Category Archives: History

Code Enforcement Appreciation and new Tourism Authority Director @ LCC Regular Session 2021-09-14

At the recent Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, County Manager Paige Dukes in her Reports mentioned many then-upcoming events, two of which are still coming, and may be of public interest:

  • 2021-09-21, 4:30 PM, at Georgia Beer Co.: Meet and greet for new Executive Director, David DiSalvo, of Valdosta-Lowndes Conference Center and Tourism Authority. https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-j-disalvo-9048b24
  • 2021-09-28, 6PM, in Commission Chambers: Comp Plan stakeholder meeting just after next LCC meeting, Most recent draft of Comprehensive Plan was on Commissioners’ desks; is available electronically (where?).

None of these events are on the lowndescounty.com online calendar.

[Code Enforcement, RV Sales, Reports, End time]
Code Enforcement, RV Sales, Reports, End time

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading →

Videos: VLPRA, RV sales, Moody AFB Fire Dept., Tax Assessors @ LCC 2021-09-13

By far the longest item at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session yesterday morning was the presentation on the VLPRA Master Plan by their consultant David Barth, taking 34 minutes.

Second longest was 8.d. GMASS Commercial Contract for the Tax Asessors office. Each of these got more than a minute: the RV sales expansion item, and 8.b. Fire and Emergency Services Agreement between Lowndes County and MFAB.

[VLPRA, RV sales, Moody AFB Fire Dept., Tax Assessors]
VLPRA, RV sales, Moody AFB Fire Dept., Tax Assessors

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading →

GMASS for Tax Assessors, Fire, Foam, Moody, RV, Courthouse, Alcohol @ LCC 2021-09-13

Update 2021-09-14: LAKE videos.

The Tax Assessors having no commercial appraisers left are hiring GMASS to appraise commercial properties, for $108,000 over three years.

Four times as much will go to early cleanup work at the historic Courthouse.

Cost What
$411,125.00Lowndes County Historic Courthouse Early Demolition and Abatement GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price)
$108,000.00 GMASS Commercial Contract for Tax Assessors
$519,125.00Total

This is on the agenda this morning for the Lowndes County Commission. At this Work Session, they have two extra items: Code Enforcement Appreciation and VLPRA Adopted Master Plan Presentation by Dr. David Barth (Work Session).

They will vote Tuesday evening, on these and other items including a Fire Department agreement with Moody AFB, expansion of an RV sales company, and beer and wine sales.

[Alcohol, RV, Tax Assessors contractor]
Alcohol, RV, Tax Assessors contractor

Below is the agenda. Update 2021-09-14: The board packet is on the LAKE website due to a LAKE open records request.

See also the preceding Planning Commission agenda and board packet and LAKE videos.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Solar power is beating fracked methane like the Internet won over BITNET

Why am I so sure that I will live to see fracked methane pipelines shut down, along with their tar sands and petroleum partners in crime? Because I’ve seen it before, a quarter century ago, when the Internet won over all other networks, including BITNET.

BITNET in the U.S. and Worldwide and the Internet, Matrix News 4.10 October 1994
BITNET in the U.S. and Worldwide and the Internet, in Matrix News 4.10 October 1994.

The exponential growth of the Internet sucked users away from all the other networks. Coal is already crashing so fast that cleaning up coal ash is the biggest issue. Nukes are closing left and right. “Natural” gas is still growing, but not as fast as solar and wind, which produced more new electricity than any other source in 2020. Soon, fracked methane will peak, and then it will fall fast, just like coal did. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Solar, wind, batteries and other storage will continue to soar until almost all electricity comes from them. A cleaner world, with profit for those who buy in, and lower power charges for everyone: it’s coming fast.

Vote for clean energy and help it arrive faster.

Remember FidoNet? Probably you’ve never heard of it, and this is why. Remember BITNET? Maybe not, but one of its neologisms lingers on: Continue reading →

River Hill Cemetery 2018-07-21

Here are pictures of a cemetery at the end of Baytree Road, just east of I-75 and slightly south of the Withlacoochee River.

Stones, Cemetery

The Lowndes County Tax Assessors identify it only as Continue reading →

Videos: No Opioid No Probation Military Utility @ LCC 2018-04-24

They would have managed less than four minutes, even with chatting with Leadership Lowndes in the audience, including 45 seconds on the only substantial agenda item, 6 a. Grant Of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons (aka Moody Family Housing).

