{"id":2280,"date":"2011-03-24T11:21:04","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T15:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/what-are-our-priorities-dr-noll-lcc-22-march-2011.html"},"modified":"2011-03-24T11:21:04","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T15:21:04","slug":"what-are-our-priorities-dr-noll-lcc-22-march-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/what-are-our-priorities-dr-noll-lcc-22-march-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"What Are Our Priorities? &#8211;Dr. Noll @ LCC 22 March 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KhAH8GMLaW8\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5228\/5552874833_c87ed08b8d_m.jpg\"><\/a>\nDr. Noll raised a number of issues about community priorities\nat the Lowndes County Commission meeting of 22 March 2011\nand asked what are our priorities?\n<p>\nThe Sierra Club letter he mentions\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/we-would-appreciate-it-if-our-position-was-no-longer-misrepresented-georgia-sierra-club.html\">\nwas posted last week.<\/a>\nFor NOAA Weather Radios\n<a href=\"\/blog\/category\/noaa-weather-radios\">\nsee previous posts.<\/a>\nHere is\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KhAH8GMLaW8\">\nthe video:<\/a>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KhAH8GMLaW8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br>\n<center>\n<small>\nRegular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 22 March 2011.<br>\nVideo by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<\/center>\nAppended is the script Dr. Noll says he was reading.\nI&#8217;ve added a few links to relevant posts.\n-jsq\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/5555232870\/\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5146\/5555232870_3834ed3052_m.jpg\"><\/a>\n1) In late February of 2011 we read in the Valdosta Daily Times that a\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/top-local-news\/x1348438423\/Food-service-center-catering-to-seniors-closes-its-doors-today\">\n&#8220;food service center for needy senior citizens&#8221; was about to close<\/a>\nits doors because of a lack of funds, and if it wasn\u2019t for\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/top-local-news\/x186203988\/Food-center-gets-a-reprieve\/print\">\nan anonymous donor,<\/a> it might actually have done so.\n<p>\nAt the same time we are discussing a gateway project to beautify\ninterstate exits with the kind of funds that would have supported this\nfood center for perhaps three years.\n<p>\nWhat are our priorities?\n<p>\n2) Not too long ago Lowndes County was awarded $107,000 in Hazard\nMitigation grand funding for the purchase of 5,000\n<a href=\"\/blog\/category\/noaa-weather-radios\">\nNOAA weather radios,<\/a>\nradios that could have informed citizens in the county from impending\nbad weather, thereby potentially saving lives.\n<p>\nYet,\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/noaa-weather-radios-wasteful-spending-richard-raines.html\">\nCommissioner Raines stated that he was against wasteful spending<\/a>\nand the Commission proceeded to reject the grant. (Commissioner Evans\nopposed the measure.)\n<p>\nIf the County Commission truly wants to set an example for being fiscally\nresponsible, you could do so by stopping a biomass plant that not only\nthreatens our health, but also wastes MILLIONS of our tax dollars. Yet,\nyou are still supporting this project. Why?\n<p>\nWhat are your priorities?\n<p>\n3) Commissioner Powell: I have approached you a month ago with a\nquestion, which you have not been able to answer: how can an Industrial\nAuthority continue to claim that it is using the \u201cbest available control\ntechnology\u201d to protect the citizens of Lowndes County, when it in fact\nis not, as a comparison with the biomass plant in Gainesville indicates?\n<p>\nIn the end, the simple truth is this: elected officials in our community\nseem more interested in short-term profits than long-term benefits,\nand that the health and well-being of our community is secondary to the\nimagined profits made by a few from a biomass plant.\n<p>\nWhy do I say imaginary profits? A variety of proposed biomass plants\nhave been cancelled within the last couple months: from Mason County in\nWashington, to Warren County in Georgia, from Hamilton County in Florida,\nto Ashland County in Wisconsin.\n<p>\nWhy have they been canceled? Because biomass bears significant health\nrisks, wastes our tax dollars, and is a risky economic adventure. It\nis time that the leaders in our community do what is best for all of us\nand stop this insane biomass project.\n<p>\nOn a last note: I am sharing with you a copy of\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/we-would-appreciate-it-if-our-position-was-no-longer-misrepresented-georgia-sierra-club.html\">\na letter sent by the Sierra Club<\/a>\nto the current Executive Director of the Industrial\nAuthority. This letter reiterates what we have been telling you for\nmonths: our community has been systematically misinformed about the\nrealities of biomass, or about the support it supposedly enjoys. How\nmuch more evidence do you need until you realize who is telling you the\ntruth and who is lying to you?\n<p>\nNow that\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/goodbye-brad-lofton-vlcia-15-mar-2011.html\">\nMr. Lofton is moving on,<\/a> it is time for our community to start\nanew, and canceling the biomass project will have to be the first step\nfor such a new beginning to be meaningful.\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Noll raised a number of issues about community priorities at the Lowndes County Commission meeting of 22 March 2011 and asked what are our priorities? The Sierra Club letter he mentions was posted last week. For NOAA Weather Radios see previous posts. Here is the video: Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 22 [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,120,40,14,16,321,2,88,2919,21,133,178,700],"tags":[4864,8738,623,8701,10,548,489,8702,7,8734,703,4,653,8796],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-community","category-economy","category-environment","category-food-and-drink","category-government","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-noaa-weather-radios","category-planning","category-vdt","category-vlcia","category-wace","tag-22-march-2011","tag-biomass","tag-crawford-powell","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-joyce-evans","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-michael-noll","tag-regular-session","tag-richard-raines","tag-wace"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-AM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}