Tag Archives: development

What is your plan? –jsq to VLCIA board

I just sent this. -jsq
From: “John S. Quarterman”
To: Brad Lofton
Cc: [see below]

Since I know of no public email address for the VLCIA board, I’m asking Brad Lofton to distribute this to the board before their meeting tomorrow.

Dear Board,

This is an update to my previous question to you, which was published in the Valdosta Daily Times, 20 Dec 2010, available online here:

http://lake.typepad.com/on-the-lake-front/2010/12/whats-the-industrial-authoritys-plan.html

I’m sending this letter directly to you, and also publishing it online,

http://lake.typepad.com/on-the-lake-front/2010/12/what-is-your-plan.html

What is the Industrial Authority’s plan to bring in real clean jobs?

Your staff have claimed that Wiregrass Power LLC’s tiny solar plant plus their biomass plant will make us a “center of innovation excellence for renewable and sustainable energy in Georgia.” Is that all?

If so, let me make a few suggestions.

Continue reading →

I will proudly share it with everyone. –Brad Lofton

VLCIA exec. dir. responds. -jsq
From: “blofton@industrialauthority.com” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>,
Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:35:23 -0500
Subject: RE: Videos from First Presbyterian Church, 6 Jan 2011

Thank you for providing the video from Thursday. I will proudly share it with everyone. It was a great night, and I was pleased with the very large amount of support in the room. You may also want to consult with the local Mortgage Broker’s Assocation. I spoke for them last week as well, and they are enthusiastic supporters.

Have a nice weekend,
BL

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

Lofton copied the same people I did: Continue reading →

Re: Videos from First Presbyterian Church, 6 Jan 2011

Mary Gooding, VLCIA board member, acknowledges receipt of my heads-up (included below) to VLCIA about the recent videos of Brad Lofton. (More of those to come, by the way.) -jsq
From: “Mary B. Gooding”
To: “John S. Quarterman”
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:28:59 +0000
Subject: RE: Videos from First Presbyterian Church, 6 Jan 2011

John – Thanks!

Mary B. Gooding
Director of Marketing and Community Relations
Valdosta State University
229-333-7444
FAX 229-245-3891

IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A BLAZER!

—–Original Message—–

Continue reading →

Tom Call: New VLCIA Board Member

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) has a new board member, Tom Call, local realtor and pesticider:
Roy Copeland
Roy Copeland 		Tom Call
Tom Call 		Mary B. Gooding
Mary Gooding 		Norman Bennett
Norman Bennett 		Jerry Jennett
Jerry Jennett,
Chairman
Since VLCIA’s website has no picture for Tom Call, LAKE has used the one from his Plaxo page.

He’s on the board of Homeland Defense Corp., which does “Custom Automated Mosquito and Insect Misting Systems” and says this:

Thomas B. Call graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. After a career in the agricultural chemicals industry, Tom branched out into real estate. Today, he is the owner of Coldwell Banker Premier Real Estate, and owns a number of successful businesses specializing in residential and commercial real estate development. www.Valdostarealtors.com
(Also on that board are Continue reading →

An Expensive Hobby: Gary Minchew’s VLCIA parting speech

What Gary Minchew said at the end of his last Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) meeting as a board member:

He said he’s brought over 200 jobs a year to the area. He also said he organized getting the 1 mil of dedicated tax money for VLCIA. Continue reading →

In refusing debate, VLCIA staff are following orders from their board

We’ve seen Brad Lofton write I will not debate you over e-mail and We will not, however, debate you over e-mail meanwhile refusing to put tax-funded presentations and videos up for public view through the VLCIA website, and offering personal meetings instead. Having experienced one of those personal meetings down at VLCIA HQ, and having heard from others who have attended them, I know of no substantive debate that happened at those indoctrination sessions, either. Any attempt at debate or even to get Lofton to produce the scientific evidence he claims he has ends with a proclamation like this one from September:
We’re moving forward with permits in hand.
or this one from December:
We’re moving forward now, and we are looking forward to the ground breaking which will be Spring of 2011.

But let’s not be too hard on VLCIA staff. At the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting, it became clear Continue reading →

‘Mr. Lofton has no proof whatsoever that biomass is “safe”.’ –Dr. Noll

Since Brad Lofton has once again wrapped himself in a self-imposed cloak of silence, Dr. Noll gets the last word, including two attachments, which you can find here. -jsq
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:10:58 +0000

Good evening everyone.

It is obvious by now that Mr. Lofton has no proof whatsoever that biomass is “safe”. He does not have one statement by a medical organization, not one scholarly publication he can share with us that backs up his claim. (Coincidentally, the same is true for other claims, as the event on January 13 will show.)

Members of WACE (and others in the community) have tried to receive proof

Continue reading →

Brad Lofton’s memory fails him again

On 28 Dec 2010 Brad Lofton wrote:
No one but WACE has made any claims about our efforts to substantiate this project.
Who are all these people, then, asking questions at the VLCIA’s 6 Dec 2010 event?

For example, this one, following up about the Environmental Impact Study he requested back at the EPD air quality hearing (see video of that event). He didn’t get an answer then, and at VLCIA’s 6 Dec event he still only got allusions to studies and standards that were not produced.

You can see Brad Lofton in that video, listening. Did he forget so quickly?

What about SAVE’s event at VSU at which Dr. Sammons spoke? What about the well-attended Biomass Town Hall that Pastor Angela Manning organized? And other events.

What about my question at the 6 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting? Continue reading →

“In other words, you do not have any proof!” –Noll to Lofton

Continuing the Noll-Lofton email exchange: eight messages in this post. -jsq
From: Michael G. Noll
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:42:44 +0000

Mr. Lofton.

Let’s remain focused on the health risks associated with your biomass project, the most important issue for our community. (WACE will deal with other claims you make, yet can’t back up with scientific studies, on January 13.)

The only thing the public has received in regard to your claim that biomass is safe are your “assurances” and the testimony by a hired gun, who is not even a medical professional, and who also could not back up his claim. No scientific studies. No statements by medical organizations. No links to scholarly publications. Nothing.

At the same time,

Continue reading →

“folks come into the community.” –Col. Ricketts responding to WACE in VLCIA board meeting

Previously I promised to post the rest of what Col. Ricketts and Brad Lofton said about biomass in the 21 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting.

In these two videos, Col. Ricketts responds to materials sent to VLCIA by WACE. He dismisses certain material as being from Massachusetts or being from “folks come into the community.” That’s rather rich, since as near as I can tell, all of VLCIA’s “expert” panelists at their 6 Dec 2010 event were from not from around here. Some were from states a thousand miles from here. Maybe somebody can transcribe Brad Lofton’s enumeration of those “experts” from the board meeting, since as near as I can tell VLCIA has provided no written list of them. And of course Sterling Planet is located in Atlanta, not Lowndes County.

In the first video, Col. Ricketts says he’s responding to WACE materials: Continue reading →