Here the facilitator is getting the board and staff to answer some initial questions.
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, 23 February 2012.
After they gave individual answers, they broke into groups each including board and staff: Continue reading
What it does not have is any mention of
anything about Project Excel, or CCA, or the private prison,
even though Ms. Schruijer told me yesterday to expect the board
to say something about that.
You can still
express your opinion to them before then.
And since this agenda says
**TENTATIVE**
maybe that item will get added before tomorrow afternoon.
Also missing is any item for the Strategic Planning RFP, even though that RFP says the board will review any responses received by their February board meeting.
What this agenda does have is numerous specific items under the usual broad headers such as Existing Industry/Project Report. So instead of listening to Col. Ricketts and trying to figure out what he’s talking about, you can see such things as “e-Snychronist® Existing Industry Retention and Expansion business information system (BIS)” in writing. You still don’t see names of the “five (5) Prospects” or the “three (3) companies that are developing expansion plans”. Maybe I buy the competitive information argument for the prospects, but I’m not so sure about the three expanding companies, especially if they’re already local. And considering the things VLCIA has tried to sneak in under cover of not mentioning competitive information, such as biomass and a private prison, I’m not sure I buy that argument at all.
Also on the plus side, the agenda includes an actual schedule for bids Continue reading
The RFP says
I asked Andrea Schruijer about those two dates just now on the telephone. She said they would look at any proposals they have received by the time of Thursday’s board meeting, but they would not vote on them then. Their March board meeting is scheduled for 20 March 2012, which is after the March 16th due date.The board will entertain proposals at the regularly scheduled meeting in February. Please email proposals to the following no later than 12:00 p.m. on March 16, 2012:
-jsq
The latest update (20 February 2012) is online for the
community calendar
produced by
Jane F. Osborn
who organizes the
Valdosta Civic Roundtable.
She wrote:
…the calendar is not produced for civic roundtable, it is just a project of mine for the many counties that lost a source of information when 2-1-1 was discontinued.LAKE will attempt to remember to update new ones in this web page as Miss Jane sends them. We hope you, dear readers, will remind us if we don’t.
-jsq
Did you know?
Federal mandates require that 25% of Air Force facility energy use comes from renewable energy sources by 2025 and Moody will help….It’s a shame we have to go to Binghamton and Ithaca, New York, to get the equipment. You’d think we could build solar thermal hot water heaters right here in sunny south Georgia, and install them, too. The architect, however, was local. Congratulations to Moody AFB and Slone Associates for installing solar hot water!
The installer, Intelligent Green Solutions (IGS) of Ithaca, New York,
has the details:
The installation is a large solar thermal system that includes:The completion target date was end of December.
- 20 TitanPowerPlus 2.0 Flat Plate Solar Collectors
- 512 Gallon Solar Hot Water Storage Tanks
SunMaxx Solar press release of 29 Jan 2012, SunMaxx Solar and Intelligent Green Solutions Install Solar Thermal System at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, Continue reading
The message of Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation AuthorityContinue readingExecutive Director George Page was clear at tonight’s Master Planning Steering Committee workshop when he told the group “I’m not a fan of the status quo.” If you’ve followed the work of Mr. Page and the staff of the VLPRA, especially their work on securing the upcoming baseball tournament which is projected to have an economic impact of about $250,000, then you know that this is no exaggeration.
The meeting tonight was the first of a series of meetings that are geared toward getting public involvement in the upcoming Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan. The VLPRA has contracted with
the Nashville-based architectural and land planning group Lose and Associates, to conduct the comprehensive plan. Lose is pronounced more like the geologic term defining windborne silt (loess), and less like how we identify the team that scores fewer goals in a soccer match (lose). The meeting tonight, which was led by two Lose planners, was focused on evaluating current VLPRA programs and facilities and offering suggestions for future improvements.
This evening’s group of about 15 participants consisted of
If you attended any of the CUEE meetings the format was exactly theContinue readingsame. We were divided into groups. Each person wrote down their answers to a list of questions they handed out. Then each group was told to combine their answers into a group list which was written on poster size dry erase sheets. Then the sheets were displayed on the wall in front of all the groups & the answers were discussed. I had to leave when they were discussing the answers to the first question which was: List the 5 things you think are most important to improve the parks & recreation program. I am assuming the group lists were combined into a master list for that question. They were doing each question all the way through before going to the next question. I brought the list of questions with me intending to share what they were but I left my notebook in the car trunk of the person I was riding with & forgot to get it when we left the Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner. I will not retrieve the notebook until Tuesday, but if you want to know the questions I will send them to you then. If you want more info in the meantime Karen Noll was there also. She came late & probably stayed the entire time. We had interesting discussions at our group table & I’m sure a lot of interesting subjects were covered. However,
CCA has absolute discretion in issuing or withholding the NTP.What kind of local government body gives a private company “absolute discretion” on whether to proceed with a project?
What happened to those appointed officials’ own discretion as to the
appropriateness of a project for the community?
What if their due diligence turns up something unacceptable?
For example, that CCA told Decatur County that
both Lowndes and Decatur are getting a private prison (one state and one federal),
so the guff CCA told VLCIA about Lowndes being the primary site was disingenuous at best.
How about if
CCA has already breached the contract
by not supplying a required document?
How about if VLCIA receives
convincing arguments from the community
that a private prison is a bad business deal?
Indeed, disaster capitalism or the shock doctrine is nothing like the capitalism Adam Smith recommended. The main point of the petition against CCA’s private prison in Lowndes County is that it’s a bad business deal: it wouldn’t save money; it wouldn’t increase employment; and it would be likely to close, leaving us all owing money.
Did the Valdosta City and Lowndes County elected governments appoint these people to abdicate their authority to a private company? Maybe they did, since those elected officials are in cahoots on this deal. CCA lauded them all for their support after VLCIA signed the contract with that “absolute discretion” language in it. Does that seem right to you?
Florida has just demonstrated that
people of all parties can
join together successfully to oppose prison privatization.
Let’s do that right here in Lowndes County and stop the private prison!
-jsq
As always, LAKE is doing a fantastic job of uncovering the shadows.Barbara,However, please note there is a difference in capatalism & crony capitalism. Liberals have their fair share of the crony variety also AKA Soros & Monsanto, GM,etc. Free enterprise & capitalism is why our borders are being crossed legally & illegally, but crony capitalism will destroy us. If the government chooses to privatize there should be clear total delineation between them & the private business, not fascist public/private partnerships like CCA is courting. We need to resist P3s totally, but they are being welcomed with multi grant incentives & blessings of the Dept of Community Development & its Chamber of Commerce conduits. We are on the same team always for transparency in government & we can be on the same team against CCA if we focus on fighting the 3P concept.
Just a reminder, I used to work for CCA & I still love to see bad men in shackles (emphasis on bad). I don’t share most of what I call simplistic liberal views on prison reform, but I am certainly with you against crony capitalism especially the public/private partnership variety. As I’ve said before they are just the good old boy system, legalized, subsidized, & on steroids.
-Barbara Stratton
Thanks for the compliments, and we’re going to get you carrying a camera yet…. See next post for the rest of my response.
-jsq
I found the controversy over the Lowndes Grading Policy convenientObviously CUEE is not the only party interested in undermining and over riding local school board authority. However, I suspect CUEE had a hand in the phone campaign asking Lowndes school parents to call Rep. Shaw if they were in favor of HR 1162 because we all know that is one of their tactics. The message did not say to call if they were against it. CUEE is definitely still very much in the mix for discrediting local school board authority and our elected officials are evidently in their corner.
-Barbara Stratton