Tag Archives: Planning

How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off? —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 2013-01-08



Why are we furloughing librarians to save $30,000
when we apparently floated bonds for unbudgeted millions on the county palace?
That’s essentially what I asked
the Lowndes County Commission at their

8 January 2013 Regular Session.
Nobody had an answer.

Just to add to what Commissioner Lee said,
in addition to everyone appreciating all your service, I’m sure
we all appreciate all his long years of service.

Of course there are some things that have come up since he was first
on the Commission.
For example, Internet access.

The Internet is the roads of the future.

Perhaps funding that might be as important as

striping roads.
It’s a thought.

For more on that, see
what Idelle Dear said just before.



And I really appreciate that clock there.
It’s a sign that sometimes change is good.

At least they are doing a few things differently.



When this building complex was opened in 2010,
the county put out a double-sheet flyer saying it
was completely paid off out of SPLOST money,
with zero dollars owed.
I’m wondering how it is that then, either in November or December,
the Commission just before your one here,
refinanced bonds that included I think it was six or seven million dollars
for this very building complex?
I’m very confused by that.
I wonder if someone could clarify how we’re
paying on something that was completely 100% paid off with zero owed.

It’s actually about $8.9 million.
Why are we paying that?
Nobody answered.
County Manager Joe Pritchard, pictured below,

on that 2010 flyer I mentioned,
paid no attention.

A prominent local member of the fourth estate said nobody was
allowed to answer.
Actually, the Commission’s own

Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard
include these lines:

Continue reading →

Make available packets Commisioners see? —Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-01-08


Gretchen Quarterman thanked and congratulated Commission members
at

the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Then she reminded them

she ran on a platform of transparency, and she
asked them to make Commission packets available to the public,
and move CWTBH to the beginning of the meeting so citizens can comment
before the commissioners vote.

Here’s

the video:


Make available packets Commisioners see? —Gretchen Quarterman

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 January 2013.

-jsq

$30,000 saved by library furloughs, $millions for building construction —Idelle Dear @ LCC 2013-01-08



Idelle Dear noted we’re up to 12 library furlough days,
and reported a flaw in that picture to

the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

I looked across the street
and there are millions of dollars being spent on the construction of the
hospital, construction of the VSU Health Sciences building.
And yet what is happening, because
this is a mandatory furlough for all employees,
is that people who are employed by the South Georgia Regional Library,
most of whom are minimum wage, work part time,
rely on the income: they are going to lose out….

We’d heard about these

state-mandated furlough closings at a library board meeting.
Idelle Dear spelled out some of the consequences, and made
some telling comparisons.

Something is wrong with this picture,
and I realize there are different kinds of money,
but something is wrong with this picture if we can spend
millions and millions of dollars on construction of these buildings
and yet shut down the library and the employees who are in low income
are going to be affected.

She said she wasn’t sure most people even knew about all this.
And she heard somebody had said most people have Internet at home, but

Continue reading →

Stripe some roads! —Former Commissioner Richard Lee @ LCC 2013-01-08



The ghost of Commissions Past, in the form of former Commissioner
Richard Lee, pointed his finger at the Commission and staff
at

the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Richard Lee congratulated the current Commissioners
on being willing to serve.
He pointed at Commissioner Joyce Evans as having been to this rodeo before.
He said they could trust County Manager Joe Pritchard.
And he asked them to find money to stripe roads.

So if y’all can find some coins, and
Mr. Prichard has a real knack for doing that,
we’d appreciate it up in my end of the county.

That’s curious, since Mr. Pritchard can’t seem to

to keep the solid waste collection stations open,
or for

to keep libraries open,
or even for
a bus for 4-H
without children doing much of the heavy lifting.

But Mr. Lee is confident Mr. Pritchard can find funds to stripe roads
in Mr. Lee’s neighborhood!

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Vogtle nuclear reactor train wreck

Ever wondered what a nuclear reactor vessel looks like?
Here’s one that’s literally a train wreck,
on its way to Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River.

Rob Pavey wrote for the Augusta Chronicle 10 January 2013,

Vogtle reactor vessel slips between Savannah, Burke County,



A 300-ton reactor vessel bound for Plant Vogtle was stranded briefly
in south Georgia this week after a malfunction with the specially
designed rail car moving the nuclear component from Savannah to
Burke County. Workers examine a rail car that was transporting a
300-ton reactor vessel from the Port of Savannah to the Plant Vogtle
nuclear site in Burke County. A misalignment between the cargo
platform and the rail car caused the component to be returned to
Savannah.

“The platform that contained the RV (reactor vessel) during
transport became misaligned with the Schnabel railcar, so the
railcar stopped immediately,” said Georgia Power Co. spokesman
Mark Williams. “The platform and car were re-aligned the same
day and safely returned to the port.”

The Schnabel railcar, which features extra axles that help
distribute and support the weight of heavy objects, did not break,
he said. Georgia Power would not divulge the location of the
incident.

I wonder what the locals think.
We’d ask them, if we knew where they were.

Well, that’s the only mishap so far, right?

