Tag Archives: Valdosta

Thoroughfare Plan for Lowndes County

Lowndes County is proposing to update its Thoroughfare Plan. The current one was approved in 2003. The draft sent Friday by the County Engineer to the Commission for approval today is here. In addition, here is the county’s Road Inventory. The first of these items is available on the Lowndes County web pages. The other two items don’t seem to have been posted there yet. These public documents paid for by tax dollars were obtained through public records requests and are being posted by LAKE as a public service.

In case you haven’t heard of the Thoroughfare Plan, it was described by the County Engineer during the County Commission’s work session yesterday morning as

…works as a guide for development and potential use changes in property.

Here is the Valdosta Daily Times report on that meeting: “Thoroughfare Plan sparks lengthy debate,” By Malynda Fulton, 9 Oct 2009. She writes that:

The Thoroughfare Plan, first adopted in 1983, is used as a guide for road improvement projects, private developments and land use changes.

The “20/30 plan” referred to in that newspaper article is the Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan developed in conjunction by the South Georgia Regional Development Commission, the County Commission, and the Valdosta City Council. Its purpose is:

The Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan is a road map for ensuring growth and development in the Greater Lowndes Communities occurs in a way as to maintain our quality of life and unique community character.

It’s quite interesting that both plans are intended to guide development, yet they recommend opposite outcomes. In particular, the justification given at the meeting for the proposed reclassification of Quarterman Road from local to minor collector was that “if it were developed” within 20 years there would be enough trips to justify such a classification. Yet the Comprehensive plan shows the same area as agricultural through 2030:

Perhaps better coordination is needed. Fortunately, the Chairman and the County Manager appear to be soliciting input.

The scheduled vote on approval of the new Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan is at the regular Commission meeting at 5PM today, Tuesday 10 November 2009, at 325 West Savannah Avenue (near the water tower).

This blog post by John S. Quarterman.

-jsq

Florida Gets Smart About Solar

While Georgia goes for questionable biomass, WCTV reports that CFO Sink Applauds Opening Of Solar Energy Center, Welcomes $200 million in federal funding for Florida.

Florida CFO Alex Sink welcomed the news that a $200 million grant will go to Energy Smart Florida for the installation of 2.6 million smart meters in homes and the installation of advanced monitoring systems in grid substations.
CFO Sink commended President Obama for his commitment to new energy and his visit for the opening of Florida’s DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic plant. CFO Sink released the following statement:
“Florida has been known as the sunshine state because of our beaches, but today we are taking an important step forward in becoming known as the sunshine state because of our commitment to solar and alternative energy. I commend Florida Power & Light for opening the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic plant here in Southwest Florida, and welcome President Obama to our state to see firsthand how we are working to diversify and modernize Florida’s economy.
“I am also extremely excited that Floridians will benefit from a $200 million grant to modernize our energy grid, one of the largest smart grid grants in the country. As Floridians, we are ready to harness our creativity and entrepreneurial energy to make our state a national leader in the development of a 21st century economy.”

South Georgia has just as much sunshine as north Florida. And you can build solar equipment anywhere. For example in a county with I-75 running through it and I-10 nearby. Maybe if Atlanta won’t lead, Valdosta should.

Valdosta Candidates at LCDP, 5 October 2009

All local candidates were invited to speak at the Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting on 5 October 2009. Here are videos of the ones who appeared:

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE). ~~More are still uploading.~~ All the local candidate videos that LAKE took on 5 Oct 2009 are now in the playlist, as of 10PM 25 Oct 2009.

Videos taken at the 15 Sep 2009 political forum are already online.

Rally for president Obama, 17 Oct 2009

More than fifty people listened in a cold wind Saturday to a dozen speakers on the courthouse steps saying “I support president Obama”. Speakers included Gretchen Quarterman (MC), Tony Daniels, Marcus Rhone, Ruth Council, Mrs. Annie Fisher (on the Valdosta School Board), Gladys Lee (from Brooks County), Betty Marini (from Lanier County), Jim Parker, RJ Hadley (from Rockdale County, running for U.S. Senate against Johnny Isakson), Freeman Rivers, Lee Touchton, Gale Eger, John S. Quarterman, and others whose names I didn’t get.

In this example, Gladys Lee asks us all to think for ourselves: Continue reading →

Price of Doing Nothing Could Be High

I’m not sure this is what the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce wanted to hear, but it’s something that could benefit all of us:

Bruce Bailey, energy conservation advisor for Colquitt EMC, said, “Conserving energy and making things more energy efficient is much more cost effective than having to build a new power plant to supply more power, so we are recommending that as a leading public policy. If our future does include more and more conversions to renewable energy sources, it’s going to be very important that we don’t short-circuit our economy in the short term.”
Bailey said it’s important that any policies implemented utilize proven and effective technologies, and he warned that the price for doing nothing could be high.

Story by Matt Flumerfelt in the VDT, 15 Oct 2009.

