Tag Archives: History

Mickey Tillman recognized @ LCC 2012-06-26

As an unscheduled item at the 26 June 2012 Regular Session, Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk and County Manager Joe Pritchard recognized the many years of service of Mickey Tillman. Here's an excerpt from what Joe Pritchard said:

Mickey was hired in 1975. Lowndes County was referred to as the Commission of Roads and Revenue. and the county had a population of approximately 60,000 people and was served by 150 employees. Today of course Lowndes County serves nearly 110,000 citizens with an employee base of 575. Mickey has been a part of this historical growth and he has been instrumental in the early development of several key services that continue to meet the needs of the citizens today.

Then the Commissioners posed for photographs with Mickey Tillman.

Here's the video:

Mickey Tillman recognized
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 June 2012.

-jsq

One Japanese nuclear reactor back online

Not surprising, but quite possibly not a good idea. Mari Yamaguchi wrote for AP yesterday, Japan powered by nuclear energy again, blamed anew,

Nuclear power returned to Japan’s energy mix for the first time in two months Thursday, hours before a parliamentary panel blamed the government’s cozy relations with the industry for the meltdowns that prompted the mass shutdown of the nation’s reactors.

Though the report echoes other investigations into last year’s disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, it could fuel complaints that Japan is trying to restart nuclear reactors without doing enough to avoid a repeat. Thursday’s resumption of operations at a reactor in Ohi, in western Japan, already had been hotly contested.

Government officials and the utility that runs the Ohi plant announced last month that the No. 3 reactor had passed stringent safety checks and needed to be brought back online to ward off blackouts during the high-demand summer months. Another Ohi reactor, No. 4, is set to restart later this month and the government hopes to restart more of Japan’s 50 working reactors as soon as possible.

“We have finally taken this first step,” said Hideki Toyomatsu, vice president of Kansai Electric Power Co., which operates the Ohi plant. “But it is just a first step.”

Maybe they’re like Southern Company (SO) CEO Thomas A. Fanning,who said he’d Continue reading →

Historical Population, Lowndes County, Georgia

Increased population is using increasing resources in Lowndes County, Georgia:

Increased population is using increasing resources

Increased population is using increasing resources
Chart by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE) from Georgiainfo data.

CensusPop.
1830 2,453
1840 5,574
1850 7,714
1860 5,249
1870 8,321
1880 11,049
1890 15,102
1900 20,036
1910 24,436
1920 26,521
1930 29,994
1940 31,860
1950 35,211
1960 49,270
1970 55,112
1980 67,972
1990 75,981
2000 92,115
2010 109,233
Georgiainfo data

The population of Georgia has almost tripled during my lifetime, has about doubled since 1970, and has increased 18% in just the ten years from 2000 to 2010. That blip up between 1950 and 1960 is Moody Air Force Base.

That kind of growth doesn’t happen without increased resource use. If we want a livable county and region for ourselves and our descendants, we need to think about what we’re doing, with water, with transportation, and with energy, not to mention education, jobs, and pretty much everything else. We already cut down and sold off almost all the forests. Now we need better ways than using up all the resources that were here.

Hm, how about some knowledge-based jobs in energy and telecommunications and agriculture?

Speaking of Moody, the U.S. military learned in Afghanistan that shipping oil to places where you can generate solar energy produces a vulnerable supply chain. Moody is already leading in local solar energy. How about we help our base help us help them to move ahead in solar for everybody in Lowndes County and the state of Georgia?

-jsq

Privatizing water: could it happen here?

Water, the next oil: many big companies have already been betting on that for years now. Do we want privatize companies controling our water supplies for their profit, running up prices at our expense? We can prevent that, and we should get on with it.

Jeneen Interlandi wrote for Newsweek 8 October 2010, The New Oil: Should private companies control our most precious natural resource?

…privately owned water utilities will charge what the market can bear, and spend as little as they can get away with on maintenance and environmental protection. Other commodities are subject to the same laws, of course. But with energy, or food, customers have options: they can switch from oil to natural gas, or eat more chicken and less beef. There is no substitute for water, not even Coca-Cola. And, of course, those other things don’t just fall from the sky on whoever happens to be lucky enough to be living below. “Markets don’t care about the environment,” says Olson. “And they don’t care about human rights. They care about profit.”

Well, that couldn’t happen here. Or could it? What about this:

Many of us have no idea where our water comes from….

