Tag Archives: Michael Noll

Because of my mother —Dr. Noll @ VLCIA 19 July 2011



Dr. Noll, president of WACE, welcomed VLCIA’s new executive director Andrea Schruijer, and
then reminded the board that the honking cars outside
indicated an ongoing community assessment of biomass,
and he encouraged them to consider previously presented
materials and to prevent the biomass plant from
finding a back door to come back in.

He remarked that he had visited his mother in Germany:

One and half years ago she was in the intensive care unit for about three weeks
because she had severe lung issues.
She moved away after that
to an area where there isn’t the kind of air pollution she was
exposed to before hand,
and every single day she wakes up she feels like she’s on vacation.

Here’s

the video:




Because of my mother —Dr. Noll @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,

Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 July 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Dancing Around the Issue —Dr. Noll

Received this morning on

Biomass plant land offer.
-jsq



It is unbelievable that despite all the concerns in our community about
biomass, the Industrial authority is still considering to sell the
land to a company like

Wiregrass Power LLC.
This is the same company
the Industrial Authority once stated



it had no faith in anymore.
This is the same company

that just missed another deadline as stipulated by
their contract. And this is the same company that apparently does not
have the best interest of our community in mind.

Continue reading →

A letter from a local physician —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on
“Because it would be monitored. -jsq

Because it would be monitored?

Our community could subsequently also “monitor” increases in respiratory
illnesses, cancer rates, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality
rates. Just ask the American Lung Association, the American Cancer
Society, and the American Heart Association.

This is incredible. A city council member who still hides behind an
EPD air permit, and who chooses to ignore the testimony of thousands of
medical professionals throughout the United States. At the same time,
we have a City Council that continues to isolate itself from its citizens
with a policy that undermines open dialogue.

The continued silence of our City Council and Mayor in regard to biomass
is mind-boggling. Haven’t they noticed the developments of the past
couple months? The regular protests? Hundreds and hundreds of signatures
and voices in opposition to biomass? Ashley Paulk’s statement? George
Bennett’s statement? Even a statement, it appears, by Wesley Langdale
who said that biomass is economically not feasible … which is something
WACE stated as far back as October 2010, supported by an article from
the Wall Street journal called “(Bio)Mass Confusion”.

Dr. Mark George once asked all City Council members the following
question: “What is it you still need from us, so that you understand
that biomass is a bad deal”? To my knowledge that question was never
answered.

Last night I shared a letter from a local physician

Continue reading →

What are they thinking? —Dr. Noll

Dr. Noll has a few questions. This came in as a comment Saturday.
I’ll be happy to ask VLCIA Chairman Jerry Jennett these and other
questions when he calls me back. -jsq

Let me see if I got this right:

  1. The week before the last meeting of the Industrial Authority (IA)
    Wiregrass Biomass LLC sent a letter to the IA asking for an extension
    of the agreement to build the biomass incinerator. (June 1, 2011, is
    the current deadline.)
  2. Based on comments made by Chairman Paulk and others, all indications
    were that the IA may have been ready to vote down such an application
    for an extension of the agreement.
  3. However, the vote on biomass never came up at the IA meeting, and
    as a matter of fact, biomass wasn’t even discussed, as it was not even
    on the agenda. Apparently a few hours before the IA meeting, “biomass”
    (or a vote on the extension of the agreement with Wiregrass Biomass LLC)
    was removed from the agenda.
  4. This change of events (i.e. the removal of a vote on biomass)
    was based on an initiative by Mr. Jennett (Chair of the IA board),
    Mr. Ricketts (Project Manager of the IA) and Mr. Gupton (the IA lawyer)
    who went to Atlanta to have a little chat with Wiregrass Biomass LLC
    (or Sterling Planet).
  5. As a result of that talk, Wiregrass Biomass LLC withdrew their
    application for an extension of the agreement. Thus, there was no contract
    (or an extension of a contract) to vote on at the last IA meeting.

What sense would it make

Continue reading →

Move on, find other avenues, other projects —Ashley Paulk

Ashley Paulk agrees with my mother about
what the Industrial Authority should do.

At the Lowndes County Commission meeting last night, Chairman Paulk
discussed the biomass plant with Dr. Noll, and said:



Certain people won’t share it with you, and I don’t think it’s fair.

