Category Archives: Safety

Sabal Trail pipeline disruptive for what gain? –Valdosta Today

The same Monday that the Dougherty County Commission passed a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline, Valdosta Today editorialized against it.

S.E. (Chip) Harp, Valdosta Today Editor, 27 October 2014, Proposed Pipeline will Disrupt south Georgia, but for What Gain?,

SASSER — The proposed (and likely) Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline will impact most residents in south Georgia, bringing additional natural gas supplies to Florida “while increasing the diversity and reliability of the region’s energy-delivery system and positively impacting the economy in the Southeast, specifically Alabama, Georgia and Florida”, per Sabal Trail reports.

However, as has been seen already, it will also have a negative impact on many area businesses, landowners and residents, especially agricultural-based businesses. One of those affected is produce and Continue reading →

WCTV on Sabal Trail pipeline activism

300x151 Sabal Trail Right of Way, in One Year After Sabal Trail Announces Pipeline Plans, Activists Begin Monthly Protests, by WCTV, 21 October 2014 Going on a year after Sabal Trail opened an office in Valdosta, WCTV used the latest protests to do a retrospective.

Winnie Wright reported for WCTV today, 22 October 2014, One Year After Sabal Trail Announces Pipeline Plans, Activists Begin Monthly Protests,

Time may have passed, but opinions haven’t changed much here in Valdosta, where people..who are against the pipeline say there are countless reasons why it doesn’t belong in their backyards.

300x154 Gretchen Quarterman, in One Year After Sabal Trail Announces Pipeline Plans, Activists Begin Monthly Protests, by WCTV, 21 October 2014 “There’s a moral obligation to leave the world as beautiful and majestic as we found it, and the pipeline; it does not do that”, says Gretchen Quarterman, President of the Lowndes County Democratic Party.

LCDP statement against the pipeline.

WCTV video: Continue reading →

Protest today against Sabal Trail pipeline

It’s a bad week for Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline, with three back-to-back protests today alone (March and Protest in Valdosta, GA plus Development Authority meeting, and Protest at Sabal Trail Open House in Jasper, FL, plus Hamilton and Suwannee County Commission meetings) after one yesterday (at Albany Open House and Dougherty County Commission) and more to come. Continue reading →

The Case of the Six Missing Screams: Nydia Tisdale’s video edited by sheriff’s office?

It looks like the “public” Pumpkin Farm Republican campaign rally headlined by Gov. Nathan Deal not only caused a citizen journalist to be roughed up and evicted, and her camera taken, apparently the local law edited her video recording to remove the sound of her screams.

Jim Galloway wrote 22 September 2014, The Case of the Six Missing Screams,

You’ll remember Tisdale as the citizen-journalist from Roswell who was arrested in August at a GOP rally at a pumpkin farm in Dawsonville for pointing a video recorder at candidates. Which is what she does.

In front of the top of the GOP ticket, including Gov. Nathan Deal, Tisdale was grabbed — then roughed up. Her camera was Continue reading →

Videos: Transportation, Water, Safety, and Alcohol @ LCC 2014-09-23

300x255 2100 East Hill Avenue, in GDOT option at Clay, Hollywood, and US 84, by John S. Quarterman, 23 September 2014 Commissioner Demarcus Marshall recused himself in the Regular Session of 23 September 2014, for the Public Safety Radio System System Upgrade, in case anybody thought a Motorola VP with the same last name was related. (Update 11:10 AM: added transcription of the three-part motion.) Rental leases for the Leila Ellis Social Services Building got more discussion. They added VOCA-funded VWMAP and GDOT at Clay and Hollywood (from the previous morning’s Executive Session), that the Tax Assessor’s database says is owned by the School Board, to the amended agenda. Everything else, including the USGS water level gauge on the Little River, was breezed through with no discussion, so fast the Chairman almost forgot to ask for speakers in an alcohol license public hearing, and he didn’t bother to mention before they adjourned that nobody had signed up for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.

