Jody Hall, running for Lowndes County Commission District 5 (west side) said at the 100 Black Men BBQ:
If I'm elected, I will work for the people of Lowndes County. I'm their employee. That's the way it needs to be.
Here's the video:
I will work for the people of Lowndes County –Jody Hall 2012-08-04
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
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It's Hahira Third Thursday tonight from 5PM to 8PM: farmers market, food, hot dogs, hamburgers, music!
Third Thursday comes again on the 20th of September.
The following Saturday, the 22nd of September, it's Motor on Main from 2-6:30 PM and Fall Dance 6:30 to 10:30 PM.
For more information, please contact:
Stacey Dershimer
Special Event Coordinator
City of Hahira
102 S. Church Street
Hahira, GA 31632
229.794.2567 office
229-560-0627 cell
downtown@hahira.ga.us
Hahira Happenings on facebook
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Recently I saw someone speculating online that Valdosta’s rank among Georgia cities was rising because its population is growing. And its population is indeed growing, as you can see in the graph on the right
or
the Census Bureau data in the table below right.
(Compare to
similar information for Lowndes County.)
But not as fast as some other Georgia cities, so
Valdosta’s rank is not increasing. In fact, the opposite: Valdosta has been dropping in rank.
| Census | Pop. | %± |
| 1860 | 166 | |
| 1870 | 1,199 | 622.3% |
| 1880 | 1,515 | 26.4% |
| 1890 | 2,854 | 88.4% |
| 1900 | 5,613 | 96.7% |
| 1910 | 7,656 | 36.4% |
| 1920 | 10,783 | 40.8% |
| 1930 | 13,482 | 25.0% |
| 1940 | 15,595 | 15.7% |
| 1950 | 20,046 | 28.5% |
| 1960 | 30,652 | 52.9% |
| 1970 | 32,303 | 5.4% |
| 1980 | 37,671 | 16.6% |
| 1990 | 40,135 | 6.5% |
| 2000 | 43,724 | 8.9% |
| 2010 | 54,518 | 24.7% |
Here are city ranks for the censuses from 1980 to 2000:
| 1980 | 7 | Atlanta, Columbus, Savannah, Macon, Albany, Warner Robins, VLD. |
| 1990 | 11 | passed by Augusta, Athens, Roswell, Marietta (Augusta and Athens cheated by consolidating with their counties.) |
| 2000 | 14 | passed by Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, and Alpharetta |
| 2010 | 14 | Sandy Springs passed Macon and Marietta dropped two, but Valdosta remained #14 |
So actually Valdosta has been decreasing in Georgia city rank over time, because cities in the Atlanta metro area have been growing faster.
Now I don’t consider that a bad thing: population growth isn’t the same thing as economic growth, and economic growth isn’t the same thing as prosperity or well-being. But it’s an interesting bit of history.
| Rank | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 |
| 1 | Atlanta | Atlanta | Atlanta | Atlanta |
| 2 | Columbus | Augusta | Augusta | Augusta |
| 3 | Savannah | Columbus | Columbus | Columbus |
| 4 | Macon | Savannah | Savannah | Savannah |
| 5 | Albany | Macon | Athens | Athens |
| 6 | Warner Robins | Athens | Macon | Sandy Springs |
| 7 | Valdosta | Albany | Sandy Springs | Macon |
| 8 | Roswell | Roswell | Roswell | |
| 9 | Marietta | Albany | Albany | |
| 10 | Warner Robins | Johns Creek | Johns Creek | |
| 11 | Valdosta | Marietta | Warner Robins | |
| 12 | Warner Robins | Alpharetta | ||
| 13 | Alpharetta | Marietta | ||
| 14 | Valdosta | Valdosta |
-jsq
Conspiracy, assault with injury, coverup: another Georgia prison guard pled guilty, all in response to a strike by prisoners for decent pay. And remember, private prisons have fewer guards per prisoner and less training.
WTXL wrote yesterday, Ex-prison officer pleads guilty in inmate beatings
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday Darren Douglass-Griffin pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of inmates and falsification of records in a federal investigation.
Douglass-Griffin admitted he and other correctional officers at Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe assaulted and injured inmates in a series of incidents in 2010. He told prosecutors correctional officers beat three inmates in separate incidents to punish them. One inmate was beaten so badly he had to be taken from the prison in an ambulance.
Douglass-Griffin also said he and other officers tried to cover up the officers’ involvement by writing false reports and lying to investigators.
I say “another” because the federal Department of Justice entitled its PR of yesterday Second Former Georgia Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiring with Other Officers to Assault and Injure Inmates. DOJ didn’t say who the first to plead guilty was, but it did add:
Continue readingSouthern Company and the other owners of Plant Vogtle are blaming the contractors (who are suing them) for further delays in construction. How much money will they waste before they never open?
Kristi E. Swartz wrote for the AJC yesterday, Disputed costs at Vogtle rise,
Georgia Power and a group of municipal and cooperative electric companies are building twin 1,100-megawatt reactors, the first in the United States to win permits in 30 years. The total expected cost of the project is $14 billion, but potential cost overruns at Vogtle, located in Waynesboro in east Georgia, continue to grow, according to the recent Southern Co. regulatory filing.
Delays in getting federal licensing approvals for the new reactor design and then for the entire project have been cited as the chief culprit.
