They’re even quieter about it than the Industrial Authority, but the Valdosta City and Lowndes County governments are in the private prison deal just as deep.

Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks of August 2010, wrote:

Our Valdosta/Lowndes County site quickly became our primary due to its local and regional workforce, collaboration of local leadership, site characteristics, proximity to necessary services and infrastructure, and accessibility to name a few.

So who is this local leadership?

We look forward to working closely with Valdosta/Lowndes leadership as we move forward in the months to come.

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to recognize a few folks that have been essential to the project:

• State Level
  • Andrew Neumann, Georgia Economic Development
  • Bradley Harris, Statewide EMC
• Industrial Authority
  • Brad Lofton, Executive Director
  • Allan Ricketts, Project Manager
  • The Industrial Authority Board
• County
  • Ashley Paulk, Chairman, Lowndes County Board
  • Lowndes County Board of Commissioners
  • Joe Pritchard, County Manager
• City
  • John Fretti, Mayor
  • City Council
  • Larry Hanson, City Manager

It’s not just the Industrial Authority that wants to saddle us with this white elephant of a private prison. It’s the entire Lowndes County Commission and Valdosta City Council, plus the County Manager and the City Manager!

Curiously, none of the smaller municipalities are mentioned. Did anybody ask the local governments of Dasher, Hahira, Lake Park, and Remerton what they thought about this plan?

Did anybody ask the people of any of the municipalities or of Lowndes County or the surrounding counties?

-jsq

Short Link: