Category Archives: Community

No coal plant in Early County: LS Power withdraws all permit requests

Persistence by the local community and environmental groups has paid off in Early County, Georgia: the company that wanted to build a coal plant there has given up.

Press release from GreenLaw, 6 December 2011, Longleaf Defeat Marks End to Nation’s Longest Running Fight Against Coal Plant: Agreement Marks Milestone of 160 Coal Plants Canceled,

The country’s longest-running campaign against construction of a new coal plant ended today as LS Power, a New Jersey-based power company, announced that it will cancel plans to build the Longleaf Energy Station in Blakely, GA. Sierra Club, Friends of the Chattahoochee and GreenLaw have been organizing against the Longleaf coal plant since it was first proposed in 2001. This victory comes as part of a legal agreement between LS Power and Sierra Club.

This victory marks the 160th proposed coal plant canceled since Sierra Club launched its Beyond Coal campaign in 2005. This victory is particularly noteworthy because the struggle lasted for a decade and involved numerous hearings and appeals, and sustained local opposition by hundreds of Georgia residents. Longleaf was one of the very first plants proposed when, in 2001, the coal industry attempted to block clean energy development by building more than 150 new coal plants across the US, a move which would have effectively locked the nation into dependence on coal-fired electricity for the foreseeable future. Longleaf was one of the last remaining new coal projects proposed anywhere in the United States, counting 160 proposals that have now been defeated or abandoned in the past decade.

Several times over the past decade it looked like LS Power would move

Continue reading →

Reapportionment and Comprehensive Plan @ Lowndes County Commission, 12-13 December 2011

The missing hearing related to the Comprehensive Plan is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. Also on the agenda is
6. Resolution – Reapportionment
which I’m guessing has to do with changes in population in County Commission districts. Maybe they’ll say at the Work Session Monday morning.

And these interesting items:

8.f. Lowndes County Fire Rescue Standard Operating Procedures .br> 8.g. Animal Welfare Standard Operating Procedures
I wonder if those procedures are available for citizens to see?

Plus a rezoning, a road abandonment, a beer and wine license, and quite a few other items for the last meeting of the year. Given they haven’t met since 7 November 2011, more than a month ago, I guess that’s not surprising.

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

I only got the answering machine —Michael G. Noll

Received today on Industrial Authority held unannounced meeting last night. -jsq
Unfortunately I missed this meeting as well, and not by choice.

I vaguely remembered that Roy Copeland mentioned after the October meeting that the December date might be changed to December 6. Thus, I called Tuesday shortly after 5pm to verify if a meeting was indeed scheduled. I only got the answering machine (indicating to me that the office was closed) and the IA website (as so often) was no help.

Thus I, too, was assuming the meeting would be later this month … only to find out the next day in the VDT that there had been a meeting after all.

Our community has gone through so much these past couple of months, highlighting more than ever the need to communicate and cooperate. I was hoping after all this that we could finally start working together, despite any differences we might have. That would, however, not only require a certain amount of transparency but also communication of such simple matters as meeting agendas and calendars. How difficult can that be?

Communication is, and always will be, the key to success. Whether this is about your children’s education, such matters as energy efficiency and energy conservation, or a Strategic Planning Process which can only benefit the community … if that very community (not just the same old status quo) is actually included in the process.

Michael G. Noll, President
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE)

VLCIA pleads technical glitches on web page

Here’s something from the Industrial Authority that never happened before.

The first person I saw going into the State Legislative Luncheon yesterday was Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA). She spotted me inside, and said “I want to apologize”. Surprised, I asked for what? She said for the date of VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting being unclear. She said she had read about that in this blog that same morning.

She said they had recently changed the way they were handling their web pages and hadn’t yet figured out how to update it correctly. Since I was never very impressed with how it was handled before, I readily accepted that as a good excuse. I look forward to the updates. I’m guessing the new PR and marketing person they’re hiring will take care of this.

She also volunteered that they did inform the VDT and it was in the VDT’s calendar. I agreed that that was so; we had checked, and it appears the meeting was legal because of those notices.

She also said she thought she had said Monday evening, “see you tomorrow.” I allowed as how if she did, I missed it.

In any case, I have to say that her predecessor would never have made that much effort to make amends to a mere blogger. Once again, tiny LAKE is flattered by mighty VLCIA, although in a more positive way this time.

Congratulations on the new industries announced at VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting. Maybe more about those later.

Here’s looking forward to the Strategic Planning Process announced at that same meeting as coming up early next year.

-jsq

Some answers and some remaining questions about the Comprehensive Plan

When I spoke at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) about the Short Term Work Projects (STWP) document on Monday, November 28th, I had questions about several sections, and many of the deleted or modified items. The next day I met with Lowndes County Planner Jason Davenport to discuss my questions. Some of my questions were answered to my satisfaction, some I still had concerns about, and some are still unanswered because they were not actually in his area of expertise.

The document covers all the cities in Lowndes County as well as the unincorporated area. I did get some questions about Valdosta projects answered by Valdosta City Planner Matt Martin in a telephone conversation.