Biggest polluters in Lowndes County

The New York Times provides an interactive map of water polluters. According to that map, derived from Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) data mostly from 2004 through 2007, the biggest offenders in Lowndes County by number of violations are:

62 Moody Air Force Base
42 Arizona Chemical Company
37 Georgia Sheriffs’ Boys Ranch

These are all way ahead of Hahira’s notorious sewer system (supposed to be fixed now) and Valdosta’s Mud Creek WPCP (supposed to be being fixed now), both with 11 violations. Moody is not surprising, due to sheer size, although disappointing. The one that surprises me is the Boys Ranch.

Of course, number of violations is just one measure, but it is an interesting one.

Jack Kingston Health Care Town Hall, Valdosta, GA, 28 Sep 2009

Jack Kingston (R GA-01) came back to Valdosta, GA to hold another Health Care Town Hall after his previous one in August had ten times as many people as he expected. This time the 1200 seat Mathis Auditorium was maybe half full, so probably somewhere between 500 and 600 people attended.

The picture on the right is the core of Kingston’s argument. See for yourself. Here’s a YouTube playlist for all the LAKE videos by Gretchen Quarterman from that September Town Hall. This is Kingston’s complete presentation except for a few words lost between videos and a few cases of camera failure. ~~We’re still adding more videos from the question session.~~ All the videos from the questions session are now available (17 Oct 2009); starting with Microphones are open.

Here’s Kingston’s own blog about the event.

Here’s a Democratic view of part of what Kingston said.

VSU-TV Rebroadcasts of AAUW Forum

Dennis Marks notes that VSU-TV’s rebroadcasts of the AAUW Forum of 15 Sep 2009 will include the two-minute statements of unopposed candidates who showed up. Those are not in the LAKE videos of the event which are already on YouTube, but pretty much everything else is. Maybe VSU-TV will also put their videos online.

According to email from Walter Rollenhagen:

The Lowndes Co. Political Forum, or as we label it, VOTE 2009, will air on VSU-TV cable channel 20:

Sunday, Oct. 4th at Noon

Saturday, Oct. 10th at Noon and Midnight

Saturday, Oct. 17th at Noon and Midnight

Sunday, Oct. 18th at Noon

Saturday, Oct. 24th at Noon and Midnight

Sunday, Oct. 25th at Noon

Saturday, Oct. 31st at Noon and Midnight

Sunday, Nov. 1st at Noon

Lowndes County Political Forum, AAUW, 15 Sep 2009

By Kenny R. Bush and John S. Quarterman, with videos by Gretchen Quarterman.

On Sept 15, residents of Lowndes County gathered inside VSU’s Whitehead Auditorium for a political forum concerning the upcoming 2009 General Municipal Elections. It was the competing Mayberrys, Hahira and Dasher, in the shadow of the big city of Valdosta with its council and school board. The 100 or so people who watched learned about the candidates. You can too, by watching the videos of each speaker provided by LAKE on YouTube. Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are probably of higher quality.

Update: VSU TV rebroadcast schedule for this forum.

Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are probably of higher quality.

The event was sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and moderated by Jim Peterson, chair of the Political Science Department at VSU. Before the forum began, the audience was provided note cards and encouraged to write questions for forum participants. A three person committee then decided which four questions that would be asked on stage for each set of candidates.

Valdosta City Council District 2

The forum began with the five candidates competing to be the newest councilman of Valdosta’s 2nd district. Willie T. Head, the incumbent, is not running, but five other people other are: David G. DeMersseman, David L. Dempsey, Rodney R. Flucas, Deidra A. White, and Dr. L. W. Williams.

(All the other LAKE videos of this AAUW forum are also available online.)

The first question of the night concerned annexing land neighboring Valdosta and if candidates believed it to be a good idea or not. Continue reading →

Biomass: Twice the CO2 of Coal?

Dr. Thomas D. Bussing, Ph.D., former mayor of Gainesville, Florida, is among the numerous signatories of a Letter to the U.S. Senate from Environmental Groups (including SAFE) Regarding Biomass, which says in part:

When compared to coal, per megawatt, this burning [biomass and the like] emits 1.5 times the carbon dioxide (CO2), 1.5 times the carbon monoxide (CO, a toxic air pollutant), and as much particulate matter.

Georgia already has the country’s dirtiest coal plant, at Juliette, near Macon. Do we need still more CO2?

Maybe the Wiregrass biomass plant planned for Valdosta is somehow more efficient than the one near Gainesville. If so, it would be good to hear about that; I don’t recall the topic coming up at the Lowndes County Commission meeting in which this plant was approved.

Dr. Bussing elaborated in a recent letter:

The fallacy is in believing that plants take up all CO2 emissions. In fact plants absorb some, the ocean absorbs more (and as a consequence is becoming more acidic by the year), but a portion just stays and builds up in the atmosphere. That buildup is associated with global warming, and it doesn’t matter if the CO2 comes from coal, gas or biomass.

Thanks to Seth R. Gunning for bringing this up.

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange