Tag Archives: Valdosta

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Act

The Act of the Georgia Legislature that created VLCIA in 1960.

Note III.4.F:

F. To encourage and promote the expansion of industry, agriculture, trade, commerce and recreation in the City of Valdosta, County of Lowndes, and to make long-range plans therefor.
Hm, so its board appears to have understated the range of VLCIA’s state-chartered scope when it stated:
“We’re industrial development.”
See also Section 9. – Liberal construction.

This Act was found via search.municode.com, which notes:

Editor’s note—Printed in this article is 1960 Ga. Laws, page 2786, as adopted by the Georgia General Assembly. Amendments to this act are indicated by parenthetical history notes following amended provisions. The absence of a history note indicates that the provision remains unchanged from the original act. An act (1960 Ga. Laws, page 1359), substantially identical to the act set forth in this article, was also passed as a constitutional amendment. Such constitutional amendment was continued in force and effect by 1985 Ga. Laws, page 3653, as a part of the state constitution.
The text of the Act is appended below.

-jsq Continue reading →

Biomass Rising echoes from Macon

Patrick Davis sums up the Valdosta biomass situation from Macon:
It appears to be the mainly conservative power structure of Lowndes trying to force this business venture into Valdosta’s community and not considering the environmental dangers.
He has some interesting points, such as who just got appointed to the EPD. I think he overestimates the power of the Valdosta mayor, however.

-jsq

The Quitman 10 in Valdosta

At Serenity Church in Valdosta, 15 Jan 2011, Gladys Lee from Brooks County addressed the Quitman 10 about justice anywhere, about the spirit of conviction, and she said “We are residents, property owners, taxpaying voters!”.


Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Speaking as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Floyd Rose addressed the Quitman 10 and the congregation:

Now I want to say though we’ve met on what would have been my 87th birthday may be some place of honor. For this honor I want to thank you, and I must say to you: unless the schools you have named for me teach children how to live as much as how to make a living they will become little more than battlegrounds for the frustrated individuals. Unless the bridges that you have named for me
Continue reading →

Draft Resolution on Citizens Wishing to be Heard

Here’s the draft resolution on Citizens Wishing to be Heard. Previously we posted that on Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission agenda is an item about:
5. Resolution Establishing Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard and Consideration of Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
Today I went by the county palace (hey, they call it that, too!) and asked Paige Dukes, the County Clerk, what was in the old resolution and what’s in the new draft resolution. She said there was no old resolution, and a bit later she sent me the new draft resolution, which is in the PDF below.
From: “Paige Dukes” <paiged@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:32:35 -0500
To: “John S. Quarterman” <jsq@quarterman.org>
Subject: Resolution Draft 1.24.2011.pdf – Adobe Acrobat Professional

Resolution Draft 1.24.2011.pdf

It’s a PDF of a scan of a paper page, so I don’t have the plain text. If somebody wants to type it in and send it to me, have at it.

See you 5:30 PM tomorrow evening (Tuesday 25 Jan 2011) at 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. They start on the dot or slightly early, and it’s a light agenda, so be on time and don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

-jsq

No Work Session Today; County Commission still meets Tuesday

No work session today; regular session still on for 5:30 PM Tuesday 25 Jan 2011. The county website has under Special Events this notice:
Work Session Meeting Cancelled (1/24/2011)

PUBLIC NOTICE
COMMISSION MEETING
WORK SESSION CANCELLED

Due to the lack of agenda items requiring additional information or discussion, the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Work Session on Monday, January 24, 2011, has been cancelled.

The regular session meeting is still scheduled for
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA

For questions please call Paige Dukes at 229-671-2400.
This has happened several times before. Paige Dukes is the County Clerk.

See the previous post for the one unusual item on the agenda, about policies and procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard.

-jsq

Valdosta Locally Grown

Local food for local jobs! According to their facebook page,
Valdosta Locally Grown is an online farmers market being formed to bring consumers together with small farms, gardeners, and food producers located around Valdosta , Georgia, all carrying the common thread of dedication to community, environment, health and education. We hope to be operating by the early spring harvest season.
They are working on a website. Their primary instigator is Tom Kuettner, whom you can see here at the Hahira Farmers Market: Continue reading →

Farmers grow renewable energy? –James Wright

Grow crops to burn for fuel, or for food? Valdosta City Council member James Wright brings up an article about farmers growing plants for biomass fuel. These things get passed around by council members, and I’m pretty sure this one that came to me indirectly is it: November 12, 2010 – Incentivizing Renewable Biomass Production, by New Energy Farms, Leamington, Ontario. What they’re mainly recommending is Miscanthus, which is a genus of clump grass.


The above video was already posted as part of
After all the citizens left –Valdosta City Council, 20 Jan 2011.

Now call me old-fashioned, but I prefer local farmers growing food Continue reading →

County Commission Meetings Monday and Tuesday


left to right: Ashley Paulk (Chairman),
Joyce E. Evans (District 1),
Crawford Powell (District 3),
Richard Raines (District 2).
The next scheduled meetings of the Lowndes County Commission are:
  • 8:30 AM Monday January 24, 2011: work session
  • 5:30 PM Tuesday January 25, 2011: regular session
The agenda is posted on the county website. This meeting will probably be very brief, since it has no rezoning cases; those come every other meeting. This one is mostly contracts for consideration. However, there is this interesting item:
5. Resolution Establishing Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard and Consideration of Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard

It also has the regular item:

7. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
This item is for the regular session, not the work session, although in the work session the Chairman sometimes notes somebody is there wanting to talk and asks them to say what they want to say. Conversely, in the regular session we don’t usually hear much from this one:
8. Reports-County Manager
The county manager often gives a longer report in the work session.

By “very brief” I mean work sessions typically run about 15 minutes, with the record being something like 8 minutes. And they start on time, or a minute early. Be there or miss what you want to hear or say.

-jsq

After all the citizens left –Valdosta City Council, 20 Jan 2011

Want to know what your city council really thinks? Stay through the entire meeting and you’ll get some clues; or watch these videos by some who did stay. City Manager, Attorney, and each council member say what’s on their minds. Much of it addresses some of the questions asked by citizens earlier: cracks in the MLK monument, biomass, council members answering questions from the audience, etc. What they didn’t talk about may indicate what various citizens didn’t succeed in conveying to the council.

It’s not like what they were saying was a secret. The VDT reporter was there. They were finishing up the agenda with the sections “7. City Manager’s Report” and “8. Council Comments”. You can see them adjourn at the end. Some of them groused about the time citizens take up in “Citizens Wishing to be Heard”.

But remember, almost none of those citizens bothered to stay around to listen to them. Among the stay-latest: two cameras for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, providing you these two views: Continue reading →

Reporting on Valdosta without water

The talk of the town (and apparently all of south Georgia today) is the Lowndes County seat lost water. Both the Valdosta’s city government web pages (VLD) and the newspaper (VDT) have been reporting online, but it’s hard to tell exactly when, since both have only datestamps, not timestamps. What does “in the next hour” mean when you don’t know in what hour the notice was posted? Time notations appropriate for paper media issued once a day aren’t quite adequate for online posts multiple times a day.

WCTV does include timestamps, and Dontaye Carter did some reporting for her story posted 6:48 PM: Continue reading →