Same agenda as in January, local governance: Water, trash, and money.
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Don't let the location fool you: Let's Eat is locally owned, and serves a lot of locally-grown food. If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, or just come as you are. -jsq |
Why is Lowndes County suing a local business for the benefit of investors in New York City? I guess we’ve discovered the litigation last month’s Lowndes County Commission executive session was about. Why is this a good use of taxpayer money?
On Deep South Sanitation’s facebook page
yesterday,
Friends, we all watch the news and we see governments making changes that are unacceptable to the American people. Well, it is happening right here in our hometown. LOWNDES COUNTY has issued a CIVIL ACTION LAWSUIT against DEEP SOUTH. The preliminary hearing is set for FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013 at 9:30AM in Courtroom 5D of the Lowndes County Judicial Complex. The purpose of the hearing is to force DEEP SOUTH to shutdown on that day! (We are a small, local, family owned and operated business.) We need your support because this hearing will effect almost every one of you. “IF” we are forced out, Advanced Disposal will be your “ONLY CHOICE” for garbage service. That means there will be a MONOPOLY for garbage service in Lowndes. The County maintains that it is not MANDATORY for the citizens to use Advanced Disposal so then who else can we choose? CHOICE keeps business healthy and HONEST. Please help support this matter for your sake and ours by calling LOWNDES COUNTY and voice your concerns. Also, there are several petitions being sent around as of today. We personally thank each and every one of you!! From: Cary, Debbie, Trevor, Dylan and Sadee Scarborough
Unnamed Lowndes County “representatives”
spelled out in the VDT back in January
that
“According to the solid waste ordinance, Advanced Disposal will be the only residential hauler licensed to serve unincorporated Lowndes County.”
A few hours later yesterday, also on DSS’s facebook page,
Continue reading
Since LAKE was the only coverage of the
Pecan Row Landfill Gas Energy meeting 15 April 2013 at Colquitt EMC in Valdosta,
these videos let you see the interesting cast of speakers and other attendees.
Our host,
Danny Nichols, Colquitt EMC General Manager, expressed concerns about
feel-good vs. economically viable energy projects and said he
thought the landfill gas project was both, emphasizing “like a
switch it comes on”, in other words, baseload.
(Colquitt EMC is
not big on smart grid.)
As
we saw,
ESG’s Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility flash flyer
quotes Jeff Pratt, President of Green Power EMC, who said this is Green Power
EMC’s third landfill energy project.
Curiously, Green Power EMC’s Landfill Gas Project page doesn’t
list the other two, and its
FAQ is apparently out of date, saying “Currently, our one landfill gas-to-electricity projects generate a combined four megawatts of power.”
However, the other two appear to be:
Received Friday as a PDF. -jsq
Valdosta, Ga. (April 11, 2013) — Representatives from Advanced Disposal, Green Power EMC and Energy Systems Group (ESG) will hold an informational session about the Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility on April 15 at 8:30 a.m. EST at the Colquitt EMC Valdosta District Office, located at 273 Norman Drive.
The cover page seems to be condensed from ESG’s Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility flash flyer. That ESG flyer also quotes Gerald Allen, Landfill Vice President , Advanced Disposal, and Jeff Pratt, President of Green Power EMC, who said this is Green Power EMC’s third landfill energy project.
The rest past the paragraph above quoted seems to be verbatim from Continue reading
Received today; he sent it to all the Commissioners. -jsq
Continue readingTo the commission on the proposed idea of road abandonment on County Rd. #16:
On the morning of 2/25/13 after the county commission’s morning work session, my wife and I spoke with Joyce Evans and Bill Slaughter on some of our concerns and new found technical information about road abandonment, Georgia state waterways, and what the county and state are expected to protect.
During our conversation we were told that for unexplained legal reasons the county would have to give the road back to the land owner. At this time my thoughts and questions come back to: Why if for legal reasons do we have to give the land back or away, and why are we even having to have a public hearing on this matter, if the public has no say?
Also during this conversation Bill mentioned
The Lowndes County Commission has retreated to Berrien County once again
this year.
So far they’ve talked about budgets and finance, LOST and SPLOST,
departmental requests, and the local Land Bank Authority,
with the occasional policy interjection.
Commissioners and staff were clearly taking their tasks very seriously,
although not without humor from John Page’s sneeze.
And I congratulate them on
going some place that couldn’t have cost much.
I wish they’d talk more about policy and strategies for increasing the pie,
rather than almost entirely about how to divvy up the existing pie.
Video will follow; meanwhile here are a few notes.
On the one hand, it’s great that county staff have pulled together and managed with 30 fewer people, and while Commissioner Page was right that that’s efficiency, I think Chairman Slaughter was even more right in saying it’s beyond that, it’s beyond capacity. County Manager Joe Pritchard noted if there’s no SPLOST, the current Commission will have to decide between cutting some services and raising taxes. That’s no doubt true, and he indicated that Valdosta seemed to be waiting to hear what the County wants to do about SPLOST, while the county is waiting to hear what Valdosta wants to do. Several people remarked that the prior LOST negotiations (which are currently on judicial hold pending one participant returning from the current session of the state legislature) did affect SPLOST losing in the most recent election. I didn’t hear anybody suggest holding public hearings this time, but Commissioner Marshall did say it would be good to say what SPLOST funds would be for in some detail.
On the other hand, the Chairman asserted Continue reading
Tabled! The applicant requested and the Commission unanimously voted
to table
the proposed closing of Old State Road to Hotchkiss Crossing
on the Alapaha River
until their next meeting, which is in two weeks, Tuesday 26 February 2013.
A waste company executive suddenly rescheduled so he could come back
and apologize to the public.
All this and 3 rezonings and 3 contracts at the Lowndes County Commission
Regular Session Tuesday 12 February 2013, plus people haven’t forgotten
about animal shelter issues.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes. See also the videos of the Work Session of the previous morning.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Dave Shepler, regional manager of Advanced Disposal,
suddenly decided he didn’t have to be in Biloxi after all,
and reappeared at
Tuesday evening’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session
for a more public (and more polished) version of
what he said at the previous morning’s Work Session.
There was a bit of new information, which included
that his company had delivered a map of on which day to expect
waste collection pickup, which is now
on the Lowndes County website
and he said it was published as an advertisement in the VDT.
Here’s the video:
He also got into a TV news station’s website report. Eames Yates wrote for WCTV yesterday, Company Apologies for Problems with Trash Collection.
Thanks to Commissioners Demarcus Marshall and John Page for getting some public explanation out of this company granted by the Commission before those two Commissioners were elected.
-jsq
First the Chairman talked about how many people could speak and for how long in the public hearing; then at Tuesday evening's Regular Session the Commission tabled it for two weeks, so closing the only public access to the Alapaha River in Lowndes County will be up for a vote again Tuesday 26 February 2013.
6.a. Public Hearing: Abandonment of a portion of Old State Road (CR 16)
You can see in the video that the room was packed, which is very unusual. The great majority were there to oppose closing the road. As Chairman Bill Slaughter remarked, about nine people signed up for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard to speak about this item; as he noted, anyone can speak in a public hearing without signing up. To my knowledge, only one person was there to speak for closing the road, and that was the applicant who had just agreed to ask for it to be tabled. The Chairman said:
Continue reading