Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
One of LAKE’s intrepid investigative teams managed to get an appointment
to visit the Lowndes County Courthouse Owl.
John S. Quarterman answers the question: how much does the owl weigh?
Here’s
the video.
Visiting the Lowndes County Courthouse Owl, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 April 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Roy Taylor spoke first at Citizens to be Heard,
Valdosta City Council, 7 April 2011.
He didn’t stay to hear the rest of the meeting, though.
Could he be one of the people
Scott Orenstein was referring to?
Here’s
the video.
Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
PS: Sorry for not transcribing, Roy, but we have so many videos lately
that we’re going to have to rush a bunch of them out without that.
A long prison sentence might be justified,
but it also might be very expensive,
and maybe it’s not the best way to deal with people with drug problems.
…
People do want to know that violent criminals are locked up for a good length of time.
They’re not particularly interested in locking up in prison for
$20,000 a year or in some places in California,
$50,000 a year….
It’s not free to put someone in prison.
He even recommends trying rehabilitation and drug treatment.
Texas is the state that’s moved out there, done some very serious analysis.
Drug rehabilitiation, lower recidivism, lower costs.
In Lowndes County, Georgia, we have two hospitals, a drug treatment center, and many doctors and nurses. What if we invested in them instead of in a money-losing private prison?
Mayor Fretti presented a check for $200 to Randall Jones,
who gets his name inscribed on a plaque inside
the front door of City Hall.
Jones is a maintenance supervisor at the water plant.
The mayor said he identified that the
January water outage
involved damage to switch gear and dealt with the problem.
Here’s
the video.
Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Mara Register came to the Lowndes County Commission regular meeting
to talk about Downtown Valdosta Farm Days,
following up from the
Farm Days organizational meeting Monday.
I think her main points were:
Provide additional information about healthy eating
with food from local farmers,
thus helping solve the epidemic of childhood obesity in Georgia.
Economic development opportunity for small farmers.
Promote downtown district.
When?
The Saturday after First Friday and the Saturday after Art After Dark.
Where?
The parking spaces around the historic courthouse.
Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Grand Bay Master Gardeners (GBMG) has been holding a class to become
master gardeners, and they just graduated yesterday!
I’m not going to attempt to name all of them, because the ones I missed
would be miffed.
I will say that’s Gretchen Quarterman on the right.
And that these are people from all over the area, city and country,
Democrat and Republican.
Growing food is the universal community builder.
GBMG is “organized as a cohesive working group in Lowndes, Brooks,
Echols, and Lanier Counties”.
They’ll be holding more classes, so you, too, can become a master gardener.
How much should it cost for a citizen to get access to agendas
and minutes of a tax-funded board?
How does about $2 per meeting strike you?
Bobbi Anne Hancock filed an open records request for the
agendas and minutes of all regularly scheduled and called
meetings of the
VLCIA letter asking $125.09 for copies of agendas and minutes
of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
from 2006 to the present, and got this letter back:
So at 12 meetings per year for five years plus another 3 months,
that would be about 63 meetings, divided into $125.09 gets
about $1.99 per meeting.
Yesterday I wrote
that interactions about Valdosta Farm Days between the Lowndes Commmission
and the City of Valdosta
“could have been smoother if one or both of the parties had been proactive.”
The VDT reported that the County Commission wants to know
about Valdosta Farm Days,
and apparently there was a disconnect between the staff and the Commissioners.
Here’s how the Commission came to be informed, through interactions of citizens and staff.
First, an excerpt from the paper paper story by David Rodock,
“Farmers market proposal discussed by commission”,
Tuesday, April 12, 2011, page 3A (it’s not online):
Continue reading →
proactive: serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an
expected occurrence or situation; anticipatory
Lowndes County Commission work session, 12 April 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
While apparently supportive of the initiative, the process could
have
Continue reading →