Tag Archives: Lowndes County

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 →

Inhaling a heart attack

You thought maybe Dr. Sammons was making this stuff up? In physorg.com from 2009, Inhaling a heart attack: How air pollution can cause heart disease:
Accumulating evidence indicates that an increase in particulate air pollution is associated with an increase in heart attacks and deaths. Research has begun in the relatively new field of environmental cardiology — a field that examines the relationship between air pollution and heart disease.
This link owed to Laura Wiggins Norris and NO COAL PLANT IN BEN HILL COUNTY!

-jsq

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 →

“a foot in the door to bring in more toxic waste streams” –Robert D. Bullard

Robert D. Bullard writes in Dismantling Energy Apartheid in the United States,
Many “clean wood chips” burning biomass plants can easily turn to burning more contaminated fuels (which may be cheaper or even free), or get paid to take really dirty wastes like trash or tires. Public opposition to biomass facilities has driven siting that follows the “path of least resistance,” which often translates to states where environmental regulations are lax and companies are given huge tax incentives to build these kinds of incinerators, and investors count on the local residents being uninformed and apathetic. Environmental justice siting concerns often get buried in the excitement and notion of “green energy.”

Zoning laws are often legal weapons deployed in facilitating energy apartheid.

There’s more, including a writeup about the local proposed incinerator, starting:
Residents in Valdosta, Georgia are fighting to block a 40 megawatt biomass incinerator slated for construction on a 22-acre site in their community. The community is already overburdened with polluting industries and heavy truck traffic.
Read it and see.

-jsq

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

Homerville Genealogical Library as Local Industry

Homegrown local industry not far east of here! Dean Poling wrote in the VDT yesterday, Merged libraries create largest genealogical center in East:
Two regional libraries officially merge this weekend, creating what should be the most comprehensive genealogy facility in the Eastern United States.

On Sunday, the Elmer’s Genealogical Library of Madison, Fla., merges with the Huxford Genealogy Library in Homerville to become the Huxford-Spear Genealogical Library.

The new library will be located in Homerville. Elmer Spear has closed his Madison, Fla., facility and moved his library’s 26,326 books, which covered 85 percent of a mile in shelving, to the newly named Huxford-Spear Genealogical Library.

Spear’s volumes join the Huxford collection.

I’m a Huxford Library member, and my 990 page family history book is in there, so I’m all for this.

Looks to me like an example of a local attraction started by local people that can turn into a local industry. Hey, look, the VDT thinks so, too, in their editorial of the same day: Continue reading →

New Meeting, New Rules –Lowndes County Commission

Remember, the new rules take effect at the upcoming County Commission meeting:
  • 8:30 AM Monday Febuary 7th, 2010: Work Session
  • 5:30 PM Tuesday February 8th, 2010: Regular Session
Both meetings will be at 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. Only the regular session has Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.

The Lowndes County front page has links to the resolution the Commission passed last time, to the new rules, and to the new sign-in sheet, along with this notice: Continue reading →

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 →