Because of the dispute with contractors over the additional costs, “the owners are evaluating whether maintaining the currently scheduled commercial operation dates of 2016 and 2017 remains in the best interest of their customers,” the filing said. The total amount of the cost overruns could be well over $900 million; Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the project, so its share is $425 million, the latest filing said. Originally the overrun was projected at $400 million when the issue was first made public in April.
Up another $25 million since April? How long until it gets into billions of cost overruns? Which will be paid by whom?
Continue readingReceived Tuesday on Georgia EPD to suspend consideration of some new farm water permit applications 07/30/2012. -jsq
And Southern Company/Georgia Power are still pushing for power plants that waste hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily (nuclear, biomass)? Water for cooling purposes instead of agriculture? That's about as insane as corn for the production of ethanol instead of feeding people. And how much water do wind mills or solar panels need once they have been installed? About as much as they create problems with air pollution and radioactive waste: zero!
Please note a recent article by George Monbiot on a global crisis caused by investments made in biofuels (e.g. ethanol from corn). To quote from the article (13 August 2012, Hunger Games):
"Already, 40% of US corn (maize) production is used to feed cars(6).The proportion will rise this year as a result of the smaller harvest. Though the market for biodiesel is largely confined to the European Union, it has already captured seven per cent of the world's output of vegetable oil(7). The European Commission admits that its target (10% of transport fuels by 2020) will raise world cereal prices by between 3 and 6%(8). Oxfam estimates that with every 1% increase in the price of food, another 16 million people go hungry."
Where does this leave our "Christian" values as we are obviously more concerned about feeding cars than the hungry?
-Michael G. Noll
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Here’s George Boston Rhynes’ first video from last night’s stealth education panel.
The VDT covered it, but, presumably due to its bizarre policy of not covering candidates for office, the VDT didn’t even mention that J.C. Cunningham, Democrat running for Georgia House District 175, was present, even though the VDT posted pictures and quotes from the incumbent, Republican Amy Carter, who apparently organized the panel. Charter schools were discussed; see below after the video.
Video of stealth education panel at Lowndes High last night
Video by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I and bostongbr on YouTube,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 August 2012.
On the panel, left to right:
Continue readingDo big box stores count as development? Are they worth millions in tax incentives and bond investments? Maybe we can find something better for local industry and jobs.
Rumors have been flying for years about a Bass Pro store coming to Valdosta, like this one on a Georgia Outdoor News forum:
01-22-2008, 09:05 PM, bear-229
ive heard the land has been bought. very close to the new toyota lot but it has not made it to the “new locations” on the web site
That’s on James Road, in that huge proposed development that Lowndes County approved around that time.
Scott Reeder wrote for The Atlantic 13 August 2012, Why Have So Many Cities and Towns Given Away So Much Money to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s?,
Both Bass Pro Shops and its archrival, Cabela’s, sell hunting and fishing gear in cathedral-like stores featuring taxidermied wildlife, gigantic fresh-water aquarium exhibits and elaborate outdoor reproductions within the stores. The stores are billed as job generators by both companies when they are fishing for development dollars. But the firms’ economic benefits are minimal and costs to taxpayers are great.
An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.
Where does all that money come from? Bonds, usually. Which is yet another reason why last legislature’s HB 475 to give unelected bodies bond issuing privatizing power would be a bad idea.
What does all that money go for?
Continue readingWe've seen the Lowndes County PR about Withlacoochee River flooding. Ashley Tye has posted on the Emergency Management page a list of links to river gauges in Lowndes County. Here are current images from each of them, going from upstream to downstream, left to right:
 Little River near Hahira (SR 122) |
 Withlacoochee River (Skipper Bridge Road) |
|
|
You can easily see the rivers have peaked upstream at Hahira and Skipper Bridge, may be peaking at Foxborough, but the Withlacoochee is still rising downstream at Quitman.
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Many of the same factors that cause the prolonged extreme drought we’ve been having (deforestation, impervious surfaces, climate change) also produce flooding when we get a little rain. The flooding map by NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, Weather Forecast Office Tallahassee, FL, 2012-08-14 shows minor flooding on the Withlacoochee River at Skipper Bridge Road.
WTXL yesterday posted PR from Lowndes County, Georgia, Withlacoochee River under watch due to rising water, flood warnings,
LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga.—Due to rising waters and the issuance of a Flood Warning by the National Weather Service, Lowndes County Emergency Management continues to monitor rising water levels on the Withlacoochee River at the Skipper Bridge Road stream gauge site.
Currently, the water level stands at approximately 14.3 feet and is expected to crest this afternoon at approximately 14.5 feet.
While a flood warning is in effect, the only area flooded at these
levels are woodland areas near the river. Historically, flooding does not affect local roads and/or residences until water levels reach approximately 17 feet.
Lowndes County Emergency Management will continue to monitor conditions and additional updates will be distributed as new information becomes available. While there is no cause for immediate concern, citizens are encouraged to remain aware of their surroundings.
Residents may monitor local river levels by accessing real time stream gauge information by visiting the following link: water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=tae.
For more information, please contact Lowndes County Public Information Officer, Paige Dukes, 229-292-6142 or pdukes@lowndescounty.com.
Curiously, on the County’s own Press Releases web page, there’s no mention of this PR.
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