Category Archives: Activism
Strategies for Lowndes County? —John S. Quarterman
My op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq
Our high schools and college graduates mostly have to go somewhereContinue readingelse, because jobs here are few and many of them don’t pay enough for a decent living. Should we not care enough about our families and our community to come up with strategies that grow existing businesses and attract new ones that will employ local people?
We need discussions and strategies that involve the whole community,
going beyond just the usual planning professionals, to include all groups and individuals with information or opinions, whether they got here generations ago or last week: for fairness and for freedom.
Sometimes we see local strategy. Winn Roberson organized Drive Away CCA. Ashley Paulk verified there was no business case for a biomass plant in Lowndes County after many people successfully opposed it. School “unification” opponents, out-financed 10 to 1, still defeated that referendum 4 to 1.
How do we go beyond opposing things and move on to sustainable strategies that build clean industry?
The Industrial Authority focus group meeting I attended Wednesday was refreshing, because their consultants asked the opinions of people some
of whom previously had to picket outside. The previous day, VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland said this strategic planning process was a long time coming. I agree, and while nobody can say what will come of it at this point, I hope it does produce a real Economic Development Strategy.
Building on the Valdosta City Council’s annual consideration of affordable housing,
TEPCO shareholders revolt about Fukushima
Southern Company might want to pay attention to this story about shareholders protesting the owner of the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plants complaining in record numbers. Or SO shareholders might want to pay attention.
Mark Willacy wrote for Australia Network News, Fukushima report prompts anger at TEPCO meeting,
Anger against the company has intensified, after it released an
in-house report into the disaster, in which it denies ever hiding information and blames the Japanese Government for confusion and delays.
In its 352-page report, TEPCO also claims that on March 13, less than 48 hours after a massive tsunami slammed into the Fukushima nuclear plant, it dispatched employees to the village of Namie, just a few kilometres north-west of the plant, and right in the path of the approaching radioactive plume.
But Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie, has told the ABC’s AM that claim is a lie.
“TEPCO’s report says that on the 13th of March their employees visited our offices to explain the situation,” he said.
“We were never visited by anyone from TEPCO. Nor was the situation explained to us.
“I feel they are liars. TEPCO’s report makes me angry.”
TEPCO of course says it didn’t lie, however:
Continue readingDublin ahead of us again: solar street lights
Dublin, Georgia already got MAGE Solar and car part manufacturer Erdrich Umformtechnik. Now Dublin is ahead of us again, with solar street lights.
Austin Lewis wrote for 13WMAZ yesterday, Dublin Sets Up Solar Street Lights,
Dublin has started putting up Solar street lights on South Jefferson near the city's downtown. This project got federal funding from the federal government administered by the Georgia's Department of Transportation.
And grant supported! If anybody around here had applied, maybe we would have gotten such a grant.
Instead, it's another first for Dublin:
"This is the first transportation corridor that has solar lighting in the state of Georgia so it's just very exciting for us, first to have a solar industry in Dublin, now to have the first state roadway lit by solar lighting," said Tim Lake, of T. Lake Environmental Design.
Bragging rights and practical, too:
Lake said the cost of these street lights is about $11,000 and that the standard street lights cost just over $7,600. But the typical street light have other costs like a leasing fee and monthly energy costs that go to the electric company.
He said because the solar street lights are powered by the sun, they will end up saving taxpayers about $500 dollars a month or $15 per street lamp.
"The first is return on investment happens very quickly, 3.7 months for the city to get a return on investment on these lamps," said Lake.
All that plus this:
The solar panels were also made in Dublin by MAGE Solar. Lake said this was a truly collaborative project.
Collaboration. Maybe our Industrial Authority should try it.
-jsq
Lowndes County Budget Presentation, Details and Hearing @ LCC 2012-06-26
Your second (and final) chance to comment on the 2012-2013 Lowndes County budget
is Tuesday, June 26th at 5:00pm. The Lowndes County Calendar indicates that the Budget Hearing will be immediately ahead of the County Commission Meeting. I suggest arriving at least 5 minutes early.
At the first hearing, on July 19th, Finance Director Stephanie Black gave a power point presentation overview of the budget. You can view a PDF of that presentation .
Videos of the first budget hearing are available
here.
And, the details of the budget are available for review in the reception area of the Lowndes County Commissioners Office (3rd Floor – 327 Ashley Street) or you can check out the low quality photos I took of them after the meeting.
-gretchen
Community Calendar —Jane F. Osborn 2012-06-15
The latest update (20 February 2012) is online for the community calendar produced by Jane F. Osborn who organizes the Valdosta Civic Roundtable. She wrote:
…the calendar is not produced for civic roundtable, it is just a project of mine for the many counties that lost a source of information when 2-1-1 was discontinued.
LAKE will attempt to remember to update new ones in this web page as Miss Jane sends them. We hope you, dear readers, will remind us if we don’t.
-jsq
How long until solar beats gas?
We’ve heard even German coal importers say solar beats coal. How long until clean solar beats dirty natural gas fracking?
Southern Company has already cut energy production from coal in half, from 70 or 80% to 35%. 
Unfortunately, SO did that mostly by shifting to natural gas. Natural gas produced through “a revolution in shale gas”, commonly known as fracking. Do we want to trade dirty water for clean air?
Unlike Johnson & Johnson and Dell (and Coke and Pepsi and Amazon and and more than a dozen more, including even Wal-Mart), the Southern Company has not cut ties with ALEC and its pro-fracking and anti-solar campaign. Why is the Southern Company betting on a dirty horse?
How long until SO CEO Thomas A. Fanning’s “one day” when renewable energy becomes economical? Sooner than his prediction of next decade, as in two years ago solar crossed nuclear, wind is already at parity with nuclear, and even Southern Company realizes coal doesn’t beat anything anymore.
How long before solar beats natural gas, relegating gas to much-reduced use as a backup for sun and wind power, as John Blackburn already projected in March 2010 can happen in North Carolina?
How long will it take for the sun and the wind, with a little water and even less natural gas, to power the world? How long? Not long.
Because the arc of the solar Moore’s Law is long, but it bends down for price per watt, while the price of fracking, no matter the quakes and dirty water for ever, does not.
-jsq
Johnson & Johnson and Dell dump ALEC: where’s Southern Company?
J&J and Dell ditched ALEC, for two dozen bailing out of that ship of dubious lobbying. Where's The Southern Company? Still supporting ALEC's pro-fracking and anti-solar campaign?
A week ago Rebeka Wilce reported for PR Watch that Johnson & Johnson 19th Company, 23rd Private Sector Member, to Cut Ties with ALEC. Today Scott Keyes reported for ThinkProgress that Dell Becomes 21st Company To Drop ALEC. So many companies have ditched the corporate-legislative private-public partnership American Legislative Exchange (ALEC) that it's hard to keep count. Yet we still haven't heard from The Southern Company (SO), even as ALEC continues its drive to dismantle incntives for renewable energy and preserve fracking loopholes, and The Southern Company continues expanding use of natural gas (knowing it comes from fracking) 
while putting off solar and wind until "one day" some time next decade maybe, and (through its subsidiary Georgia Power) actively opposing fixing Georgia legislative hurdles to renewable energy. All that plus wasting Georgia Power customer cash and taxpayer dollars on useless new nukes at Plant Vogtle.
Come on, Southern Company and CEO Thomas A. Fanning: you can do better than that! Turn to the sun and the wind for clean green jobs for community and profit.
If you're a Georgia Power customer and you'd like to help persuade SO, you can pay your Plant Vogtle Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charge in a separate check and write on it what you'd like instead. Even if you're not, it's election season, and every member of the Georgia legislature is running: you can contact your candidate and find out what they're willing to do to get us solar and wind for energy independence, jobs, community, and profit.
-jsq
Transportation plan open house @ SGRC 2012-05-22
Received 1 June 2012 about the 22 May 2012 VLMPO Open House at SGRC. The “Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, is the short-range plan approved by the VLMPO Policy Committee that allows federal funds to be spent on various transportation projects in the region.” -jsq
I attended the transportation plan open house on the day that anyone could come from early morning until 7:00 PM and when I went at 5, I was only thesixth person who had been there all day. Corey Hull showed me and four other people the plan, answered our questions, explained the difference between this long term plan and the TSPLOST and there was a discussion about how one might go about becoming a bus services provider in the area. The amount of money allocated to the city of Valdosta for transportation is not an amount that is near what a bus system would cost, so there still will have to be other funds available to make that possible. Even though our group brought the attendance for the day up to 10 citizens, it was a huge improvement over the last open house, when NO ONE showed. Corey Hull was very helpful and had a lot of information that probably would have been fascinating to others if they had attended, but once again there was virtually no input.
-Jane F. Osborn, MSSW
Valdosta, GA
229-630-0924
According to
projects submitted for T-SPLOST,
a bus system would cost about $7.5 million (startup and a few years run-time),
but that got cut first pass, while $12 million for widening one road
is still in the T-SPLOST list.
I’m told that public transportation is not an issue around here.
If people think it is, maybe they should show up at meetings
like the one SGRC organized about the other transportation plan
and say they want a bus system.
-jsq
REZ-2012-09 Copeland rezoning @ LCC 2012-06-12
How can a man with health care financial troubles make a living with a shop he’s had for decades when some of the neighbors complain about a rezoning that is now required? A controversial case that raised issues ranging from wetlands to public safety to Moody Air Force Base jets flying out of Valdosta Airport made its way through two appointed boards to a Solomonic rezoning decision by the elected Lowndes County Commission. Nobody wanted to deny a man a living, but many people wanted to limit potential commercial uses of the subject property. The Commissioners attempted to take all that into account, yet failed to incorporate two major considerations raised by neighbors, mentioning one of them only to disparage it. Even that isn’t the end of it, since it may head back to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance. Here are videos of REZ-2012-09 Copeland at the Lowndes County Commission.
It had been to the Planning Commission for a recommendation on rezoning, it had been to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance, Monday morning it had been to the County Commission Work Session at which we learned a bit more, and Tuesday evening it went to the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session for a vote on rezoning.
Monday 11 June 2012 Work Session
At the 8:30 AM Monday Work Session, County Planner Jason Davenport had several updates since Commissioners had received their packets the previous week.
- An email from a Mr. Bradford in opposition.
- Some open records requests to be filled after the work session.
- Some opponents of the rezoning had hired a lawyer. (Those of you who watched Bill Nijem at the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting already would have guessed that. Nijem also spoke the next day at the Regular Session.)
- Davenport had met with the applicant, Mr. Copeland, who had provided more materials because he believed there were some accusations about lack of continuous operations in the building.
Davenport summarized that he thought there were three camps:
- Those not supporting the case.
- Those supporting the case,
- Those supporting the case with conditions,
He said one possibility would be for he and the county attorney to meet with the opposition attorney to try to work out some conditions.
Tuesday 12 June 2012 Regular Session
The agenda item was
6. Public Hearings – REZ-2012-09 Copeland, 3258 & 3264 Loch Laurel Rd, R-A & R-1 to C-C, well & septic, ~5 acres
Here’s a list of every citizen speaking for, at any of GLPC, ZBOA, or County Commission: John A. Copeland (the applicant), Kevin Copeland (applicant’s son), Nancy Hobby, Charles Miles, Fuller Sorrell, Alan Davis, Robert Roffe, and Norman Bush, plus a petition for.
Here’s a list of every citizen speaking against, at any of GLPC, ZBOA, or County Commission: Bill Nijem (attorney for several neighbors), Jimmy Hiers, Gail Hiers, Greta Vargas, and Patty Haynes.