Tag Archives: Valdosta

Solar projects get community support

What if the Industrial Authority supported industry that had a business model, brought jobs, and had the support of the community? It can happen, and already has!

Citizen Carol wrote for Texas Vox 6 January 2012, Austin Energy drought proofs its energy with new Webberville Solar Project,

Public Citizen says kudos to the City of Austin and Austin Energy for their vision and efforts in completing this project. Given that the State Climatologist is warning us that Texas can expect up to 5 more years of the current drought cycle, this project came just in time to help provide our community with drought–proof electricity during the peak use times — that will come in handy next summer.

Remember we already discovered this right here in Valdosta and Lowndes County? The Wiregrass Solar commissioning was a popular event, with many critics of the Industrial Authority lavishly praising it for the solar plant. Nobody complained about living near a solar installation. How about some more clean industry?

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Where could we put utility solar in south Georgia?

Where could we find 380 acres for a 30 Megawatt solar plant in south Georgia? Here’s a clue from Texas.

Citizen Carol wrote for Texas Vox 6 January 2012, Austin Energy drought proofs its energy with new Webberville Solar Project

A number of years ago, the City of Austin purchased this land planning to install a new coal-fired power plant. When those plans fell through, a landfill was proposed for the site that now boasts 280 acres of solar panels with a view of downtown Austin along its horizon.
How about on the proposed coal plant site in Ben Hill County?

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that big, or all in one place. How about on top of a landfill? How about on the cotton fields next to Valdosta’s Sallas Mahone Elementary School? Energy to air condition the school instead of drifting pesticides, and profit to the landowner! How about at the airport? At the mall parking lot? On top of the new county palace? On the warehouses in Hahira?

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Represent the people —George Rhynes on the radio 2012-03-10

After praising Valdosta City Councilman Yost for standing up for the people in his district, even though George sometimes doesn’t agree with his positions, George Rhynes said:
It is indeed time that we begin to put people on these governing bodies who gonna represent the best interests of the people. I don’t care whether you’re black or white, Jew or Gentile, Protestant or Catholic. But it is time now for us to stop just putting someone on the council because they look like us. We need to put people on the Council and the County Commissioners who’s going to stand up as the founding fathers of our Republic. And I mean the founding fathers of those who put themselves in the civil rights struggle on the front lines to do what is right.
Then he said Valdosta City Councilman James Wright would be on George’s radio program, and he invited all the rest of them to appear on his show, Magic 95, 950 AM.

There’s much more in his show. Here’s the video:

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Private prison is like biomass —Ashley Paulk

A deep silence came from the Industrial Authority yesterday, but GDOC board member Ashley Paulk compared the private prison to the biomass project.

I asked Lowndes County Commission Chair and Georgia Department of Corrections (GDOC) board member Ashley Paulk if he had heard whether the private prison contract had been extended past yesterday’s deadline. He had not. However, he did volunteer that he had asked the GDOC board whether they had had any discussion about such a prison and they had not. Further, GDOC just last year approved a CCA prison in Jenkins County, Georgia, so why would another one be built here? Prison populations are decreasing in Georgia, Paulk said. He even said, “It’s like the biomass situation,” in that there’s no business model. It was Ashley Paulk who signaled the end of the biomass project. And he already signaled the end of the private prison project on the front page of the VDT and he told Eames Yates of WCTV 29 Feb 2012,

Until you have a customer, you won’t see a prison, and they don’t have a customer.
He said several times yesterday he did not expect the private prison to be built. And he went beyond what he had said before in explicitly likening the private prison project to the biomass project.

After last Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting, two different Valdosta City Council members and Mayor John Gayle all told me they had talked to various people and they didn’t expect CCA’s private prison to be built.

I hope they’re all correct about that.

But we all still wait for the Industrial Authority to tell us. They’re missing a huge potential positive PR opportunity by not holding a big press conference and taking credit for ending the private prison. They still could do that this morning.

Or they could keep claiming that community activism has no effect, even though it is activism that got both of those projects in the news and got people like Ashley Paulk to speak out. Maybe the Industrial Authority likes people to laugh at them. Me, I’d prefer an Industrial Authority that stood up for the people of this community.

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VLCIA executive session on real estate transactions last Thursday noon

According to the VLCIA website, they had a special called meeting last Thursday, including apparently an executive session to discuss real estate transactions. One big real estate transaction with a deadline of today (13 March 2012) is the CCA private prison.

This is on the front page of the VLCIA website:

Notice:The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority will hold a Special Called Meeting on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at noon, for the purpose of reviewing bids and awarding a contract for the Miller Business Park Landscape/Irrigation Project and discuss real estate transactions.
Here’s the agenda. I congratulate the Industrial Authority for posting agendas!

