Tag Archives: Lowndes County Commission

“Parameters on the types of industry” –VDT Editorial

And what about all that land?

In addition to a news story about Brad Lofton moving on up to Myrtle Beach, the Valdosta Daily Times also had an editorial yesterday (14 March), Lofton’s leaving a void in which they make some good points, including:

While the search is on for a new director, now is the time for the city, county and industrial authority board to come together to make some decisions about the organization and what the community leadership needs and wants it to be.
Here are a few modest suggestions along those lines, including considerations such as water.

More from the VDT: Continue reading →

Against taxes –Nolen Cox

Speaking to the Lowndes County Commission on 8 March 2011, Nolen Cox said businesses produce money and government consumes it, and he doesn’t like taxes.

He appears to be opposed to the ESPLOST election.

He’s the same fellow who introduced the topic of climate change denial in a Lowndes County Commission meeting.

Here’s the video.


Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 8 March 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Fiduciary responsibility of LCC to oversee VLCIA? –John S. Quarterman

Speaking to the Lowndes County Commission on 8 March 2011, I read from VLCIA “inter-governmental funding agreement” with Lowndes County, noting that VLCIA’s own audited annual financial report seems to be out of date, since it still says VLCIA asks the Lowndes County Commission for its funds. And I wondered about this part in Note F:
The bonds are secured by an “inter-governmental” funding agreement between the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority and Lowndes County, Georgia.
I repeated what I wrote before:
If the Lowndes County government is co-guarantor of VLCIA’s bonds, how can the Lowndes County Commission say it has no responsibility or control over what VLCIA does? I am not a CPA, but the term “fiduciary responsibility” comes to mind.

I quoted myself from VLCIA Bonds: $15M becomes $23.5M?

If I’m reading that right (I am not a CPA), VLCIA took out about $15M in bonds for which they will pay back a total of about $23.5M. Is that really $8.5M in debt service, or about 56% of the original principal?
I pointed out that VLCIA seems to have about $8.3 million in cash Continue reading →

NOAA Weather Radios needed on the edge of the county –John S. Quarterman

So I’ll give you my opinion, like I gave it to the County Commission, and at the end of this post there’s a chronological list of links to all the NOAA Weather Radio posts so far.

But first, what do these radios do? According to NOAA:

NWR is an “All Hazards” radio network, making it your single source for comprehensive weather and emergency information. In conjunction with Federal, State, and Local Emergency Managers and other public officials, NWR also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (such as chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages).
So these radios provide all the types of information J.L. Clark referred to. There’s more information in that NOAA web page.

I spoke after J.L. Clark on 22 Feb 2011. There is no video, because LAKE had only one camera at that meeting. From memory, here is the gist of what I said.

I live out on the edge of the county. I remember when Ashley Paulk moved in next door.
Continue reading →

NOAA Weather Radios: “think before you act” –J.L. Clark, LCC, 22 Feb 2011

The week after Commissioner Raines said NOAA Weather Radios were “wasteful spending” and the commission voted 2:1 against them, J.L. Clark asked the Commission to “think before you act”.

Clark pointed out that nobody said anything when the state effectively raised property taxes. He read off a list of other grants the county has accepted, and asked:

Are you going to return those grants? I think not.
He brought up a recent earthquake and pointed out those radios would be quite useful in such a natural disaster.
I ask the Commissioners to think before you act, and not to react to you-know-what.
The commissioners made no response. Here’s the video:


Lowndes County Commission, 22 Feb 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending” –Richard Raines

Are NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending”?

We’ve already seen staff present the case for about 5,000 NOAA Weather Radios at $21.50 each, paid for out of grant money. They made that case at the 8:30AM 7 Feb 2011 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

At the regular session the next day (5:30 PM Tuesday 8 Feb 2011), citizen Nolen Cox spoke against the NOAA grant and more generally said “just say no to grants”. He also went on at some length about how he didn’t believe in climate change. Nevermind that the fifth U.S. or British board of inquiry has reconfirmed yet again that the data and analysis for climate change are solid.

EMA Director Ashley Tye summarized the case for NOAA Weather radios, according to the minutes,

stating Lowndes County had been awarded $107,500.00, in Hazard Mitigation grant funding for the purchase of 5,000 NOAA weather radios to benefit all of Lowndes County. Mr. Tye added that Alert Works had presented the low bid in the amount of $21.50 per radio.
Finally, the Commission had some discussion. According to the minutes: Continue reading →

NOAA Weather Radios, LCC, 7 Feb 2011

We’ve already heard about NOAA Weather Radios from two different citizens, Nolen Cox and Ken Klanicki. What are they talking about? As usual, much of the discussion was in the work session (8:30 AM Monday 7 Feb 2011), available here in two parts.

In Part 1 staff talks about buying about 5,000 NOAA weather radios so the citizens can get weather news. Low bidder would charge $21.50 per radio.


Lowndes County Commission, 7 Feb 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

In Part 2, staff notes that the grant would require that the radios can’t be earmarked, so people could come to the county office to pick up radios, and staff proposes to have several community events throughout the community, well-advertised, for people to pick up radios and staff to answer questions about them.

One of the commissioners notes:

That’s almost $108,000 tax money what happens to that grant money if, we say you know, it might not be a good idea […] what happens to that?
Continue reading →

“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.” –Julian Assange

Some people compare LAKE to Wikileaks, so let’s go there. Julian Assange, like Wendell Berry, links the civil rights movement and the environmental movement. He then says:
“For the Internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time. We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state. The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness. Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.”

LAKE’s motto is:

Citizen dialog for transparent process
That makes Assange’s proposition
“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state”
sound very familiar to us.

Locally it’s more a matter of elected and appointed bodies ignoring their chartered responsibilities to the public good and the general welfare. Well, many people are also tired of the permit inspection brigade, but that’s another story.

Assange also adds: Continue reading →

DHS grant for emergency vehicle, LCC work session, 21 Feb 2011

Here’s video of the explanation by county staff the proposed DHS grant application for an emergency vehicle. It includes questions and statements from commissioners, and goes on for almost 11 minutes. This was at the work session of 21 Feb 2011.

The sound would be better if the county used their own equipment, which is already purchased and in place in that same room, to record their own sessions and make them available over the web.

Here is the LAKE video. Maybe somebody would like to make a transcription.


Work session, Lowndes County Commission, 21 February 2011.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Video of this topic at the regular session of the next day will follow. This is one of the grants Ken Klanicki referred to in his LTE in the VDT the other day about a steep learning curve.

-jsq

“the learning curve is very steep” –Ken Klanicki

This LTE appeared in the VDT yesterday (28 Feb 2011). -jsq
Former Lowndes County commissioner Richard Lee once told me “…the learning curve is very steep for first-time commissioners.” Our new county commissioners, Richard Raines and Crawford Powell, are living proof of the veracity of that statement. In case Bill O’Reilly is reading this, here’s a few examples.

Earlier this month a grant application for the purchase of 5,000 weather emergency radios was nixed by a 2 – 1 vote. The radios could’ve been a means for citizens residing in remote areas of the county to

Continue reading →