Tag Archives: Valdosta City Council

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.

What will you do? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 7 April 2011

I wanted to know what the council and the protesters will do when the biomass plant is canceled. I still want to know: what will you do?

Here’s the video, followed by my points.


What will you do? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Before I started, the mayor noted that many people needed to go to an event at 7PM (he didn’t name it, but it was the 100 Black Men Annual Dinner.) He offered to proceed with scheduled business and re-open Citizens to be Heard at the end of the meeting. Nobody objected. I had already waited until nobody else seemed to want to speak.

My points: Continue reading →

Think of our future —Jocelyn Holmes @ VCC 7 April 2011

Please help us identify this speaker.
Update 4:10 PM 21 Apr 2011: Bobbi Anne Hancock has the answer: “Jocelyn Holmes. VSU student and active member of S.A.V.E.!”

Here’s the video:


Think of our future @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Children —Keisha Ferguson for Angela Manning’s church @ VCC 7 April 2011

Her church is close to the proposed biomass plant site. Many children go to school near there, too. She said she could feel that some of the council wanted to jump up and say something.

Here’s the video:


Children –Keisha Ferguson for Angela Manning’s church @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

City Manager’s Report and Council Comments @ VCC 7 April 2011

Sometimes you hear what you need to hear at the end of the meeting. Or, maybe you’re not there to hear it.

I think it helps make the point if you need to first listen to the City Manager’s Report before you hear what happened at the end of this video.

City Manager’s Report

Second night of classes [for something] is this coming Monday.

Police Department review April 16-19 including a public hearing April 18th 6PM at the City Hall Annex.

Electronic recycling was very successful.

Composting program “very unique”: they give it away free three days a week; bring your own truck.

Matt Martin promoted from interim planning director to full time.

City’s table is #17 at the event tonight [100 Black Men annual dinner].

Employee appreciation luncheon Thursday April 21 at [?] Park.

Next meeting one council member will serve on committee about comprehensive plan.

Council Comments

Council Yost said: Continue reading →

Conversation for jobs —Cristobal Serran-Pagan @ VCC 7 April 2011

Dr. Serran-Pagan suggests we have a conversation among all types of people and do the math. Let’s put the money where it will produce jobs. Solar, wind, why haven’t we been doing it? Real clean renewable sources of energy. He brings up the water the biomass plant would use.
Water is precious. Air is precious. Oil, coal, is not precious. Biomass is not precious. We have plenty of good clean, renewable sources of energy. Let’s do that…. and get rid of old models, and let’s try to do what is right for community, for our economy, and for public interest.

Here’s the video:


Conversation for jobs —Cristobal Serran-Pagan @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Allergies and biomass @ VCC 7 April 2011

Can someone supply this speaker’s name?

Here’s the video:


Allergies and biomass –Geraldine (?) @ VCC 19 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

7.b) Manhole covers on Country Club Road @ VCC 7 April 2011

This item comes from the flooding on Country Club Road caused by:
…excess rain which overloads the Withlacoochee River Water Pollution Control Plant. He said growth along the river and throughout the regional watershed area has contributed to the amount of excess water running into the river.
That’s two flooding-related items in one Valdosta City Council meeting; the other was Browns Canal Streambank Restoration. Maybe we should think about doing something about the uncontrolled growth that leads to such water problems.

Here’s the video:


7.b) Manhole covers on Country Club Road @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

7.a) Community Development Block Grant —Mara Register @ VCC 7 April 2011

They don’t know yet how much it will be, since the feds haven’t said, but they have a plan for how to allocate a Community Development Block Grant. Council approved it.

If you want to see the Annual Action Plan they approved, you can, in a 30 day public examination and comment period. The total scheduled grant amount is $647,678 fromm HUD.

There’s an advisory committee: maybe you want to be on it.

Here’s the video:


7.a) Community Development Block Grant –Mara Register @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Thanks for clean up after recent storm —Dan Davis @ VCC 7 April 2011

Dan Davis thanks Valdosta City staff for timely clean up after recent storm. This plus there were two scheduled items related to storm and flood damage. Maybe we need better planning to reduce sprawl and the resulting flooding.

Here’s the video:


Thanks for clean up after recent storm —Dan Davis @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq