Before the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013 meeting, Gretchen told Bill about how she’s now videoing at Rotary and putting playlists on the web with some delay. Bill and Gretchen (and Commissioner John Page) go to the same Valdosta Rotary Club. This is yet another use of Internet access: attracting participants to local community groups, and getting their speakers to a wider audience.
-jsq
Mary Gooding spoke up for VSU at
the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013,
saying that
VSU President McKinney was
in Athens (as was President Perrin of Wiregrass), but he and
VSU:
We too believe that this is a huge strategic initiative for our community. And we were thrilled after the meeting that we attended that the city, the county, both educational institutions, the Industrial Authority, everyone there, the hospital for sure, all agreed that this had to be a significant incentive.
Mary Gooding added:
At Valdosta State it’s becoming one of our biggest road barriers to online degrees, to online classes. That’s again more bandwidth that’s needed to be able to deliver degrees and classes online.
That’s all good, but where were the superintendents and school boards of the two K-12 school systems? Where were library Continue reading
Angela Crance,
Special Assistant to the President of
Wiregrass Georgia Technical College,
told
the Industrial Authority 19 February 2013:
I’m here for Wiregrass, and we just want to thank you for bringing this up and making it a top priority for the community [looking at Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter] and the Industrial Authority….
Continue readingIt’s definitely a priority for us…. Only 14% of our citizens have a college degree and we need 70% to have a college degree within ten years. To be able to accomplish that we’d better have
LTE in the VDT today. I’ve added a few links. -jsq
Continue reading
Fox News recently claimed that “solar won’t work in America because it’s not as sunny as Germany”. Such statements are common for a network that has long lost its credibility. Unfortunately too many take such gibberish at face value. Thus columns like “environmentalism or obstructionism?” are not surprising, but in the end it’s the facts that matter:
- Global warming is real. For years we have been experiencing record heat waves, droughts, wild fires, etc., and while seawater levels are rising, storms like hurricane Sandy become major threats to low lying areas along coast lines.
- The main culprit for global warming are greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal and oil.
- While China overall emits more than we do, the US leads in per capita emissions. The average US citizen produces three times more carbon dioxide than the average Chinese citizen.
After
massive public opposition
just fought off
a subdivision near Moody’s gate,
do we want telephone cell towers popping up in Moody’s flight lines?
Trying to outlaw municipal broadband isn’t the only thing telecom
companies and ALEC are up to in the Georgia legislature:
they’re also pushing a bill for higher cell towers with less
local government control over height or siting.
Do you want one next to you without even an opportunity for a local government hearing?
Here’s what ACCG says about HB 176, renamed from ‘Advanced Broadband Collocation Act’ to ‘Mobile Broadband Infrastructure Leads to Development (BILD) Act’:
Cell Tower Siting Preemption Legislation Progresses
HB 176 passed a House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Sub-Committee on Thursday. Representatives from ACCG, Cobb County, Gwinnett County, GMA and several cities expressed concerns on the impact this legislation will have on local cell tower siting ordinances. This bill significantly preempts local governments in reviewing and approving applications for both the modification of existing cell towers and structures (collocation) and the construction of new cell towers and structures local communities. As HB 176 is the top priority of the wireless industry this session and is being backed by many other influential groups including the Americans for Prosperity and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, it has very strong momentum. Please have your county staff review the bill and inform your House members of any negative implications it has on your local zoning, land use or tower/equipment application review processes. This legislation will likely be heard on the House floor soon.
Guess who’s chair of the Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications SubCommittee? Continue reading
Same old
agenda tonight at the Industrial Authority (only the dates
change each month).
It’s now buried
three levels down on their website,
but at least
they’ve started archiving old agendas.
Still no minutes, though,
going on two years since
the VDT publicly exposed VLCIA’s expensive price tag for old minutes.
-jsq
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Agenda
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
A Georgia Senate committee needs to take it up
a bill that would greatly ease financing
solar power for your housetop or business roof.
Sen. Jack Murphy is the chair, and you can contact him today.
GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act, was read to the Senate 16 January 2013 and referred to the Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities. Here’s contact information for the Chair of that Committee:
Continue readingAnother bad idea from ALEC already passed in SC and NC and is now in the GA legislature, getting coverage in several national technical and political blogs: HB 282, which would effectively forbid municipal broadband if any commercial carrier offers 1.5Mbps. It's up for a hearing this week: time to call your state rep.
Timothy B. Lee wrote for ArsTechnica 14 Feb 2013, Bill would ban muni broadband if one home in census tract gets 1.5Mbps: Approach could leave some Georgia residents without a viable broadband option.
Continue reading
Incumbent broadband providers are pushing legislation that would restrict Georgia towns from building municipal broadband networks. Under the proposal, if a single home in a census tract has Internet access at speeds of 1.5Mbps or above, the town would be prohibited from offering broadband service to anyone in that tract.
State-level restrictions on municipal broadband networks are
Received Friday. April Huntley also sent it to the Lowndes County Commissioners. I have added a few links and pictures. -jsq
Continue readingDear Editor,
I’m not sure if people know or care that there is another Dollar General about to pop-up in Lowndes County. This time it will be in Naylor. I’m not sure if this will be an improvement or not.
Something I am also aware of and hold an opinion about is the proposal to abandon a road in Naylor that leads to the Alapaha River. This is the only public access to the Alapaha in Lowndes County. It is a place of history, recreation and fun for many people.
The spot where County Road 16, Old State Rd., dead ends at the Alapaha River is an area of rich history for Naylor and
The
Austin reporting program is in addition to
the posting a City Council agenda more than a week in advance
(here’s the 28 Feb 2013 agenda already on 16 Feb 2013)
and
including the entire board packets
with working papers and other backup documentation
with the minutes.
Austin
televises and webcasts its meetings live,
with close captioning and transcripts online.
They don’t limit the number of citizens who can speak,
or the subjects they can speak on, and they televise and webcast
all of them as well.
Plus citizens can speak on specific agenda issues,
and Austin
has an online forum for citizen suggestions on which citizens can vote
on the ones they like.
Is there still back-door politics in Austin? For sure. But you can see a lot more of what is going on in Austin than they can about the local governments here, and citizens have a lot more input.
If Valdosta and Lowndes County (and Hahira and Lake Park and Dasher and Remerton) want to be treated like a major MSA, they might consider following Austin’s lead. Instead of decreasing citizen input by exiling all citizen speakers to the end of a meeting and limiting the number who can speak, while not even putting board packets online, consider continually increasing local government transparency and citizen input.
-jsq