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Introduction of Sheila Cook @ LCC 2012 02 28

Not on the agenda, Chairman Ashley Paulk invited Sheila Cook up to introduce herself as an applicant for appointment to the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases Region Four Planning Board.

I currently work in Lowndes County at Pine Grove Middle School as a special education teacher. I’ve been teaching for nine years.

She gave a rather complete resume, including education, professional experience, about her son who is twelve who is autistic, and about a woman who lived with her who has cerebral palsy.

Commissioner Crawford Powell, wanted to know whether travel would be a problem, since the meetings are usually in Thomasville. She answered not as long as the times don’t conflict with school.

I believe I’ve heard Commissioner Joyce Evans say in Commission meetings previously that it would be good for potential appointees to appear in Commission meetings beforehand. Congratulations to Commissioner Evans and the Commission for transparency in appointments.

Here’s the video:


Introduction of Sheila Cook, Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

 

 

 

 

11% return on solar panel investment —Paul Wolff @ Tybee 2012 02 17

Paul Wolff told us how he came to invest in solar energy:
I did the math on it ahead of time. I had a bunch of mutual funds that hadn’t done anything in a long time. I figured out given the state and federal tax credits what the payback would be, and it came out to be about eight years. So I just divided that out, and by selling mutual funds and investing that money in solar panels on my roof it’s an eleven percent return. And in this economic climate I have nothing else yielding anywhere near that. So that’s a selling point.

Here’s the video:


11% return on solar panel investment —Paul Wolff
Tybee Island, Chatham County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Videos of VSU Debate 2012-03-20

Debate at Valdosta State University between Democrats and Republicans, 20 March 2012, organized by Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International Pre-Law Chapter.

Moderator: Dr. Jim Peterson

Democrats: President Kelli Cody and former President Alex Thomas

Republicans: Chairman Ron Bearwall, Political Director George Lee, and Secretary Preston Porter.

Somebody please correct any misspelling of names.

Here’s a playlist:


Videos of VSU Debate 2012-03-20 between VSU Democrats and VSU Republicans,
Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 20 March 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Here are the debate questions:

A few more videos will follow. -jsq

Videos @ VLCIA 2012 02 23

Here are videos of the February 2012 Industrial Authority meeting. Apologies for the poor sound. The room turned out to have very echoey acoustics, and no placement of the camera seemed to alleviate that. Also it’s in three chunks, the first of them quite long. In the interests of moving along and catching up on posting videos of recent meetings, we’re going to leave it like that for now. Here’s the agenda.

Here’s a playlist:


Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Heat Pump —Paul Wolff @ Tybee 2012 02 17

The one on the right is 10 SEER (he had two); the one on the right is a 17 SEER (the new one). The new one has a separate dehumidifier and a two-stage compressor. It doesn’t have to cut on full blast every time, which cut Paul’s energy cost for cooling by 40%.

Here’s the video:


Heat Pump —Paul Wolff, Tybee Island, Chatham County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Net Metering in California: Megawatts and jobs

Net metering of solar energy works fine in California, where it increasingly provides electricity to meet peak demand. Georgia has a 2001 law that requires power utilities to do a version of net metering, but it’s a weak version and there’s a low cap on how much you can sell back to the utility.

The Georgia version, according to GEFA:

Net metering is the process whereby an energy consumer produces energy and then sells some or all of this energy to the “grid”, or major energy producers in the state. Under Georgia’s net metering laws, state residents and businesses can purchase and operate green energy capital, including photovoltaics, wind energy and fuel cells, and use this energy on-site. These residents and businesses may then sell any un-used, additional energy produced on-site to their energy provider. There is a maximum of 10 kilowatts (kW) for residential applications and up to 100 kW for commercial applications.
As you can see by GEFA’s pie chart, solar energy was too small to chart as a source of energy in Georgia as of 2004. With solar, we can burn less coal and uranium.

