Tag Archives: Valdosta

Budget meeting inside Lowndes County today @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

After this morning’s
Work Session,
there’s an all-day budget meeting.
All county departments, including constitutional officers, are reporting.

From Gretchen on the scene:

So far we have heard Board of Elections and Public Defender.
Next up the Sheriff.

This is apparently not a public meeting, and there was no public notice
that I can find.
Apparently it was mentioned at the February retreat.
Some candidates for County Commission are there, in addition to
current Commissioners and staff.

You may wonder as I do why this is not a public meeting.

-jsq

Massive vote for SAVE’s fossil fuel divestment by VSU Student Government Association

When

at first they didn’t succeed, SAVE tried again and won.
Next: VSU Foundation again. -jsq

RESOLUTION #14432

Support of S.AV.E. Fossil Free Divestment Campaign

Date: March 4, 2014

Authored by:

Senator Candicee Childs, Freshman Senator, Public Relations Chairman & Student Representative of

Faculty Senate Environmental Issues Committee

Senator Tamera Dunn, Graduate Senator

Be it enacted by the Senate of Valdosta State University (VSU) here
assembled, that:

WHEREAS, the Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.)
organization has presented

a divestment campaign for the VSU
Foundation to the Student Government Association

in October 2013,
resulting in the request for additional clarity and information to
be gathered regarding their campaign, and

WHEREAS, the SAVE organization has obtained support from

the Faculty Senate Environmental Issues Committee
for
their divestment campaign
for

the VSU Foundation in November 2013, and

WHEREAS, the SAVE organization has also obtained unanimous support Continue reading →

Only four voting Commissioners Monday @ LCC 2014-03-10

With only four voting Commissioners left, and two of those
lame ducks, it should be an interesting set of Lowndes County
Commission meetings this week.
On the agenda is adoption of infrastructure for

the Nelson Hill subdivision;
the one with
all the waivers by staff with no public hearings.

Plus four rezonings, one for

a former County Commissioner
and another

for a community well for a development.
And the annual contract renewal for the

MIDS on-call bus system.

While the VDT headline yesterday said

Political shuffle continues:
County commissioner resigns to run for state Senate seat,
actually former Commissioner John Page didn’t resign:
he vacated his seat the moment he signed the qualifying papers
to run for state Senator.
That’s why the Board of Elections has already

called a special election that Continue reading →

Solar power record installation and acceleration in 2013 in U.S.

Solar power is already second only to methane in new energy generation,
and solar is increasing its growth rate much faster than “natural” gas.
Solar is going to win, and quickly.
How many unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipelines will we let
the fracking industry gouge through here before we get on with solar power
for local energy, local jobs, and local lower electric bills?

Mike Munsell wrote for greentech solar 7 March 2014,

US Solar Market Grew 41%, Had Record Year in 2013:
The U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of PV, according to the Solar Market Insight Year in Review report.

According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries
Association’s

Solar Market Insight Year in Review 2013, photovoltaic
installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over
2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts. In addition, 410 megawatts of
concentrating solar power came on-line.

Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating
capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. Additionally,
the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, ending the year
15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.

At the end of 2013 there were more than Continue reading →

FBI investigating CCA about Gladiator School again

Indefatigable reporter gets FBI to investigate profiteering
private prison company: again.
CCA already
lost the contract for Idaho State Prison and two other CCA prisons have closed.
Maybe this time the FBI will shut CCA down.

Rebecca Boone wrote for AP yesterday,
APNewsBreak: FBI investigates prison company,

The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections Corporation
of America over the company’s running of an Idaho prison with a
reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School.”

The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho’s largest prison
for more than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it
had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours
in violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees
falsified reports to cover up the vacancies. The announcement came
after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed
guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing
requirements.

The Idaho State Police was asked to investigate the company last
year but didn’t, until Continue reading →

Musical chairs in local qualifying

Three out of five voting County Commissioners are not running again,
and one has already vacated his seat,
plus you have to have a playing card to keep track of who’s
running for the state Senate and House.

We already knew

State Senator Tim Golden was not running again,
and now we know who’s running for that seat:
Richard Raines (R),
who had said
two months ago he was not running again for
County Commission District 2,
Ellis Black (R) currently House 174, Bikram Mohanty (D) who ran last time and came close,
and John Page (R), who thus vacated County Commission District 5.

Because Ellis Black is running for Senate, and even though he
qualifed for his House District 174 seat Monday,
when he qualified for Senate Wednesday, he left his House seat open.
Running for District 174 are Crawford Powell (R), currently
County Commissioner for District 3,
Jessie Smith (D), and John L. Corbett (R).

The incumbents qualifed for the other House seats,
each with no challenger.

As for the three (3) County Commission seats now open,
here, read

Gretchen’s explanation.

And remember, more changes can still happen, because

qualifying has reopened for County Commission District 3,
and will have to reopen for District 5.

-jsq

Videos: quick agenda and then pipeline @ LCC 2014-02-25

The

County Manager’s report was
about FERC’s Scoping Meetings starting next week;

two citizens spoke about the pipeline.
The Chairman

refused to let another one speak because she hadn’t turned in a form,
and then he

spent 20 minutes after the meeting
telling her what the county wasn’t going to do.

We sort of found out where is the

unopened right of way off of US 41 South.
The

special tax lighting districts item went quickly this time.
We found out how much the county’s
sewer lift station at a subdivision with a private golf club

will cost to replace.
This is the subdivision for which the

Nelson Hill Wells were drilled as possible replacements.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos from the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting @ FERC 2014-03-04

Here are videos of the whole thing.

Update 2014-03-08: Fixed date.

All against, except County Commissioners @ FERC 2014-03-04

At FERC’s Scoping Meeting for Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline,
about 100 people, not counting FERC or Spectra. Lots of good
questions. Not many answers. John Peconom of FERC
said afterwards the comments were
mostly about the big picture.
Except questions from local government officials: there were none.
Video to come.

WALB was there for a
long time, so they’ll probably cover it (they did). Matthew Woody of the VDT had
heaps of material and went off to file by 10PM (here’s his story).

Three Lowndes County Commissioners were there:
Chairman Bill Slaughter, Joyce Evans, and Crawford Powell,
and County Engineer Mike Fletcher and Utilities Director Mike Allen.
Not one of them spoke.

In

Gilchrist County, Florida, all five County Commissioners,
plus Continue reading →

There’s nothing we can do about the pipeline –Bill Slaughter @ LCC 2014-02-24

“There’s nothing we can do,”
said Lowndes County Commissioners
about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline,
after the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak during
the

25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
But there are things local governments can do, as other local
governments and elected officials have already demonstrated.

Citizen Carol Singletary drove 100 miles to get there.
As Chairman Bill Slaughter asked for a motion
to adjourn the meeting,

she said she called in to say she wanted to speak.
Slaughter responded,

You have to fill out the paperwork and everything in order.

Phillip Singletary said he did, and it was in the Commission Chamber
entranceway.

The Chairman did not relent; “just do it next week; next time”.
Nevermind that he has let people speak who hadn’t turned in the paperwork
before the meeting started (we have videos).
He even

let pipeline reps speak from the audience without coming up to the podium
and didn’t let any citizens speak at the Spectra sales pitch
back in December.

Commissioner John Page moved to adjourn, and added that he would
like to see Ms. Singletary after the meeting.
Chairman agreed, somebody seconded, and they voted to adjourn.

Do elected Commissioners now have to get a vote of the Commission
to talk to citizens?

Here’s

the video of that part.

After the meeting, Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange