{"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":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/rer3wnNaOxw\/default.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;\"  src=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/rer3wnNaOxw\/default.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nFormer VLCIA Executive Director decides based on rants in the VDT<br \/>\nto come say &#8220;I trust in you&#8221; and<br \/>\n&#8220;If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/business\/x1155866170\/Business-This-Week-Industrial-Authority-director-retiring\"><br \/>\nKen Garren<\/a> (Brad Lofton&#8217;s predecessor as executive director)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/rer3wnNaOxw\/default.jpg\"><br \/>\nspeaks in support of the current VLCIA and the biomass plant,<\/a><br \/>\n18 Jan 2011.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n&#8220;I made a decision that although I&#8217;m concerned about a lot of things,<br \/>\nand I&#8217;m concerned about anything&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>\nI have to trust those people who are in those positions<br \/>\nwill do their homework and make the right decision.<br \/>\nThen I will live with that.<br \/>\nIf it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.<\/p>\n<p>\nWhat bothered me was when I started reading in the paper<br \/>\nabout the veiled threats.<br \/>\nThe personal issues.<br \/>\n&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\nWhen I started reading about veiled threats.<br \/>\nWhen I started reading about people being chastised because<br \/>\nthey didn&#8217;t accept a brochure or some literature.<br \/>\nYou know, that bothered me.<\/p>\n<p>\nThen when I read one of the rants about it;<br \/>\nthey wondered how you folks were chosen.<br \/>\nIf you don&#8217;t know how these people are chosen&#8230;.<br \/>\nThey ought to do their basic homework.<\/p>\n<p>\nBut I&#8217;m here tonight to say that:<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve looked at it; I&#8217;ve researched it; I don&#8217;t always agree<br \/>\nwith all the things the authority does&#8230; but I trust in you&#8230;.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\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.<\/p>\n<p>\nThen he praises Sterling Chemical which came in <strike>on his watch,<br \/>\nand<\/strike> while Norman Bennett (currently on the VLCIA)<br \/>\nwas Chairman of the County Commission.<br \/>\nSee for yourself:<\/p>\n<p>\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><\/p>\n<p>\nIn the current fashion he begins by saying when he first moved here<br \/>\n(1965).<br \/>\nIs that what&#8217;s required these days to be worth listening to?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nNotice nobody stops the board from talking back and forth<br \/>\nwith Ken Garren; Jerry Jennett even hands him some material.<br \/>\nApparently only ordinary folks like<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/jerry-jennett-answers-bobbi-anne-hancock.html\"><br \/>\nBobbi Anne Hancock<\/a><br \/>\nand<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/were-industrial-development-mary-gooding.html\"><br \/>\nme<\/a><br \/>\nget squelched.<\/p>\n<p>\nHere is the original assertion of<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/paulk-interrogates-noll.html\"><br \/>\n&#8220;veiled threats.&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s <a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/russell-anderson-responds.html\">a response to LAKE<\/a><br \/>\nand<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/01\/we-got-off-on-the-wrong-foot-russell-anderson.html\"><br \/>\na response to Chairman Paulk<\/a> by Russell Anderson,<br \/>\nthe person Paulk alleged made such threats.<br \/>\nBoth of those last two items link to<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/topics\/biomass\/collectiveprogression\/index.php\"><br \/>\nthe actual letter that Chairman Paulk claimed contained the &#8220;veiled threat.&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\nThe alleged &#8220;threat&#8221;?  A &#8220;wakeup call&#8221;.<br \/>\nLooks like former Executive Director Garren should do his homework.<\/p>\n<p>\nGarren says nobody seems to talk about the Lowe&#8217;s Distribution Center.<br \/>\nStay tuned; we&#8217;ve got video about that, too.<br \/>\nI&#8217;d love to see more things like Lowe&#8217;s, which bring in<br \/>\na substantial number of local jobs.<br \/>\nEven more I&#8217;d like to see local industry supported to produce local jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe acre he talks about at the end is related to a land purchase<br \/>\nfinancing deal Moody is proposing; stay tuned.<\/p>\n<p>\nVideo by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"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"],"_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}]}}