Since we posted the
Reapportionment maps
obtained Tuesday evening,
the county has posted PDF versions
of this same information on their own website.
Copies are
on the LAKE website and appended
below.
I’ve added HTML tables of the statistics.
-jsq
The Commission started early, and they were already into agenda item
7.a. REZ-2011-16 South Beach Commercial, US Hwy 41 South R-10 & TLA to C-G, ~1.7 acreswhen this video started. Then they moved right into
7.b. Lowndes County – Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates — Resolution to TransmitAs you can see, County Planner Jason Davenport had little to say about that (mostly that this draft isn’t the final version; they’ll revise it some time next year after they hear back from the state), and the Commissioners even less (they said nothing), at Monday morning’s Work Session. Tonight at 5:30 PM they vote on sending these materials to the state. If you want to know what’s in these documents, see Gretchen’s writeups The actual documents are on the LAKE web site. LAKE obtained them from elsewhere after the county refused to honor an open records request. The Chairman told Gretchen yesterday that those versions were “close enough” to what they’re going to vote on tonight.
Here’s the video:
Comprehensive Plan @ LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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Videos from Monday morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission
are
here.
The
previously-skipped hearing related to the Comprehensive Plan
is on
the agenda
for tonight’s Regular Session, 5:30 PM at the county palace,
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor.
These videos of Monday morning’s work session start some way into the agenda, because they started about five minutes early. Here are the videos.
Videos of LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Elizabeth Shogren wrote for NPR today,
EPA To Unveil Stricter Rules For Power Plants.
She described new rules for coal plants EPA is going to release in the next
few weeks, including controls on mercury, “arsenic, acid gases and other pollutants.”
Southern Company doesn’t like that.
“It’s physically impossible to build the controls, the generation, theOther power companies see no problem: Continue readingtransmission and the pipelines needed in three years,” says Anthony Topazi, chief operating officer for Southern Company, which provides electricity to nearly 4 million homes and hundreds of thousands of businesses in the Southeast.
Topazi says electricity rates will go up, putting marginal companies out of business. He says unless his company gets six years, it will not be able to keep the lights on.
“We will experience rolling blackouts or rationing power if we don’t have simply the time to comply,” Topazi says.
Unfortunately I missed this meeting as well, and not by choice.I vaguely remembered that Roy Copeland mentioned after the October
meeting that the December date might be changed to December 6. Thus, I called Tuesday shortly after 5pm to verify if a meeting was indeed scheduled. I only got the answering machine (indicating to me that the office was closed) and the IA website (as so often) was no help.
Thus I, too, was assuming the meeting would be later this month … only to find out the next day in the VDT that there had been a meeting after all.
Our community has gone through so much these past couple of months,
highlighting more than ever the need to communicate and cooperate. I was hoping after all this that we could finally start working together, despite any differences we might have. That would, however, not only require a certain amount of transparency but also communication of such simple matters as meeting agendas and calendars. How difficult can that be?
Communication is, and always will be, the key to success. Whether this is about your children’s education, such matters as energy efficiency and energy conservation, or a Strategic Planning Process which can only benefit the community … if that very community (not just the same old status quo) is actually included in the process.
Michael G. Noll, President
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE)
The first person I saw going into the
State Legislative Luncheon
yesterday was Andrea Schruijer,
Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
She spotted me inside, and said “I want to apologize”.
Surprised, I asked for what?
She said for
the date of VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting being unclear.
She said she had read about that in this blog that same morning.
She said they had recently changed the way they were handling their web pages and hadn’t yet figured out how to update it correctly. Since I was never very impressed with how it was handled before, I readily accepted that as a good excuse. I look forward to the updates. I’m guessing the new PR and marketing person they’re hiring will take care of this.
She also volunteered that they did inform the VDT and it was in the VDT’s calendar. I agreed that that was so; we had checked, and it appears the meeting was legal because of those notices.
She also said she thought she had said Monday evening, “see you tomorrow.” I allowed as how if she did, I missed it.
In any case, I have to say that her predecessor would never have made
that much effort to make amends to a mere blogger.
Once again,
tiny LAKE is flattered by mighty VLCIA,
although in a more positive way this time.
Congratulations on the new industries announced at VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting. Maybe more about those later.
Here’s looking forward to the Strategic Planning Process announced at that same meeting as coming up early next year.
-jsq
Lowndes County Planner Jason Davenport
to discuss my questions.
Some of my questions were answered to my satisfaction, some I still
had concerns about, and some are still unanswered because they were
not actually in his area of expertise.
The document covers all the cities in Lowndes County as well as the unincorporated area. I did get some questions about Valdosta projects answered by Valdosta City Planner Matt Martin in a telephone conversation.
Questions I had about Conservations of Sensitive Areas were answered in detail. For example: Continue reading
Frequent attendees told me the audience was much larger
than in previous years, and one attributed that to the recent
school consolidation referendum.
Sitting side by side were Chamber Chair Tom Gooding and
FVCS President Sam Allen.
Jeff Hanson introduced the legislators.
He’s the Chair of the Chamber’s
Government Affairs Council (GAC).
He said they are seeking more participants.
Hm, they have an Energy and Environment Policy Committee that’s chaired
by someone from Georgia Power….
Tim Golden announced that the local delegation’s highest priority
was to get $32 million for a Health Science Center for VSU.
VSU Interim President Dr. Levy was there, as was former president
“Dr. Z” as Tim Golden called him.
I was just talking to someone from SGMC in the food line about how it would be nice if the Industrial Authority would promote healthcare industries more. It’s good that the legislators are doing that, although it’s not clear that there are not other things that should be even higher priority.
Tim Golden also wants to remove a sales tax Continue reading
own web page and they didn’t post an agenda.
Also, I saw both VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer
and their Chairman Roy Copeland speak Monday night, and neither
of them said a word about their meeting date being changed to the
next night.
Here’s some irony in the VDT’s story:
Schruijer also discussed the Authority’s plans to move ahead with theWhy ever would people think that?The intention, according to Schruijer and Copeland, is to include community partners in the process as the assessment showed that many in the community think that the various entities work at odds with each other, rather than on the same page, when it comes to economic development.
According to VLCIA’s website: Continue reading
Just a decade ago, private prisons were a dying industry awash in corruption and mired in lawsuits, particularly Corrections CorporationWe’d already heard from Bloomberg that Continue readingof America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison operator. Today, these companies are booming once again, yet the lawsuits and scandals continue to pile up. Meanwhile, more and more evidence shows that compared to publicly run prisons, private jails are filthier, more violent, less accountable, and contrary to what privatization advocates peddle as truth, do not save money. In fact, more recent findings suggest that private prisons could be more costly.
So why are they still in business?
In a recently published report, “Banking on Bondage: Mass Incarceration and Private Prisons,” the American Civil Liberties Union examines the history of prison privatization and finds that private prison companies owe their continued and prosperous existence to skyrocketing immigration detention post September 11 as well as the firm hold they have gained over elected and appointed officials.