We were approached … almost three weeks ago by the Industrial Authority
and we were asked to … ask them not to extend the contract.
Well, it’s not our contract; we could do that, but … we didn’t.

And then last week the Tuesday of their meeting, I received a call
… on my way back fromm Atlanta and they had gone up
there to talk to Wiregrass Power,
because they’d written a letter asking for an extension.

My understanding was that they asked Wiregrass to write another letter
to remove that extension request.

These are things, I think should be public knowledge.

There’s more in

the video.




Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 April 2011
Video by Alex Rowell for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

He told me several weeks ago about the commission being asked to vote not to extend.

Continue reading →

Quality time —Mayor John Fretti

More from the person posting as Mayor John Fretti, this time
responding to
Dr. Noll’s recent post. -jsq

Update 12:40 AM 23 April 2011: Mayor Fretti confirms that the post was by him. -jsq



Perhaps this is my last post: It is in regards to Michael Noll’s most
recent post. I will attempt to cut and paste the section that I would
like to respond.

“What I found most disturbing are actually the following things that
happened at last night’s meeting:

1) A Mayor in absentia because he is celebrating his birthday and decided
not to attend because of a lack of agenda items for the meeting.”

Michael – I hope that I have always been polite and respectful

Continue reading →

Disturbing things —Dr. Noll



Dr. Noll posted a comment today about last night’s Valdosta City Council
meeting, and we thank him for his report:

What I found most disturbing are actually the following things that
happened at last night’s meeting:

  1. A Mayor in absentia because he is celebrating his birthday and decided
    not to attend because of a lack of agenda items for the meeting.

  2. A mother being harassed by Mr. Taylor who makes sexist comments when
    her daughter is receiving an award for an essay contest.

  3. A City Council and ALL of its members who continue to hide behind a policy
    that supposedly does not allow them to respond during meetings. As if
    they would respond before or after meetings.

  4. City Council member Yost going into a tirade about my wife’s comment in
    regard to “boring” meetings, when she is referring to the experience
    of our children who have been sitting through quite a few of them by
    now. Such meetings are indeed “boring” to a 9 and 12 year old.

  5. Council member Yost then goes on to “thank” all of us for staying until
    the end of the meeting so that we could witness the important work
    they do. Like what? The replacement of two belt press sludge pumps, the
    renaming of a street? If there is an important piece of work Mr. Yost
    and his colleagues could impress us with, it would be a resolution to not
    sell water to a biomass plant that threatens the health of our community!

-Michael Noll

Sometimes sludge replacement parts are boring,
but if we don’t replace them and the wastewater treatment plant
overflows, it may pollute your yard or your creek.
Best we take of it ahead of time and be proactive, rather than reactive.
Let’s take care of a problem before it happens!

-gretchen

PS: Don’t forget to go to the Planning Commission on Monday.

Biomass protesters @ VCC 7 April 2011

You’ve

seen them before
and here they are again:
biomass protesters, this time outside Valdosta City Hall, 7 April 2011.


Old and young,

Continue reading →

Waste not, want not –Dr. Noll

Dr. Michael Noll advocated conservation and efficiency in the long-running

Greening of America email discussion, responding to

two messages by Valdosta City Council member James R. Wright.
Dr. Noll cites our earliest American blogger. -jsq

Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:55:16 -0400

Dear Councilman Wright.



Valid points and a great question to ponder. You may recall my quote
from Benjamin Franklin: “Waste not, want not”.

Add to that a quote from the Sierra Club: “Energy use should be
minimized through conservation and efficiency. In the near future,
efficiency is the only “energy source” which does not incur some
environmental damage and which is available immediately in generous
supply. Sophisticated building construction, efficient appliances,
recycling, modernized industrial
processes, programmable thermostats, public transit supplemented by
fuel-efficient cars, and many other innovative technologies can reduce
energy use tremendously, while saving money.”

In other words, we are wasting enormous amounts of energy and money

Continue reading →

What Are Our Priorities? –Dr. Noll @ LCC 22 March 2011



Dr. Noll raised a number of issues about community priorities
at the Lowndes County Commission meeting of 22 March 2011
and asked what are our priorities?

The Sierra Club letter he mentions

was posted last week.
For NOAA Weather Radios

see previous posts.
Here is

the video:





Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 22 March 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.


Appended is the script Dr. Noll says he was reading.
I’ve added a few links to relevant posts.
-jsq

Continue reading →