Category Archives: Economy

Valdosta to add solar power to both wastewater treatment plants 2016-10-06

Valdosta just leapfrogged the rest of the state in solar power for wastewater treatment plants. Council Tim Carroll expanded beyond the laconic summary of Thursday’s Valdosta City Council action, which itself expanded on a July action. Turns out Valdosta is one of several cities across Georgia with solar power for their wastewater treatment facilities, and maybe not the largest nor the earliest, but apparently the earliest large one. The main point is clear from all of them: solar power for wastewater plants pays for itself in only a few years and can save millions of dollars over decades.

Summary of Actions, Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council, Thursday October 6th 2016, Continue reading →

Public Hearing at private law firm for VSU bond to private LLC 2016-10-21

Why is a public hearing for VSU bonds being held at a private law firm? Part 1 Is there no parking at VSU for the public to hear about this $58,805,000 bond issue? There is free parking at the county palace for which we the people footed around $51 million in bonds.

For that matter, why are bonds for a public university being held by a private LLC? Why are they being issued to that private LLC by the shadowy South Regional Joint Development Authority, to which the Lowndes County Commission just appointed Commissioner Clay Griner this May, even though County Manager Joe Pritchard couldn’t tell Griner when that Authority meets?

Can’t the Lowndes County Commission provide this bond Public Hearing with a public place to meet?

In the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday, October 5th 2016, and not online anywhere I can find it, was this Public Notice. Gretchen scanned it, and I OCRed it and formatted the lists to make it more legible. Continue reading →

Videos: Under budget but low tax collection, Nature Nate ahead, PO Box Woes @ VLCIA 2016-09-20

Authority under budget, Nature Nate’s ahead of schedule, USPS contentious, manufacturing week, and WWALS water trails: all packed into a brief meeting last Tuesday of the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority.

CPA Tom Davis said the Development Authority is under budget but tax collection is also slow, with no new funds expected until January.

Existing Industry Coordinator Stan Crance announced that Nature Nate’s is beyond projections, now up to 25 jobs and $3 million capital investment and needs more parking. They’d also like to move their postal mail delivery from a downtown post office box to a local mailbox. But Nature Nate’s is the only tenant of Miller Business Park, and USPS requires central box units for any business park. This would require modifying the roundabout “just in case any other businesses were to locate out there”. Some Development Authority board members found this USPS requirement to be a contentious situation, “worse than Continue reading →

Sabal Trail protests continue –VDT 2016-09-23

Front page today in the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee River Basin: the WWALS protest against DAPL and Sabal Trail at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge last Saturday, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA.

Vdt Desiree Carver, Valdosta Daily Times, Friday, September 23, 2016, front page, Sabal protests continue,

The WWALS Watershed Coalition stood on the bridge between Brooks and Lowndes County Saturday to show solidarity with Dakota Access Pipeline opponents in Dakota and to continue its battle against the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline.

That’s the US 84 bridge over the Withlacoochee River, on the Continue reading →

Business Plan @ VLCIA 2016-09-20

It’s again 5:30 today. The day before yesterday they changed it to noon, and yesterday they changed it back to 5:30 PM, but they didn’t fix that in the online agenda.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 12 noon
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading →

Videos: HEAT on Sheriff finances @ LCC 2016-09-13

Half the meeting (11 1/2 minutes) Tuesday was Commissioners grilling Sheriff Chief Deputy Joe Crow about the cost of High Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (Heat): how less funding is provided the more successful the program is, and federal funding may go away, leaving the county to foot the bill. Chairman asked for monthly statistical updates. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall moved to approve continuation of the grant, plus a statement in favor of the grant including a disclaimer that the county would “work to preserve” as much of the grant as possible if state funding goes away.

They approved finally fixing the railroad bridge over Old Quitman Highway. and similar but less complicated (no railroad) for the Jumping Gulley Road bridge. Nobody mentioned that the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline proposes to cross Jumping Gulley Road half a mile west of that bridge, and then to open cut through Jumping Gulley Creek just south of the state line.

Snake Nation Road is getting an emergency $168,928 box culvert repair, which isn’t fast enough for former Commissioner Richard Lee, who Continue reading →

Videos: Finally, Wright Road RR Bridge @ LCC 2016-09-12

They vote 5:30 PM this evening on finally fixing the railroad bridge over Old Quitman Highway. As you can see in the videos below of yesterday morning’s Work Session, County Engineer Mike Fletcher said it’s taken long negotiations with CSC and GDOT, ending up with realigning the road to go across the railroad at 90 degrees.

Way back in 2011 this Old Quitman Road bridge was on the T-SPLOST list. Old Quitman Road itself was announced on a striping and citing list 2013-10-08 and on an LMIG resurfacing list 2014-03-24 and 2014-03-25. It was said to be the only road for which the speed limit is being changed 2015-03-23 and 2015-03-24. And they fixed a culvert on private Carter Way before they got to this RR bridge on Old Quitman Road. But now they’re doing it, and they didn’t need T-SPLOST for that after all.

See also Continue reading →

Two subdivisions, 3 road abandonments, 2 bridges, MIDS @ LCC 2016-09-12

This morning at 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Commission, the two subdivisions from the previous Planning Commission meeting, REZ-2016-16 Livingston Properties, Bemiss Knights Academy Rd and Merriman Ct.

What’s with all the road abandonments these past many months? REZ-2016-17 Grove Pointe Ph 6, Dasher Grove Rd, a public hearing on Abandonment of Strong Road, probably scheduling of one for Abandonment of Unopened Right of Way off of Pikes Pond Road, and finishing up with a Quit Claim Deed for Abandoned Right of Way on Old Miller Concrete Property.

Surveying and engineering for two bridge replacements, on Old Quitman Road and Jumping Gully Road. And the annual renewal of Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Capital Contract, which is the MIDS on-call bus service, in case you can’t tell from the obscure agenda item.

Plus lots more on the agenda. Will they speed through it all in their usual 15 minutes? They vote tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 5:30 PM.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Many same investors in Sabal Trail and Dakota Access Pipeline

DAPL and Sabal Trail are more intertwined than we thought. But first, who are the institutional investors in the three Sabal Trail partners? Three Banks NASDAQ makes this easy to discover, and the answer is in the first table below: among banks State Street and Bank of America stand out.

Let’s not forget Williams Company, of the Transco Hillabee Expansion Project from which Sabal Trail wants to get its fracked methane; see the second table, which State Street clearly wins, and there’s Goldman Sachs.

We learned this week that Enbridge of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota: that Enbridge is buying Spectra Energy of Sabal Trail.

But there’s more! Last year Williams was bought by Energy Transfer Equity, which is the main backer of DAPL.

Update 2016-09-26: Actually, Energy Transfer backed out of buying Williams Co..

See the third table, which shows banks bought into at least five of the partner entities: Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

Opponents of Sabal Trail are not just fighting the same industry as DAPL: they’re fighting many of the same companies and the same investors.

Investors in Sabal Trail partners (Spectra Energy, NextEra Energy, Duke Energy)

Continue reading →

FPL admits no need for new electricity until 2024: so why Sabal Trail?

17%, 13%, now 0% new electricity needed in Florida, according to FPL? And the Sabal Trail excuse of coal plant “modernization” has already been accomplished without Sabal Trail? While even FPL is now deploying solar power and admits solar “is now significantly influencing FPL’s resource planning”? So what is the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle for, then?

Two years ago I pointed out that FPL’s own projections in its ten-year plans Continue reading →