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<\/a>\nWe’ve seen Brad Lofton write\n<\/a>\nWe’ve seen Brad Lofton write\n\nI will not debate you over e-mail<\/a>\nand\n\nWe will not, however, debate you over e-mail<\/a>\nmeanwhile refusing to put tax-funded presentations and videos\nup for public view through the VLCIA website,\nand offering personal meetings instead.\nHaving experienced one of those personal meetings down at VLCIA HQ,\nand \nhaving heard from others who have attended them,<\/a>\nI know of no substantive debate that happened at those indoctrination sessions, either.\nAny attempt at debate or even to get Lofton to produce the\nscientific evidence he claims he has ends with a proclamation like\n\nthis one from September:<\/a>\n\nWe’re moving forward with permits in hand.\n<\/blockquote>\nor\n\nthis one from December:<\/a>\n\nWe’re moving forward\nnow, and we are looking forward to the ground breaking which will be\nSpring of 2011.\n<\/blockquote>\n\nBut let’s not be too hard on VLCIA staff.\nAt the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting, it became clear\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\nfrom start (invocation) to finish that the board considers itself\nempowered to make decisions for the community.\nOn the biomass issue, Gary Minchew asserted that there\nhad been enough debate, and it was time to move on.\nNo video; sorry, but\n\nminutes of the 11 Nov 2010 Valdosta City Council meeting<\/a>\ninclude this:\n
\nGary Minchew, 908 Moss Way, stated that he is currently a member of the\nValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority and has applied for a second\nterm. Mr. Minchew stated that he has read about the Biomass Project in\nthe newspaper and he called Ms. Touchton and asked for a meeting with\nher and Dr. and Ms. Noll to discuss the Project. Mr. Minchew stated\nthat they met today and his proposal was for the Industrial Authority\nto have one more public meeting with 15 minutes of pros and cons and\nthen hopefully that will be the end of discussion. He had also suggested\nthat they select a spokesperson and the Industrial Authority would have\nWiregrass send a representative to explain the project. They agreed and\nhopefully this will get this off of Council\u2019s desk.\n<\/blockquote>\nFifteen minutes for each side?\nWhat kind of debate is that?\nEspecially considering that the day before, 10 Nov 2010,\n\nVLCIA had already posted on its facebook page:<\/a>\n\nThe Industrial Authority stands behind its decision for the construction\nof Wiregrass Power LLC and feels like this green project will be a\nwin\/win for the community.\n<\/blockquote>\n\nAnd the actual event on 6 Dec 2010 didn’t even do that:\nno panelists opposed the biomass plant.\nOne panelist\n\nsummarized the position of all of them:<\/a>\n
\n“these things do prop up the local economy, period, end of discussion.”\n<\/blockquote>\nThe VLCIA’s hand-picked moderator,\n\nScott James, can also be heard saying:<\/a>\n\n“we’re not going to get into debate”.\n<\/blockquote>\n\nTwo weeks later, Col. Ricketts\n\nreferred to that 6 Dec 2010 event as:<\/a>\n
\nour information exchange and panel discussion\n<\/blockquote>\nI don’t think those words mean what he thinks they mean.\nHe also\n\ndescribed it more accurately as<\/a>\n\nour culminating event\n<\/blockquote>\nIn other words,\n\nas I suspected before they held it<\/a>,\nthe so-called “Forum” of December 6th was just another indoctrination\nsession.\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNorman Bennett went further in the VLCIA board meeting,\nsaying the problem was\nlack of unity in the community.<\/a>\nNo board member disagreed with Minchew or Bennett on their biomass points.\n