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has a report, Solar Net Metering in California,

Protecting Net energy metering (NEM) is the top policy priority of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) for California in 2012. NEM is a billing arrangement that allows utility customers to offset some or all of their energy use (up to 1 MW) with selfgenerated renewable energy.
The definition sounds the same, except for the cap: 1 megawatt is 1000 kilowatts, so California’s current cap is 100 times the Georgia residential cap and 10 times the Georgia commercial cap, with apparently no distinction between residential and commercial.

The result is this: Continue reading →

Cats and Vikings working together: Joint meeting of LCBOE, VBOE, LCC, VCC 2012-03-29

Has this ever happened before? Both school boards and the Valdosta City Council and Lowndes County Commission all meeting together? Maybe this way we can get some actual improvements in education!

The text of the announcement by Lowndes County Schools 20 March 2013, Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting, is below.

-jsq

The first annual Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting will be held on March 29, 2012 at 6:30 pm in the Lowndes High School Lecture Hall. Valdosta City and Lowndes County Board of Education members, Valdosta City Council members, and Lowndes County Commissioners will be in attendance. Lowndes County Schools will host a dinner for the leadership at 6:00 pm.

The purpose of the meeting is to promote the enhancement of communication and allow leaders to share ideas and plans pertinent to the development and expansion of our local governmental entities. It will also allow members to discuss long-range strategic plans, including any special projects, while providing greater insight as to what will transpire within our community over the next five years. The meeting is open to the public.

Agenda
Welcome and Introductions
Dr. Steve Smith, Superintendent Lowndes County Schools
Sharing of Long Range Plans and Vision
Lowndes County Board of Education
Lowndes County Board of Commissioners
Valdosta City Board of Education
Valdosta City Council
Questions, Comments, Suggestions
Wrap Up
Wes Taylor, Superintendent-elect, Lowndes County Schools

VLCIA website sort of back: organizational questions

The continuing VLCIA website problems raise some organizational questions.

According to the VDT yesterday,

Website technical difficulties were a chief topic of concern at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Tuesday evening.

Staff expects the website to go back online in less than 24 hours

Well, let’s see:

Well, sort of. The links in the flash thing at the top do work again, so you can get to detailed pages. Well, some of them: Staff & Board works, but Meeting Schedule does not. This description still applies:

It was also pointed out that meeting agendas and minutes were still available on the crashed website, but were intermixed with coding language.
The latest agenda is available. I thank VLCIA again for that, as I did both in Citizens to Be Heard and after the meeting Tuesday.

Doubtless VLCIA staff are doing what they can.

As an organizational issue, I wonder if the electricity was out for a week at the VLCIA office would the Industrial Authority do this: Continue reading →

Sentencing reform passed joint committee in Georgia

Remember the Georgia legislature was considering sentencing reform? Now it's passed the Special Joint Committee on Georgia Criminal Justice Reform.

Bill Rankin wrote for the AJC Tuesday, Sweeping changes to state sentencing laws passes committee,

A key legislative committee on Tuesday approved sweeping changes to Georgia's criminal justice system in a sentencing reform package intended to control prison spending and ensure costly prison beds are reserved for the state's most dangerous criminals.

Well, that sounds good!

But wait, this is cautious Georgia:

Continue reading →

Luckie Street Solar Project

So whose solar parking lot is that in Atlanta?

According to Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, Luckie Street Solar Project (New Development)

157 Luckie St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303
CATEGORY: Institutional Development
Developer: Turner Enterprises
Solar panels added to a surface parking lot that will produce nearly 200 kilowatt hours of energy, making this the largest solar project installed in Downtown Atlanta
$1 million
Completed 2011

That’s 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Which won’t take many years to pay for itself.

Why did Ted Turner do this? According to Maria Saporta for the Atlanta Business Chronicle, 10 December 1010, Ted Turner builds solar project on parking lot next to his building,

Continue reading →