Continue reading →

Help Sierra Club send a message to Georgia Power CEO Bowers



Georgia Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign probably contributed to

Georgia Power’s recent decision to shut down some coal plants.
Now Sierra Club offers a petition to ask Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers
to go farther, and replace those coal plants with solar offshore wind power
for jobs and health for Georgia.


Dirty Coal is Out, Help Usher Clean Energy In!

Georgia Power recently announced their plans to retire three of
their oldest and dirtiest coal fired power plants.


Now, we must send
a clear message to Georgia Power’s leadership that we want to keep
Georgia Jobs by investing in homegrown clean energy and energy
efficiency to power our homes and businesses.

Send a message to Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers telling him to
replace dirty coal with investments in homegrown clean energy and
energy efficiency that can produce thousands of lasting Georgia
jobs.

It’s a petition; details here.

Seth Gunning
explained why

in Sierra Club PR:

Continue reading →

Videos @ LCC 2013-01-07

The

public defender said the county palace (that we’re still mysteriously
paying on) didn’t have space for his office.


The

Industrial Authority request to buy some still-unspecified property
“has been pulled from the agenda” by unspecified forces.
The new

4-H agent spoke and

a bus was discussed.
One Commissioner forgot to show up until late to hear

Workers’ compensation is going up and the Commission’s own

schedule is being adjusted for holidays.
There was little substantive discussion, and
there’s no sign anything will change at the Lowndes County Commission
unless enough people want it to.
They vote this evening at 5:30 PM, and they do have Citizens Wishing
to be Heard, although it is still at the end, after all the votes.

Here’s

the agenda,
with links to videos,
and a few notes.

Continue reading →

Nukes economically hard to justify —GE CEO Immelt

The CEO of General Electric,
the company that designed the reactors

at Fukushima and Hatch 1 and 2,
said nukes are economically hard to justify.
And that was back in July, before
the first new nukes permitted in 30 years,
at Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River,

slipped 15 months.
What’s winning? Shale gas, temporarily, but that’s just a bump
in the road on the way to wind and solar power.

Pilita Clark wrote for Financial Times 30 July 2012,

Nuclear ‘hard to justify’, says GE chief,



Nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy
that it has become “really hard” to justify, according
to the chief executive of General Electric, one of the world’s
largest suppliers of atomic equipment.

“It’s really a gas and wind world today,” said Jeff
Immelt, referring to two sources of electricity he said most
countries are shifting towards as natural gas becomes
“permanently cheap”.

“When I talk to the guys who run the oil companies they say
look, they’re finding more gas all the time. It’s just hard to
justify nuclear, really hard. Gas is so cheap and at some point,
really, economics rule,” Mr Immelt told the Financial Times in
an interview in London at the weekend. “So I think some
combination of gas, and either wind or solar … that’s where we see
most countries around the world going.”



GE CEO Immelt may also want to talk to GE’s own research director

Continue reading →

Putting conservation into conservatives —John S. Quarterman

My op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq

Gov. Deal
(WABE, 14 Nov 2012)
temporarily forgot that “conservative”
includes conserving something,


like

Theodore Roosevelt and national parks,
or when

Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Okefenokee National Wildlife
Refuge which also

administers Banks Lake, when

Richard Nixon started the EPA,
and when

Jimmy Carter signed the Soil and Water Conservation Act.
If Gov. Deal wants to call conservation “liberal”, I’m happy to
be a liberal working for water for our state!


Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen



listed the biggest boondoggle
of all as

#11: the nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle
suck up more water from the Savannah River than all local agriculture and almost
as much as the city of Savannah.

If the new Plant Vogtle nukes

are ever completed, all four will use more water than Savannah. In

2009 the legislature approved and Gov. Deal signed a law
letting Georgia
Power charge its customers in advance for building that boondoggle,
to the tune of

about $1.5 billion so far!

Let’s not forget

Continue reading →

New Clayton County Commissioners fire County Manager, fund forensic audit

A few new Commissioners on a five-member board is producing significant
changes in Clayton County.
What changes will the new Lowndes County Commissioners make?

Tammy Joyner write for the AJC

Election results usher in period of change for Clayton,



The new County Commission set the tone this week by ushering in a
raft of changes aimed at creating better accountability in Clayton’s
finances while putting greater control in the hands of the new
chairman. The board removed County Manager Wade Starr, a long-time
kingmaker in Clayton politics, and will bring in a chief financial
officer to manage county finances.



The balance of power clearly has swung to newly elected
Commissioners Jeff Turner and Shana Rooks. Turner, who replaces
Eldrin Bell as chairman, and Rooks, who defeated Wole Ralph, teamed
with returning Commissioner Michael Edmondson to create a new voting
bloc on the five-member board, and they appear intent on taking
swift action.

“They hit the ground running,” said Carl Swensson,
chairman of the Clayton County Citizens Oversight Committee.
“The former power triumvirate has been absolutely shattered.
We’re going to have good people in position where they can do the
most good for this county. You’re going to find a more receptive ear
in the new structure.”

Naturally the remaining old guard took issue:

Continue reading →