Here’s the amended agenda with links to the videos and a few notes, followed by a playlist. See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and Board Packet.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Board Packet @ LCC 2014-09-22

Here is the board packet for yesterday morning’s Work Session. Notice it does not have anything about reporting on services provided or number of citizens serviced for the Leila Ellis leases, and no contracts at all for the Public Safety Radio System Upgrade. And nothing at all about the non-even-on-the-agenda Victim Witness Program renewal. Maybe those items will be added to the board packet Commissioners get before they vote tonight at 5:30 PM. Here are videos of their Work Session from yesterday morning, at which Commissioners Marshall and Powell made it clear they would like to see some additional items.

At least this packet cost a lot less ($7.80) than the last one.

-jsq

Videos: Alcohol, Transportation, Water, and Safety @ LCC 2014-09-22

Update: Board packet.

They took a little longer than ten minutes, because Commissioners had questions about the right of way abandonment and even more questions about rent, tenants, and services at the Leila Ellis Social Services Building, and about the Public Safety Radio System System Upgrade: Commissioners actually want to see what they’re voting in; fancy that! Plus a substantial presentation about the USGS water level gauge on the Little River and an unscheduled request for approval for a continuation of a Victims Assistance grant.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes, followed by a playlist.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Alcohol, Transportation, Water, and Safety @ LCC 2014-09-22

Will they take ten minutes to consider all these agenda items? They’re meeting right now.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation

    Only in the Regular Session.

  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

    Only in the Regular Session.

  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — September 8, 2014
    2. Regular Session — September 9, 2014
  5. Public Hearing
    1. Beer, Wine and Liquor License — Cowboys Fire Pit Grill, LLC — 1088 Lakes Blvd
  6. For Consideration
    1. Abandonment of Unopened Right of Way off Water Oak Drive
    2. Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Operating Contracts
    3. Leila Ellis Social Services Building-Approval of Lease Agreements
    4. GEMA Performance Partnership Agreement (FY 2014)
    5. USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge
    6. Public Safety Radio System Upgrade
  7. Reports-County Manager
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

    Only in the Regular Session.

-jsq

Videos of Dougherty County citizens opposing Sabal Trail pipeline @ DCC 2014-09-15

As a Commissioner said, “It don’t pass the smell test” that Sabal Trail already bought land for a compressor station before they even filed for a formal permit. A Commissioner said “We have to be more aggressive.” Well, then, time to pass a land-user ordinance against pipelines! Thanks to Jennifer Maloney, you can see for yourself Albany and Dougherty County citizens and Commissioners opposing the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline in a community effort at a Dougherty County Commission meeting 15 September 2014. Continue reading →

Alternative 4: Richland, Preston, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail

300x395 Map, in Alternative 4: Richland, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 Richland in Stewart County, Preston in Webster County, Americus in Sumter County, Cordele in Crisp County, Ashburn in Turner County, if you thought you were off the Sabal Trail path, think again! You’re in FERC’s eye for a 36-inch fracked methane pipeline just like Tifton, Adel, Hahira, and Valdosta in Tift, Cook, and Lowndes Counties Georgia, and in Florida Jennings in Hamilton County, Lake City in Columbia County, Alachua and Gainesville in Alachua County, Ocala in Marion County, Wildwood in Sumter County, and Ferndale in Lake County, and probably some other cities and counties you can find on the map. And Alternative 4 would cross the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County just before passing right next to Lowndes High School and an exploding pipeline segment’s throw from Valdosta Mall.

300x386 Withlacoochee River and Lowndes High School, in Alternative 4: Richland, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 Alternative 4 in FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” would start even farther north on I-75 than Alternative 1.

Alternative 4 beginning from Alternate 2 near Richland, Georgia and following Highway 280 to near Americus, Georgia; then following a high voltage transmission line (along Sabal Trail’s Hillabee Alternative route); then following Alternate 1 starting near Tifton, Georgia and extending to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a very rough map of Alternative 4: Continue reading →