The big item tonight is the update on their local economic development meeting
last month, plus election of officers and the usual project and
marketing updates.
Here’s the agenda, with a couple of formatting typos fixed (not sure I got it right, either).
Valdosta-Lowndes Development AuthorityContinue reading
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Development Authority Conference Room
103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda
I’ll give them an A for effort, including branching out:
from tires to agribusiness this month, and Valdosta North Rotary today, too.
That Community Ecomomic Developmeent Meeting is still on for tomorrow,
at
the Conference Center.
And they are talking about spec[ulative] building, such as they liked when they saw it in Douglas and Valdosta Mayor Gayle liked in Vidalia.
Here’s the agenda. Continue reading
Well, the agenda says the Invocation was “For the purpose of discussing real estate”; it doesn’t say what the Executive Session was for.
Maybe they’ve got a customer for one of those empty industrial parks
Brad Lofton talked them into building before he left the state.
Maybe they’re going to build some of those spec buildings they and Valdosta Mayor Gayle admire in Vidalia and Douglas.
Maybe they’re still negotiating with Continue reading
They’re aiming at
20 August 2014 for a meeting with local educational
and business leaders.
After mulling it over for more than two years,
VLCIA waited until somebody in Atlanta told them to, and finally
added a trading name of Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority (VLDA),
which two board members immediately said wrong.
Still, much actual thought, discussion, investigation and potential
courses of action was presented, especially in the
Executive Director’s Report
and in the answers to
Alvin Payton’s questions.
Only three board members attended VLCIA’s first meeting in its new office near the hospital: Roy Copeland, Vice-Chairman Jerry Jennett (presiding), and new member Georgia Power VP Terri Lupo, who was just appointed to VLCIA by the Lowndes County Commission. They did not have the expected officer nominating committee report, because Chairman Mary Gooding and Tom Call were not there; they barely had a quorum with 3 out of 5 board members. Also attending were Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, Valdosta Mayor John Gayle, and Valdosta City Council Alvin Payton. All three spoke in Citizens To Be Heard, as did I, delivering the traditional welcome gift.
This move uptown leaves their old building to Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline. Has VLCIA ever developed an opinion on that boondoggle?
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, followed by a video playlist.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Tuesday, July 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda
Six years in the making!
Finally VLCIA meets in its new office near the hospital.
Georgia Power VP Terri Lupo
was just appointed to VLCIA by the Lowndes County Commission
(without ever showing up and speaking).
On this VLCIA agenda is the annually expected officer nominating committee report.
Plus “Proposed VLCIA Name Change”.
How about SolarTown?
Hm, this move uptown leaves their old building to Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline. Has VLCIA ever developed an opinion on that boondoggle?
Here’s the agenda. Continue reading
The Industrial Authority is having a Special Called Meeting Tuesday at 4:45 PM,
the agenda for which goes straight into Executive Session for no stated reason.
Is that even legal, as
I’ve asked before about a VLCIA executive session?
Also, why is G. Norman Bennett still listed as a board member and Vice Chairman, even though according to the VDT he resigned from VLCIA 13 March 2014? I asked him about that in Hahira a month ago today and he said he’d talk to VLCIA. Somebody didn’t follow through.
Here’s the agenda, which says they’re having an invocation for the purpose of discussing real estate and gives no reason for the Executive Session. Also from the Georgia Open Meetings Act of 2012, 50-14-3(b)(1): Continue reading
A scheduled guest
didn’t show up
and an unscheduled guest
did,
about
broadband.
Perhaps 250 jobs from a prospective logistics distribution
Project Royal
and a potential agriculture-related
Project Orange.
Express Scripts
brought 135 jobs last year and now are adding 175 jobs.
Executive Director Andrea Schruijer
emphasized the importance of existing industries in generating
jobs and capital investment.
She’s also discovered
agriculture is 13% of Georgia GDP and 10% of that is grown in our region.
Next VLCIA meeting will be noon Thursday May 20th because of a trip to Atlanta later that same day. They may be in their “new digs” by then, and Building-Committee-UpdateChairman Mary Gooding promised an open house once they were moved in.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Thursday, April 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Some interesting stuff on there, such as the
South Georgia Golf Classic,
which
appears to actually be 2-4 May 2014
(even though that event’s
facebook about still refers to last year),
and the
South Georgia Fly-in,
which apparently already happened on April 4th.
