Guess what’s really inevitable, pipeline companies? Solar and wind power.
Utility scare tactics that no coal means pipelines are so much hot air.
Scare tactics that no pipelines would mean LNG trains are burnt up by solar power.
Stop pipelnes or fracking and stop the other and LNG export along with it.
And we’re winning!
Tom Randall, Bloomberg, 6 April 2016, Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels: Record clean energy investment outpaces gas and coal 2 to 1. Continue reading
2:30 PM today, four Lowndes County cases.
Objections are expected to
VAR-2016-04 Joshua Restoration Ranch (5808 McDonald Road),
which is about road access for a group/family personal care home.
One has been withdrawn by the applicant:
VAR-2016-03 Southers (1290 Southers Lane).
The other two are about
minimum building setbacks and
road access.
Thanks to ZBOA member Gretchen Quarterman, the entire board packet is
on the LAKE website.
ZBOA makes actual decisions, unlike the Planning Commission, which only recommends. Here’s the agenda. Continue reading
LAKE video taken by Gretchen at the 15 March 2016
Valdosta Parking Deck Public Comment Meeting.
Video: Downtown Parking Deck Pubic Comment Meeting 2016-03-15
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
See also Jennifer Dandrum, VDT, 17 March 2016 City unveils parking deck designs, Continue reading
The
reading of the Animal Welfare Ordinance
drew two citizen speakers:
Jim Sharpe
and
Dr. Amanda Hall.
Chairman Bill Slaughter remarked on the 5 March 2016 death of former Lowndes County Coroner Charles Exum.
See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and the agenda for that meeting and this Regular Session for the three board appointments, the two Copeland Road items related to water, sewer, pavement, and Lowndes Middle School students, the two Tax Assessor items, others, and, last but not least, the four alcohol items. See also Continue reading
We all won twice against invading pipelines this week in the Georgia legislature.
A smashing 34-128
defeat of Spectra Energy’s invading Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail natural gas pipeline,
by WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Georgia Sierra Club, Georgia Water Coalition, SpectraBusters, and many others,
wasn’t the only win for landowners, environmentalists, and the people
in the Georgia legislature this week.
Push Back the Pipeline‘s petroleum products moratorium passed the final legislative hurdle in the House and is on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign.
You know, if Deal had stood up for the people against Sabal Trail, too,
its easements to drill under Georgia rivers including our Withlacoochee River
and Okapilco Creek, would have been defeated in the State Land Commission
of which he is chair before they ever got to the legislature.
But we all won, and won again!
Spectra, Kinder Morgan, and even ALEC lost this time.
Walter C. Jones, jacksonville.com, 23 March 2016, Bill to stall pipeline from Belton, S.C., to Jacksonville awaits Georgia governor’s signature: Georgia House adopted moratorium that would impose moratorium on licensing and permitting until July 2017, Continue reading
Work Session 8:30 AM this morning,
and Tuesday evening finally voting on the
Animal Services Ordinance
including tethering, and (who knew about this?)
appointing Christina Bennett to the Animal Control Board.
Renewing the annual Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Capital Contract for the MIDS bus service is on the agenda, as is appointing three people to the Valdosta Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) out of these four: Ronald Skrine, Tammy Greenway, Floyd Rose, Bob Wilburs. As usual, how were people supposed to know? And where are the applications of those named? Continue reading
Please join us for an informational, strategy, and planning session around how we can improve access to fresh, local affordable foods.
facebook event
When: 5-7PM Thursday 31 March 2016
Where: City Hall Annex, 300 N Lee St, Valdosta, GA 31601
This is a follow-on from the South Georgia Growing Local 2016 conference with next steps and some planning as a community. We will likely focus around growing, community gardens, urban gardens, permaculture, food preparation, cooking and eating, but other topics may come up. Be sure to bring your best ideas about how to grow our local food movement in South Georgia.
-gretchen
On Valdosta’s website, 9 March 2016, CVDA Hosts Public Forum for Proposed Downtown Parking Deck, Mar. 15
The City of Valdosta and Central Valdosta Development Authority will host a public forum on Tuesday, March 15 to discuss a proposed new parking deck for Downtown Valdosta. The forum will take place at 5 p.m. in the City Hall Annex Multi-Purpose Room, located at 300 N. Lee Street.
The parking deck is being suggested as one option to create additional parking opportunities in Downtown Valdosta. At the forum, conceptual plans for the parking deck will be presented. Key staff members will be present at the meeting, and the public will have the opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback and voice concerns related to the proposed project.
For more information, contact the Main Street office at 229-259-3577.
Noelani Mathews, WCTV, 14 March 2016, Local Shops React to Parking Deck in Downtown Valdosta, Continue reading
They said almost nothing last month about
Project Max, so we don’t know for sure if for example it is really a glass container company.
They meet again tonight. Actually, that one is cancelled; they meet next April 19th.
At the end, Gretchen
spoke about:
Dr. Noll of WACE said he was there to “harrass” Continue reading
Come to the Farm Bureau in two weeks to hear
Tax Assessor staff present their updates and provide your input
for changes to the
rural land revaluation, this time taking into account rivers, aquifer recharge zones, and uniformity.
Maybe the Tax Assessors actually don’t want more flooding in Valdosta;
both the City of Valdosta and GA-EDP have already shown interest in attending
about that point.
At an appeal on my property valuation, the Board of Equalization stopped short of actually ordering the Tax Assessors to redo last year’s rural land revaluation, because staff volunteered Continue reading