\n-jsq\n
\nValdosta is an innovative city with expanding opportunities for\nour growing community. Valdosta has recently celebrated 150 years of\nprogress. As a citizen, I have spent most of my adult life experiencing\nthis progress. I’ve seen economic developments through recruitment,\nretention and expansions that benefit our city, with tremendous support\nfrom our communities. I’ve seen job opportunities that improve the\nlivelihood of our citizens, through the recruitment of national companies\nwho have established their businesses in our great city.\n\nOur school systems are innovative, and they serve as models for\nother school systems in our state, with great parental involvement and\nencouragement toward improvements. Our University and College systems are\nsome of the best in the state, with phenomenal enrollment and retention\nof traditional and non-traditional students in our city and abroad.\n
\nOur religious establishments are growing from leaps and bounds with more\nand more people becoming citizens of our great city, who are leaving\nlarger unsafe, polluted, and unproductive cities, for a safer, less\npolluted and productive small town lifestyle, such as our wonderful\ncity provides.\n
\nThe development of small businesses, through our downtown projects, have\nbeen a great success story for our city. The innovative improvements\nmake our city one of the most visited in our state. We pride ourselves\nas a Titletown community, through continuous progress over 150 years.\n
\nWhen I contemplate our shared 150 years of progress, I find it disturbing\nthat our Industrial Authority would make such a bad decision as to bring\na Biomass incinerator into our community. As an advocate for the welfare\nof children, women, and families I am gravely concerned and disappointed\nthat such a project has been endorsed by leaders who were elected to\ncarry out the wishes of the community for the betterment of all citizens.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\nThe Wiregrass incinerator is a bad choice and unnecessary for the sake of\nproducing energy and jobs.. There are much safer green energy ideas that\ncan be implemented, with less harmful impacts, which won’t potentially\ncause death and disease.\n\n
\nAs an activist for women, children, and families, I oppose such an unsound\ndecision, despite the 25 jobs it will bring. The Biomass incinerator\ndamages our reputation as a safe city in which to raise our children,\nand I fear that Valdosta State University will lose enrollments as\nparents become concerned over the health effects of sending their child\nto college in a town with an incinerator whose pollution has already\nbeen documented by medical groups like the American Cancer Society and\nthe American Lung Association.\n
\nOur community prides itself on sound economics, statistics and market\ndata. One study that I read documented a 20% decrease in property values\nwhen an incinerator comes to town. This is not a wise decision on any\nlevel, from health to economics.\n
\nOur planning and zoning department,
prouds<\/strike> prides itself with successful\nplanning for our city and communities. All will change if a Biomass\nincinerator comes to our city, which will indicate that planning was not\ndone with our communities and families in mind, for a safe environment\nfor our citizens to ensure quality growth with long term planning to\npreserve the city’s unique quality of life. We must seek to plan with\nall communities in mind and not a suggested or selective few, but all.\nAll communities are equally important and most be considered as such,\nin our city planning process.\n\nLastly, as a mother and grandmother I must protest any incinerator\nentering our beautiful city for the sole purpose to provide energy and\njobs. I am in favor of energy and jobs, but not at the expense of my\nchildren and grandchildren, or any of our citizens. We must not cattle\nshowcase our citizens on a market to the highest bidder. We must take\nother alternatives towards these efforts to better our energy productivity\nin our city and produce jobs through safe and innovative measures.\n
\n
\nSincerely,\n
\nPhyllis Stallworth, First Vice-President\n
\nValdosta-Lowndes NAACP\n
\nEducation Chair\n
\nWomen In NAACP Chair\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I received this on 7 Oct for posting. -jsq Valdosta is an innovative city with expanding opportunities for our growing community. Valdosta has recently celebrated 150 years of progress. As a citizen, I have spent most of my adult life experiencing this progress. I’ve seen economic developments through recruitment, retention and expansions that benefit our […]","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":[97,120,14,15,16,266,2,41,2951,21,32,1908,23,73,289,1923,178],"tags":[193,5305,4630,8738,1747,424,2153,3212,5302,8704,8705,1624,188,5304,8701,876,4131,847,7,5220,8863,5221,5134,8711,8715,3836,8846,8847,1924,6,1175,180,8749,8743,4123,5303],"class_list":["post-2595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-economy","category-education","category-environment","category-festivals","category-government","category-health-care","category-naacp","category-planning","category-pollution","category-religion","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-sports","category-vlcia","tag-allan-ricketts","tag-american-cancer-society","tag-american-lung-association","tag-biomass","tag-brad-lofton","tag-business","tag-children","tag-death","tag-disease","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-energy","tag-executive-director","tag-families","tag-georgia","tag-health","tag-incinerator","tag-jobs","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mud-creek-wastewater-treatment-plant","tag-naacp","tag-perimeter-road","tag-phyllis-stallworth","tag-planning","tag-pollution","tag-property-values","tag-religion","tag-sports","tag-titletown","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-state-university","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia","tag-vsu","tag-wiregrass-power-llc","tag-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-FR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595","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=2595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}