Now that the NRC is back up, we can see all the nukes that
went down during the government shutdown: nine of them.
If they’re not safe to run without NRC looking over their shoulder,
are they safe to run at all?
And two came back up.
Was that a prudent thing to do?
Meanwhile, solar panels don’t need an NRC.
Entergy’s chronically faulty Pilgrim 1 was the last to fall during the shutdown, while Southern’s defect-shipped Farley 1 was one of the first:
Yes we’ll take the 2002 percentages offered by Lowndes County, voted the the Valdosta City Council this morning at a Special Called Meeting.
The vote result is from Council Tim Carroll, who says they will revisit the percentages after the Georgia legislature does whatever it’s going to do about LOST in January. Here’s the notice of the meeting on Valdosta’s website:
Notice of a Special Called City Council Meeting
Posted Date: 10/16/2013The Valdosta City Council has scheduled a Special Called City Council Meeting for Thursday, October 17, 2013 at 8:00 a.m. at City Hall, 216 East Central Avenue, Council Chambers. The purpose of this Special Called Council Meeting is to discuss the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST).
For more information, please contact Teresa S. Bolden, City Clerk, at 259-3503 or tbolden@valdostacity.com.
-jsq
Spectra Energy subsidiary Sabal Trail Transmission held
a landowner one-on-one at Wiregrass Tech last night.
Matthew Woody of the VDT was there, as was one Valdosta City Council
member, one Lowndes County Commissioner, and at least two county staff,
plus some landowners (“might as well get something out of this”,
several said at the food bar), one of whom was a match for Andrea Grover.
Matthew Woody, VDT:
Continue reading
Georgia’s two nuclear sites got more than a safety violation a month
over a dozen years, and now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
is shut down.
Maybe we need power sources that don’t need so much safety inspection,
like solar and wind and efficiency and conservation.
AP wrote yesterday, 166 violations issued at Ga. nuclear power plants,
A congressional study expected to be released later this month shows that two nuclear power plants in Georgia were issued 166 safety violations between 2000 and 2012.
The unreleased Government Accountability Office report obtained by the Associated Press shows that Plant Hatch in Baxley was issued 90 safety violations during the time period. According to the report, three of the violations were higher-level offenses.
According to the report, Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro was also issued 75 safety violations between 2000 and 2012.
Allison Macfarlane wrote on the NRC blog 9 October 2013, From the Chairman: An Update on the NRC Shutdown, Continue reading
Monday in Albany, Tuesday in Moultrie, and tonight in Valdosta, the pipeline roadshow is rolling through Georgia towards Florida. These are not public hearings or town halls: the pipeline company seems to be trying to get landowners in the path to show up, but anybody can attend.
Brad McEwen wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, Residents attend pipeline forum,
Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which is a joint venture between energy giants Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc., hosted the event to give citizens an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the proposed project.
Set up like an open house, the forum had 15 Sabal Trail subject matter experts on hand to greet residents and Continue reading
Spectra Energy will tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be,
as it
cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida
through south Georgia,
using eminent domain to make you sell your land,
to deliver gas
from fracking in Pennsylvania
for the benefit of
Florida Power and Light.
Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps
Brian Fahrenthold
or
Andrea Grover a few questions,
like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers,
and what about those
fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?
Added: facebook event.
Tonight (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called yesterday. Tech’s web server still seems to be down, but Google has cached her as: Continue reading
In a highly irregular 4 to 1 vote with the Chairman voting,
the Lowndes County Commission voted to stick with
58% for the county, 42% for the cities from
LOST,
the same as the county’s
original position
from
April 2012.
No real agenda was posted by the county, so below I’ve made one up to match the videos.
and immediate adjourn to executive session for attorney-client privileges.
County Manager Joe Pritchard shooed the Commissioners, the alleged County Attorney, the County Clerk, the Finance Director, and one or two other staff into the back room.
Reconvene into open session
Chairman Bill Slaughter divulged the purpose of the meeting so they could vote on it. The decision was 58% of SPLOST for the county and 42% for the cities, to be divided among the cities as they see fit. The vote was 4 to 1. Which is rather odd, since you can clearly hear Chairman Bill Slaughter voting ” aye” and raising his hand. Continue reading
Gretchen reports LOST was the topic at today’s special called meeting of the Lowndes County Commission. And yes, they went into executive session. Rumor has it that it’s not 120 days to come to an agreement, rather this week is the deadline. That’s what seems to be happening over in Hall County.
Sarah Mueller wrote for Gainesville Times today, Hall commissioners to consider new local option sales tax certificate,
Hall County Administrator Randy Knighton said the special called commission meeting today at 4 p.m. at the Hall County Government Center in Gainesville was in response to a suggestion from the Association County Commissioners of Georgia. ACCG has talked with the Department of Revenue and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.
“(ACCG) has advised us that each county who has been engaged in the LOST arbitration proceedings submit a new LOST certificate to the Revenue Department this week,” Knighton said.
Knighton declined Monday to say Continue reading
Could that pending litigation be the county’s lawsuit against Deep South Sanitation about that exclusive franchise that benefits ADS investors in New York City? Will they go straight into executive session?
On the county’s online calendar, with nothing on their front page, and nothing in the online VDT public notices. Here’s the county’s PDF and here’s the text:
Lowndes County, Georgia
Board Of Commissioners
SPECIAL CALLED MEETING
A Special Called Meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will be held on Tuesday, October 15, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in Commission Chambers, located on the second floor of the Lowndes County Judicial‐Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia. The Special Called Meeting is being held for attorney client communication regarding pending litigation.Office of the County Clerk
K. Paige Dukes
229‐671‐2400
pdukes@lowndescounty.com
-jsq
Update 2017-08-27: Fix some links that have changed and one broken one. See also GDOT construction on I-75 Exit 29 2017-08-28.
You can comment on
road improvements at I-75 and
exit 11 onto GA 31
Madison Highway towards Clyattville,
exit 22 onto
US 41 North Valdosta Road, and
Exit 29 onto GA 122 at Hahira,
at the
Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO),
the one board around here that goes out of its way to ask for
public input, with
information in many public offices,
with an open house at their office,
and with details of their
projects on
VALOR GIS
(select interactive map, then More in the upper right Layers, then MPO Transportation Improvements),
including links to project sheets/ GDOT Project Search (GeoPI) is similarly useless for finding the project sheets
(which I’ve linked into the public notice below; well one of them is correct).
Public Notice of a Public Comment Period and Public Open House,
In accordance with requirements set forth in the adopted FY2014-2017 Transportation Improvement Program and in 23 CFR 450 and other laws and regulations; the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) proposes to amend its Transportation Improvement Program for Fiscal Years 2014-2017 (TIP) for the Valdosta Metropolitan Planning Area which includes all of Lowndes County and portions of Berrien, Brooks and Lanier Counties.
The proposed projects in the amendment are as follows: Continue reading