Do you know what’s upstream of you, that might be getting into your water? Do you know what’s downstream of you, that your runoff migh be getting into? If you’re like me, you’ll have to look that up.

Remember what Ben Copeland said: Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee “all have their straws in that same aquifer.” The Floridan aquifer, which is the source of most of our drinking water. Our rivers and streams help replenish the Floridan aquifer, but we’re using it up faster than rain falls.

The article goes on about Bolivia privatizing water as a condition of “austerity”, until Continue reading →

Record Georgia temperatures above 100 degrees

Driving north Friday, the temperatures kept getting hotter. John C. Griffin recorded these temperature signs, used here by permission. Friday 29 June 2012:

Record heat wave with triple digits in Macon, Georgia on Riverside Drive at Arkwright Road
Photography by John Griffin (c) 2012 All Rights reserved

I can attest it was still over 100 in Macon after dark Friday.

And it only got worse Saturday 30 June 2012:

Arkwright Road at Riverside Drive – I-75 Exit 169 – Macon, Georgia Record Heat Wave
Photography (c) John Griffin All Rights Reserved

That’s 107 on Friday and 111 Saturday in Macon, where the previous record high for June was 106.

You know, Macon, where Georgia Power is still “studying” and “experimenting” with solar power. Solar power that continues to generate in the heat with no water use. Solar power that Continue reading →

Strategies for Lowndes County? —John S. Quarterman

My op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq

Our high schools and college graduates mostly have to go somewhere else, because jobs here are few and many of them don’t pay enough for a decent living. Should we not care enough about our families and our community to come up with strategies that grow existing businesses and attract new ones that will employ local people?

We need discussions and strategies that involve the whole community, going beyond just the usual planning professionals, to include all groups and individuals with information or opinions, whether they got here generations ago or last week: for fairness and for freedom.

Sometimes we see local strategy. Winn Roberson organized Drive Away CCA. Ashley Paulk verified there was no business case for a biomass plant in Lowndes County after many people successfully opposed it. School “unification” opponents, out-financed 10 to 1, still defeated that referendum 4 to 1.

How do we go beyond opposing things and move on to sustainable strategies that build clean industry?

The Industrial Authority focus group meeting I attended Wednesday was refreshing, because their consultants asked the opinions of people some of whom previously had to picket outside. The previous day, VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland said this strategic planning process was a long time coming. I agree, and while nobody can say what will come of it at this point, I hope it does produce a real Economic Development Strategy.

Building on the Valdosta City Council’s annual consideration of affordable housing,

Continue reading →

Georgia Trend Propagandizes for T-SPLOST

When did state tax policy become a plaything for companies, instead of a source of services for taxpayers? There’s a lot of fudging in the T-SPLOST article in the current Georgia Trend. I guess that’s not surprising when it’s mostly about the viewpoint of the CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Ben Young wrote for Georgia Trend June 2012, Transportation Game Changer: July’s statewide referendum will determine Georgia’s economic future. There’s a lot at stake for all 12 regions.

“The reason our port is the fastest growing is because our road and rail network is so efficient,” says Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic De-velopment, another top RTR advocate. “If Zell Miller and other former administrations hadn’t done something to make the port more of a growth engine, we would now have little to no success in advanced manufacturing.”

Yet the rest of the article is all about roads, with little or nothing about rail, except for metro Atlanta and Charlotte as a comparison. Where are the rail projects linking Valdosta to Atlanta and Savannah, or the Valdosta MSA commuter rail or bus system? Nowhere in T-SPLOST.

It is also unclear how Georgia can sustain growth in logistics-related sectors that depend on moving goods quickly and efficiently — sectors believed to be leading us out of the recession — without strengthening the highway network, which has suffered due to lower gas tax revenues. Without an additional tax, there is no way to keep up what we have, much less build anything new, proponents say.

Um, then maybe the governor shouldn’t have refused to extend Georgia’s gas tax by 8/10 cent (almost as much as proposed the 1 cent T-SPLOST tax, but on gasoline, not on everything including food). And note “believed to be” and “proponents say”. Later in the same article:

People are desperate for more transportation funding and the improvements it will bring, but the referendum itself is complex.

Who are these unnamed “people”? The same “proponents” by whom things are “believed to be”? Isn’t it wonderful to base tax policy on hearsay?

