It’s a good thing the county held these first-ever (as far as I know)
comprehensive budget sessions.
Here are videos of the first day.
Most of the departments are asking for more money,
due to increased population and increased demand for services
during a period of economic downturn.
Something needs to be done, and these sessions are one step in
getting to doing something.
Here’s
the agenda.
Lowndes County Sheriff Prine
talked about
Administration,
the
Jail,
the
Commissary,
and
Enforcement
at the
first day of Budget Presentations to the Lowndes County
Commission, 10 March 2014.
Like most other county-funded departments, he asked for more personnel.
The long squeeze of the economic downturn needs to be addressed somehow.
These videos show how the Sheriff proposes to address them.
A directly affected landowner wanted to know what happened
with the talks
among several local county attorneys about the
proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, and was there any way citizens
could provide input,
at the
11 March 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Here’s
the video:
Can we get pipeline update and citizen input? –Carolyn Singletary
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 March 2014.
Also she wondered if she could hear Continue reading
Apparently the community believes the Commission thinks
there’s nothing they can do,
but Mario Bartoletti, speaking for himself and for
WACE,
said he thought there were things the Commission could do
about that 36-inch methane pipeline, and he listed some things,
at the
11 March 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Here’s
the video:
There are things you can do about the Sabal Trail Pipeline –Mario Bartoletti
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 March 2014.
His list included:
Gretchen Quarterman stood up for local landowners, the economy,
and the environment,
by reading the statement against the pipeline recently
approved by the Lowndes County Democratic Party, of which she is the chair,
at the
Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting 4 March 2014.
Here’s
the video:
Lowndes County Democratic Party opposes the Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman
Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline,
Scoping Meeting, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 March 2014.
Here’s the text she was reading:
Lowndes County Democratic Committee Opposes Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline Continue reading
Letter to the Editor in the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday.
-jsq
How is it that one foreign corporation,
that has just come into existence to do this project,
can have greater power than all of the thousands of citizens affected,
and their elected governments?No, I’m not talking about the Keystone XL pipeline, but he issues are the same.
This one wants to run a 36-inch gas pipeline through a number of states and counties,
including Lowndes, affecting thousands of landowners.
It’s known as Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, and is the
unholy offspring of Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy.
How can one foreign corporation (they’re from out of state),
have so much power vis-avis the thousands of landowners and
citizens of Lowndes County, that the citizens must give up a hundred-foot-wide
swath of their land, along with the depreciation of their
property values, not to mention their personal safety, and allow
this pipeline to come through?
The gas is not even for use in Lowndes County, or even the State
of Georgia.However, the general feeling is we have to give in to the
corporation’s demands.
County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter is quoted as saying,
“There’s nothing we can do.”
Does anyone else see the problem here? Continue reading
Indefatigable reporter gets FBI to investigate profiteering
private prison company: again.
CCA already
lost the contract for Idaho State Prison and two other CCA prisons have closed.
Maybe this time the FBI will shut CCA down.
Rebecca Boone wrote for AP yesterday,
APNewsBreak: FBI investigates prison company,
The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections Corporation
of America over the company’s running of an Idaho prison with a
reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School.”The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho’s largest prison
for more than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it
had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours
in violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees
falsified reports to cover up the vacancies. The announcement came
after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed
guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing
requirements.The Idaho State Police was asked to investigate the company last
year but didn’t, until Continue reading
“There’s nothing we can do,”
said Lowndes County Commissioners
about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline,
after the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak during
the
25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
But there are things local governments can do, as other local
governments and elected officials have already demonstrated.
Citizen Carol Singletary drove 100 miles to get there.
As Chairman Bill Slaughter asked for a motion
to adjourn the meeting,
she said she called in to say she wanted to speak.
Slaughter responded,
You have to fill out the paperwork and everything in order.
Phillip Singletary said he did, and it was in the Commission Chamber
entranceway.
The Chairman did not relent; “just do it next week; next time”.
Nevermind that he has let people speak who hadn’t turned in the paperwork
before the meeting started (we have videos).
He even
let pipeline reps speak from the audience without coming up to the podium
and didn’t let any citizens speak at the Spectra sales pitch
back in December.
Commissioner John Page moved to adjourn, and added that he would
like to see Ms. Singletary after the meeting.
Chairman agreed, somebody seconded, and they voted to adjourn.
Do elected Commissioners now have to get a vote of the Commission
to talk to citizens?
Here’s
the video of that part.
After the meeting, Continue reading
A local affected landowner and the chair of a local political party
ask you to come tonight at 6PM at the Holiday Inn on West Hill Avenue
to testify to the federal agency that decides on a permit
for the proposed yard-wide hundred-foot right of way
methane pipeline that a company from Houston wants to gash through here.
First a presentation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
then citizens can stand up and be recorded by a court reporter.
As directly affected local landowner Carol Singletary
pointed out on WALB Sunday,
“When you have it within 100 feet of your home, you cannot
have any sense of security there. There are alternate routes that
aren’t being considered. So I want to get those on the table and
some strong considerations given to those.”
As Gretchen Quarterman pointed out for the Lowndes County Democratic Party
on WCTV yesterday,
“The Georgia Democrats feel that there’s a moral obligation to
leave the world as beautiful and majestic as we found it and the
pipeline, it does not do that”, says Gretchen Quarterman,
Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee.
More from the LCDP
Press Release yesterday, plus more meetings and more ways to testify, Continue reading
The second day of the Commission retreat is finished.
Reporting from location, Gretchen noted:
Chairman Bill Slaughter has a five year goal of making broadband
available. Some possibility of creating a fibre ring.
He says he’s working with the City of Valdosta.
Well, a year ago in February he said broadband was
“one of the number one issues”,
but in October he said
“we have broadband”,
so it’s anyone’s guess what his opinion will be in a few months.
Commissioner Crawford Powell wants to outsource more county services.
That’s working so well, after all; see the next note.
