Plus
a presentation to Joyce Evans,
all about
mosquitoes, and
a love fest between the county and the VDT!
Here’s the agenda with a few notes, and links into the video. See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s work session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
A logical and systematic plan for mosquito trapping and spraying
is what
Public Works Director Robin Cumbus described at the
23 April 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
She said the county contracts with VSU for trapping and surveillance. Mosquitoes trapped either by the county or by VSU are sent to Public Health Atlanta for testing.
This testing is
presumably for
mosquito-borne diseases;
According to
USGS disease maps using CDC data,
there were 15 cases of positive test results for
West Nile virus in Lowndes County in 2012;
that’s 13% of the total of 113 for the whole state.
She continued:
Continue readingWhere is the Lowndes County Commission getting the money for paving parts of nine roads? Who are they appointing to the Airport Authority and the South Georgia Community Service Board?
Here’s the agenda:
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 13, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Baxley City Hall has solar panels, in Appling County, home to nuclear Plant Hatch.
Why?
The solar installation will
generate most during the most expensive electrical power times of the day;
it will pay for itself in ten years,
and it’s lower power bills from then on.
Baxley City Council approved the project unanimously in December,
to be paid for out of reserves with no financing,
and the solar system is already installed and working.
Any local city or county hereabouts could do the same thing.
Renee O’Quinn wrote for the Baxley News-Banner 19 December 2012, City approves installation of solar panels at City Hall,
Continue readingCome on, guess! You’re right: it’s a football coach. UGA football coaching staff get even more compensation than Paul Bowers, CEO of Georgia Power, or Thomas A. Fanning, CEO of the Southern Company, let alone any insignificant college president or elected official.
If I’m reading the ESPN database right, UGA coaches get around $14 million a year, while Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers gets only Continue reading
Slower and more expensive than the rest of the world: U.S. Internet access doesn’t have to be that way. Bob knows about our Internet issues here and is interested in helping.
Chunka Mul wrote for Forbes 26 April 2013,
The Lunacy of Our Internet Access, and How Google Fiber Could Provide Needed Shock Therapy,
Continue readingImagine you are the world’s largest operator of shopping malls, and shoppers can only get to your malls via the equivalent of dirt paths and country roads. What’s more, those meager routes are all controlled by an oligopoly of private, toll-road operators that focus on their profitability, not on getting consumers to the stores in your malls.
The result would be a mess. The roads would be slow yet expensive. Consumers would limit shopping trips. The stores in your malls would have a hard time generating business, so your malls would languish.
Yet the entire online economy runs on an analogous network. The network could easily be lightning fast, pervasive and cheap (or even free). Instead,
Received 26 April 2013. Basically Valdosta is accelerating its plans to do something about wastewater, including adding pumpstations and force mains, as well as relocating the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant uphill. Here are the summary pages; there’s much more detail in the plan. -jsq
Utilities Department 5-Year Action Plan:
Continue readingSince 1992, the City has received $179 million in SPLOST funding and over the same time period has invested nearly $168 million in capital projects for the Water and Wastewater system. This includes SPLOST funding, system revenues, bonds, and GEFA loans.
Since 2009, the Utilities Department has expended over $49 million on sewer system improvement with approximately $5.6 million spent on the Withlacoochee Treatment Plant. When the projects listed below are completed by December 2018, the City will have invested approximately $230 million in capital projects for its Utilities system from 1992 to 2018, a 26-year period.
PUMP STATION, FORCE MAIN, HEADWORKS AND EQUALIZATION BASIN PROJECT
Maybe no solar manufacturers around here yet, but there’s one for wind power.
According to
Windpower Conference & Exhibition May 5-8 2013 Chicago, IL,
one of the exhibitors is
ADB Hoist Rings Mfg. of Valdosta, GA.
-jsq
It’s literally game-changing time with solar power at the electric utilities, while Georgia Power and Southern Company are sticking with big baseload nuclear, “clean coal”, and natural gas. They cannot win if they don’t even try.
Steven Schultz wrote for Physorg 6 May 2013,
Growth of ‘distributed’ electricity generation could transform
utility systems,
(Phys.org) —The U.S. electric utility industry faces a critical juncture as new technology and declining prices allow a more “distributed” system of small-scale generators, renewable energy installations and energy-efficiency strategies, according to a group of high-level energy industry executives and regulators who met at Princeton University recently.
“We have a monumental challenge,” said Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who participated in the all-day meeting Friday, April 26. Citing commentary by an analyst who warned of a potential “train wreck” in the industry, Wellinghoff outlined converging tends in which technological advances are allowing consumers and companies to take matters of reliability, security and efficiency into their own hands, while utility companies are under pressure to maintain and upgrade a national electricity system that is broadly accessible.
“Everybody saw the Super Bowl,” Wellinghoff said, referring to the half-hour blackout that disrupted the 2013 football championship.
He didn’t mention that after blacking out the Super Bowl Continue reading
Worst of all fifty states; worse than South Carolina and worse than Michigan:
that’s why
Georgia’s gets an F
on its corruption risk report card from
State Integrity Investigation.
Gov. Nathan Deal did
just sign an ethics bill,
but as William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia says,
“It’s like you’re starving for a meal and somebody gave you a saltine cracker.
It’s chock full of loopholes.”
I wonder if this lack of ethics in state government has anything to do with widespread rural poverty in Georgia?
-jsq