Category Archives: Media

Tiny LAKE is flattered by mighty VLCIA!

Posting a reply from LAKE to an inquiry from Brad Lofton. -jsq
To: Brad Lofton
From: John S. Quarterman
Cc: [see below]
Subject: Re: VDT Editorial

Howdy,

Tiny LAKE is flattered to be asked to repost VDT materials for mighty VLCIA! But to answer your question, this is a blog, not a newspaper, nor a wire service for a newspaper. LAKE also hasn’t posted all of the letters to the editor of the VDT pro and con on this subject or others of interest to us.

More basically, you seem to continue to confuse “VLCIA answered” with “the answers satisfied the questioners” or “the answers actually addressed the content of the questions” or “nobody is questioning anymore”.

Questions continued to be asked at the VLCIA “Forum” of 6 Dec 2010. I ask again:

Continue reading →

jsq to Col. Ricketts about VLCIA

Here’s my response to Col. Ricketts’ recent message. -jsq
From: John S. Quarterman
To: “Allan Ricketts” <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>
cc: “‘John S. Quarterman'”, “‘Michael Noll'”, “‘Susan Wehling'”, “‘Brad Lofton'” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, “Mary B. Gooding”, Roy Copeland, Kay Harris
Subject: Re: Wiregrass Power, LLC

Col. Ricketts,

It’s good to hear from you.

I wondered during your re-presentation of slides you’d already said the entire VLCIA board had seen at the recent VLCIA biomass event, whether you would provide copies to interested parties, such as those sitting in the room, but you did not at the time.

Considering the increasing amount of public interest in this topic, as evidenced by the attendance and questions at the VLCIA Rainwater Conference Center event, and by recent newspaper activity, probably the public would like to see those press releases directly from the VLCIA’s web site. However, LAKE is always happy to link to relevant material, so if you will please send me the URLs of those press releases as you found them on the web, LAKE will be happy to link to them.

Similarly, if Dr. Teaf’s information is as good as you indicated,

Continue reading →

South Georgia GBI; Roundup of Blacks In Quitman

In the appended post about yesterday’s events in Quitman, George Rhynes cites the WCTV and WALB stories. Curiously, the nearest local daily newspaper, the Valdosta Daily Times, seems to have nothing online about this. -jsq
At 8:30 AM, I began receiving phone calls from Quitman, Georgia in the County of Brooks where the County Sheriffs Office was arresting citizens at random concerning the recent Absentee Ballot Problems.

These arrests reminded me of the alleged problems Black Voters/Citizens have had with the GBI harassing them during their investigation before and during the last run off election. This included alleged actions by the GBI Investigators that local citizens complained about intimidation before, during and after the election. However little or no Public Media Attention was given to alleged Black Voter intimidation by local media. Moreover, little to nothing was published in the FREE PRESS surrounding citizen’s fear from GBI Investigators. This was a major point of discussion when I along with a local Pastor from Valdosta, Georgia walked the streets to get a better understanding of what Brooks County Voters had to go through during the last election.

Today’s arrest will surely end up in the courts.

Continue reading →

VDT turns against VLCIA and its biomass plant

The newspaper of record in Valdosta and Lowndes County has reversed course on biomass. Top of the front page in a landmark issue: Wednesday, October 27, 2010:
Biomass plant fuels questions

by Johnna Pinholster
The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA — As the state and nation look to renewable energy solutions, locally, a proposed green energy plant is causing controversy and raising questions that remain unanswered.

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority and Wiregrass Power, LLC are in the beginning phases of developing property for a future biomass electric generating plant.

…

Issues with lack of information

Continue reading →

‘if Mrs. Noll and any of her “experts” would actually meet with us’

Since the appended message was sent to a publicly elected board chartered by the state of Georgia, that makes it subject to Georgia’s open records law, so I am publishing it here.

