Category Archives: Community

Map of Azalea City Trail: path of Saturday afternoon’s bike ride

Here’s a map of the Azalea City Trail, which is the path of (Saturday 12 May 2012) sponsored by Valdosta Bike Co-op.

Oddly, the City of Valdosta doesn’t seem to have such a map anywhere on its web pages, nor does the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA).

-jsq

VHS Jazz Band @ Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series 2012-05-07

Gretchen went to Tuesday's Brown Bag Lunch and saw a lot of happy lunchers listening to the VHS Jazz Ensemble.

Here's a video playlist:

VHS Jazz Band @ Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 May 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Valdosta Bike Co-op community ride on the Azalea City Trail

Valdosta Bike Coop has sprouted a blog. And it's doing a bike ride this weekend.

On Saturday, May 12, 2012 the Valdosta Bike Co-op will host its first community ride on the Azalea City Trail. The ride will begin at the start of the trail near Vallotton Park and will finish at the end of the trail near the Craig Center. This will be a family-friendly ride and will keep a reasonable pace. The ride will begin at 1 PM following a brief bike safety lesson.

The ride will begin with a proclamation by a local leader of the City of Valdosta appointed by Mayor John Gayle. The proclamation will officially declare May as National Bike Month in the City of Valdosta. Riders will then follow the nearly 3 mile trail through beautiful Central Valdosta.

The goal of this ride is to promote the use of the bike and pedestrian trail as well as to promote National Bike Month. The members of the Valdosta Bike Co-op would like to invite the entire community to join us in the fun, healthy, and safe community ride.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Matt Portwood.

Solar IS Civil Defense PSA

While /the grid power was out during and after the March F2 tornado (F3 in Lanier County), the lights at our place never blinked, because we have solar panels and batteries. George Mokray has a video that expands on that point.

Solar IS Civil Defense—what we are all supposed to have on hand in case of emergency—flashlight, cell phone, radio, extra set of batteries—can be powered by a few square inches of solar electric panel. Add a hand crank or bicycle generator and you have a reliable source of survival level electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.

Here’s the video:

Solar IS Civil Defense PSA
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, .
Video by for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

This is also entry level electrical power for the 1.5 billion people around the world who do not yet have access to electricity. Civil defense at home and economic development abroad can be combined in a “buy one, give one” program like the Bogolight (http:// www.bogolight.com) which is a solar LED light and AA battery charger.

Solar IS Civil Defense and could be much more.

I think Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye did a fine job dealing with the tornado. What if beyond the resources he had available we added distributed solar power? In addition to being storm ready, solar also brings jobs for engineers, electricians, truck drivers, and plumbers, and for professors and students to study all that.

Change a few laws, and profit by selling excess power to Atlanta or points north. Add plug-in electric vehicles, and we get less need for foreign oil, so we get improved national security.

Safety, energy independence, and economic development right here at home through solar power!

-jsq

Get Bellsouth to supply DSL on Hambrick Road —Timothy Nessmith @ LCC 2012-04-24

DSL in Lowndes County for fast Internet access? County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk passed the buck on citizen Timothy Nesmith’s question about that, at the 24 April 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Chairman Paulk violated the Commission’s own Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard by saying Timothy Nessmith didn’t get a chance to fill out the appropriate form, but he was welcome to speak anyway. Now I think that’s a silly rule, and if the Chairman is going to waive it for one person, they might as well revoke it for all citizens so nobody has to sign up.

Nessmith wanted the Commission to pressure BellSouth to provide DSL on Hambrick Road.

Chairman Paulk chose to answer that by saying it was a Public Service Commission issue, and adding that due to housing density on that road “they [presumably the telephone company] can’t make it work economically.”

Like my neighbor Chairman Paulk, I know Nessmith’s neighborhood (Nessmith lives around the corner from me, although I had no idea he was going to speak, and have never discussed his issue with him). Later I will post some things the Commission could do.

-jsq

The trash issue: what was decided? —Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2012-04-24

Lowndes County unincorporated area residents may or may not be forced to buy curbside trash pickup, or something, sometime, but the county isn’t answering questions about that.

In Citizens Wishing to Be Heard at the 24 April 2012 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, Gretchen Quarterman wanted to know what had been decided at the retreat or elsewhere about the trash question. Will we have to get curbside pickup? Did the county look to see what surrounding counties do? Might the county survey citizens for their opinions? Could we have a special garbage tax district for those who wanted to use the current trash deposit areas, similar to the special lighting tax districts the county has repeatedly approved? She got no answers to any of her questions other than Commissioner Joyce Evans shaking her head at that last one.

So we don’t know what the county has decided, if anything, nor when they will decide it, nor how they are collecting citizen input (if at all).

-jsq

Finance, Facilities, and Projects @ VLPRA 2012 04 19

Imagine an appointed body that likes citizen input, and even puts (some) board packet items on its website before its meetings! Parks and Rec is that body.

With 1.5 mil of our tax dollars every year, it’s good to see the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority (VLPRA) reviewing finances:

At the end of February, the Parks and Rec had $2.69 million in cash, $541,000 in liabilities, and that leaves about $2.1 million….

For the eight months ending February 29, tax receipts $3.22 million. That’s $79,000 dollars more tax receipts than for the eight months of the previous year.

So that’s about $4.3 million per year in tax receipts, plus SPLOST money (see the video). The board didn’t have any questions about finance.

At least we can see some results of their money, such as Continue reading →

Nuclear’s “bet-the-farm” risk —Moody’s

Wonder why Southern Company couldn’t get private financing for its new nukes at Plant Vogtle? Because back in June 2009 bond-rater Moody’s said this:

But from a credit perspective, the risks of building new nuclear generation are hard to ignore, entailing significantly higher business and operating risk profiles, with construction risk, huge capital costs, and continual shifts in national energy policy.

In case that wasn’t clear enough, they spelled it out further.

Nuclear’s “bet-the-farm” risk

The NRC says about 14 companies to date have submitted COL applications, proposing numerous new nuclear reactors for power generation. The first of these COL’s is expected to be approved beginning in mid-2011. Many of the COL license applications include partners, but the next table lists the primary holding company entity behind each project, and our view of the activity level associated with the endeavor.

From a credit perspective, companies that pursue new nuclear generation will take on a higher business and operating risk profile, pressuring credit ratings over the intermediate- to long-term.

Moody’s wraps up with some reassuring words for financiers, but maybe not so reassuring to we the taxpayers:

Continue reading →

New nukes increasingly bad business bet for Southern Company and Georgia Power

Harvey Wasserman wrote for HuffPost 9 April 2012, America’s 2 New Nukes Are on the Brink of Death,

The only two U.S. reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.

If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.

The much mythologized “nuclear renaissance” will be officially buried, and the U.S. can take a definitive leap toward a green-powered future that will actually work and that won’t threaten the continent with radioactive contamination.

Those are the stakes. And in that high-stakes poker game, it seems Southern Company is doing a little bluffing.

In Southern Company’s (SO) Q1 2012 Earnings Call 25 April 2012, its CEO Thomas Fanning revealed another little flaw in the project:

Continue reading →