Tag Archives: Valdosta

Alcohol, Transportation, Water, and Safety @ LCC 2014-09-22

Will they take ten minutes to consider all these agenda items?
They’re meeting right now.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor


  1. Call to Order


  2. Invocation

    Only in the Regular Session.


  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

    Only in the Regular Session.


  4. Minutes for Approval


    1. Work Session — September 8, 2014


    2. Regular Session — September 9, 2014

  5. Public Hearing


    1. Beer, Wine and Liquor License — Cowboys Fire Pit Grill, LLC — 1088 Lakes Blvd

  6. For Consideration


    1. Abandonment of Unopened Right of Way off Water Oak Drive


    2. Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Operating Contracts


    3. Leila Ellis Social Services Building-Approval of Lease Agreements


    4. GEMA Performance Partnership Agreement (FY 2014)


    5. USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge


    6. Public Safety Radio System Upgrade

  7. Reports-County Manager


  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

    Only in the Regular Session.

-jsq

Videos: GP Investments, Hahira, Pipeline, Alapaha Water Trail @ LCC 2014-09-09



Five
citizens spoke, on topics including

the “horrible wretched smell” from ADS,
the
Sabal Trail pipeline,

the proposed local charter school,
and

the board packet and the Alapaha River Water Trail.
Chairman Bill Slaughter asserted there had been nineteen applicants
for the

Planning Commission appointment and seemed to think the public
should be happy about that, having learned it presumably by telepathy.
He didn’t divulge who those applicants were, and the only one
in the board packet (charming young white guy Brad Folsom)

300x450 2014-09-09-uldc-map-001, in wndes County Zoning Map, by Lowndes County Planning and Zoning, 9 September 2014
was appointed after somebody reminded
the Chairman to at least get a motion first.
They also appointed Commissioner Joyce Evans to the

Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
On the

GP Investments water rezoning,
County Planner Jason Davenport didn’t know whether there had been
a dump site there or where the well would go, but they approved it anyway.

They also approved the bookkeeping

ULDC updates for Special Events, Zoning Map, Fees
and they have since put the new zoning map online!

They approved unanimously the

annual prisoner work detail contract without even mentioning the cost.
And unanimously with no discussion they approved the

Hahira extratorial request.

Here’s
the agenda with links
to the videos and some notes.
See also the

board packet, obtained for you by LAKE through an open records request,
and

the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session,
which have quite a bit more information, including applicants
for appointment speaking.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Georgians march in NYC for climate action

It’s a start.
At least New York City is already doing something.
Time for Georgia to stop burning more fossil fuels and uranium
and get on with solar power.


By Lisa W. Foderaro, NY Times, 21 September 2014,

At climate change march in New York, a clarion call for action,

Participants from across the country began arriving early on Sunday
morning at the staging area near the American Museum of Natural
History. Rosemary Snow, 75, stretched her legs after a nearly
14-hour bus ride from Georgia.

Continue reading →

Solar or wind investment will produce more energy than oil or natural gas

We already knew solar and wind are better investments than nuclear or natural gas,
and now we find they’re already better than oil.

In Impact Lab 18 September 2014,

$100B invested in wind or solar will produce more energy than oil,



Kepler Chevreux, a French investment bank, has produced a
fascinating analysis that has dramatic implications for the global
oil industry. The investment bank estimates that $100 billion
invested in either wind energy or solar energy — and deployed
as energy for light and commercial vehicles — will produce
significantly more energy than that same $100 billion invested in
oil.

The implications, needless to say, are dramatic. It would signal the
end of Big Oil, and the demise of an industry that has dominated the
global economy and geo-politics, for the last few decades. And the
need for it to reshape its business model around renewables, as we
discuss here.

“If we are right, the implications would be momentous,”
writes Kepler Chevreux analyst Mark Lewis.

“It would mean Continue reading →

Alapaha River Water Trail @ VLCIA 2014-08-19


I talked about the Water Trail that WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
is developing on the Alapaha River with a tiny grant from the
Georgia River Network, and how that was a plus for local economic
development that wouldn’t cost VLCDA a dime.
They seemed to like that, at the

19 August 2014 Regular Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority.

Here’s

the video, followed by some pictures, links, and notes:

Continue reading →

Videos: Georgia Power, Rotary, Tires @ VLCIA 2014-08-19



They (maybe) finally settled on their new name:
Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority; see
Minutes.
Interesting discussion about
Express Scripts,
and some details about presenters at the next day’s

Community Economic Development meeting.
I talked about the Alapaha River Water Trail.

And they are talking about

spec[ulative] building,
such as they liked when they saw it in Douglas and Valdosta Mayor Gayle liked in
Vidalia.

Here’s

the agenda, with a few notes, and links to the videos.


