Boating, walking, birding, hunting, fishing: our watersheds provide
us all that, plus what goes in upstream comes out in your drinking
water. Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, and Little Rivers: WWALS
Seminar tomorrow in Tifton. Good talks, good food, good water. Y’all come!
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Al Browning of
WWALS
made a point yesterday that I haven’t heard mentioned
by local Chambers of Commerce or economic development agencies:
Suppose there’s a business looking to south Georgia, to move into an area. They can go to the Adopt-A-Stream website for that particular area, and get an idea of where the best water is. And they may choose… that Berrien County has terrible water; I’m going to go to Cook County, or Lowndes!
Here’s the video:
That’s Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, which currently doesn’t show any water quality testing sites for any of those counties, but that could change soon. Maybe economic development organizations should help it change, because that lack could be steering businesses elsewhere.
A prominent local economic development appointee asked me last year,
Why would you want absolutely clean ear or water?
Well, businesses considering moving here might want those things because their employees do. And their employees might want those things because they don’t want to get sick. And besides, who doesn’t like clean air and water?
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How did conservation zoning get put on part of Robert Dinkins’ property at Lake Alapaha? County records conflict on that point. Was it important to keep that conservation zoning? Staff thought so, but the Planning Commission thought otherwise, and the Lowndes County Commission decided to agree.
The second county case in the 27 February 2012 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting was REZ-2012-02 Dinkins, Southern Shore, 0264 007 A&B, ~97 ac., R-21 & CON to R-A, well/septic. They spent 8 1/2 minutes on it, mainly listening to the requester, Robert Dinkins, wonder how any part of the subject property was zoned for conservation. Staff recommended the conservation zoning remain. GLPC voted to recommend removing it.
REZ-2012-02 got 2:37 12 March 2012 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission and 
6:49 in its 13 March 2012 Regular Session. The County Commission voted to remove the conservation zoning. Here’s a previous post with more detail about that.
Here’s a video playlist of this rezoning item in all three meetings (GLPC, LCC Work Session, and LCC Regular Session):
Conservation at Lake Alapaha: REZ-2012-02 Dinkins
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2012.
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 March 2012.
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
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Update 21 May 2012: Fixed meeting date. See also Planning Commission discussion of this item.
An issue of conservation records came up at the 28 February 2012 13 March 2012 Lowndes County Commission meeting, regarding a rezoning at Lake Alapaha, in far northeast Lowndes County, near the Alapaha River.
County Planner Jason Davenport described the problem, which came up in a request to rezone a piece of property that was partly zoned RA (Residential Agriculture) and partly Conservation:
We did get help from the clerk’s office to try to clear up when this property was zoned and why it was zoned conservation. I just don’t have anything [unintelligible]. We have minutes that say one thing and a zoning map that says another.
He said they had had limited time to investigate, and had not been able to resolve this issue.
That issue is still on the table. I would just remind you that in the grand scheme it is a minor issue.
Commissioner Richard Raines made the motion:
For my part I’m for rezoning the entire property RA and eliminating the conservation.
And that’s what they did. Which raises issues of what we should do.
Here’s a playlist:
Conservation records
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2012 13 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
The issue here is at least fourfold:
Continue readingSee separate items on the appointment of Sheila Cook to the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases Region Four Planning Board and “We expect you to run a clean, quiet establishment” —Ashley Paulk.
Other notable parts of this meeting were when
staff
said conservation status was a small detail and
and
Commissioners
proceeded to get rid of it in a rezoning.
At the end of the meeting,
County Manager Joe Pritchard
didn’t listen to Commissioner Powell’s request
and proceede to recount details of
road paving property signatures
until Chairman Paulk nudged him that the question was about
tornadoes, after which Pritchard
gave a recap of
Ashley Tye’s tornado report of the previous morning.
Here’s
the agenda.
