Tag Archives: Marketing

Wiregrass Solar is connected to the grid —Col. Ricketts @ VLCIA 19 April 2011

Acting Executive Director Allan Ricketts reported to the VLCIA board that the Wiregrass Solar plant is connected to the grid now. He gave a bit of detail about the commissioning ceremony that was cancelled due to weather; apparently dignitaries from across the state were expected to attend. No new date has been set. He’s still supposed to let me know when the new date is set.

Here’s the video:

Wiregrass Solar is connected to the grid —Col. Ricketts @ VLCIA 19 April 2011
Biomass protesters,
Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director, 19 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

About those minutes —Bobbi Anne Hancock @ VLCIA 19 April 2011

Stonewalling is a good way to get your Industrial Authority on the front page of the local newspaper (again). Here’s video of what Bobbi Anne Hancock said to the board about their minutes (and other things).

First, here’s is VDT reporter David Rodock’s excerpt of what she said last night:

Bobbi Anne Hancock, the woman who made an Open Records request with the Authority for meeting minutes from 2006 to the present day, spoke to board members during the citizens to be heard portion of the meeting.
“The majority of your costs for the request are for the five hours

Continue reading →

Protesters at Industrial Authority, 19 April 2011

The protesters are revolting these days! Is there nothing an Industrial Authority can do to keep them off its doorstep?

Where are these people protesting? Could it be outside the Industrial Authority?

Protesters @ VLCIA 19 April 2011 Part 1 of 4:
Biomass protesters,
Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director, 19 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Why that sign says Continue reading →

Explain about the penalties if the voters don’t pass T-SPLOST? –Norman Bennett

What about those penalities Corey Hull of VLMPO mentioned when he explained T-SPLOST to VLCIA?

Norman Bennett, VLCIA board member and former chairman of the Lowndes County Commmission, asked Corey Hull:

Can you explain that again for me about the penalties if the voters don’t pass the tax? If the county’s got a project, then they’ve got to put up ten percent or whatever the percentage is?

Continue reading →

Corey Hull explains T-SPLOST to VLCIA, 15 Feb 2011

What’s this about yet another sales tax decided on by regional transportation boards and GDOT?

Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) explained T-SPLOST at the regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA). Georgia HB 277, which was passed by the legislature and signed into law last year, calls for a 1% regional sales tax (T-SPLOST) to fund transportation projects.

The region including Lowndes County has 18 counties, Continue reading →

Georgia is CCA’s model partner

“Primary site?” Really?

The initial writeup in the VDT quoted CCA as being all coy about if a need arose from the state they would be ready to deploy the private prison in Lowndes County:

“This is (for) a future need that we don’t even know what it’ll be yet,” Frank Betancourt, CCA’s vice president of real estate development said. “There’s no ground breaking to announce. When the need (for a facility) does arrive, we can be the first ones to offer (our services).”

Yet if you look on CCA’s own website under partnering:

CCA has been a great partner with us for nearly a decade now. Coffee Correctional Facility and Wheeler Correctional Facility certainly meet the standards of the Georgia Department of Corrections. I particularly appreciate CCA maintaining exemplary accreditation status with both the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare. I look forward to a continued long relationship with them.”
—Commissioner James E. Donald, Georgia Department of Corrections

And over in Decatur County people actually asked about this, and were told Continue reading →

Wiregrass Technical College @ VLCIA 15 March 2011

Wiregrass Technical College wants to expand onto some land owned by the Industrial Authority, using SPLOST funds.

Chairman Jerry Jennett:

The point is they’re landlocked.
And so what you want to do is you want to take what your tract is now and have the ability to expand your building in the future. You want to move your training facility now and….

CCA for Lowndes County in GeorgiaTrend

Ed Lightsey writes in GeorgiaTrend for March 2011, Valdosta/Lowndes County: Taking Off about many good developments in Lowndes County. But among them is this:

About two years ago, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) began looking for sites on which to build a prison, and after an 18-month search chose Lowndes County, a decision that promises 400 to 600 new jobs. “It’s a $150-million investment,” Lofton says. “That’s the second largest investment in the history of the county. And of those promised jobs, about 120 will require post secondary education; they are nurses, physician assistants, dieticians and vocational rehab folks.”
CCA is the fifth largest penal system in the country, behind Florida, Califor-nia, Texas and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to Lofton. “They have about 20,000 employees across the country,” he says.

So why do we need them here? Continue reading →

Competition for CCA’s private prison? –Roy Copeland

Roy Copeland had a question about Project Excel, the private prison that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) wants to build in Lowndes County, at the 15 March 2011 VLCIA board meeting.

Q: He wanted to know if there are other communities competing for the project, and whether they had also paid a second extension.

A: Col. Ricketts answered that there is another community competing, but he did not know whether they had made that payment: Continue reading →

CCA has made second payment towards private prison –Col. Ricketts

Regarding the private prison that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) wants to build in Lowndes County, at the 15 March 2011 VLCIA board meeting, Col. Ricketts gave an update, saying CCA had made a second payment as stipulated in the purchase and development agreement:

Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

The story continues in later posts.