Men, women, children, babies in strollers, old folks with walkers,
dogs, and a large yellow chicken
in a time-lapse movie from the
wildlife camera Gretchen set up at the
Thirteenth Annual Azalea Festival yesterday,
plus other videos and stills, and WCTV.
Here’s a video playlist:
Here’s a flickr slideshow:
Continue reading
Two applicants in a row said they didn’t know until recently
that their properties had restrictions on them,
and even staff seemed confused about at least one of them.
Maybe there’s something wrong with how the county makes that information
available to purchasers of property?
Almost nobody attended the
Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting of 25 February 2013,
as you can see from
these videos.
Here’s
the agenda.
And here’s a summary of the cases.
Knights Academy Road, Valdosta
Request to rezone 10 acres from
R-21 (Medium Density Residential)
to
R-A (Residential Agriculture)
They want two pet thoroughbred horses on the property. Nobody spoke against.
Applicant spoke for, saying the property was purchased
by his mother, who is currently in Iraq, and they had
been under the impression it was already zoned agricultural.
When they discovered it wasn’t, they applied to change it.
In discussion Jody Hall asked Continue reading
On the 27th of February I posted Internet and Energy at the Bird Supper and Gretchen and I went to the Bird Supper in Atlanta and discussed those four bills with legislators. Our local elected officials were lobbying on the same side of many of the same bills. It’s past crossover day now, when bills are supposed to be approved by one house of the Georgia legislature in order to be taken up by the other. How did that come out? We all beat the mighty telcos and cablecos on two bills! But Georgia Power is even mightier, and won on two bills. Plus one legislator’s name is connected with 3 out of 4 of those bills. And our local delegation cancelled itself out on the one vote that actually went to the floor.
The local Industrial Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta City Council, and Lowndes County Commission have recently realized that fast Internet access is essential to attract businesses, for their employees to work at home, for applicants to apply for jobs, for students to submit assignments, and for general quality of life. And there’s good news from the legislature!
Continue reading
Five minutes, or maybe ten each for Monday’s Work Session and
Tuesday’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission?
Here’s the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
- Call to Order
- Invocation
- Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
- Minutes for Approval
- Work Session — February 25, 2013
- Regular Session — February 26, 2013
- Public Hearings
- REZ-2013-03 Rezoning for Jeremy Valler, Knight’s Academy Rd. R-21 to R-A, Well/Septic, ~10.4 acres
- REZ-2013-04 Doug Thompson Property, 3432 Bemiss Rd. C-H (conditional) to C-H, Comm. Well & Comm. Sewer, 1.28 acres
- Bid — Land Application Site (LAS) Farm Lease
- Reports-County Manager
- Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
-jsq
Valdosta Utilities Director Henry Hicks gave a detailed history of
flood control
projects
and work on the
Withlacoochee Waste Water Processing Plant
at the Valdosta City Council Meeting last night during the
"Manager's Report" section
of
the agenda.
Several Council members expressed their distaste for the VDT’s recent reporting
on the subject, and thanked Hicks and other city employees for their work.
Hicks said
they had spent $4 million on repairs
to the Withlacoochee plant, and that didn't include the $40 million
they'd already spent on upgrades in general.
Also, it took three days to build the berm around the plant in 2009,
and FEMA wouldn't approve any improvements to it.
He said he would Continue reading
There’s nothing on the agenda for last night’s Valdosta City Council meeting about the recent flooding or the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant or the raw sewage in neighborhoods or downstream all the way to the Gulf, but quite a bit was said last night anyway; video to follow. Here’s the agenda. -jsq
AGENDAContinue reading
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, March 7, 2013
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
| 104 | 100% | total |
| 4 | 3% | newdown |
| 17 | 16% | newlow |
| 6 | 5% | newtop |
| 16 | 15% | down |
| 32 | 30% | low |
| 72 | 69% | top |
Newly down since 23 Feb 2013 on 6 March 2013:
FitzPatrick,
Indian Point 3,
Brunswick 2,
Monticello.
The sinkhole that formed under a man’s bed and pulled him in has made a lot of news in Florida, plus another one a few miles away. But the news seems to neglect why those sinkholes are forming. Could it be the same reason sinkholes are forming in Lowndes County, Georgia? And will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about that before we see news about somebody here falling into a sinkhole?
Will Hobson, Laura C. Morel and Jodie Tillman wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 1 March 2013, Seffner sinkhole 911 call: ‘Bedroom floor just collapsed’,
Jeremy Bush just went to bed when he heard what sounded like a car hitting the house. Then screams from his brother Jeffrey’s bedroom.
“Help me! Help me!”
Someone flipped the lights. Jeremy, 36, threw the door open, revealing a sight that defied belief: The earth had opened beneath his brother’s bedroom and was swallowing everything in it. The tip of Jeffrey’s mattress was the only thing left, and it was sinking into a churning sinkhole.
The Tampa Bay Times has a long series on what happened afterwards, rescue workers who didn’t find him, the demolition of the house, objects found, etc. They never quite get around to saying why the sinkhole was there. They first say (Shelley Rossetter 2 March 2013),
Continue reading
The VDT had a small front page headline yesterday:
“Floridians warned about river contamination”.
That story was also heard in Florida, in
Madison, Gainesville, and elsewhere,
emphasizing something that Valdosta didn’t mention:
people live downstream of Valdosta’s wastewater spill,
all the way down the Withlacoochee and the Suwannee Rivers
to the Gulf of Mexico.
The story also made the AJC.
Green Publishing, Inc, which covers Madison, Lee, and Greenville, Florida, reported yesterday, ALERT: FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH WARNS OF POSSIBLE WASTEWATER CONTAMINATION: GA wastewater plan overflow may impact Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.
TALLAHASSEE- The Florida Department of Health (DOH) today issued a caution to residents in the counties surrounding the Withlacoochee and Suwannee rivers. The Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant in Valdosta, GA has overflowed into the Withlacoochee River, which flows south, connecting with the Suwannee River.
Other news venues carrying the story:
Continue readingSolar power is going so well worldwide that Deutsche Bank has just increased its projections for global demand, noting that India and Italy have already in 2013 reached grid parity without subsidies with other sources of energy, and it expects the rest of the world to follow as early as 2014. The big winner is rooftop solar. Is Georgia paying attention?
Becky Beetz wrote for Global PV 26 February 2013, Deutsche Bank: Sustainable solar market expected in 2014,
Buoyed by bullish demand forecasts, and increasing utilization rates and pricing, Deutsche Bank forecasts a solar market transition from subsidized to sustainable in 2014. Italy REC solar photovoltaic plant
The German bank has raised its 2013 global solar demand forecast to 30 GW — representing a 20% year-on-year increase — on the back of suggestions of strong demand in markets including India, the U.S., China (around 7 to 10 GW), the U.K. (around 1 to 2 GW), Germany and Italy (around 2 GW).
Rooftop installations are, in particular, expected to be a main focus, says Deutsche Bank. A trend for projects being planned with either “minimal/no incentives” has also been observed, despite the belief that solar policy outlooks are improving, particularly in the U.S., China and India, and “other emerging markets”.
More analysis by Jeff Spross in ThinkProgress 3 March 2013, Solar Report Stunner: Unsubsidized ‘Grid Parity Has Been Reached In India’, Italy–With More Countries Coming in 2014.
Continue readingAs Renew Economy also points out, this is the third report in the past month