Here’s
a playlist:
Videos
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission, (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
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More about those public comments:The Comprehensive Energy Plan (CEP) addresses Vermont’s energy future for electricity, thermal energy, transportation, and land use. This document represents the efforts of numerous state agencies and departments, and input from stakeholders and citizens who shared their insights and knowledge on energy issues over the past ten months. The plan can be downloaded from this website or may be viewed at the Department of Public Service, 112 State Street, Montpelier during regular business hours.
The release of the Final CEP 2011 includes the CEP Public Involvement Report II (above). This document summarizes the written comments received during the second public comment period, between the release of the CEP Public Review Draft (CEP) on September 13, 2011 and the close of the public comment period on November 4, 2011. Over 1,380 written comments were received via email, the Comprehensive Energy Plan website, and hard copy between July 15 and November 4. Approximately 350 stakeholder groups, including municipal, business, and non-profit entities, submitted comments. Over 830 form-letter comments were signed and submitted by members of at least three different organizations. Over 200 comments were submitted by individual members of the general public.Real input from the entire state. Imagine that!
Vermont’s population is about 622,000, or the size of a single Congressional district, so maybe it’s easier for them than for Georgia. On the other hand, maybe a regional south Georgia energy policy, or even a county policy, would be possible.
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Christopher Joyce wrote for NPR today, After Fukushima: A Changing Climate For Nuclear
“We don’t see Fukushima as having a significant impact on theNevermind that those extensions mostly go well beyond the design lifespans of the plants extended.U.S. industry,” says Scott Peterson, vice president of the industry’s Nuclear Energy Institute. “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was renewing 10 licenses for U.S. plants, extending them 20 years in operation. We were continuing to move forward in examining new reactor designs.”
Marc Chupka, who advises electric utilities as an economist with the Brattle Group in Washington, wonders who’s going to pay for them.So we could do what Germany is doing:“Right now, just the plain economics of nuclear power are underwater,” he says. He notes that over the past decade, construction costs have skyrocketed and natural gas got more plentiful and cheaper.
“Things change significantly over relatively short periods of time,” Chupka says, noting that it takes about a dozen years to plan and build a new nuclear plant. “That makes it an incredibly challenging environment to plan for the long term. And that adds to the risk and it makes investors understandably skittish.”
Germany says the same: The government will throw its weight and wealth into solar and wind energy to replace nuclear power.Or we could listen to the same old excuse: Continue reading
Federal 30% and Georgia 35% rebates add up to 65% (see below under DSIRE). That’s for solar (PV or hot water), wind, and some other related items.
The other 35% is what stops most businesses and people. 35% of a $25,000 house solar system is still $8,750. People like that it will pay itself off in 9-15 years, but most people don’t have $8,750 to invest.
That’s a business opportunity for some enterprising local bank or banks. As Dr. Noll has explained, if you pay for that remainder yourself, the system will pay itself off in about 9 years. If you get a bank to finance it, more like 15 years. And local banks currently require collateral other than the system itself (they like real estate as collateral). The simplest business opportunity is for a local bank to accept the solar equipment itself as collateral. After all, it’s worth 65/35 or 185% of the total loan amount.
The
Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA)
can probably tell you more.
Other ways to finance renewable energy projects include: Continue reading
To the people of Valdosta and South GeorgiaContinue reading
We, the local citizens occupying Valdosta, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; to nonviolently occupy public space; to create an open process to address the problems we face, and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.
Our issues are varied, yet related.
We seek
Dr. Noll made the case for the cost-effectiveness of solar energy
through, among other things, an analogy to finaninc buying a car.
First Dr. Noll thanked people who had supported WACE’s anti-biomass work, and hoped people had had time to read his recent LTE in the VDT, Waste Not, Want Not. Then he addressed Commissioner Raines’ comments of the previous day. Dr. Noll pointed out that solar is fast becoming less expensive and with financing costs little more than a car or truck.
Here’s the video:
Solar is cost-effective —Dr. Noll @ LCC 13 September 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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