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
The VDT writes about Foxborough two days in a row:
Several dozen residents of the Foxborough subdivision came to the Lowndes County Commission meeting Tuesday to again express their dismay at the possibility of having a McDonald’s fast food restaurant located by the neighborhood’s entrance.Candelario (I believe that’s the actual spelling of his name) provided a list of suggestions to the Commission, which Chairman Paulk addressed, including: Continue readingResident Pete Candelaria said he has been living in Foxborough for six years and was speaking on behalf of the residents.
It looks like the strategy I recommended
to the Foxborough opponents to McDonalds worked:
go to the County Commission work session and you may get in the newspaper.
Kay Harris writes in the VDT about
Issues with development,
Neighborhood upset about commercial encroachment:
According to Vince Schneider, the spokesman for the residents, the majority of the neighborhood is opposed to the possibility of a McDonald’s restaurant openin g there. The property is currently listed with Lowndes County as owned by First State Bank, but the county engineer, Mike Fletcher, confirmed Monday at the Lo wndes County Board of Commissioners work session that he has received a plat fo r the proposed development.Many of the residents only found out aboout the proposed McDonalds from a cryptic mention by Kay Harris in the VDT a few weeks ago. Naturally, the VDT ends the current story on a note of finality: Continue readingSchneider appeared before commissioners at the work session to request they rec onsider the commercial zoning in the area.
I like snakes, but next to many houses with small children may not be the best place. At least it’s not concrete, but some trees would be good, and at least fewer weeeds right next to peoples’ back yards.
There are more pictures in the flickr set. Here’s a video walk-in:
Continue reading
Vince Schneider of Foxborough Avenue sums up the sense of
a well-attended meeting (7PM Thursday July 8 2010)
at which residents said they don’t want a McDonalds at the entrance to the Foxborough neighborhood. Vince will be speaking at the County Commission meeting Tuesday at 5:30 PM July 13, and also at the work session Monday at 8:30AM July 12.
See you there.
-jsq
I spent a few hours walking around Foxborough Ave. and Amberley Trail
this afternoon, just south of North Valdosta Road.
Did you know there’s a McDonalds proposed for Foxborough Ave.,
with a second entrance off of Old US 41?
I didn’t until this afternoon.
The only mention of this project I can find in the VDT is this cryptic note by Kay Harris in her June 27, 2010 Business This Week:
The McDonalds project on N. Valdosta Road next to the Foxborough entrance should be finalized soon….
Neighbors immediately to the south of the project say that:
This property has not yet closed. Projected closing is the first week of August. Corporate McDonalds says construction will begin in October.They also tell me this will be a 24 hour a day 7 day a week fast food restaurant. Numerous residents mentioned safety concerns about the added traffic on the Foxborough Ave. entrance to the subdivision, and about pulling people off of I-75 into their neighborhood.
They’re holding a neighborhood meeting about it tomorrow (Thursday 8 July): Continue reading
Some concerned citizens
met with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority on JulyJune 10, 2010
about the proposed biomass plant on Inner Perimeter Road.
Not everyone was convinced that it was a good idea.
Pastor Angela Manning of New Life Ministries has organized a Town Hall meeting for tomorrow, Thursday 8 July 2010 at 7PM:
| Date: | Thursday, July 8th, 2010 |
| Time: | 7 p.m. |
| Venue: | New Life Ministries |
| Address: | 5651 Inner Perimeter Rd., Valdosta, GA 31606 |
-jsq
“Forests Dominate Georgia’s Land Use”
That’s the title of slide 10 of 21 in
Center of Innovation – Energy (CIE)
by Jill Stuckey, Director.
Actually, massively pesticided planted pines dominate south Georgia’s land use;
not the same as actual forests with species diversity and diverse ages of trees.
The same CIE slide equates
Georgia Forestry = Biomass EnergyThat is what the state government seems to want it to be.
Back on slide 9, solar is defined as a southwestern regional energy source; nevermind that the solar map on that page shows Georgia with the same insolation as most of Texas (more on that later). And wind is defined as a central U.S. regional strength, nevermind that even Georgia Power has started exploring the possibility of wind off the Georgia coast.
I get it that Georgia has trees and forestry is a big industry in Georgia. I’m a tree farmer myself. I’d love to be convinced that biomass from trees is one good way to go. But at what costs? And compared to what? Continue reading
He did find
this list of “renewable energy strategy”
hits from a GEFA search.
At least one of those links points us to http://www.georgiaenergyplan.org/,
which now gets us
Are you interested in buying this domain name?The state has apparently abandoned that domain. Is that an indication of how seriously Georgia takes renewable energy?
Here’s something that looks promising: State Energy Strategy for Georgia (SESG), December 14, 2006, Governor’s Energy Policy Council, GEFA. It says it’s an energy strategy, but it’s mostly about transportation of existing fuels such as natural gas. Towards the end of the document in Figure 2 (shown above) the SESG illustrates the pit we’re in: about a third of Georgia’s energy comes from coal, another third from petroleum, a sixth from natural gas, and so little from renewable sources they apparently weren’t worth putting on the pie chart.
The SESG does contain this: Continue reading
Here Coy Brightwell asks for a show of hands for those against
rezoning for the Glen Laurel subdivision on Old Pine Road.
Many hands went up throughout the packed room.
Even more to the point, not one neighbor spoke for the rezoning.
He ends with an additional disclaimer that he’s not against development; he’s against the density of this development in this place. VDT quoted him as saying:
“We are not against progress. We are not against the development of Lowndes County … The part that we do have a problem with is the density of this proposal. We’re just not in agreement with the drastic changes that will take place in our community (and) we are here for a compromise.”
Another view of the show of hands: Continue reading