{"id":2491,"date":"2011-01-21T13:46:42","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T18:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/i-have-to-trust-you-people-ken-garren-former-exec-dir-vlcia-18-jan-2011.html"},"modified":"2014-03-31T08:38:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T12:38:26","slug":"i-have-to-trust-you-people-ken-garren-former-exec-dir-vlcia-18-jan-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/i-have-to-trust-you-people-ken-garren-former-exec-dir-vlcia-18-jan-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I have to trust you people&#8221; &#8211;Ken Garren, former exec. dir., VLCIA, 18 Jan 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/rer3wnNaOxw\/default.jpg\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;\"  src=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/rer3wnNaOxw\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nFormer VLCIA Executive Director decides based on rants in the VDT\r\nto come say &#8220;I trust in you&#8221; and\r\n&#8220;If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.&#8221;\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/business\/x1155866170\/Business-This-Week-Industrial-Authority-director-retiring\">\r\nKen Garren<\/a> (Brad Lofton&#8217;s predecessor as executive director)\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/rer3wnNaOxw\/default.jpg\">\r\nspeaks in support of the current VLCIA and the biomass plant,<\/a>\r\n18 Jan 2011.\r\n<blockquote>\r\n&#8220;I made a decision that although I&#8217;m concerned about a lot of things,\r\nand I&#8217;m concerned about anything&#8230;.\r\n<p>\r\nI have to trust those people who are in those positions\r\nwill do their homework and make the right decision.\r\nThen I will live with that.\r\nIf it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.\r\n<p>\r\nWhat bothered me was when I started reading in the paper\r\nabout the veiled threats.\r\nThe personal issues.\r\n&#8230;\r\n<p>\r\nWhen I started reading about veiled threats.\r\nWhen I started reading about people being chastised because\r\nthey didn&#8217;t accept a brochure or some literature.\r\nYou know, that bothered me.\r\n<p>\r\nThen when I read one of the rants about it;\r\nthey wondered how you folks were chosen.\r\nIf you don&#8217;t know how these people are chosen&#8230;.\r\nThey ought to do their basic homework.\r\n<p>\r\nBut I&#8217;m here tonight to say that:\r\nI&#8217;ve looked at it; I&#8217;ve researched it; I don&#8217;t always agree\r\nwith all the things the authority does&#8230; but I trust in you&#8230;.&#8221;\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n<strong>Update 2014-03-31:<\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.valdostadailytimes.com\/opinion\/x2118253944\/Garren-leaves-proud-legacy\">VDT wrote 3 March 2014<\/a> that Garren joined VLCIA after Sterling Chemical came in.\r\n<p>\r\nThen he praises Sterling Chemical which came in <strike>on his watch,\r\nand<\/strike> while Norman Bennett (currently on the VLCIA)\r\nwas Chairman of the County Commission.\r\nSee for yourself:\r\n<p>\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rer3wnNaOxw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowFullScreen><\/iframe>\r\n<p>\r\nIn the current fashion he begins by saying when he first moved here\r\n(1965).\r\nIs that what&#8217;s required these days to be worth listening to?\r\n\r\n<!--more-->\r\nNotice nobody stops the board from talking back and forth\r\nwith Ken Garren; Jerry Jennett even hands him some material.\r\nApparently only ordinary folks like\r\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/jerry-jennett-answers-bobbi-anne-hancock.html\">\r\nBobbi Anne Hancock<\/a>\r\nand\r\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/were-industrial-development-mary-gooding.html\">\r\nme<\/a>\r\nget squelched.\r\n<p>\r\nHere is the original assertion of\r\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/paulk-interrogates-noll.html\">\r\n&#8220;veiled threats.&#8221;<\/a>\r\nHere&#8217;s <a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/russell-anderson-responds.html\">a response to LAKE<\/a>\r\nand\r\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/we-got-off-on-the-wrong-foot-russell-anderson.html\">\r\na response to Chairman Paulk<\/a> by Russell Anderson,\r\nthe person Paulk alleged made such threats.\r\nBoth of those last two items link to\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/topics\/biomass\/collectiveprogression\/index.php\">\r\nthe actual letter that Chairman Paulk claimed contained the &#8220;veiled threat.&#8221;<\/a>\r\nThe alleged &#8220;threat&#8221;?  A &#8220;wakeup call&#8221;.\r\nLooks like former Executive Director Garren should do his homework.\r\n<p>\r\nGarren says nobody seems to talk about the Lowe&#8217;s Distribution Center.\r\nStay tuned; we&#8217;ve got video about that, too.\r\nI&#8217;d love to see more things like Lowe&#8217;s, which bring in\r\na substantial number of local jobs.\r\nEven more I&#8217;d like to see local industry supported to produce local jobs.\r\n<p>\r\nThe acre he talks about at the end is related to a land purchase\r\nfinancing deal Moody is proposing; stay tuned.\r\n<p>\r\nVideo by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\r\n<p>\r\n-jsq\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former VLCIA Executive Director decides based on rants in the VDT to come say &#8220;I trust in you&#8221; and &#8220;If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.&#8221; Ken Garren (Brad Lofton&#8217;s predecessor as executive director) speaks in support of the current VLCIA and the biomass plant, 18 Jan 2011. &#8220;I made [&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":[97,120,48,14,15,2,11,21,22,23,73,289,133,178],"tags":[193,8738,1747,5016,300,969,793,189,186,847,548,5155,8702,12,1169,185,181,183,182,180,8749],"class_list":["post-2491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-code-enforcement","category-economy","category-education","category-government","category-lake","category-planning","category-politics","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-vdt","category-vlcia","tag-allan-ricketts","tag-biomass","tag-brad-lofton","tag-christopher-teaf","tag-development","tag-economics","tag-industry","tag-j-stephen-gupton","tag-jerry-jennett","tag-jobs","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-ken-garren","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-marketing","tag-mary-gooding","tag-norman-bennett","tag-roy-copeland","tag-tom-call","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Eb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491","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=2491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8289,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions\/8289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}