I wonder what is the
Presentation by Mr. Ben Futch about?
And VLCIA’s May meeting has a time change, to when
this agenda
does not say.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial AuthorityContinue reading
Thursday, April 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
An Industrial Authority board member resigned to run for an office
he qualifed for the previous day, at a meeting that had apparently
been rescheduled the day before he qualified.
OK, who’s going to replace him, and when and by whom will that be decided?
Oh, and that rescheduling means there’s no VLCIA meeting today.
The Industrial Authority rescheduled its March meeting for Thursday last week at noon, and at that meeting, according to the VDT, VLCIA board member Norman Bennett said:
“I am announcing that at the end of the day today, I will resign from the Industrial Authority,”
Puzzled by that, I called the Board of Elections to ask if they had told him there was some conflict of interest. They said no, they had read about it in the newspaper like everybody else.
I asked when he qualified to run for District 5. Answer: March 12th, which was the day before he resigned from VLCIA at its rescheduled board meeting.
When was that meeting rescheduled? Their website gives no clue. But their facebook page notice of the new meeting is dated March 11 at 3:15pm.
What do all those dates mean? Probably nothing, since local appointed and elected boards reschedule on whims around here. But it’s a curious series of coincidences:
More interesting is: when and by whom will a new board member be appointed to the Industrial Authority?
Here’s the agenda. Maybe some year we’ll get to see their minutes. It’s been more than two years since Roy Copeland said he’d try to make that happen. He’s no longer Chairman (although he did get reappointed to the board), and another board member has just resigned. You know, that VDT editorial I’m fond of quoting was actually about the Industrial Authority’s minutes:
When officials act like they have something to hide, they often do….
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:00 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Agenda
General Business
- Call to Order
- Invocation
- Welcome Guests
Minutes
- Regular Meeting, February 18, 2014
Financial
- Review Compiled Balance Sheet and Income Statements for February 2014
Public Relations & Marketing Update-Meghan Duke
- Public Relations Opportunities
- International Trade Representatives
- County Commission Presentation
- Marketing Opportunities
- Marketing Materials
- ValdostaLowndesProspector Mobile Site
- South Georgia Classic
Project Report-Allan Ricketts
- Project Maroon
Existing Industry-Allan Ricketts
- Existing Industry Visits
- Existing Industry Expansion Projects
- Project Wire
- Project Treadway
- JHS-14
- Community Business and Industry Partnership
Executive Director’s Report- Andrea Schruijer
- Business Development Opportunities
- Georgia Quail Hunt February 2013
- March Regional Marketing Trip to Consultants
- Recruitment activities
- International Representative Visit South Joint Regional Development Authority
- Staff Planning Session
- Board Planning Session
- Met with Department of Agriculture to discuss regional food processing activity
Attorney Report
Citizens to Be Heard
Adjourn General Meeting Into Executive Session
Adjourn Executive Session into General Meeting
Adjourn General Meeting
Mission of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority
“Create an environment to attract new industry and promote the growth of existing industry to drive job creation and capital investment.”
-jsq
It’s good they posted the detailed agenda item, but since when do tax-funded authorities hold public hearings in a private attorney’s office?
The Industrial Authority posted a meeting notice for their own special called meeting on their facebook page (a day in advance) and their website (at some unknown time). And the agenda does say what it was for:
For the consideration of the adoption of a bond resolution of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority authorizing and
providing for (a) the extension of the maturity date of its Economic Development Revenue Bond (Langdale Hospice House Project), Series 2006, in the original principal amount of $2,800,000, the proceeds of which were used to finance or reimburse, in whole or in part, the cost of the acquisition, construction and equipping of a hospice house and related facilities located in Lowndes County, Georgia, and operated by South Georgia Health Alliance, Inc., a Georgia nonprofit corporation, and (b) the execution of certain documents for such purpose.
That bond was previously discussed at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session of 23 October 2006: Continue reading