Note the executive session. The agenda doesn’t say what the executive session is for (isn’t it supposed to, according to Georgia sunshine laws?). We can guess it’s for real estate transactions, as in the notice on the VLCIA front page.

Hm, what real estate transactions could that be? A contract for a landscaping and irrigation project isn’t a real estate transaction. Let me think… oh, the CCA private prison is a real estate transaction! Could that be what they were discussing?

The rest of VLCIA’s website is pretty thoroughly broken right now, as in

Warning: Parameter 3 to showItem() expected to be a reference, value given in /home/industri/public_html/includes/Cache/Lite/Function.php on line 100
None of the other links seem to work.

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Special Called Meeting of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, March 8, 2012, 12 noon
Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Conference Room
Valdosta, Georgia
  • Call to Order Special Called Meeting

  • Invocation

  • Welcome Guests

  • Westside Business Park

    • Reviewing bids and awarding a contract for the Miller Business Park Landscape and Irrigation Project
  • Adjourn Special Called Meeting into Executive Session
  • Adjourn Executive Session/Call to Order Special Called Meeting
  • Adjourn Special Called Meeting

Tornado report —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2012-03-12

No injuries or loss of life from the March 3rd tornado, but no disaster declaration and thus no government financial assistance, said Ashley Tye in a long report to the Lowndes County Commission this morning. Such reports are not normally repeated at the Tuesday evening regular sessions, so if you weren’t there, here is the only place you will see it.

Ashley Tye remarked:

The good news is that there were no reported injuries or no loss of life.
There was a lot of property damage. He said the National Weather Service determined it was an F2 tornado, and once it got to Walker’s Crossing it had winds of about 100 miles an hour. He said 34 homes were affected, of which 19 were destroyed, meaning uninhabitable.

He’s checking types of assistance that might be available.

Unfortunately, financial assistance is unavailable; it requires a federal declaration. And while the level of damage is obviously devastating to us in Lowndes County, it didn’t reach the level that would meet the threshold that would cause the governor to request a federal declaration.
He said there had been a tremendous outpouring of volunteer support. And insurance might pay off, although some people may not have enough insurance.

He added that the county’s code red emergency system worked well, and probably had something to do with there being no loss of life. I know I got at least six county code red messages that day before my message box filled up (I was in a building with no signal).

Commissioner Richard Raines asked if FEMA had to have a declaration for GEMA to respond. Ashley Tye answered: Continue reading →

Video of this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session 2012-03-12

The Lowndes County Commission had its regular work session this morning. Apparently some assembly was required. Here’s the agenda.

Here’s a playlist:


Video of this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session 2012-03-06
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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Marching at the Industrial Authority 2012-03-06

After starting up at the prison site and heading out, we honking at the Valdosta City Council, we marched at the Industrial Authority office. Drive Away CCA!

Here’s Part 1 of 3:


Marching at the Industrial Authority 2012 Part 1 of 3:
No private prison in Lowndes County,
Motorcade against Corrections Corporation of America, Drive Away CCA,
CCA, VLCIA, Corrections Corporation of America, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,
Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County Commission, incarceration, prison, private prison,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

They weren’t in, since they only meet once a month.

Here’s Part 2 of 3: Continue reading →

VDT picks up private prison national article: the news is not good for CCA

The VDT, after following the local private prison story, picked up a national story about CCA’s offer to 48 state governors to buy their prisons. CCA is not getting any takers.

AP wrote 10 March 2012, Firm offers states cash for prisons,

Despite a need for cash, several states immediately slammed the door on the offer, a sign that privatizing prisons might not be as popular as it once was.
Doesn’t seem very popular around here. Most people still don’t seem to have heard about the proposed local private prison, but once they do, by far most say they are against it.
Prison departments in California, Texas and Georgia all dismissed the idea. Florida’s prison system said it doesn’t have the authority to make that kind of decision and officials in CCA’s home state of Tennessee said they aren’t reviewing the proposal. The states refused to say why they were rejecting the offer.
Good for Georgia and the other states! Georgia, where the prison population is already plummeting.
“Knowing the state government, it has to have something to do with the potential political backlash,” said Jeanne Stinchcomb, a criminal justice professor at Florida Atlantic University who has written two books on the corrections industry. “Privatization has reaped some negative publicity, so I can only assume that despite the possible benefits, there would be a price to pay for supporting it.”
Do tell….

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Busy schedule at Lowndes County Commission 2012-03-12 2012-03-13

A retiree recognition, an appointment, 2 liquor licenses, 3 rezonings, 3 grant documents, and a beer license, discussed 8:30 AM Monday morning at the Work Session, to be voted on 5:30 PM Tuesday evening at the Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Here’s the agenda.

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LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →