Tag Archives: Lowndes County

Videos: North Oak Street, Lakeland Highway, Rocky Ford Road @ GLPC 2018-03-26

The Planning Commission had a large crowd, including County Commissioner Joyce Evans and Chairman Bill Slaughter visible lower left, and that may be Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker in front of them.

lower left: Joyce Evans, Bill Slaughter, Lowndes County Commission, Crowd

Most of them left after the North Oak Street planned development, excuse me, rezoning, took almost an hour. See the notes on that item below for a spoiler for what happened to it later.

Second longest at almost fourteen minutes was the Lakeland Highway rezoning, in which the current owners apparently were trying to fix a problem left them by previous owners.

Third at almost seven minutes was a tie between the CR Ventures (Camp Rock again) rezoning on Rocky Ford Road and the Kaylyn Gill Tucker rezoning on Enoch Lake Road, carving out a plot for a single house from a planned development.

Below are Continue reading

Why Bezos started Amazon

Jeff Bezos sent his biographer to find the graphs; that’s when I learned about this. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, Paperback, August 12, 2014, by Brad Stone (PDF, google book)

Intrigued by Shaw’s conviction about the inevitable importance of the Internet, Bezos started researching its growth. A Texas-based author and publisher named John Quarterman had recently started the Matrix News, a monthly newsletter extolling the Internet and discussing its commercial possibilities. One set of numbers in particular in the February 1994 edition of the newsletter was startling. For the first time, Quarterman broke down the growth of the year-old World Wide Web and pointed out that its simple, friendly interface appealed to a far broader audience than other Internet technologies. In one chart, he showed that the number of bytes—a set of binary digits —transmitted over the Web had increased by a factor of 2,057 between January 1993 and January 1994.

Internet Resource Discovery Services by Bytes
Internet Resource Discovery Services by Bytes, John S. Quarterman, Matrix News 4.2, MIDS, February 1994.

Another graphic showed Continue reading

A Naive Projection of the Growth of the Internet

Just as four years ago I projected solar growth ten years ahead, a quarter century ago I projected Internet growth ten years into the future:

A Naive Projection of the Growth of the Internet
Graph: A Naive Projection of the Growth of the Internet, John S. Quarterman, Matrix News 2.2, MIDS, February 1992.

From 7.7 million Internet users in 1992, I projected the exponential growth of the previous few years ahead a decade, to about 3.8 billion people in 2002.

How close was that estimate? Continue reading

Videos: Litigation Executive Session, Lighting Ordinance, Drainage, Well, Trash, Software, Trucks @ LCC 2018-03-26

An Executive Session for pending or potential litigation: are they going to sue Deep South Sanitation again? Some of them sure seem to want to find any excuse not to re-approve DSS’s franchise, which was the longest item at three minutes.

Second longest was two minutes for the Bid for Mini Excavator for the Utilities Department. Slow morning at the County Commission.

Below are links to each LAKE video with a very few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also agenda. They vote this evening at 5:30 PM. Continue reading

Rocky Ford Road again @ GLPC 2018-03-26

This CR Ventures rezoning on the agenda for tonight is two doors down on Rocky Ford Road from the recent Camp Rock rezoning, again for a Watkins, and again represented by Jack Langdale. Coincidence, or related?

Parcel 0062 025, 20.94 acres, 4394 ROCKY FORD ROAD, VALDOSTA GA 31601, Map

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING
AGENDA

Monday, March 26, 2018 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue

Continue reading

Lighting Ordinance, Drainage, Well, Trash, Software, Trucks @ LCC 2018-02-26

The Street Lighting Ordinance on the agenda for this morning and tomorrow evening is not among those on the County Ordinances web page. How are we to “Know the Laws”, as the link from the county’s front page says, when unknown ordinances keep popping up? Ah, it’s currently a resolution and they want to make it an ordinance.

Lighting-ordinance-agenda-sheet-0001,

The agenda sheet says “For reference, copies of maps Continue reading

Et tu, FERC? No tax writeoffs for MLPs; pipeline stocks plummet 2018-03-15

On the Ides of March, FERC, apparently forgetting its the companies it supposedly regulates that pay its salaries, knocked pipeline company stocks down by disallowing a tax writeoff. This was one month after FERC inadvertently cleared a path for renewable sun and wind power through batteries. Look who got whacked the most, and not even FERC’s Sabal Trail rubberstamp permit reinstatement could save it:

Pipeline MLP vs. Electric Utility, Stock Charts
Stock price comparison, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 14, 15, 16 March 2018. The colorful candle canyon is for Spectra Energy Partners LP (SEP), which was by far the worst affected of those shown.

You may wonder as I do: what is FERC doing Continue reading

Valdosta Strategic Initiatives Summit 2018-03-16-17

Once again the Valdosta Mayor and Council hold their retreat outside Valdosta and outside Lowndes County at Lenox River Ranch, Lenox, Cook County, Georgia, today and tomorrow. Excuse me: Strategic Initiatives Summit (SIS). I compliment them on publishing on their website before the event the agenda, the topics submitted by each council member, and the Mayor and Council Goals for Fiscal Year 2018 (I got this four days ago). Hm, what’s this about:

5. Find additional resources for the executive director of Valdosta-Lowndes Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) to include the Mayor’s Adopt-A-Street program.

However, I don’t see who else they are meeting with for it to be called a Summit. Oh wait: the Chamber. Probably George Boston Rhynes will be there to video like last year.

Valdosta SIS Agenda

Friday and Saturday, Agenda

I don’t know why the Continue reading

Videos: Branham subdivision, Trash, RR crossing @ LCC 2018-03-13

Most of the meeting (13 and a half minutes) was about Bill Branham’s subdivision, which passed, with the Chairman breaking the tie because one Commissioner recused himself. Opponents took up almost another minute leaving the room.

On a split vote the Commission declined to modify the solid waste ordinance to give the County Manager more power.

Second longest at more than 6 minutes was Michael J. Killeen’s R-A to M-1 rezoning. Virdie Mae Lyons got her well and septic rezoning in a minute and a half.

Two water items: not clear how much Continue reading

Videos: Conference Center, Branham subdivision, Trash, RR crossing @ LCC 2018-03-12

Lengthiest at more than three and a half minutes was the Bill Branham subdivision rezoning, plus a tie for second at 2 minutes 13 seconds between the new Conference Center CEO and the Virdie Mae Lyons Old Clyattvile Road well and septic rezoning, at yesterday morning’s Work Session. Gretchen is off with the LAKE video camera to the voting Regular Session tonight.

The County Manager wants more power through an ordinance that would further favor Advanced Disposal Services (ADS) over Deep South Sanitation (DSS).

Two water items: Continue reading