Tag Archives: Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority

Biomass down for now: next?

Congratulations to all who worked against the biomass plant: today was the deadline on its most recent extension, so it’s gone for now. Congratulations to WACE and SAVE and NAACP and New Life Ministries and everyone else who was involved, especially Natasha Fast, Seth Gunning, and Brad Bergstrom, who were working against it before almost anyone else.

Congratulations to those who were instrumental even though they were not exactly or originally biomass opponents, especially Ashley Paulk, who came out and said what needed to be said, and George Bennett, who was willing to admit in public that he was one of the earliest proponents of the biomass plant but new knowledge caused him to think differently.

A big shoutout to the VSU Faculty Senate, the only traditional non-activist body that went on record as opposing the biomass plant with an actual vote before the extension deadline. The VSU Faculty Senate did what the Valdosta City Council, the Lowndes County Commission and the Industrial Authority Board would not. Go Blazers!

A special strategic mention to Kay Harris and David Rodock of the Valdosta Daily Times, who came to realize they were not being told the whole truth by the Industrial Authority. The VDT even gave a civics lesson on how to stop the biomass plant.

And a very special mention to the people who did the most to make the name of biomass mud in the public’s eye: Brad Lofton, Col. Ricketts, and the VLCIA board. Without their indoctrination sessions and paid “forum” and stonewalling, people wouldn’t have been turned against that thing nearly as fast!

Yet it ain’t over until it’s over.

According to David Rodock in the VDT today: Continue reading →

Lowndes County has to pay Industrial Authority’s bond debts

According to the Intergovernmental Contract between VLCIA and Lowndes County:
WHEREAS, the Authority and the County propose to enter into this Contract, pursuant to which the Authority will agree, among other things, to issue the Bonds, and the County will agree, among other things, to pay to the Authority amounts sufficient to pay the debt service on the Bonds.
So it seems the Lowndes County Commission committed the county, that is, we the taxpayers, to pay the debt service on $15,000,000 in bonds issued by VLCIA.

Still, what did VLCIA want $15 million in bonds for when it already gets $3 million a year in its own tax millage?

WHEREAS, the Authority proposes to acquire and develop one or more parcels of land located in the County for potential economic development purposes (the “Project”);
To buy land to trade to new industries as they come in. A variation on what Brad Lofton got fired for doing in Effingham County. Continue reading →

Diff Operating Budget —Tom Call @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Usually silent VLCIA board member Tom Call got a board meeting agenda item:
Mr. Jerry and I met on May the second to review the… I was kind of educating myself as to the current operating budget and how it applies… goes into forming next year’s budget…. There’s just a few differences from the 2011 budget to the proposed 2012 budget.
He listed a couple of items:
Line item 32: Park maintenance.
Miller Business Park is added for this year.
Below line 51: Signage.
“Improve signage at some of our entrances.”
Chairman Jerry Jennett asked board members to take it home, redline it, and bring it back for a vote next meeting.

Here’s the video:


Diff Operating Budget —Tom Call @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Clearly audible outside are people honking at the biomass protesters.

OMG! VLCIA has finally put Continue reading →

2011 Economic Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Col. Ricketts reported he was on a panel at the 2011 Economic Summit which was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, and that he got a copy of a report by the VSU Center for Business and Economic Research about how the local area compares with others.

Mary Gooding said Col. Ricketts represented VLCIA very well.

If VLCIA knew how to do PR, this would have been a great PR opportunity for them to publicize.

Meanwhile, WALB and VDT reported on the event itself.

Here’s the video:


2011 Economic Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

2011 Georgia Logistics Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Col. Ricketts reported that VLCIA participated in panel discussions at the 2011 Georgia Logistics Summit. He mentioned among topics of interest: agribusiness, technology and life sciences. He said they also got a chance to look at expansion in Savannah.

Here’s the video:


2011 Georgia Logistics Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

This would have been a great PR opportunity for VLCIA, if VLCIA knew how to do PR.

-jsq

PS: No, he didn’t really talk that fast; that’s an artifact of the video editing to separate out this item. That’s why we usually just record in short clips that require no editing.

Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Here’s what I said to the VLCIA board on 17 May 2011. Notes are appended after the video:


Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Congratulations on the Wiregrass Solar commissioning. Since this was not ever the largest array in Georgia let’s encourage Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Powell to help VLCIA expand the local array.

Referring to Mary Gooding’s comments about people who wanted to see minutes probably going to be frustrated, I pointed out that Continue reading →

Minutes online? VLCIA 17 May 2011

VLCIA is still indecisive about minutes online, but is at least talking about it. Support for publishing minutes came from a surprising source.

Col. Ricketts said he had been asked by Roy Copeland to look at putting the minutes online and had talked to local authorities (Parks & Recs, Hospital, Prison, Airport) and other economic development authorities around Georgia (Macon, Albany, Tifton, Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta) and found none of them publish minutes online. He said their concern was prospective project details.

Col. Ricketts said Chairman Jerry Jennett asked him to talk to former Executive Director Ken Garren. Ricketts said Garren said that even though Continue reading →

Operating at a slower pace VLCIA 17 May 2011

Chairman Jerry Jennett reported that VLCIA was generally operating at a slower pace due to the economy. Roy Copeland asked for the board to come back to the operating budget later in the meeting when they could ask their CPA a few questions. He was out of town, so they agreed to try to get him on the telephone later.

Here’s Part 1 of 2: Continue reading →

Solar power is the peoples power —Alden Hathaway

After he talked about expanding the Wiregrass Solar plant by another megawatt, Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet said this:
Solar power is the peoples power.

Whether you’re talking about grid tied power here in America tied to the wire, or solar in the rural countryside of Uganda, it’s immediately available and accessible in all sizes. So I can use it to power a cell phone, charge a laptop, put light in a school, or pump water in a hospital. Solar is immediately available to do that, without massive which is a barrier to development in much of the developing world.

And to development in south Georgia, for that matter. So we can leapfrog that barrier with solar.

Here’s the video:


Solar power is the peoples power –Alden Hathaway
Commissioning Ceremony,
Wiregrass Solar, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

The illusion of knowledge —Michael G. Noll

This comment by Michael G. Noll, president of WACE, came in yesterday on The backfire effect. There are more comments on that blog entry, and also on Seth Gunning’s posts, a key to community organizing work and organizing and activism. -jsq
Not sure what started this particular post, but as Stephen Hawking put it: “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” –

We are where we are as a community in relationship to the biomass issue because of our holistic approach, and with “we” I do not mean WACE exclusively. There have been countless

Continue reading →