Tag Archives: Planning

Video playlist @ VLCIA 2012-08-21



Here are videos of the
21 August 2012 Regular meeting.
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
Here's

the agenda.

See also

Steeda Manufacturing moving into medical parts and new markets.


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, Tom Davis, CPA, Allan Ricketts, Project ManagerS. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager, Lu Williams, Operations Manager,

Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.

-jsq

All U.S. east coast electricity could come from offshore wind 3 seasons out of 4

Why build nukes when wind can provide 3/4 of our power?
While Southern Company claims to be

“a company that is engaged in offering solutions, not just rhetoric”,
yet

does nothing about wind off the Georgia coast,


researchers in far California have demonstrated we can get
3/4 of all needed east coast electricity from offshore wind.

Bjorn Carey wrote for Stanford Report 14 September 2012,

Offshore wind energy could power entire U.S. East Coast, Stanford scientists say

A new analysis by Stanford researchers reveals that there is enough
offshore wind along the U.S. East Coast to meet the electricity
demands of at least one-third of the country.



The scientists paid special attention to the Maine-to-Virginia
corridor; the historical lack of strong hurricanes in the region
makes it a favorable site for offshore wind turbines. They found
that turbines placed there could satisfy the peak-time power needs
of these states for three seasons of the year (summer is the
exception).

“We knew there was a lot of wind out there, but this is the first
actual quantification of the total resource and the time of day that
the resource peaks,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and
environmental engineering at Stanford who directed the research.
“This provides practical information to wind farm developers about
the best areas to place turbines.”



Mark Z. Jacobson already worked out a framework for

powering the entire world from wind, water, and sun alone.
The late
John Blackburn, Ph.D., showed us how

to power North Carolina with sun, wind, and hydro,
plus less natural gas than NC uses now.
Now Jacobson is working out the details of implementation.

-jsq



PS: Owed to Seth Gunning.

Yes VDT, but —Save Strickland Mill

On facebook,

Save Strickland Mill
just posted

a critique of

certain parts of

the VDT’s writeup on the

Remerton City Council’s Strickland Mill vote.
-jsq

Valdosta Daily Times,
September 12, 2012

Mill to come down:
Buildings to be razed, historic tower to remain

by Quinten Plummer

VALDOSTA — The iconic smoke stack will still tower over the


City of Remerton, according to local officials, but

the majority of
the historic Remerton Mill complex will be demolished and converted
into a park

after the City Council gave the mill’s owners the
go-ahead for demolition during Monday evening’s regular session.

This is not a factual statement: the city council’s motion is as
follows: Councilman Bill Wetherington made the following motion
which was unanimously voted in by the council members present that
night (note that councilman Sam Flemming was not in attendance)

“I move to approve the certificate of appropriateness 2012-04 for 1853
W. Gordon to be issued and effective as of October 25th 2012 for a
period of one year from that date with the condition that the cotton
mill smokestack remains intact and shall continue to remain intact
in accordance with title 18 of the code of City of Remerton.”

The mill’s ownership group simply wants relief from its obligations
to the property, and Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph said the
restoration of the mill is just too large of a project for a city of
Remerton’s size.

That is the reason why

Continue reading →

KLVB 2012 Executive Director’s Report —Aaron Strickland @ LCC 2012-09-10





Here is the

Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)

2012 Executive Director’s Report,
provided to LAKE by KLVB Executive Director Aaron Strickland.



This is the report he discussed at the

10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

-jsq

Want knowledge-based jobs? Welcome gays and lesbians



The Chamber, the Industrial Authority, and various other local leaders
say they want knowledge-based jobs, or creative jobs.
We won’t get those just by teaching students to show up on time and
do what they’re told: that’s how you train factory workers,
not knowledge-based employees.
For creative jobs we also need Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.
How do you measure Tolerance?
One key component is the concentration of gays and lesbians.
So today’s

South Georgia Pride Festival
is a good sign for creative jobs in south Georgia!

Richard Florida wrote 16 July 2012 for The Atlantic,

The Geography of Tolerance,

The map above shows how metros across the U.S. score on the
Tolerance Index, as updated for The Rise of the Creative Class,
Revisited. The chart below shows the top 20 metros. Developed by my
Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Kevin Stolarick, it ranks U.S.
metros according to three key variables—the share of
immigrants or foreign-born residents, the Gay Index (the
concentration of gays and lesbians), and the Integration Index,
which tracks the level of segregation between ethnic and racial
groups.



Do you recognize that shape in the middle of south Georgia?
That’s the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area,
consisting of Lowndes, Echols, Lanier, and Brooks Counties.
Looks like about 0.4 on the Tolerance Index.
So sure, we’re no Austin, Texas, but we’re in the same range as oh,
Charlotte, NC.

If you want to help promote creative jobs in south Georgia,
there’s a festival going on today:




South Georgia Pride Festival

noon until 6PM

John W Saunders Park

1151 River Street

Valdosta, Georgia

food and music all day

Who knows,

the Mayor of Valdosta might even be there; what do you think?
He certainly gave the festival

plenty of earned media.

-jsq

Resigning from Planning Commission; suggest appoint Jody Hall —John Page @ LCC 2012-09-11



John Page, recent winner of the Republican Primary for
Lowndes County Commission District 5,
spoke as a citizen wishing to be heard in

yesterday’s Commission meeting.
He said he was resigning from his appointed post on the Planning Commission
effective 31 December 2012


because he sees it as a conflict with his upcoming elected position as a
County Commissioner, plus he said he does not have time to do both.
(Since there is no Democratic or other candidate for District 5,
Page will be the Commissioner.)
Page recommended

his primary runoff opponent Jody Hall
as his replacement on the Planning Commission.

Update 2012-09-20: Fixed video embedding.

Here’s

the video:


Resigning from Planning Commission; suggest appoint Jody Hall —John Page

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 September 2012.

I commend John Page for both of his decisions, and for announcing all this
in a public meeting in front of a video camera.
Maybe as a County Commissioner he will support transparency.
And I commend Jody Hall for being willing to serve on the Planning Commission.
Maybe as a Planning Commissioner he will support transparency.

-jsq

Europe: no shale gas, more renewables

Europe has no shale gas, so, unlike the U.S., natural gas will
not be getting in the way of quickly moving to renewable wind and solar energy.

Barbara Lewis and Henning Gloystein wrote for Reuters 23 August 2012,

EU Green Energy Drive Says No To Shale Gas, Looks Towards More Renewable Power Sources,

In the medium term, the value of conventional gas is in providing
reliable baseload power to supplement unpredictable renewables,
which depend on the sun shining or the wind blowing.

Danish state-owned utility

DONG Energy, which has relied heavily on
coal-fired power generation, sees a combination of gas and
renewables as the way to go.



“We see gas-to-power and wind energy as the ideal mix, together
comprising clean and stable energy. Wind energy as the clean energy
source, and gas-to-power as the balancing power,” Carsten Krogsgaard
Thomsen, DONG Energy’s acting CEO, said.

Meanwhile, Windpower Monthly reported 13 August 2012,

Dong issues 2012 profit warning,

Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-09-10



Yesterday morning’s County Commission Work Session

started on time!
In addition to the open records and open meetings items,
it included a report from KLVB, two rezonings, typo fixes and date changes
in the ULDC, a vanity road name change, an alcohol license and an
alcohol ordinance change, a USGS river gauge, surplus vehicles,
purchase of a new fire truck, and more!
They vote on all this tonight at their Regular Session, 5:30 PM.
Here’s
the agenda.

5.a. Unsurprisingly,
the County Manager suggested

the County Clerk be appointed the Open Records Officer
now required by state law.
5.b. They also have a resolution before them about

review and approval of minutes of executive sessions,
but of course they don’t allow we the taxpayers to see that
before they vote on it.

They considered adopting subdivision infrastructure for

5.c. Glen Laurel
and

5.d. Crestwood.

6. Videos of the
KLVB report
and of applicant Emily Macheski-Preston
are in a separate blog post.

7. Public Hearings:

Continue reading →

Lowndes County continuing funding for USGS HWY 122 Stream Gauge —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2012-09-10



Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye
reported to the Lowndes County Commission at their

Work Session yesterday morning
that
after the floods of 2009, Lowndes County negotiated with USGS to put a
stream level monitor on the Withlacoochee Little River at the GA 122 bridge,
and the county typically renews that funding once a year.
We shall see whether they approve that this evening.

Here's

the video:


Lowndes County continuing funding for USGS HWY 122 Stream Gauge —Ashley Tye

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 September 2012.

-jsq

County to renegotiate bonds for the county palace @ LCC 2012-09-10



In

yesterday morning's Work Session,
County Finance Director Stephanie Black
proposed a letter of understanding
for Morgan-Keegan to act as underwriter for
approximately $17 million
to refund the original bonds done for this building as well
as the water-sewer bonds only if the terms are favorable and
the net value savings are at least 3%.
Current projections show a savings of
$1.2 million or a little over 7% at this time.
Chairman Ashley Paulk remarked that:

The bond market has changed drastically.

At least the county palace that former Chairman Rod Casey got
a former commission to approve at his last Commission meeting
now won't cost we the taxpayers quite as much as we thought.
They vote on this tonight.

Here's

the video:


County to renegotiate bonds for the county palace

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 September 2012.

-jsq