If Georgia was serious about creating jobs to lead us out of the recession and into a national and world leader, Georgia legislators Continue reading →

Solar beats coal

This is what you call a paradigm shift: the energy source that made the industrial revolution take off 200 years ago, coal, is being beaten down in price by the energy source Thomas Edison recommended 80 years ago: the sun.

Sandra Enkhardt wrote for PV Magazine 24 April 2012, Germany: PV makes coal power unprofitable,

“Photovoltaics destroys the economics of coal power plants,” stated MD of the Association of Coal Importers, Erich Schmitz. Given the increasing amounts of green electricity from the wind and sun, it is questionable whether investment in new coal plants by energy companies Eon, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW will pay off, since the plants must be turned off if there is enough green energy being fed into the grid.

Already back 9 February 2012 Lars Paulsson and Marek Strzelecki wrote for Bloomberg Europe Coal Loses to South Africa on Renewables: Energy Markets,

Germany’s biggest program of solar- and wind-power production has driven European coal prices below South Africa’s for the first time in 10 months….

Coal prices in Europe have fallen 7.5 percent this year as nations increase the amount of energy they get from alternative sources. Germany, the continent’s biggest power market, installed a record 3,000 megawatts of new solar panels in December, the Bonn-based Bundesnetzagentur, the network regulator, said. Coal stockpiles at the biggest storage site in the Netherlands are 6.7 percent above year-ago levels, according to Europees Massagoed-Overslagbedrijf BV, which operates the terminal.

So if solar is beating coal’s price down and Germany installed 3 gigawatts of solar PV in December while installing none of coal, which is the alternative now? Wouldn’t coal be the poor alternative while solar is the main act?

-jsq

PS: Owed to Michael Noll.

Gov. Deal freezes state gas tax

Why is the governor freezing an 8/10 cent gas tax just before voters are expected to decide on a 1 cent transportation tax? Why do we need T-SPLOST when we could use that gas tax instead?

According to the Governor’s own press release:

Friday, June 8, 2012

Gov. Nathan Deal announced today that he will stop an increase in the motor fuel tax scheduled to go into effect on July 1. Using the formula established in state law, the Department of Revenue determined that average gas prices over the past six months call for the motor fuel tax to rise to 12.9 cents per gallon from 12.1 cents per gallon.

With that 0.8 cent gas tax, why would we need the 1 cent T-SPLOST sales tax? That 0.8 cent gas tax would have gone into effect just before the 31 July 2012 primary election, when voters till vote on the T-SPLOST referendum. T-SPLOST, which is a one cent sales tax. And a gasoline tax is paid by people who actually use the roads, not by every pedestrian who buys food.

The governor’s PR also said:

“We’re seeing a slow and steady rebound in Georgia’s economy, with our unemployment rate going down and state revenues heading up, but Georgians are still paying gas prices that are high by historical standards,” Deal said in a statement. “The state should not add to that burden at this juncture.”

But we should increase everyone’s food prices with a T-SPLOST tax? How does that make sense?

The governor’s PR also says:

The governor of Georgia has the power to suspend collection of a tax, but the action requires ratification from the General Assembly.

Oh, but this freeze only lasts until January, and the General Assembly doesn’t meet until then. How convenient!

-jsq

Waste disposal again —Joe Pritchard @ LCC 2012-06-12

Why are Commissioners hiding behind Joe Pritchard, instead of discussing trash disposal in open meetings?

At last week’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission, County Manager Joe Pritchard repeated part of what he said the previous morning at the Work Session. After the meeting he came up to me to ask whether he had clarified it more. I do appreciate him doing that, and he did clarify where the new cards are on sale, although he omitted any mention of where they had been discussed previously. And it’s true that the previous morning he did not say anything had been decided. Yet the method of paying for waste disposal has changed (for only six months, and not prorated), so somebody decided that, somewhere where the public was not invited.

That six month period conveniently ends just after the current current Commission will be replaced by a new Commission with two additional members and a new Chairman. Those of us who remember former Chairman Rod Casey’s Commission passing a waste collection plan just as he left the Commission may remain sceptical that the Commissioners haven’t already made up their minds to privatize trash collection and socialize the losses onto landowners, who will have to deal with increased illegal dumping.

Sceptical especially when the VDT has reported twice that the Commissioners have already made up their minds, and about the Commissioners discussing trash disposal at three different meetings at which they knew the public would not be present. Remember the VDT report of the Commission’s stealth 4 June meeting:

Continue reading →