One hopes all this PR and marketing pays off in jobs.
Remember, the Industrial Authority has kept its cushy
1 mil of property tax throughout the economic downturn.
Four new industry projects are on the agenda this time,
plus more solar power at Valdosta’s Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Much better PR than
Valdosta Fire Dept. helping put out Perma-Fix on fire.
Here’s
the agenda
in a slightly broken PDF on the VLCIA website
and extracted below.
Verizon won’t be the only 4G LTE access in Valdosta anymore:
AT&T has turned theirs on.
It’s not clear how far out of town that extends (looks to me
like I still need to go stand by my west gate if I want on),
but at least it’s a start of competition, and maybe T will
get around to increasing
its coverage (see next post).
If
Softbank + Sprint + Clearwire comes here, as well,
maybe we’ll see something like a competitive market.
It’s not clear even that will be enough to get fast affordable
access everywhere in south Georgia.
For that, maybe our local elected and appointed officials
will continue with
the advocacy they started back in February.
As mentioned at the Industrial Authority yesterday evening by
Executive Director Andrea Schruijer (video to come), here’s
AT&T’s PR of 2 July 2013,
AT&T 4G LTE Available In Valdosta:
Customers to benefit from nation’s fastest 4G LTE network on the latest devices,
VALDOSTA, Ga., July 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* has turned on
the nation’s fastest 4G LTE network** in Valdosta, bringing
customers the latest generation of wireless network technology.
Watch here to see several of the benefits AT&T 4G LTE provides,
including:
- Faster speeds. LTE technology is capable of delivering mobile
Internet speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G***. Customers can
stream, download, upload and game faster than ever before.- Cool new
devices. AT&T offers several LTE-compatible devices, including new
AT&T 4G LTE smartphones and tablets.- Faster response time. LTE
technology offers lower latency, or the processing time it takes to
move data through a network, such as how long it takes to start
downloading a webpage or file once you’ve sent the request. Lower
latency helps to improve services like mobile gaming, two-way video
calling and telemedicine.- More efficient use of spectrum. Wireless
spectrum is a finite resource, and LTE uses spectrum more
efficiently than other technologies, creating more space to carry
data traffic and services and to deliver a better network
experience.“Wireless infrastructure investment is critical to Georgia’s future
and I am very pleased to see AT&T investing in Valdosta and Lowndes
County and bringing LTE service to our community,” said Andrea
Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County
Industrial Authority. “Advanced technology like LTE will help
stimulate our economy and provide new tools and services that we
need to compete for business.”“We continue Continue reading
Will
the recent increase in solar requirements by GA PSC on Georgia Power
produce any more solar projects in Valdosta?
And what’s in the VLCIA annual report?
Maybe a list of jobs created?
Here’s
the agenda.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda, Tuesday July 16, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Content two months running
in VLCIA agendas!
And the potential project list is up from six to nine.
Here’s
the agenda:
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda, Tuesday June 18, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Names of projects!
Lists of PR and marketing items!
Is this a new trend from our Industrial Authority?
Or will it be like
the last time I complimented them on an agenda with content
and was told later that one was an accident.
Here’s
the agenda.
Sure, the project names are codewords, but that’s how they talk to
prospective companies without revealing all their cards to the competition.
And this one has a name:
Maybe we’ll hear more about those
two megawatts of solar power.
Maybe even more are scheduled for Lowndes County.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Interesting stuff (audit and internal controls,
many meetings,
2 megawatts of solar power,
searching for and
finances of a new office
from
a mysterious seller)
in the items missing from the posted agenda yet presented anyway,
while two staff were elsewhere.
Here’s
the agenda with a few notes and some links to the videos.
* marks items that were not in the posted agenda.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Water issues strongly affect economic development, so I talked about
the new WWALS Watershed Coalition at the
16 April 2013 Board Meeting
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.
The VDT declined to speak, so I did.
After apologizing for no okra today,
I commended the Authority for talking about the missing agenda items
and for mentioning due diligence and flood control.
Mostly I talked about the new WWALS Watershed Coalition,
www.wwals.net,
incorporated in June 2012, which is about watershed issues
such as flooding, water quality, and invasive species related to the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee,
Alapaha, and Little River System.
I mentioned
arsenic in some local well water,
which
the Department of Health has finally said should be tested,
three years after
Janet McMahan discovered it was a problem.
I invited VLCIA board and staff to two upcoming WWALS events: Continue reading
The Industrial Authority was very forthcoming
about everything about their new office purchase
except who they were buying it from;
this was at the
16 April 2013 Board Meeting
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.
The seller turns out to be a household name hereabouts.
Chairman Roy Copeland talked about the at least five year process
for finding “a new home” for VLCIA.
He noted that before he joined the board they were considering
buying a property he and his wife own.
He and former Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk looked
at another property near the Courthouse.
VLCIA even toured the historic Lowndes County Courthouse
but concluded it couldn’t be renovated for their purposes.
Jerry Jennett noted the search had gone on even longer than five years.
Copeland said the parameters they had set were, as far as he recalled, Continue reading
One megawatt at DuPont
and one megawatt at Valdosta’s Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant:
that’s two more megawatts of solar power coming to Valdosta and Lowndes County!
This was revealed at the
16 April 2013 Board Meeting
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.
Project Director Allan Ricketts was on a speaker phone,
so Executive Director Andrea Schruijer gave the
Existing Industry and Project Report.
She thinks maybe three existing industry expansions in second and third quarter 2013.
They’ve continued working with a pharmaceutical company about locating here;
more on that later.
Continued work with three renewable and sustainable energy companies,
and Georgia Power is cooperating.
We did receive notification that two of those advanced solar initiatives
have been approved by Georgia Power Company.
One of them is a megawatt solar expansion at DuPont.
The other is a megawatt solar expansion at the City of Valdosta’s Mud Creek
Wastewater Plant.
She didn’t mention that in most states such projects
wouldn’t have to be approved for doled-out quotas by a power company.
Schruijer also talked about Continue reading
So many things the Industrial Authority is doing that they could be promoting!
Some of them came out at their
16 April 2013 Board Meeting.
Maybe they even took notes about the Georgia Logistics Summit putting all its presentations on its YouTube channel.
In her
Marketing Report, Meghan Duke said
branded materials were now available and in use.
Valdostalowndesprospector.com has new feature for comparison of features
by county, city, etc. for any community in the world.
Several recent guests, including
Georgia Power South Region,
whom VLCIA took on a tour of their industrial parks and Steeda Autosports.
VLCIA hosted Board of GA Dept. of Economic Development at Moody AFB.
She didn’t say, but GDEcD Board of Directors says:
Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Board of Director’s
meeting will be held in February 21st, 2013 at Moody AFB, 1800 Moody
Road, Valdosta, GA 31601. Due to security on base you will need to
have a government (state, federal, etc.) issued ID, such as a
driver’s license, with you before you can enter the base. A
background check with need to be ran prior to the meeting day so
please contact Carrie Bisig & she will let you know what information
the base will need.
VLCIA had a community presentation in Atlanta with Continue reading