Tag Archives: Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

Ben Copeland on water and growth in south Georgia

Ben Copeland asked the big question: “How much growth do we want?” He related it to regional water in the aquifer, rivers, growth, and planning, speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, 28 January 2011.

Copeland is Past Chairman of the Board, Wiregrass Technical College. He serves on the regional water planning council. He said those councils were started due to worries about Atlanta not having a reliable water supply. He said the councils were planning for water and wastewater to 2050. The local regional council is the Suwannee-Satilla regional water council. He described the extent of the water planning region (see map). He expects finalization of the water plan by May. He talked about the Floridian aquifer, and how he’s worried not so much about Atlanta taking our water as about Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee. “Because they all have their straws in that same aquifer.”

Finally, Ben Copeland asked the big question: “How much growth do we want?”

“Do we want to be Jacksonville? Do we want to be Tallahassee? Do we want to be a large metropolitan region?

Folks are going to move to south Georgia, I can tell you that, because of all the resources that we have. I’m a great believer in the free enterprise system. How much do we try to limit that?

Continue reading →

“Using words like green, renewable, etc. does not magically make it so.” –Russ Anderson

Following up on his previous correspondence. -jsq

From: Russ Anderson
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:20:24 -0500
Subject: Re: Attn: Clarifications on my comments
To: blofton@industrialauthority.com, info@sterlingplanet.com, bmaddox@sterlingplanet.com

Brad,

I’m not saying the project is good, responsible, that it will actually happen, and def. not that you are in any way right in your opinions of “green” and “renewable”.

Furthermore, I really wish you could get beyond the talking point of “the agencies and groups endorsing similar projects”, because again that is a highly contestable and skewed figure as many local, regional, and national agencies, groups, and networks still voice heavy opposition to this issue and biomass incineration.

Using words like green, renewable, etc. does not magically make it so. I know all about framing language and tactics of those wishing to line their pockets and exploit subsidy and tax loopholes. The simple fact that you are so set in your opinion and mentality is quite alarming..

For example, I am more than willing to embrace control technologies and

Continue reading →

the myth that biomass constitutes a “health benefit” –Dr. Noll

A followup to his presentation at LCC last Tuesday. -jsq
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:59:50 -0500
From: noll_family
To: apaulk@lowndescounty.com, jevans@lowndescounty.com, rraines@lowndescounty.com, cpowell@lowndescounty.com
CC: kay.harris, “John S. Quarterman”
Subject: Last Night’s Meeting

Dear Chairman Paulk and Commissioners.

Thanks for providing my wife and I and others opposed to the biomass plant the opportunity to address you last night. As a follow-up to last night’s meeting, let me share some thoughts with you, including reflections on a comment made about other “biomass incinerators” in our county and the continuing myth that biomass constitutes a “health benefit”:

Continue reading →

Blazer Gardens gets organized at VSU

So, what’s happened after our rooftop tour? Bobbi Anne Hancock explains how she got the idea for Blazer Gardens after she heard about Blazer Pantry, which is Crystal Hardy’s project that provides food for VSU students who don’t have any.

Everybody explained how they heard about Blazer Gardens. Here are few I videoed. Continue reading →

The owl is watching! February 2011 LAKE meeting

Come help watch:
Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 5:30 PM, Tuesday 1 February 2011
Where: Family Pizza House
5945 Bemiss Road @ Radar Site (in front of Moody AFB)
(229) 244-1845
The LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, quadrupled its page views this month!

http://lake.typepad.com/on-the-lake-front/

People want to see what happened at the County Commission, and what didn’t can be just as important.

Lots of meetings recently: Continue reading →

Wrapup –Ashley Paulk

Chairman Paulk notes the sheriff has a very difficult job in trying to find the younger Eunice in the Ocean Pond. He asks people also to keep the Eunice family and Joyce Evans in mind since her niece was recently murdered.

The Commission adjourns.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

This second version is both noisier and perhaps somewhat easier to hear. Continue reading →

County Manager’s Report –Joe Pritchard

He remarks that the county has contracted with an arborist to prune a tree on the courthouse property the next day, but don’t be alarmed; they’re not cutting any trees down. He thanks volunteers and agencies throughout the state who have participated in searching for the missing person in the lake.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Industrial Authority and the general welfare –Dr. William Fuller

First time speaker Dr. William Fuller refers to a paper copy he got from the City of Valdosta of the charter of the Industrial Authority. He says it allows them to make contracts, and he asks for someone to check to see the unelected members of the Industrial Authority don’t contract with relatives. He notes that the charter says their main purpose is to promote the general welfare of the people of Lowndes County, and the proposed biomass plant won’t do that.


Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Thanks for Susan Wehling’s email –Ashley Paulk

Chairman Paulk says he got a very good email from Susan Wehling, who said she could not be here tonight.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Environmental interest –Bobbi Anne Hancock

She says she has asked the Industrial Authority who in our local community has done studies on the environment and our health? She says she understands that they have constituents who are not from here, but who locally can do some investigating that specifically cares about Lowndes County, who has the environmental expertise?

Chairman Paulk thanks her for their earlier conversation, and says: “I will seek an answer.”


Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Two cameras and the sound is bad in both, although for other speakers it’s fine. I attribute it to the microphone being too far away from her, and when Chairman Paulk speaks to the audience he leans around his laptop and thus away from his microphone.

-jsq