Category Archives: Education

Videos: Day 2, Planning, Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2018-02-20

These videos are for those of you who have jobs, or responsibilities, which prevent you from taking random days or hours off at a time. Commissioner Marshall was absent from the second day of the retreat because he has a job which does not allow him the flexibility of daytime hours off. (The first day of the retreat was on Presidents Day.)

The topics of discussion ranged from the ever popular litter and trash collection, to special tax districts, fire and emergency response, animal control and the animal shelter, and one of my favorites, electronic records. Most presentations were made either by the county manager or clerk but the current Deep South Solid Waste Authority Chairman Kevin Beals was first up to talk trash.

Below are links to each LAKE video of Day 2, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of Day 1 and Continue reading →

Model Solar Ordinance Public Workshop, Tifton, GA 2018-03-12

A few years ago, a doctor in Valdosta applied for a variance for solar panels over his parking lot. The Zoning Board of Approvals (ZBOA) tabled it, because Valdosta’s Land Development Regulations (LDR) did not permit that. I think he then made the panels connected to his building, which put them a different and already-permitted category.

What if Valdosta and other local governments updated their codes to enable parking lot and other solar power?

When:

4-6PM Monday, March 12, 2018

Where: National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Library (NESPAL)
2356 Rainwater Road, Tifton, GA 31793

Event: eventbrite

What: “The Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and University of Georgia have come together to develop a model solar zoning ordinance to provide county and city officials and other decision-makers in Georgia access to best practices and a common baseline from which to work. We will produce a comprehensive document that addresses multiple scales and types of solar energy systems that counties and cities can adopt and adapt to their needs.”

Georgia 2017-01, Maps

More about the event: Continue reading →

Solar Valdosta Schools 2018-02-13

Yesterday the Valdosta Board of Education voted for the sun.

No byline, WCTV, 14 Feb 2018, Valdosta City Schools votes to lease land to solar company,

The school system will begin leasing some of its extra property to the solar energy company Radiance Solar.

Solar Site Map by Radiance Solar, Maps

Radiance Solar will reportedly pay Continue reading →

Update: Chemical smell, schools, and industry on Clay Road

Maybe ask the company that adopted Clay Road? Response yesterday from the EMA Lowndes facebook page:

Hi, as a point of clarification emergency personnel responded to reports of an odor; however, after thorough investigation no evidence of a chemical leak or release could be identified or confirmed. As a precaution, the Board of Education property was accessed by responders. No evidence of contamination was present. A follow up visit to the area later this morning reports the odor was no longer present.

Thank you, EMA Lowndes, for responding, and on a weekend, too.

However, people couldn’t get home that night.

ADM Adopt-A-Street, From Howell Road
Adopt-A-Street ADM, Clay Road north from Howell Road google street view.

I still think it would be good to check with nearby industry. Maybe start with Continue reading →

Chemical leak next to Lowndes County Schools Transportation Department

Update 2017-11-05: Word from EMA Lowndes, and how about ask the company that adopted Clay Road?

Already heard about last night on facebook, a chemical leak on Clay Rosd at Howell Road is next to the Lowndes County Schools Transportation Department. Were all those school buses affected?

Google Street View, SE Corner Clay and Howell Roads
Photo: Google street view.

Valdosta Daily Times, 3 November 2017, Chemical leak reported off Clay Road,

VALDOSTA — Lowndes County officials said late Friday a possible chemical leak located in the vicinity of Clay Road resulted in temporary road closures.

Sheriff Ashley Paulk said Continue reading →

SGRC Regional Plan Update Workshop in Valdosta 2017-09-21

Received yesterday:

Good Morning,

A quick reminder for our 1st Regional Plan Update Workshop on:

September 21st, 2017 9:30a to 12:30p

Valdosta SGRC Offices at 327 W. Savannah Ave

The first workshop will cover the following topics:

Regional Bicycle Corridors
Regional Bicycle Corridors

  1. Review the existing issues and opportunities within the Region and determine whether Continue reading →

Videos: 911, T-SPLOST details, delinguent subdivision, Juvenile Justice Incentive, GDOT Exits @ LCC 2017-04-11

The Lowndes County Commission did not meet this week (no reason given: the meetings merely marked Canceled on the county’s online calendar), but it did two weeks ago.

On April 11, 2017 we discovered the T-SPLOST meeting would be at the regular SGRC location in Pearson, 1PM Monday April 17, 2017. Michelle Williams of Hahira noted a phenomenon of people not checking for ownership of lost and found pets. The week of 10 April 2017 was Telecommunications Week and the Chairman thanked 911 Center personnel.

The GDOT Mowing Contract includes all the exits in Lowndes County. They unanimously approved that and everything else, The longest item at almost eight minutes was the Tuscan Palms subvision asking to be forgiven paving money the county gave it that never was used. Continue reading →

Videos: T-SPLOST report, delinguent subdivision, Juvenile Justice Incentive, GDOT Exits & Mowing @ LCC 2017-04-10

They vote 5:30 PM Tuesday about what they discussed this morning. The longest item at five minutes was 6a. FY2018 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Program REquest. Third longest was a subvision asking to be forgiven paving money the county gave it that never was used. And second longest, although not on the agenda, was a T-SPLOST report by the County Manager.

Below are Continue reading →

No T-SPLOST, Juvenile Youth Action and Justice Incentive, GDOT Exits & Mowing, late subdivision @ LCC 2017-04-10

No T-SPLOST on the agenda for Monday morning, despite tabling it two weeks ago until their next meeting. That may be because while Lowndes County dithered, ten other of the 18 counties in the region agreed to put it on the ballot, so now it doesn’t matter what the Lowndes County Commission decides about that. Remember, even with it on the ballot, it can still be voted down, like in 2012. Meanwhile, according to the VDT,

In the coming weeks, a regional roundtable of government representatives will determine when the public vote will take place, the projected revenue from the tax and what projects the tax would fund if passed.

You, the taxpayers, are not invited to those roundtables, which will be held on unknown dates at unknown locations.

On the agenda for Monday morning and Tuesday evening is the ironic justaxposition of Special Proclamation Presentation to the Teen Explosion Youth Action Group and FY2018 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Program Request for Proposals (RFP). There are two GDOT items and a late payment by a subdivision, with its name spelled wrong by the county, or by Trulia, or somebody.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2017, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

America’s largest college mutual fund VA529 owns Spectra Energy, a stranded investment

Parents and grandparents buy 529 college savings plans as safe investments, so VA529 chose poorly in Spectra Energy, the very risky company behind the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline now plowing through the Floridan Aquifer drinking water of south Alabama, Georgia, and all of Florida and under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers against growing opposition. Maybe you’d like to mention that to Mary G. Morris, the Chief Executive Officer of Virginia529 College Savings Plan, the biggest mutual fund investor in both Spectra Energy and in Enbridge, which is buying Spectra. There’s a handy VA529 contact form or you can call or write:

1-804-371-0766
Toll-Free: 1-888-567-0540
9001 Arboretum Parkway
North Chesterfield, VA 23236

Spectra is so risky it just sold itself so Enbridge would take on about $22 billion of Spectra debt. Debt especially racked up since Continue reading →