Questions I had about Conservations of Sensitive Areas were answered in detail. For example: Continue reading →

Local state legislative delegation at the Country Club

At the State Legislative Luncheon at the Country Club yesterday, sponsored by the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce, I found it more interesting what the legislators didn’t mention than what they did.

Frequent attendees told me the audience was much larger than in previous years, and one attributed that to the recent school consolidation referendum. Sitting side by side were Chamber Chair Tom Gooding and FVCS President Sam Allen.

Jeff Hanson introduced the legislators. He’s the Chair of the Chamber’s Government Affairs Council (GAC). He said they are seeking more participants. Hm, they have an Energy and Environment Policy Committee that’s chaired by someone from Georgia Power….

Tim Golden announced that the local delegation’s highest priority was to get $32 million for a Health Science Center for VSU. VSU Interim President Dr. Levy was there, as was former president “Dr. Z” as Tim Golden called him.

I was just talking to someone from SGMC in the food line about how it would be nice if the Industrial Authority would promote healthcare industries more. It’s good that the legislators are doing that, although it’s not clear that there are not other things that should be even higher priority.

Tim Golden also wants to remove a sales tax Continue reading →

Private prison profits buying more laws to lock people up

Another report about money and private prisons (in addition to the ACLU’s Banking on Bondage), this one Public Campaign and PICO National Network, Unholy Alliance: How the Private Prison Industry is Corrupting Our Democracy and Promoting Mass Incarceration. It establishes that the “kids for cash” scandal, in which two judges accepted kickbacks in exchange for locking up juveniles, was just the tip of the iceberg.
Yet the reality is that private prison lobbyists regularly buy influence with state and federal officials, not only to win lucrative contracts, but also to change or preserve policies that increase the number of people behind bars. Private companies have made huge profits off the mass incarceration of non-violent drug offenders, and are now turning their attention to increasing the detention of Latino immigrants—the newest profit center for the prison industrial complex. Ultimately there is no way to reverse the costly trend toward mass incarceration without reducing the influence of these companies and their money in our democracy.
Here’s another example David Donnelly wrote for Huffpo 17 Nov 2011, Private Prisons Industry: Increasing Incarcerations, Maximizing Profits and Corrupting Our Democracy,
Earlier this year in Louisiana, a plan by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to privatize prisons narrowly failed in a legislative committee by a vote of 13 to 12. The 12 members of the House Appropriations Committee who voted to approve the prison privatization plan have received more than three times more money from private prison donors than the 13 members who voted against the plan, according to an analysis of data from the Louisiana Ethics Administration and the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Gov. Jindal himself has taken nearly $30,000 from the private prison industry.
And of course in Georgia there’s HB 87, which isn’t really about excluding immigrants; Continue reading →

Industrial Authority held unannounced meeting last night

The VDT has a story this morning about an Industrial Authority meeting last night, Two new industries announced by Kay Harris. That’s a bit of a surprise, since they didn’t have that date on their own web page and they didn’t post an agenda. Also, I saw both VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer and their Chairman Roy Copeland speak Monday night, and neither of them said a word about their meeting date being changed to the next night.

Here’s some irony in the VDT’s story:

Schruijer also discussed the Authority’s plans to move ahead with the Strategic Planning Process right after the first of the year. Following the Community Assessment which was conducted over the summer, the next phase is a full fledged commitment to begin the planning process.

The intention, according to Schruijer and Copeland, is to include community partners in the process as the assessment showed that many in the community think that the various entities work at odds with each other, rather than on the same page, when it comes to economic development.

Why ever would people think that?

According to VLCIA’s website: Continue reading →

The private prison game: Banking on Bondage

Rania Khalek wrote for AlterNet 29 November 2011, The Shocking Ways the Corporate Prison Industry Games the System
Just a decade ago, private prisons were a dying industry awash in corruption and mired in lawsuits, particularly Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison operator. Today, these companies are booming once again, yet the lawsuits and scandals continue to pile up. Meanwhile, more and more evidence shows that compared to publicly run prisons, private jails are filthier, more violent, less accountable, and contrary to what privatization advocates peddle as truth, do not save money. In fact, more recent findings suggest that private prisons could be more costly.

So why are they still in business?

In a recently published report, “Banking on Bondage: Mass Incarceration and Private Prisons,” the American Civil Liberties Union examines the history of prison privatization and finds that private prison companies owe their continued and prosperous existence to skyrocketing immigration detention post September 11 as well as the firm hold they have gained over elected and appointed officials.

We’d already heard from Bloomberg that Continue reading →

December LAKE meeting: El búho al Cazador

The owl lights in Valdosta Tuesday evening.
El Cazador, 1600 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia What: Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 5:30 PM, Tuesday 6 December 2011
Where: El Cazador
1600 North Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA 31602
(229) 333-0554
That’s the old Margarita’s at the corner of College Street. They’re open until 10PM.

If you follow the LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, you know what we cover, from elections to gardening, connecting the dots. What else do you want to investigate?

If you’re on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the facebook meeting event, Or just come as you are.

jsq