2013-07-29 GLPC Packet-007 REZ-2013-09 Moody Family Housing
2013-07-29 GLPC Packet-007 REZ-2013-09 Moody Family Housing
Note the big sinkhole in Phase 2.

But citizen Jacinta Howell talked about traffic safety. Let’s remember the immortal words of former Chairman Ashley Paulk during a rezoning near Bemiss Road:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Opioid Vaginal Mesh, Military Utility, No Probation @ LCC 2018-04-23

Yesterday morning Chairman Bill Slaughter looked straight at the LAKE video camera and said: “We’ll have a record-setting short meeting tomorrow, with one agenda item.” Then he chuckled.

The Work Session was 17 minutes and 35 seconds, because of 12 minutes on the Special Presentation by Andrew Hill on Opioid Litigation (Work Session).

The longest other item was 3 minutes on 6 b. Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution, which wasn’t ready yet, and is what the Chairman removed from the agenda for tonight.

Indeed it didn’t take five minutes, not even half a minute, for them not to discuss 6 a. Grant Of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons.

Below are Continue reading →

Opioid Military Utility Probation @ LCC 2018-04-23

Maybe 15 minutes because of the Special Presentation by Andrew Hill on Opioid Litigation (Work Session).

It won’t take them five minutes to discuss a water and sewer easement for the sinkhole-prone recently-renamed Moody Family Housing Housing, now called Azalea Commons, which is in a recharge zone for the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink. That subdivision only has water and sewer lines running by it up Val Del Road because the county ran those lines to enable the Nelson Hill subdivision, for which the county permitted razing wetlands, and which then mysteriously got staff variances to avoid building condominiums, mixed elevations, or becoming a gated community.

WRPDO Site Map, Moody Family Housing, REZ-2013-09
WRPDO Site Map, Moody Family Housing, REZ-2013-09.

It’s unlikely to take longer for them to discuss the Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution.

Here’s the agenda. Gretchen is on her way there with the LAKE video camera.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Special Presentation by Andrew Hill on Opioid Litigation (Work Session)
  5. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session- April 9, 2018
    2. Regular Session- April 10, 2018
  6. For Consideration
    1. Grant Of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons
      ACC Group Housing, LLC desires to Grant Lowndes county an easement and right of way to provide access to service and maintain the water and sewer lines serving the Azalea Commons residential area.

      Documents:Grant of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Azalea Commons.pdf

    2. Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution
      Approval of probation plan and resolution

      Documents:Lowndes County Government Probation Plan and Resolution.pdf

  7. Reports – County Manager
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard-Please State Your Name and Address
  9. Adjournment

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Et tu, FERC? No tax writeoffs for MLPs; pipeline stocks plummet 2018-03-15

On the Ides of March, FERC, apparently forgetting its the companies it supposedly regulates that pay its salaries, knocked pipeline company stocks down by disallowing a tax writeoff. This was one month after FERC inadvertently cleared a path for renewable sun and wind power through batteries. Look who got whacked the most, and not even FERC’s Sabal Trail rubberstamp permit reinstatement could save it:

Pipeline MLP vs. Electric Utility, Stock Charts
Stock price comparison, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 14, 15, 16 March 2018. The colorful candle canyon is for Spectra Energy Partners LP (SEP), which was by far the worst affected of those shown.

You may wonder as I do: what is FERC doing Continue reading →

The shift has come: GE, Siemens massive job losses as fossil fuels crash and the sun rises

The carbon bubble is bursting, as jobs fly from some of the biggest companies in the world, because solar and wind power are taking over right now. It’s too late to bet on the wrong nuclear horse or the wrong pipelnie snake. Get out of fossil fuels now: the sun is rising.

Tiffany Hsu and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 7 December 2017, G.E. Cuts Jobs as It Navigates a Shifting Energy Market,

General Electric, whose new leadership is moving to eliminate bloat and grapple with the fallout from earlier, ill-timed decisions, is taking drastic steps to keep pace with seismic shifts in the global energy industry.

GE ranks first in 2017 downsizing after 12,000 more jobs: Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017
Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017, GE Ranks First in 2017 Downsizing After 12,000 More Job Cuts.

The company said on Thursday that it would cut 12,000 jobs in its power division, reducing the size of the unit’s work force by 18 percent as part of a push to compete with international rivals in a saturated natural gas market, adjust to “softening” in the oil and gas sectors and stay abreast of the growing demand for renewable energy.

Solar and wind energy technology is increasingly being deployed Continue reading →