-jsq

From: Brad Lofton
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:52 PM
To: Karen Ruff Noll, [and Valdosta Board of Education members]
Cc: Allan Ricketts; gkbielmyer@valdosta.edu; bergstrm@valdosta.edu
Subject: Re: Thank you to the Valdosta Board of Education

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen:

We were honored last night to provide you an update on a project that enjoys so much support from environmental groups all across America, and we are thankful for your invitation and partnership. Mrs. Noll won’t admit that no governmental group or environmental group in this country that is charged with setting environmental policy is opposed to our project. Not one. In fact, they collectively point to biomass as the way forward for our country, where nearly 45 percent of our existing renewable energy portfolio is biomass. We were prepared last night to go into specific details regarding the air permit and provide the actual facts for you as opposed to the continued misinformation you are receiving from this core group. We ran out of time and apologize for the length. Please let us know when and where we can have that discussion. Our plant will be carbon neutral, with a mercury level that is so low it’s considered statistically insignificant by EPD. There is a dramatic difference between what the state and federal law allows under a statutory air permit and what our plant actually produces. This group is stating the “permitted” allowances despite the fact that the actual emissions are a very small fraction of that. Again, if Mrs. Noll and any of her “experts” would actually meet with us, we would explain that.

Rest assured that this is a safe, green, renewable energy plant

that has been vetted by scores of environmentalists, all the major universities in Georgia (including Dr. Tom Manning, a biomass researcher at VSU), and approved by every level of government. If Mrs. Noll has further concerns, I would recommend her talking to President Obama, the U.S. Dept of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state EPD, the Sierra Club, the World Wildlife Federation, the state of Georgia’s Center of Innovation for Renewable Energy, GA Tech, UGA, the Valdosta Daily Times (who support us), and scores of others who support us.

We will not participate in a back and forth with this group. We’ll be happy to meet with any of you in person to provide additional information and facts. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not the facts. Thanks so much for what each of you do for our community, and it’s an honor to serve you.

Regards,

Brad

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Verizon

Biomass Town Hall, 8 July 2010

On July 8th there was a town Hall meeting about the biomass plant proposed for Valdosta.

Pastor Angela Manning of New Life Ministries sums up why she called this Town Hall meeting:

Speakers included: Continue reading →

Hildegard’s not closed


Picture by Judy Baxter.
Kay Harris reports in the Valdosta Daily Times:
And it looks like Hildegards in downtown Valdosta is closed, but I’m not sure if it’s temporary or permanent this time.

Really? A reader comments on that story:

Greg Frier 6 hours ago

I want to note that Hildegard’s is not closed.

Continue reading →

County Commission Expansion

2009-08-08--superdistricts On May 12, the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) published Expansion No Go: No additional commissioners this year. About that, John S. Quarterman sent this letter to the editor (LTE) yesterday:
I see by the VDT that the current County Commission’s plan to expand the commission by adding two super districts failed in the legislature on a technicality. This pause provides useful time to see if there might be a different strategy. It’s already 2010, and census data for redistricting should be available in spring of next year. That will take a lot of the guesswork out of redistricting.

While the voters said last year they were for commission expansion, it is not clear that people actually favor super districts, since no other option was on the ballot. Each current district has more people than the total population of several nearby counties. This makes commissioner elections needlessly expensive and less representative of the variety within Lowndes County. It’s never been clear to me how adding two larger districts solves that most basic problem, when there are other options available.

Lowndes County could use more commissioners, and the current Commission made a good try at that. Soon it will be the turn of a new Commission to try again.

John S. Quarterman is running for County Commission, District 2.

The VDT responded:
The editor has reviewed your letter. She did not approve your letter because as a candidate for office, we cannot run a letter to the editor from you as it is considered campaigning and we would have to give equal opportunities to the other candidates as well.
Indeed he is, see www.JSQ4LCC.com. And as readers of On the LAKE Front are aware, he is also one of the founders of LAKE.

We understand the VDT has space constraints because it is primarily on paper. However, LAKE is online, and LAKE welcomes statements on this subject from any and all candidates. Send them in, and LAKE will post them, just like this one. Online, please: no paper, no fax. So lengths will be comparable, please keep it to 250 words, like a VDT LTE. Send a picture of yourself if you want to.