Tag Archives: Law

Bell Brothers v. Sabal Trail Attorney Fees

You can help prevent this happening to you or your neighbors.


Sabal Trail will use this to intimidate anyone who opposes them,
just like they’ve been using previous court cases to scare people all along.
Fortunately, the Bells have already provided a way everyone can help
and thereby demonstrate we the people do not want Sabal Trail.
The Bell brothers have set up a

gofundme campaign.
If you can’t contribute, you can help publicize it.

In the same case that

people travelled to Leesburg, GA to attend
twice, from Dougherty County and Lowndes County, GA and from places in Florida as far south as the Everglades,
the Bell Brothers lost Continue reading →

You can choose love: Valdosta vigil for Orlando

Before the names of the dead were read by 50 of the crowd
that numbered at least three times as many;
before the moment of silence and the prayer
and the thanks to all the first responders and police who assisted at the scene in Orlando;
this evening at St Barnabas Church on Bemiss Road
one speaker said we could choose to focus on the person who did this horrible thing in Orlando,
or we could choose to focus on fear, but as for her and her house,
she chooses love:
go out and do something for your neighbor.


Choose to focus on love

The gathering also served as Continue reading →

Yoho hikes Sabal Trail pipeline route

Calling on Austin Scott GA-08 and Sanford Bishop GA-02 and other members of Congerss
to also ask the Corps
for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Study (SEIS) about Sabal Trail discrepancies.
Same story appeared in the Suwannee Democrat yesterday.


Page 5A
Thomas Lynn, Valdosta Daily Times, 17 May 2016,
Yoho hikes Sabal Trail pipeline route,

LIVE OAK. Fin. — US. Rep. Ted Yoho hiked with around 30 opponents
to the Sabal Trail pipeline through Suwannee River State Park’s Big
Oak Trail in north Florida to look at sinkholes near the proposed
route.

The morning hike was a result of Continue reading →

Videos: Hambrick Road paving and traffic and Bevel Creek bridge @ LCC 2016-04-26

Thanks to County Engineer Mike Fletcher for doing almost

what Gretchen asked

at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 26 April 2016.

They rattled through
the agenda
with almost no questions, unanimously approving everything, including
the $89,005 in emergency no-bid repairs.
You’d have little idea why they were doing anything if you weren’t at the
previous morning’s Work Session or you didn’t view the

LAKE videos of the Work Session,
in which we discovered for example
it’s not

Beatty Creek Bridge, rather Bevel Creek Bridge.
Nonetheless, the County Engineer still said the creek name wrong.

Here are links to each of the LAKE videos of the Regular Session of April 26th 2016, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also the

LAKE videos of the Work Session of April 25th 2016,
and the agenda.

They meet again this morning at 8:30 AM. Continue reading →

Videos: Emergency no-bid repairs, a bridge where, and unnecessary resurfacing @ LCC 2016-04-25


5.e. Emergency Fiber Replacement to South Lowndes
The

FY 2017 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant was a popular topic yesterday morning, and
some Commissioners showed a little bit of scepticism about that
$89,005 in

emergency no-bid

repairs
on

the agenda for yesterday morning and for voting 5:30PM this evening.

Also

$634,800 for a bridge we can’t tell where, and

some unknown fraction of
$1,663,888.78 to resurface a road that shouldn’t be used as a highway in the first place.
Who’s in charge of budget planning for the county?

At the end, there was

more from the County Manager about private road Carter Way:
they discovered another property owner (“at least one”) after they

agreed to spend $67,822 to fix a private road.

Here are links to each of the LAKE videos, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Emergency no-bid repairs, a bridge where, and unnecessary resurfacing @ LCC 2016-04-25

$89,005 in emergency no-bid repairs on the agenda for Monday morning and voting Tuesday evening.

Agenda Sheet
Also $634,800 for a bridge we can’t tell where, and some unknown fraction of $1,663,888.78 to resurface a road that shouldn’t be used as a highway in the first place.
Who’s in charge of budget planning for the county?

Why is replacing the fiber optic data cable that connects the South Lowndes Data Center and the E911 Center an
emergency repair for $61,020,
when apparently the problem has been going on for years?
Meanwhile, it’s good that it’s not an emergency that the 911 Center
Core Network Equipment
needs replacing for $38,621.
Planning ahead is good.
Is one of these items in the budget and the other not?

