Category Archives: VDT

VDT says VLCIA illegally made up a document

Today’s editorial in the VDT is Another Industrial Authority misstep refers to the VDT article and editorial of Sunday, and continues:
The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts, the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the Open Records Act.
Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached” that wasn’t actually attached to documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011. Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT, presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request, even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.

Back to the VDT editorial: Continue reading →

Just say no to biomass –VDT to VLCIA

VDT reported on Biomass plant misses deadlines, but what do they really think? The title is my paraphrase of Sunday’s editorial title, It’s all up to the Industrial Authority:
In two months, less than 60 days away, Wiregrass Power LLC is supposed to break ground on the biomass facility in Lowndes County. By now, they are supposed to have contracts with power companies to sell the electricity to and with suppliers to purchase the wood waste. They have neither, nor does the company have an agreement with the city of Valdosta to purchase the wastewater from the sewage treatment plant.
Well, the City of Valdosta could refuse to sell the wastewater. And maybe the Lowndes County Commission could exercise its fiduciary responsibility. But, sure, the Industrial Authority could just say no.
And yet the folks at the Industrial Authority appear to be rather nonchalant about the fact that this company has yet again broken its agreement. They have the power to renogiate the terms of the agreement and they also have the power to cancel it, but neither is happening. Instead, they are giving the company all the leeway they need to continue dragging this project along that the community doesn’t want.
Folks? Like Col. Ricketts? But remember, he and Lame-Duck Lofton are only Continue reading →

More about Open Records Requests

How do we know what agreements the Industrial Authority has with Wiregrass Power LLC? Open records requests!

Some local councils don’t even have open records request forms, and many don’t have them posted online. But that doesn’t have to stop you!

As mentioned, there are plenty of open records requests still to be filed. If you want suggestions, inquire at information at l-a-k-e.org (the dashes are part of the address). For how, see the previous post on the Open Records Act. Send LAKE the results of your request and we may publish them. If you want your name mentioned in a LAKE post as the open records requestor, please say so.

Also remember that any communications you may receive from an elected Continue reading →

Biomass plant misses deadlines –VDT

David Rodock writes on the front page of the Sunday VDT today (the highest profile news source for the region) that Biomass plant misses deadlines: Will the plant move forward?
The Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility was supposed to have met a number of project goals established by the Economic Development Agreement (EDA) between the company and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority by April 1, 2011. According to Allen Ricketts, Industrial Authority project manager, those goals still have yet to be met.

The specific goals in the agreement were that a “finalized engineering procurement construction contract” would be ready by March 31. By April 1, the company was supposed to have finalized both a power purchase/transmission agreement along with a wastewater/biosolids agreement.

They’ve been slipping deadlines for quite some time. According to page 4 of that EDA (which you can see for yourself on the LAKE web site): Continue reading →

Why school consolidation is useless: bright flight

What local county grew twice as fast as any of the others? If you guessed Lowndes, nope, no prize for you. The answer, according to the 2000 census, is Lanier County:

What school consolidation would get us is more of that. Not white flight, rather bright flight, to Lanier and other counties. Many of the leaders of the local African-American community already don’t live in Valdosta; they live in Lowndes County or even Berrien County. More of both black and white people will move out of a county with a consolidated school district, resulting in lower educational results not just for Valdosta but also for Lowndes schools. Is that what we want?

How about all the people who claim they know how to take our schools to “the next level” get on with doing that right now with the two existing school systems?

-jsq

What Are Our Priorities? –Dr. Noll @ LCC 22 March 2011

Dr. Noll raised a number of issues about community priorities at the Lowndes County Commission meeting of 22 March 2011 and asked what are our priorities?

The Sierra Club letter he mentions was posted last week. For NOAA Weather Radios see previous posts. Here is the video:


Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 22 March 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Appended is the script Dr. Noll says he was reading. I’ve added a few links to relevant posts. -jsq Continue reading →

VDT on LCC last night

LAKE is thrilled when the VDT covers things so we don’t have to. David S. Rodock in his writeup in VDT this morning on yesterday’s Lowndes County Commission meeting includes this list that was not displayed in the public meeting, yet was approved by the commissioners. Car 41 No where are you?

Here’s the list: Continue reading →

VDT on water woes and SIFE

The VDT editorial for yesterday, What We Think: Will water woes define our future? includes this:
Water scarcity is a reality for many American states, particularly in the Southwest, and over-development in desert areas is compounding the issues between Colorado, Nevada and California. Georgia’s problems pale in comparison, but if the drought continues, consumption limits and conservation are going to have to be implemented again.
That would be the drought that was already in progress in south Georgia in January.

The VDT mentions a student group trying to do something about it:

Saturday, the VSU Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is hosting a community Walk for Water to raise awareness and money for people worldwide who don’t have access to clean water.
Here’s their web page and their facebook page.

Free enterprise? Who knows? Maybe the Industrial Authority will get around to doing something about industry and water.

-jsq

Biomass or carbon trading or something else?

To get an idea of why big timber growers might find biomass attractive, here’s an article by Terry Dickson in the Florida Times-Union from 20 June 2005, State’s forestry industry in an ‘alarming decline’
People have long debated whether there is a sound if a tree falls in a forest but nobody is there to hear it.

The fall of revenue from Georgia’s forestry industry, however, has attracted a lot of attention — but $10 billion is hard to ignore.

Continue reading →

CCA private prison in Lowndes County?

What’s Project Excel? A private prison for Lowndes County, proposed by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

Back in August 2010 when the VDT first brought this story to light, I pointed out that CCA is the same company that lobbied heavily for Arizona’s new immigration law so CCA could get more customers. And I wondered what VLCIA thought about this? Silly question: of course they’re all for it! It’s “jobs, jobs, jobs” with them.

As of 21 December 2010, apparently things were still pretty tentative when Brad Lofton gave an update to the VLCIA board, claiming the CCA private prison would bring 600 jobs to Lowndes County, Georgia:


Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Gary Minchew, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
21 December 2010
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Some public objection had surfaced by 20 January 2010, when Dr. Mark George remarked to the Valdosta City Council:

“I think we can do better than a generator that burns human waste. I think we can do better than a private prison and those are two things that we seem to be excited about as a community.”
Next, we’ll see if objections had any effect on the Industrial Authority.

-jsq