A major big city daily?
A local newspaper of record along the proposed pipeline path?
Nope: the Valdosta State University student newspaper, The Spectator,
has done what its bigger newspaper colleagues have not dared:
oppose the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and demand renewable
energy instead.
Where students lead, maybe their elders will follow.
Editorial in The Spectator 1 May 2014 (I added the links and images), Pipeline a risk to Valdosta, Continue reading
A tiny town of about 3,000 people grilled pipeline reps for two hours.
Why didn’t the pipeline companies fix the leaky pipelines they had
before building new ones, their Board of Selectment wanted to know
among many other good questions.
Representatives from Kinder Morgan and its subsidiary
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (TGP)
said stuff happens and those were bigger issues and basically
don’t worry your pretty little heads.
The locals weren’t buying it. Continue reading
Received today via the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce.
I added a few links from
posts in this blog featuring Ashley Tye.
-jsq
Lowndes County Emergency Management Continuity of Business Workshop,You Are Invited to attend the
Lowndes County Emergency Management
Continuity of Business Workshop
On Monday, May 5, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., Lowndes County Emergency Management will host a Continuity of Business Workshop on the second floor of the Lowndes County Administrative Building, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia. The session will be led by Lowndes County Emergency Management Director, Ashley Tye.
Attendees will receive Continue reading
Yet another sinkhole in Florida. And guess what goes within 20 miles of that Florida retirement community? The proposed Sabal Trail Transmission methane pipeline. Does poking holes in the already-fragile karst limestone that holds up houses and contains our drinking water, anywhere in Florida or south Georgia, sound like a good idea to you?
Susan Jacobson wrote for Orlando Sentinel, 19 April 2014, Sinkhole in The Villages threatens 2 homes,
This sinkhole was growing April 19, 2014 near 2 houses in The Villages. (Helicon Property Restoration)
A large sinkhole has opened under two houses in The Villages.
A picture provided by Helicon Property Restoration, which is working to stabilize the hole, shows a house teetering at the edge.
Video in report by Lisa McDonald for WKMG, Orlando, 19 April 2014, Crews fill sinkhole that threatened 2 homes in The Villages:
Continue readingColquitt, Brooks, next Lowndes?
Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT yesterday, Brooks urges deep-dug pipeline,
Brooks County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month encouraging Sabal Trail to bury its proposed natural gas pipeline two feet deeper than the three-feet requirements.
“We do a lot of farming over here, and that was the loudest concern was making sure we try to encourage Sabal Trail to make sure they went the extra mile to make sure their investment, and our citizens were protected,” said Justin DeVane, Brooks County administrator. “The pipeline itself is only traversing three of our five districts and all five of our commissioners were receiving concerns about it. So we wanted to make sure that Continue reading
$78,892.56 for an unbid change order for Val Del Road.
The Board of Tax Assessors’
appeal to a Board of Equalizations
decision to grand PCA an unusual depreciation was approved
by the Lowndes County Commission
by a rare split decision, 2 to 1.
Greg Powell of Langdale Industries
appointed to KLVB.
And
Citizen Noll recommended the Commission pass a resolution
or ordinance about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline.
Three voting Commissioners (Raines was absent and Page vacated his seat) unanimously approved three rezonings with nobody speaking for or against. They granted permission to the Sheriff’s office and to Emergency Management to apply for equipment grants. There was a weather report, and a report on an animal adoption event the previous weekend.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
The
KLVB presentation told us up to three states dump in
the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County,
for which the county gets some unspecified amount of tipping fees,
which go to fund KLVB.
An appointment to
KLVB was added to the agenda,
although nobody deigned to reveal who was “that individual that has
requested to serve on that board”.
The
Homeland Security grant application turned out to be for defibrillators.
Here’s the agenda, with a few annotations and links to the videos.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
AMENDED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Maybe Lowndes County Commissioners can ask Rep. Austin Scott (GA-08) to do what Dougherty County Commissioners have successfully asked Rep. Bishop (GA-02) to do: those two Congressional districts cover the entire Georgia part of the proposed path of that methane pipeline. And maybe they could help Greenlaw get the FERC scoping period extended and get the GIS data from Sabal Trail.
Carlton Fletcher wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday,
U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop to take part in pipeline listening session:
Metting called to address safety, other concerns surrounding controversial natural gas pipeline,
Two Dougherty County Commissioners and one of their former colleagues who is running to rejoin them have scheduled a listening session at 10 a.m. Thursday with U.S. House District 2 Congressman Sanford Bishop to discuss the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Gas Pipeline project and a planned accompanying Continue reading
These are the fourteen items he promised
two weeks ago at the SpectraBusters panel at VSU:
Sabal Trail will be expected to adhere and honor all Lowndes County Ordinances –Bill E Slaughter, JR to FERC, 10 April 2014.
I thank Chairman Slaughter for making that statement to FERC.
Despite his apparent refusal to speak on behalf of all the citizens of the county after the 24 February 2014 Commission meeting, he did actually say his ecomment to FERC was “on the behalf of the Commission and Citizens of Lowndes County”, and that he expects Sabal Trail to follow all Lowndes County ordinances, plus Continue reading
If the County Commission hadn’t privatized garbage collection,
Frenchie could have registered his complaint about
garbage falling off trucks
through the new
turnkey government website service once it’s online.
No mention of the
annexation request by the City of Hahira from the Work Session.
Commissioner Powell noted the three SPLOST VII projects were “a direct reinvestment into the community of those funds”. The road resurfacing of four roads is actually mostly from a GDOT LMIG grant, but the other three, shoulder paving on Val Del Road and Boring Pond Road and a bridge replacement on Cat Creek Road are all from SPLOST VII funds. Plus some trucks for Animal Control and tablets for the Fire Department, an alcohol license, and some alphabet-soup agreements, one of which turned out to be for a grant for a victim advocate position in the Solicitor General’s office.
Here’s the agenda. See also the previous morning’s Work Session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor