Gretchen went to Tuesday's Brown Bag Lunch and saw a lot of happy lunchers listening to the VHS Jazz Ensemble.
Here's a video playlist:
VHS Jazz Band @ Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 May 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
Beyond a smart grid to mix and match the supply solar and wind to get rid of any need for new coal or nuclear plants, as 
FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff recommended three years ago, FERC also has plans to mix and match demand. Energy customers can volunteer to shut off their air conditioners or clothes dryers automatically if there’s not enough supply. This could facilitate adding solar power, by basically acknowledging that it may not always supply a fixed capacity.
Todd Griset wrote for law firm PretiFlaherty 23 April 2012, FERC seeks demand response standards,
Demand response, an innovative strategy to ensuring the integrity of electric grids, is growing in popularity, prompting federal regulators to consider standardizing how demand response performance is measured.
Managing an electric grid entails ensuring a constant balance between electric generation and customer demand for electricity. As customer demand rises, grid operators have traditionally called on more and more generating units. In most markets, grid operators dispatch the lowest-cost units first to keep overall costs down. As a result, generating units needed to meet peak demand tend to be more expensive than baseload generation. Many peaking units also emit more pollutants per unit of energy than baseload units.
In a demand response program, customers can volunteer to be available to reduce their load during times of peak demand. When done right, this reduction in customer demand can play much the same role as dispatching additional generation, but at a lower cost in dollars and environmental impacts. Energy efficiency resources can also play a similar role.
The U.S. Congress and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have both recognized that demand response can be a decentralized, crowd-sourced alternative to peaking power plants. Utilities and regional transmission organizations across the nation are implementing demand response programs.
Across the nation…. How about it, Georgia Power, and Georgia EMCs? How are your demand response programs coming?
-jsq
Power companies’ main stated objection to solar or wind is that they are not “capacity” or “baseload”
generation because sometimes the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow. And those utilities are required by various state, regional Energy Regulatory Commissions right up to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to supply capacity or baseload power. That’s their main excuse for coal and nuclear plants. Well, the Chairman of FERC thinks we may not need baseload, nor any new coal nor nuclear plants, either.
Noelle Straub and Peter Behr wrote for ScientificAmerican 22 April 2009, Will the U.S. Ever Need to Build Another Coal or Nuclear Power Plant? The new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission doesn’t think so
No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States,
the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today.
“We may not need any, ever,” Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.
So what will we need?
Continue reading 
Here are videos of the entire approximately eight minute 7 May 2012 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission. They vote in Regular Session tonight at 5:30PM. Here’s the agenda.
See other post about “5. Appointments – Lowndes County Development Authority”.
Two weeks ago they decided to hold a public hearing about abandoning part of the Right of Way of old US 41 South, 
but this time it’s on the agenda as a Resolution, and it appears part of the request has been withdrawn, and some people would be left landlocked with no access to a public road, so it seems the Resolution will be to table at least part of it to an undetermined future date. Yet the County Engineer seemed to reccomend going ahead with the rest of the abandonment. Where’s the public hearing?
Two rezonings had no comments. The third, just north of Hahira, got opposition at the Planning Commission; see the other post on that.
A developer wants, according to County Planner Jason Davenport, a letter from the Commission so it can more readily get tax credits from the federal government. He didn’t say what the tax credits would be for. For a concrete front yard? Or for solar on the roof? It will be interesting to see how the anti-grant Commissioners vote on this one, when it’s a developer who benefits.
It sounds like the county wants to award a contract to Continue reading
Two rezonings had no comments. The third, just north of Hahira, got opposition at the Planning Commission, which recommended a qualification, which County Planner Jason Davenport interpreted as trying to limit the density of development of the property.
At the Lowndes County Commission at its 7 May 2012 Work Session during the discussion on
7.c. REZ-2012-07 McNeal Property, McNeal Road E-A to R-A, Well & Septic, 25 acres
Crawford Powell, Commissioner for District 3, which is the south end of the county, asked a question, while Richard Raines, Commissioner for District 2, which is the north end of the county including Hahira, sat silent, although he did nod his head.
A neighbor sent a letter with details of opposition. I wonder what’s in it? If you want to know, you can submit an open records request to the county. Of course, with the three day time limit for the county to respond, the Commission will have already voted on it this evening before you find out what’s in the letter.
Here’s the video:
Rezoning density outside of Hahira
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 May 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
What’s this Development Authority of Lowndes County (LCDA) and who’s on it? If a voting board member of a board being appointed is on that second board, should he recuse himself? What if he’s one of the people being considered for appointment?
The Lowndes County Commission at its 7 May 2012 Work Session considered 5. Appointments – Lowndes County Development Authority. That’s a completely different board from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA). You may wonder, what does it do? I wonder that, too.
According to County Manager Joe Pritchard, the County Commission is considering reappointing several people to LCDA. 
They are Jerome Tucker, [mumble, mumble, and mumble].
