The sinkholes are not just in
Michael McCormick’s garage.
According to groundscan radar by a VSU professor and students,
the sinkholes are also
spreading
under his
front steps and
his house.
The steps are sinking and there’s a crack on the wall inside the house.
Continue readingRon Jackson told LAKE about how South GA Solar Power, LLC remediated the historic Wisenbaker Building in downtown Valdosta for increased air flow and reduced energy consumption.
Valdosta Shared Office Space, Downtown Valdosta,
is in the Wisenbaker Building, built in 1884:
the owner hired South GA Solar Power, LLC as an engineer consultant
to bring down the energy this building was using.
Ron Jackson says they examined air flow, average load,
and other factors,
bringing $12,000/year electric bill down to $3,000,
120 amps/day down to 17 amps/day.
“Consider us as your next consultant for your green energy product.”
Here’s the video.
Picture and video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 May 2012.
Tomorrow: Phase 2.
-jsq
In what the County Planner calls “central Lowndes County” there’s
a sinkhole in a garage,
deeper than a hoe handle.
Michael McCormick called me up yesterday and told me about this
sinkhole in his garage at 4326 Norman Hall Road.
Naturally he’s a bit concerned about this problem.
He thinks his insurance may cover it, but he’s looking for other
options in case.
So far, nobody seems to know what to do.
Which can’t be the case:
this isn’t the first sinkhole in Lowndes County.
We’re helping get the word out to help find whoever does know more about
sinkholes and what resources are available to deal with them.
It’s not only straight down and under the carport concrete.
Continue reading
At Cinco de Mayo,
Ron Jackson explained a self-contained solar attic fan
sold by
South GA Solar Power, LLC.
He was assisted by mechanical engineer Danielle, and isn’t that Business Manager Sharon Jackson?
It’s actually an exhaust fan powered by the sun. What it does is it simply takes the hot air, 125-150° heat, exhausts it out down to 90°, which makes the house cooler, which makes the air conditioner stop running. Which makes the electric bill reduce, go down, 50%. My bill was $345 a month now it’s $120 a month. By a simple application! If you need any more information, call Ron Jackson at South GA Solar Power, LLC.
Self-contained solar attic fan
Pictures and video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 May 2012.
-jsq
I’d heard a rumor that some sort of lawsuit about the biomass site was the subject of some of the Industrial Authority executive sessions for real estate discussions. VLCIA has finally said in public what their position is.
Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today, Authority weighs suit for biomass land: Slow progress leads to default, contract argument
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority plans to send a petition to Lowndes County Superior Court to sue Wiregrass Power, LLC, for a clear title on the land purchased for the development of a biomass energy plant.
The Authority believes Wiregrass defaulted on a lease agreement to build the plant, placing ownership of the 22.22-acre tract back in their hands, but Wiregrass denies the allegations. This denial casts “a cloud” of suspicion on the Authority that may prevent it from re-marketing the property, according to the petition, leading to the suit.
Sounds like they’re publicizing their intent to try to scare Sterling off without having to sue. I’m for that.
This may explain a flurry of special called meetings they had in May and June 2011.
Continue reading
Gretchen Quarterman
canvassed on Summerlin Street in Valdosta Saturday:
The number one thing we need to do is to make the government accessible and transparent, so that the business of the people goes on in public.
Here’s a video playlist:
LAKE videoing George videoing Gretchen canvassing on Summerlin Street in Valdosta,
Canvassing, Lowndes County Commission (GretchenForLowndes.com),
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
and by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2012.
Gretchen mentioned she’d been going to County Commission meetings for about four years now, and thought it was her turn to serve. George asked why she was canvassing on the west side of Valdosta, and she answered:
The thing that is important for people to know is that every single citizen in the county gets to vote, Whether you live in Valdosta, Hahira, Lake Park, Dasher, Remerton, or the unincorporated areas. Every single person who lives in Lowndes County who is a registered voter gets to vote.
You have until October 8th to register
to vote for the November 6th election.
You can register at the Board of Elections at 2808 North Oak Street,
or there are people going around with forms you can fill in and mail
in or they will hand carry down there.
Participatory media!
Doing what traditional media could do, George Boston Rhynes
interviewed Gretchen Quarterman as she canvassed on
Summerlin Street in Valdosta Saturday.
Doing what traditional media can’t do, I videoed
George videoing Gretchen, and he later videoed me
helping Gretchen canvass.
-jsq
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?
-jsq
With all precincts reporting in the Republican Primary Runoff
for Lowndes County Commission District 5 (West half of the county),
the numbers are:
| Jody T. Hall | 48.06% | 855 |
|---|---|---|
| John P. Page | 51.94% | 924 |
| Total votes | 1,779 |
So how is the election not decided yet? Provisional ballots, which won’t be completely sorted out until Friday. Those are for people who may have been in the wrong district or there was some other irregularity that must be deciphered. It’s unlikely there are enough of those to swing this election, but it’s possible. I congratulated both candidates.
There is no Democratic candidate, so less than 2,000 people are deciding who will be the County Commissioner representing about 55,000 people.
More pictures below.
Back at the Board of Elections.
Deb Cox is Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.
One of those last two people, as County Commission Chair, will have to organize the Commission including whoever wins this race. I got them to grin by saying “Ashley Paulk.”
-jsq
According to its website:
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority’s Regular Monthly Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21, 2012, 5:30 PM at the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street.
Last meeting, VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer told me the results of the focus groups would be presented this month. Maybe she meant at this meeting. On the VLCIA facebook page, there’s this paragraph from 14 August 2012:
We are excited to present our final Target Business Analysis to the community at the end of August. We took at 360 degree approach to targeting economic development activity concentrating on employment, workforce skill, investment, and innovation to identify clusters of economic activity and developing targeted strategies for economic development.
It links to this (unembeddable) video of Andrea Schruijer talking about cluster analysis. It’s good they’re branching out to new ways of doing PR. It would be even better if they also published agendas and minutes with content.
Here’s the (content-free) agenda for today’s meeting:
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Agenda
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Julian Assange of Wikileaks spoke from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London today (video, text):
The next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend the rights we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark outside the Embassy of Ecuador, and how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice.
The British government made a stunning mistake in throwing away the worldwide goodwill just gained through the London Olympic Games, by actually beginning to storm a sovereign embassy in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that was observed throughout the Cold War. How could they be so foolish? This man, this reporter and publisher, they think is somehow more dangerous to them than the armed might of the Soviet Union was? This is as if JFK arrested MLK after John Glenn’s first orbital flight (a step which JFK fortunately did not take).
There is something you can do, even when the world is turned upside down:
Continue reading