Here’s the Call to Order.
See
separate post
for details of the Army Corps of Engineers flooding study.
The Work Session continued after that, but Gretchena and I both
had to go to other events, so there’s no video of the rest.
If Valdosta videoed its own meetings, Continue reading
In these videos of
the initial flooding study
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Valdosta City Council Work Session,
you can see they’re the Corps, all right: they want to build a levee.
They did emphasize that this was just an initial study on
what could be done inside Valdosta, and their main conclusion
was that there was enough need to indicate federal interest,
as in possibilities of getting federal funding for solutions.
City Manager Larry Hanson got the Corps to confirm (several times)
that Valdosta alone couldn’t stop the flooding, since the vast
majority of floodwaters comes from upstream
on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers.
Later that same evening in response to citizen questions
at the Valdosta City Hall Annex, the Corps clarified more that
they did understand there were issues of impervious surfaces
and development and loss of wetlands and they wanted to
do a much larger study of the entire watershed,
which could take several years to accomplish.
They kept emphasizing that the Suwannee River watershed
is one of the largest in the country, and there are also
flooding problems on the Suwannee River, which could be important
for obtaining federal dollars.
As we already knew, Valdosta has funded projects already started
to move the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) uphill
and to add a force main to prevent manhole overflows.
People
downstream in Florida may be relieved to hear something is being done.
Here’s
a video playlist, followed by images of the Corp’s slides and of the City Council, and some notes.
Valdosta Main Street has a
Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series
all this week,
last day today.
Downtown Valdosta fills with live music during lunchtime in May for
the week-long Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series. The free concerts take
place from 11:30 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. on the Lowndes County
Courthouse Lawn with lunches being sold by downtown restaurants.
Bring your friends and family to this free community event and
seeing what downtown Valdosta has to offer.
There you’ll also see some of your favorite candidates for local political office. Continue reading
Have you heard there’s a U.N. agency going around getting
local governments to sign “Agenda 21” into ordinances that
will take away your private property through eminent domain?
If not, you’ve avoided the propaganda put out by
fossil fuel companies to subvert sustainability.
If you have, here’s why it’s bunk.
There is an organization that promotes measures for
sustainability to local governments.
Sustainability as in arranging for local resources to
be available for us and our children and grandchildren.
Clean air, clean water, forests, education, and private property
rights including not letting developers or big corporations
damage your private property.
Are you against any of those things?
An organization promoting sustainability with local governments is called
ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability.
ICLEI says it is:
the leading global network devoted to local governments engaged in
sustainability, climate protection, and clean energy initiatives. The
organization was formerly known as the International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives.
ICLEI has heard about the conspiracy theories and has written up
a rebuttal. Continue reading
In the first big win for
the fossil fuel divestment campaign,
Stanford just did what campaign-founder Harvard has not yet:
announced it would divest from coal-mining companies.
Here’s Stanford’s PR dated today, 7 May 2014,
Stanford to divest from coal companies,
Acting on a recommendation of Stanford’s Advisory Panel on Investment
Responsibility and Licensing, the Board of Trustees announced that
Stanford will not make direct investments in coal mining companies. The
move reflects the availability of alternate energy sources with lower
greenhouse gas emissions than coal.
Who is this Advisory Panel? Continue reading
What’s really not sustainable?
Promoting
the “Agenda 21” talking points as an elected official,
even in
the most corrupt state in the union (Georgia).
Chip Rogers was top of the heap as the Senate Majority Leader,
voting for all sorts of stuff to hold Georgia back, from
eorgia Power’s nuke rate hike (CWIP) SB 31 in 2009
to sponsoring
putting two constitutional amendments on the state ballot in 2012,
including one
for charter schools that would siphon off public school money).
Then he was caught
promoting showing an “Agenda 21” talking point movie to legislators in the
state capitol.
He decided Continue reading
Time to break out of the utility death spiral by breaking
away from cost overruns at Kemper “clean” Coal
and the Plant Vogtle nuclear boondoggle
and getting on with real renewable solar and wind power.
UBS wrote 5 May 2014,
Southern Company: Kemper Tantrums; Reducing to Sell,
Reducing to Sell on continued delays for the Kemper IGCC project
With further delays and increased costs for the Kemper IGCC project
resulting in yet another $380M of writedowns (further slippage
costing $25M/month) and now the likely loss of $120M-$150M of bonus
depreciation as well, we view the current premium P/E multiple as
untenable.
While the Vogtle nuclear project appears to be on track,
the presence of two major risky projects, Continue reading
One
Lowndes County
ULDC variance, for
lot access and road frontage.
The could be interesting, since, according to the
Lowndes County Tax Assessors’ maps,
3041 Touchton Road doesn’t actually touch Touchton Road,
or any other road, for that matter.
Here’s
the agenda.
The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes
online in real PDFs. Continue reading
VSU is with the big schools, leading the stigmatization of fossil fuel
companies and the exodus from those stranded assets.
Students are leading on that and related issues,
more than our local elected bodies, but there’s an election going on.
Mary Schellentrager posted for PowerShift 29 April 2014,
NATIONAL PHOTO ROUND-UP: BOLD ACTION FOR #BEYONDEARTHDAY: Continue reading
Tonight we get to hear twice about the long-awaited
flooding study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:
once with no citizen input at the Valdosta City Council Work Session,
and then with citizen input at Valdosta City Hall Annex.
Presumably this study will say something about the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), the new
force main to prevent manhole overflows, and
maybe some upstream measures to keep quite as much water from getting there.
This study only addresses issues within the city limits of Valdosta,
not the larger watersheds upstream on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers
and downstream: that will take more funding.
People
downstream in Florida may be relieved to hear something is being done.