300x225 VLCIA, in VLCIA, by John S. Quarterman, 19 August 2014

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority

Tuesday, August 19, 2014 5:30 p.m.

Development Authority Conference Room

103 Roosevelt Drive

Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading →

Demanding the state PUC get a friendly judge: a best practice for utilities?


300x225 Title page, in A Best Practices Leadership Forum for Small Utilities, by Carol A. Brown, Chief of Staff to President Michael R. Peevey, 2 April 2013
A utility didn’t stop at blowing up a Calfornia neighborhood,
it also demanded the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) get a favorable judge
for that 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipe explosion.
The CPUC president’s chief of staff just last year wrote slides
praising his Legacy as Best Practices.
Does that legacy include suborning justice?
He’s still there, although she was fired, and three PG&E executives
“ended their employment”.
How many other PG&E and other utility executives and CPUC and other
state regulators follow those same Best Practices?

Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press, 15 September 2014,
PG&E Officials Removed for Improper Communications,



Four senior officials with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the state
commission regulating it were removed or resigned over emails
released Monday showing the utility and state regulators appeared to
negotiate which judge would be assigned to hear one of the utility’s
rate cases.

The emails show the commission ultimately assigned to the case a
judge for whom PG&E had expressed a preference, rather than another
judge who PG&E said “has a history of being very hard on us.”



Also Monday, California Public Utilities Commission president
Michael Peevey, who was included Continue reading →

Update on Economic Development meeting @ VLCIA 2014-09-16



The big item tonight is the update on their local economic development meeting
last month, plus election of officers and the usual project and
marketing updates.

Here’s the

agenda, with a couple of formatting typos fixed (not sure I got it right, either).

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority

Tuesday, September 16, 2014 5:30 p.m.

Development Authority Conference Room

103 Roosevelt Drive

Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading →

Duke Energy and Sabal Trail at Suwannee County Commission 2014-09-02


300x219 Swearing in speakers, in Duke Suwannee new turbine resolution sails through Suwannee County Commission, by John S. Quarterman, 2 September 2014
Duke Energy reps couldn’t answer any questions beyond their canned
presentation, not about water use, not about their permit application to FL-PSC
for a new site, and not about Sabal Trail pipeline routing.
But the Suwannee County Commission passed their requested resolution
anyway for a pair of new natural gas turbines.

Update 16 September 2014: Here’s video of Debra Johnson’s find:

Mr, Oxendine (chairman) announced at the end of the meeting that “they are not ignoring the Sabal Trail Pipeline and its threat to Suwannee County. Mr. Oxendine also stated “he has instructed Mr. Harris and Mr. Prevatt (County Attorney) to evaluate the situation and consider doing something similar to the other counties that have passed resolutions and ordinances against The ST pipeline in their counties.” Next meeting tomorrow night Tuesday 09-16-2014 at 6pm.


300x223 Duke application: introduction, in Duke Suwannee new turbine resolution sails through Suwannee County Commission, by John S. Quarterman, 2 September 2014

Someone (apparently county staff) introduced
the Duke item in the agenda below:

for the construction of two new simple-cycle combustion turbines and
associated equipment as well as a 40 by 100 administrative building.
The turbines will be fueled by natural gas….

It’s Duke’s existing land plus a bit more they’ve bought.


300x222 Debra Johnson, Suwannee County resident, in Duke Suwannee new turbine resolution sails through Suwannee County Commission, by John S. Quarterman, 2 September 2014
Local resident Debra Johnson

asked Duke to withdraw their plans.

Continue reading →

Alternative 4: Richland, Preston, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail


300x395 Map, in Alternative 4: Richland, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014
Richland in Stewart County,
Preston in Webster County, Americus in Sumter County, Cordele in Crisp County,
Ashburn in Turner County,
if you thought you were off the Sabal Trail path, think again!
You’re in FERC’s eye for a 36-inch fracked methane pipeline
just like Tifton, Adel, Hahira, and Valdosta in Tift, Cook, and Lowndes
Counties Georgia, and in Florida Jennings in Hamilton County, Lake City in Columbia County, Alachua and Gainesville in Alachua County, Ocala in Marion County, Wildwood in Sumter County, and Ferndale in Lake County, and probably some other cities and counties you can find on the map.
And Alternative 4 would cross the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County
just before passing right next to Lowndes High School and an exploding
pipeline segment’s throw from Valdosta Mall.


300x386 Withlacoochee River and Lowndes High School, in Alternative 4: Richland, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014

Alternative 4 in
FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” would start
even farther north on I-75 than

Alternative 1.


Alternative 4
beginning from Alternate 2 near Richland, Georgia and following Highway 280 to near Americus, Georgia; then following a high voltage transmission line (along Sabal Trail’s Hillabee Alternative route); then following Alternate 1 starting near Tifton, Georgia and extending to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a

very rough map of Alternative 4: Continue reading →