Yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission work session lasted only eight (8) minutes,
as you can see in the videos.
Maybe they will say more tonight.
Here’s the agenda.
-jsq
Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Work Session Meeting held February
27, 2012, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Here’s
the agenda.
Here’s a playlist:
Videos of Lowndes County Commission Work Session 2012 02 27
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Lowndes County has been in a Mutual Aid Agreement for 10 years. This is
a renewal of the agreement for 4 years. Having this agreement in place
makes cooperating with neighboring counties and municipalities easier.
-gretchen
Here’s the video:
6c. Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement @ LCC Work Session 2012-02-27
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
I didn’t see any commissioners object this time. Instead they didn’t say anything at all. We’ll see tomorrow. Some context in this previous post. Plus this appears to be the actual agreement on the GEMA website.
-jsq
Georgia Power trots out the same old tired disinformation it’s been peddling
for years.
As if we didn’t already know that almost all solar installations in Georgia
are installed by certified solar installers.
Or that pretty much every inverter these days comes with built-in
automatic cutoff if the grid goes down to which installers add
air-gap cutoff knife switches plus breakers.
And as if Georgia Power didn’t know
it and EMCs could charge a percentage on electricity arbitraged
across their networks,
which gapower could use to finance any needed grid improvements, while
retaining a hefty profit for doing not much of anything else.
Meanwhile, those of us who chose to participate in solar electricity arbitrage
would get lower rates for customers.
We do know all that,
but maybe your state senator doesn’t, so maybe you should call your
senator today and tell them you want to be able to buy and sell solar
power without having to get it from the utility monopoly.
Greg Roberts, Vice President of Pricing and Planning for Georgia Power in Atlanta, wrote for the Savannah Morning News today, The solar sleight of hand. I’ll only quote part of his concluding paragraph.
Georgia Power is involved in many efforts to expand the use solar energyUsually dragged along behind reluctantly, Continue reading
CCA is the leading participant in, and in many ways the embodiment of, one of the most controversial industries ever created—the incarceration of people for profit. While the company is looking back through rose-colored glasses, there is a need for a critical analysis of what CCA has brought to the world of corrections. That is the purpose of this report.Continue readingEven by its own standards, CCA has not been a success. Rather than taking the industry by storm, it still manages only about three percent of prison and jail beds in the United States, and its global aspirations had to be abandoned.
Only a few years ago, CCA was being widely vilified
Subject: Meeting with AndreaContinue readingJust a quick recap of a meeting I had yesterday with VLCIA’s Andrea
Schruijer. When asked where we were with the private prison issue, she responded, “we contractually agreed to a 3rd extension with a term of 365 and CCA has until March 13, 2012 to request that extension.” So I asked,” if CCA doesn’t request a 3rd extension, then the issue is over, right?” She replied, “If there’s no response from CCA, then it is up to the board to determine how to move forward.” When I asked her why they would even consider honoring a contract extension to CCA knowing some of the controversy over CCA’s business practices, she replied, “because there is a partnership between the VLCIA and CCA and we are contractually bound to a 3rd extension.”
I pointed out that the private prison industry wasn’t interested in public safety and rehabilitation they simply wanted to make a quick buck off the lives of others. I informed her of the chronic employee turnover, understaffing, high rates of violence and extreme cost cutting which all have been attributed to CCA.
I told her that Lowndes County already had its own share of air
pollution and that amount of air pollution here is directly proportionate to the amount of lung and bronchial caner in our area. I encouraged her to consider sustainable businesses for the future economic growth of our community, not smoke stack business. Her reply, “so what you are saying is that you think the industrial should just close its doors?” I actually hadn’t thought about that but the question did make me ponder.
I left her with a 91 page research report which takes a critical look at the first twenty years of CCA’s operations. I requested an email response of her thoughts about the report and am currently awaiting the response…
Biomass did come up in the conversation and Mrs. Schruijer was quick to assert that
Actor Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm Xon Feb. 27, 1965. It was a strong statement of support for the life of a man whom controversy followed until his assassination at the age of 39. So why did Davis potentially risk his career to pay tribute to Malcolm X? A letter, written by Davis, explains his decision. The letter will be on public display this weekend.
Davis’ letter will join dozens of other historic artifacts for a special Black History Month observation, sponsored by the 100 Black Men of Valdosta Inc. The Sixth Annual African-American Artifacts exhibit will be on display noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 25 and 26.
Kind of weird phrasing there, Ms. Editor, given that Ossie Davis’ tribute
was after Malcolm X was assassinated….
I’d like to read that letter. How about you?
Here is a video of that eulogy (although the voice is not that of Ossie Davis): Continue reading
Valdosta City Council and Mayor, who may not have been following the private prison issue,
now know about it and are aware that they are all implicated in the private prison
decision, due to events at the Industrial Authority board meeting
and the Valdosta City Council meeting, both Thursday 23 February 2012.
After remarking that I’d rather be talking about the additional solar panels recently installed on my farm workshop up here in the north end of the county, I recapped the case against a private prison and referred the Valdosta City Council to my LTE in the VDT of that morning (Thursday 23 February 2012). I remarked that I was disappointed the Industrial Authority hadn’t done anything to stop the prison at its meeting earlier that same day. Since they might be wondering what all this had to do with them, I pointed out that, if I could use the word, they were all implicated as mayor and council in the private prison decision because Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks of August 2010, lavishly praised the Lowndes County Commission and Chairman and the Valdosta City Council and mayor. Although the mayor was different now, and maybe some of the council, nonetheless it was the same offices of council and mayor, still implicated. I asked for their opinions on that subject. Per their custom, they did not offer any at that time. So, maybe we’ll hear from them later. Or maybe the Industrial Authority board will hear from them….
Here’s the video:
Valdosta Mayor and Council are implicated in the private prison —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 2012 02 23
VSEB, employment,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.
-jsq
John Robinson told the Valdosta City Council that he thought the
application for the
Valdosta Small Emerging Business (VSEB) Program
was too long and complicated compared to the one-page
application to do major construction work.
Here’s the video:
VSEB application is too long — John Robinson @ VCC 2012 02 23
VSEB, employment,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.
-jsq
at its work session Monday morning and will vote at its regular session Tuesday evening. This is about emergency response calls, such as for the fire in Remerton, when Remerton called Lowndes County, which called Valdosta, which sent fire trucks to Remerton. Why the indirect time-consuming call while a fire doubles in size every minute? Remerton didn’t have a mutual aid agreement with Valdosta, but did with Lowndes County.6.c. Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement
This is the same Commission that went on for 11 minutes in the 21 February 2011 work session about a Homeland Security grant for an emergency vehicle, worring that the county might have to pay to maintain it and might have to share it with other municipalities. And then rejected it the next day, if I recall correctly. What will they think of this mutual aid agreement?
Here’s the agenda.
-jsq
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor