Tag Archives: Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

G. Robert Carter (1924-2011)

Update 13 Feb 2011: A very nice biography and tribute in the VDT today. His birth year is corrected in the title of this post.
According to the VDT today [12 Feb 2011]:
At approximately 11 a.m. Saturday morning, emergency personnel responded to the residence of G. Robert Carter, former Lowndes County Commissioner and Sheriff. Carter, who was recently hospitalized for an unnkown illness, has reportedly passed today.
Two weeks ago he spoke as he was being honored at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner:


G. Robert Carter, former Lowndes County Commissioner District 3, former Sheriff,
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
I’ve lived long enough to appreciate the Greatest Generation, but also to appreciate the younger ones coming along to take our place.

…

I’m not totally out of business; I might be able to help you somewhere down the line. As I told Crawford, don’t wait until you get in trouble. Come to see me before you get in trouble.

Here are videos of all the tributes to Sheriff Carter that evening. Continue reading →

Radio theater by elected officials –George Rhynes

George Rhynes posted the appended on his blog the same day he spoke on the same subjects at the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011.


George Rhynes speaking at the
regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Excerpts from his blog post: Continue reading →

Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare –John S. Quarterman

Sure, everyone wants jobs for the people right now and jobs so the children don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those children need to drink?

This is the problem:

“What I believe the three most important things are, not only for our community, and our state, and our country, but for our country, thats jobs number 1, jobs number 2, and jobs.”


Brad Lofton, Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I shook Brad Lofton’s hand after that speech and told him I liked it, because I did: in general it was a positive speech about real accomplishments. I’ve also pointed out I had a few nits with that speech. This one is more than a nit. This one is basic philosophy and policy.

Now one would expect an executive director of an industrial authority to be all about jobs. And that would be OK, if Continue reading →

Suppressing fire forest fires: a bad idea then and now

The Longleaf Alliance came up with some doozies of old fire-suppression propaganda at the Longleaf Workshops at Wiregrass Tech today.

WOODS FIRES
EVERYMAN’S ENEMY
Just in case you couldn’t visualize this enemy well enough, how about as a pale skeleton on a white horse with a B-movie torch?
DEATH RIDES
THE FOREST
Ooh, those shadowy letters!

If all else fails, go for fake religious injunctions, such as Continue reading →

Your local fire forest: Longleaf Workshop, Valdosta

This sums it up:
“Taking fire out of the longleaf forest is like taking rain out of the rain forest.”
But there’s a lot more to learn about the formerly largest-ranging forest in North America. The Longleaf Alliance is doing a series of Longleaf Workshops around Georgia, in conjunction with the Georgia Forestry Commission I went to the one at Wiregrass Technical College at Valdosta.

Here is EJ Williams giving an overview:


Longleaf Workshop, Valdosta, 10 February 2011.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Good crowd: more than 50 people. More later. We’re on break now.

-jsq

Contracts between VLCIA and Wiregrass Power LLC

Shortly after GA EPD approved the final air quality construction permit for the proposed biomass plant, new contracts were signed between Wiregrass Power LLC and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).

Update 10 Feb 2011: JPEG images of each page are also available now.

Here they are, as PDFs generated from scans of paper copies.

Both contracts were signed for Wiregrass Power, LLC by Therrell Murphy, Jr., President, on 26 July 2010, and for VLCIA by Jerry J. Jennett, Chairman and Mary B. Gooding, Secretary, on 17 August 2010.

These documents were obtained by an open records request by a citizen who then gave copies to LAKE.

-jsq

Cooking fresh food –Buddy Boswell

Buddy Boswell of Daily Dinners Personal Chef Service talks about eating better by cooking fresh food. He reminisces about what his grandmother taught him. And he says a gourmet is just somebody who likes good food with good fresh ingredients.


Videos by John S. Quarterman, 27 January 2011,
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

What was missing from Brad Lofton’s speech?

Seems like there’s something from Brad Lofton’s speech at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce on 28 January 2011. Right at the end he mentioned:
a project we’ve been working on


Brad Lofton, Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes COunty Industrial Authority,
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

What could that project be?

Right at the beginning Lofton said:

Ben Copeland beat me slap silly
Maybe that’s a clue. What did Ben Copeland say about Brad Lofton?
Brad Lofton was going to talk after me, and he’d talk about biomass. [laughter]
Continue reading →

Brad Lofton’s memory fails him again, and again….

Speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce 28 January 2011, Industrial Authority Executive Director Brad Lofton remarked about:
The largest solar panel array that we are aware of today in the state of Georgia. That’s 350 kW solar panel array that you’ll be seeing coming out of the ground February first.


Brad Lofton, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

That’s funny, because as readers of this blog may recall, on 18 January 2011 I pointed out to Lofton that: Continue reading →

Brad Lofton asks for your ideas

In a generally congenial and well-received speech to the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce (LPCoC), Industrial Authority (VLCIA) executive director Brad Lofton gave an update on various projects and concluded by asking for input. “Economic development is a team sport,” he said, and “Give us ideas” and “There’s one of us and hundreds of you.”

Lofton was introduced by LPCoC chairman Dan Bremer who said that Lofton and VLCIA brought a plant to Lake Park with 400 workers.

In his speech, Lofton lauded the LPCoC as a great incubator of local businesses.

It’s going to come from all of you.
He talked about expanding local industries, especially PCA at length, asking David Carmon of PCA to stand up, saying PCA made a $230 million expansion in 2010, and noting “We had to compete for the PCA project.” Continue reading →