) to fund
transportation projects.
Some local councils don’t even have open records request forms,
and many don’t have them posted online.
But that doesn’t have to stop you!
As mentioned,
there are plenty of open records requests still to be filed.
If you want suggestions, inquire at
information at l-a-k-e.org (the dashes are part of the address).
For how, see the previous post on the
Open Records Act.
Send LAKE the results of your request and we may publish them.
If you want your name mentioned in a LAKE post as the open records requestor,
please say so.
Also remember that any communications you may receive from
an elected
Continue reading →
We’ve rotated around the north end of Lowndes County;
time to rotate down to the west of Valdosta.
Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 5:30 PM, Tuesday 5 April 2011
Where: Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli
1407 W Hill Ave Ste 1
Valdosta, GA 31601
(229) 241-9944
That’s on Hill Ave just east of St. Augustine Road.
They’re open until 9PM, and they’d be happy to push a few tables
together for us.
Restaurant review and source of the picture.
Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy,
biomass, and regular local government meetings: you never know when
news will be made!
If you follow the LAKE blog,
On the LAKE Front,
which you can also see through the
LAKE facebook page,
you know what we cover, from protesters to private prisons to gardening,
all of which turn out to be related.
What else do you want to investigate?
You can be LAKE, too!
Continue reading →
Protestors wearing respirator masks held signs reading “Biomass? No!”
in front of the Valdosta City Hall building on Thursday. Members of
the Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, the VSU student organization
Students Against Violating the Environment, and other concerned Valdosta
citizens showed up to protest the construction of the Wiregrass Power:
Biomass Electric Generating Plant.
“We already have solar power resources in place that we could be using
and I feel like money should be directed towards that,” Ivey Roubique,
vice-president of the Student Geological Society, said. “It wouldn’t
be good for the community and even though I’m in college here it
still matters.”
The Spectator article quotes from two speakers for whom LAKE
happens to have video, linked below.
Continue reading →
When public officials ignore objections for long enough, eventually
people start speculating as to their motives, in this case about the proposed biomass plant.
Here’s
the video:
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 February 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Erin Hurley provided the very model of how to give a speech:
I’m the president of
Students Against Violating the Environment at VSU.
I’m here representing
200+ members of SAVE, that consists of students, faculty, community members.
We are deeply concerned with environmental issues and
we are networking together to make this city a more humane and
sustainable community
for future generations.
As a student, I feel I have the right to be able to breathe clean air
at the college I attend.
With this biomass plant possibly being built here,
the future for generations to come are in jeopardy, and we want to protect our fellow and future students’ health.
Please take into consideration the future health of this university
and its community,
and don’t sell grey water to the proposed biomass plant.
Erin Hurley, President of
SAVE, Students Against Violating the Environment, speaking at
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She said who she was, who she represented, how many, what they were for, what they wanted, quickly enough that attention didn’t waver, slowly and loudly enough to be heard, and briefly enough to transcribe, with pathos, logic, and politic. Even the mayor looked up at “As a student….”
A small example of following up on citizen suggestions,
but who knows? maybe it’s a sign of much more to come.
In the comments by council members at the end of the 24 March 2011
Valdosta City Council session, member Tim Carroll thanked
George Rhynes for his suggestion to put district numbers
on council members’ name plates so citizens could more easily
tell which was their council member.
Caroll raised his plate up so everyone could see
it has a number on it, too, now.
Other Council members also commented on various things.
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
The
initial writeup in the VDT quoted CCA as being all coy
about if a need arose from the state they would be ready
to deploy the private prison in Lowndes County:
“This is (for) a future need that we don’t even know what it’ll
be yet,” Frank Betancourt, CCA’s vice president of real estate
development said. “There’s no ground breaking to announce. When the
need (for a facility) does arrive, we can be the first ones to offer
(our services).”
CCA has been a great partner with us for nearly a decade now. Coffee
Correctional Facility and Wheeler Correctional Facility certainly meet
the standards of the Georgia Department of Corrections. I particularly
appreciate CCA maintaining exemplary accreditation status with both
the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on
Correctional Healthcare. I look forward to a continued long relationship
with them.”
—Commissioner James E. Donald, Georgia Department of Corrections
And over in Decatur County people actually asked about this, and were
told
Continue reading →
Karen Noll of WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy,
asked the Valdosta City Council not to sell wastewater
to the proposed Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant.
She presented
“500+ signatures from community members and organizations”
asking for that.
She also said
“…furthermore a response to our request each
member of the council is expected before the next council meeting.”
WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, at
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
What’s this about yet another sales tax decided on by
regional transportation boards and GDOT?
Some local councils don’t even have open records request forms,
and many don’t have them posted online.
But that doesn’t have to stop you!