Another emergency not marked as such in the agenda is Continue reading →

Federal court rules fossil fuels violate constitutional rights 2016-04-08

Our Children’s Trust, Press Release, 9 April 2016,

Judge Denies Motions by Fossil Fuel Industry and Federal Government in Landmark Climate Change Case,

Today, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the federal District
Court in Eugene, OR, decided in favor of 21 young Plaintiffs, and


Dr. James Hansen on behalf of future generations, in their landmark
constitutional climate change case brought against the federal
government and the fossil fuel industry. The Court’s ruling is a
major victory for the 21 youth Plaintiffs, ages 8-19, from across
the U.S. in what Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein call the “most
important lawsuit on the planet right now.” These plaintiffs
sued the federal government for violating their constitutional
rights to life, liberty and property, and their right to essential
public trust resources, by permitting, encouraging, and otherwise
enabling continued exploitation, production, and combustion of
fossil fuels.

Full
press release
and court order.

In denying the motions of the federal government and the fossil fuel
industry, the court’s decision framed the issue as follows:

“Plaintiffs are suing the United States … because the
government has known for decades that carbon dioxide (C02) pollution
has been causing catastrophic climate change and has failed to take
necessary action to curtail fossil fuel emissions. Moreover, Continue reading →

Moratorium on Palmetto Pipeline goes to GA Gov. for signature on HB 1036

We all won twice against invading pipelines this week in the Georgia legislature.

Yes, pipeline companies, advocates of water, air, and property rights work together, too
A smashing 34-128
defeat of Spectra Energy’s invading Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail natural gas pipeline,
by WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Georgia Sierra Club, Georgia Water Coalition, SpectraBusters, and many others,
wasn’t the only win for landowners, environmentalists, and the people
in the Georgia legislature this week.

Push Back the Pipeline‘s petroleum products moratorium passed the final legislative hurdle in the House and is on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign.
You know, if Deal had stood up for the people against Sabal Trail, too,
its easements to drill under Georgia rivers including our Withlacoochee River
and Okapilco Creek, would have been defeated in the State Land Commission
of which he is chair before they ever got to the legislature.
But we all won, and won again!
Spectra, Kinder Morgan, and even ALEC lost this time.

Walter C. Jones, jacksonville.com, 23 March 2016,

Bill to stall pipeline from Belton, S.C., to Jacksonville awaits Georgia governor’s signature:
Georgia House adopted moratorium that would impose moratorium on licensing and permitting until July 2017, Continue reading →

GA House passes moratorium on eminent domain for petroleum pipelines in HB 1036 at last minute

A moratorium on eminent domain for petroleum pipelines until June 30, 2017
pending study of land use rights,

Moratorium on eminent domain for petroleum pipelines
a change throughout of right to power of eminent domain,
and “natural resources, environment, and vital areas of the state” now mentioned first, in HB 1036,
passed yesterday, the last day for either half of the Georgia legislature
to adopt a bill before sending it to the other half.
A small change from the Georgia Senate could also affect natural gas pipelines.

See also
Walter C. Jones, jacksonville.com, 24 February 2016,

Senate subcommittee approves moratorium on eminent domain for petroleum pipelines in Georgia, Continue reading →

Videos: Rivers and Pipeline, Rehab homes, LAMP Lease, Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-09



Gretchen

thanked them for putting most of the response to her open records request
on CDs, shortly after they had said at their recent planning session that
they wanted to promote interaction with the community.
Still nothing from the county attorney about the Sabal Trail documents, and it’s been well over three days.
I

invited them on behalf of WWALS to a workshop and a movie;
there’s more below.
See also the contested rezoning

5.d. REZ-2016-05 Union Rd Subdivision, E-A to R-A, ~114 acres
for more water issues.

Three citizens spoke explicitly about the pipeline,

Jim Parker,

Michael Noll,
and

Dr. Mario Bartoletti,
as also noted in
Jason Stewart, VDT, 11 February 2016,
Sabal protests continue.
As I noted

in another post,

I go to a lot of county commission meetings in Georgia and Florida. Nowhere but Lowndes County do I see Continue reading →