The Commission didn’t give us anything in writing to go by. However, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs tells us:
Continue readingValdosta Bike Coop has sprouted a blog. And it's doing a bike ride this weekend.
On Saturday, May 12, 2012 the Valdosta Bike Co-op will host its first community ride on the Azalea City Trail. The ride will begin at the start of the trail near Vallotton Park and will finish at the end of the trail near the Craig Center. This will be a family-friendly ride and will keep a reasonable pace. The ride will begin at 1 PM following a brief bike safety lesson.
The ride will begin with a proclamation by a local leader of the City of Valdosta appointed by Mayor John Gayle. The proclamation will officially declare May as National Bike Month in the City of Valdosta. Riders will then follow the nearly 3 mile trail through beautiful Central Valdosta.
The goal of this ride is to promote the use of the bike and pedestrian trail as well as to promote National Bike Month. The members of the Valdosta Bike Co-op would like to invite the entire community to join us in the fun, healthy, and safe community ride.
-jsq
PS: Owed to Matt Portwood.
While /the grid power was out during and after the March F2 tornado (F3 in Lanier County), the lights at our place never blinked, because we have solar panels and batteries. George Mokray has a video that expands on that point.
Solar IS Civil Defense—what we are all supposed to have on
hand in case of emergency—flashlight, cell phone, radio, extra set of batteries—can be powered by a few square inches of solar electric panel. Add a hand crank or bicycle generator and you have a reliable source of survival level electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.
Here’s the video:
Solar IS Civil Defense PSA
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, .
Video by for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
This is also entry level electrical power for the 1.5 billion people around the world who do not yet have access to electricity. Civil defense at home and economic development abroad can be combined in a “buy one, give one” program like the Bogolight (http:// www.bogolight.com) which is a solar LED light and AA battery charger.
Solar IS Civil Defense and could be much more.
I think Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye did a fine job dealing with the tornado. What if beyond the resources he had available we added distributed solar power? In addition to being storm ready, solar also brings jobs for engineers, electricians, truck drivers, and plumbers, and for professors and students to study all that.
Change a few laws, and profit by selling excess power to Atlanta or points north. Add plug-in electric vehicles, and we get less need for foreign oil, so we get improved national security.
Safety, energy independence, and economic development right here at home 
through solar power!
-jsq
Received today on Finance, Facilities, and Projects @ VLPRA 2012 04 19. -jsq
I would like more information on the “partners meetings” beginning with why these meetings are not announced as public meetings. The
video link lists partners as The Boys & Girls Club and The YMCA. There is a long history of both of these private organizations being mixed into the Valdosta/Lowndes parks & recreation government operations including past competitions between these private sector elements. One of the main reasons Public/Private Partnerships are not in the citizen’s best interests is the fact the private entities are used to evade government transparency responsibilities. If the VLPRA is going to consider themselves partners with any private organization then the public has a right to know what is being discussed & what future plans are being considered. Those of us who are aware of past conflicts with partial privatizations of parks & recreation have a right to know that safeguards are enacted to prevent a return to situations that were not always in the best interest of the citizens and/or created sweetheart deals for private entities. Any private organization who claims to be non-profit should have to submit to an independent audit and also account for how for profit revenues relate to non-profit claims. When any organization that claims non-profit status in order to receive tax credits, grant monies, and United Way funds can have a million dollar plus extortion operation siphoning off revenues at the same time something is not right. Local taxpayers have a right to know that full disclosure and auditing methods are being employed to prevent any repeat situations before partnering is allowed.
-Barbara Stratton
An appointment, a road abandonment, three rezonings, and a bunch of for considerations. How long do you think the Lowndes County Commission and staff will discuss these things in their Work Session tomorrow morning? Five minutes? Ten? Maybe even fifteen minutes?
Here’s the agenda.
-jsq
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 7, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
- Call to Order
- Invocation
- Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
- Minutes for Approval
- Work Session — April 23, 2012
- Regular Session — April 24, 2012
- Appointments – Lowndes County Development Authority
- Resolution – Abandonment of unopened Right of Way off US 41 South
- Public Hearings
- REZ-2012-05 Gloria Dave, Bethany Drive R-A to R-1, Well & Septic, ~3.8 acres
- REZ-2012-06 Hart Property, Whitewater & Clyattville Lake Park R-A to R-1, County Water & Septic, ~3 acres
- REZ-2012-07 McNeal Property, McNeal Road E-A to R-A, Well & Septic, 25 acres
- For Consideration
- Letter and Resolution of Support for Brookhaven III Apartments
- Acceptance of Proposal for Patching of Ousley Road
- Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Supplemental Agreement #1
- Proposal from Doubletree Communities, LLC.
- Piney Wood Mobile Home Park Trust Indenture
- Beer License-Right Shop 2-6872 Lake Park-Bellville Rd.
- Traylor Business Service Inc. Contract
- Reports-County Manager
- Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address