Tag Archives: New York

Solar thermal for Moody AFB

Moody AFB helps USAF lead the military and the country in solar installations by adding solar thermal. Did you know?
Federal mandates require that 25% of Air Force facility energy use comes from renewable energy sources by 2025 and Moody will help….
It’s a shame we have to go to Binghamton and Ithaca, New York, to get the equipment. You’d think we could build solar thermal hot water heaters right here in sunny south Georgia, and install them, too. The architect, however, was local. Congratulations to Moody AFB and Slone Associates for installing solar hot water!

The installer, Intelligent Green Solutions (IGS) of Ithaca, New York, has the details:

The installation is a large solar thermal system that includes:
  • 20 TitanPowerPlus 2.0 Flat Plate Solar Collectors
  • 512 Gallon Solar Hot Water Storage Tanks
The completion target date was end of December.

SunMaxx Solar press release of 29 Jan 2012, SunMaxx Solar and Intelligent Green Solutions Install Solar Thermal System at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, Continue reading →

Animal shelter vet resigns from board

Last month the Niagara County, NY SPCA fired its executive director; this month one of its board members resigned. He is a veterinarian, and he oversaw the euthanasia that a report by Erie County, NY SPCA said was improperly applied. He claims that wasn’t so, because the animals were anesthetized first, and now invoices for the anesthetic have turned up.

Michael Wooten wrote for wgrz.com 9 February 2012,

2 On Your Side contacted the SPCA Serving Erie County. Although Ms. Carr was unavailable, we were told she based her report and conclusions on the information that was provided to her and the interviews she conducted.

The Niagara County facility had poor record-keeping, so it’s possible Ms. Carr did not receive the invoices. Some have expressed concern about why all documents weren’t turned over during Ms. Carr’s investigation. Others have also questioned if Rompun, even in large concentrations and doses, are enough to make an animal unconscious.

Maybe if there had been more oversight and transparency at the animal shelter, none of this would have happened. At least in Erie County, New York, there’s finally some sort of accountability.

-jsq

Animal shelter director fired

Animal shelter board received report, and then acted on it!

Charlie Specht wrote for the Buffalo News Monday, Embattled Faso fired as Niagara SPCA chief: Board move follows furor, scathing report on shelter,

The leaders of the SPCA of Niagara hired John A. Faso as executive director in April 2010 after interviewing a series of “remarkable” applicants.

“We were really impressed with the quality, but John stood out,” board President Bruno A. “Brandy” Scrufari III said at the time. “We were confident he’s here to stay for quite some time.”

Those high hopes came crashing down Monday as the board voted to fire its embattled executive director after a month of criticism and a scathing report outlining a dysfunctional culture and unnecessary and cruel euthanasia practices.

“This is a quick, decisive, positive reaction to go forward,” said Paul J. Cambria Jr., the defense attorney advising the board. “They’re well on their way to fixing it.”

It took less than one week for them to act after getting the report.

-jsq

SPCA report on animal shelter: “Childish Behavior” and lack of oversight

No, not here (although the description might fit): SPCA of Erie County, New York reported on the animal shelter in neighboring Niagara County, New York. Also the parts about “horrific” animal cruelty and “excruciatingly painful” euthanasia may sound familiar.

WGRZ.com wrote today, SPCA of Niagara Report; “Childish Behavior”, Lack of Oversight,

In part of her report, Carr writes, “It’s clear that the NCSPCA is dysfunctional in many ways. Without standard operating procedures, without careful record keeping and record retrieval, without trust of one another, without a clear chain or command, with any strategies to improve, this organization will continue to disappoint and enrage the community,”

She continues, “there is an overwhelming culture of distrust at the shelter. Some staff distrust the Executive Director, the Executive Director distrusts many of the board members, many board members distrust the Executive Director and some staff and volunteers distrust some staff and staff distrusts some volunteers. Everyone seems to distrust someone associated with the SPCA. They gossip, pass on written complaints about each other to one another, try to get each other fired, go behind backs of one another to people in authority and make complaints. The evaluation team has witnessed this rather childish behavior at all levels of the organization, by board members, the Executive Director, staff members, and volunteers.”

Charlie Specht wrote for the Buffalo News yesterday, Probe details ‘horrific’ animal cruelty at Niagara SPCA: Report by Erie County counterpart details ‘excruciatingly painful’ euthanasia, Continue reading →

More injured and euthanized animals

Why does this sound familiar?
After a 2 1/2-hour closed-door board meeting Wednesday, SPCA of Niagara board president Bruno Scrufari III announced the request for the probe, in the wake of charges by board member Kathy Paradowski, former veterinary technician Kari E. McAlee-Miller and others that animals were unnecessarily euthanized and that injured animals brought to the shelter were left untreated.
There are a few differences from the local situation here.

Thomas J. Prohaska wrote yesterday for BuffaloNews.com, SPCA in Erie County to probe charges against Faso: Niagara board president announces request for investigation of claims,

Barbara Carr, executive director of the SPCA Serving Erie County, said her board of directors, which meets today, would have to approve the investigation, but she doesn’t expect any difficulty in winning approval.

There will be at least one key condition: “I wouldn’t do an investigation unless the document we produced was made public,” Carr said.

The relevant local authorities welcome an investigation and insist on making the results public. Imagine that!

And, according to Dave McKinley yesterday at wgrz.com, Niagara Co. SPCA Approves Outside Investigation Of Its Animal Shelter Continue reading →

Community gardens in buffalo

Brian Meyer wrote in the Buffalo News 15 June 2011, Community gardeners’ wait is over – after 3 years, Council OKs leases
Gardeners are ready to “get dirty” following Tuesday’s Common Council passage of long-awaited leases to turn 34 vacant city-owned lots into neighborhood oases.

Lawmakers approved the leases unanimously and without debate. Some community gardeners have been eagerly awaiting the action for three years.

Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration delayed submitting the master leases because of numerous concerns. The logjam ended late last week when city planners sent the proposed agreements to the Council for final action.

“We have our insurance signed up, so we’ll Continue reading →

Nuclear reactor Vogtle 1 at August shut down

Nuclear really more reliable than wind or solar? What’s with the unscheduled shutdowns?

Colin McClelland reported for Bloomberg 21 April 2011, U.S. Nuclear Output Falls as Vogtle Reactor in Georgia Shuts

U.S. nuclear-power output remained near a 4½-year low for a fourth day as the Vogtle 1 reactor in Georgia shut down unexpectedly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

Power generation nationwide decreased 538 megawatts to 71,781 megawatts from yesterday, or 71 percent of capacity, the smallest amount since Oct. 22, 2006, according to an NRC report today and data compiled by Bloomberg. Twenty-nine of the nation’s 104 reactors were offline.

Southern Co. (SO)’s 1,109-megawatt Vogtle 1 reactor automatically tripped offline yesterday at 5:34 p.m. when it was at full power. The cause is under investigation, the NRC said.

The shutdown was ironically two days after an NRC public meeting “to discuss Plant Vogtle’s annual safety evaluation and assessment.”

That would be the same location where, according to Tice Brashear back in 18 March 2009: Continue reading →

Private prisons do not increase local employment

According to an empirical study, siting a private prison in a rural county does not increase employment. (Big Prisons, Small Towns: Prison Economics in Rural America by Ryan S. King, Marc Mauer and Tracy Huling, February 2003.)

Their Key Findings:

Overall, over the course of 25 years, we find no significant difference or discernible pattern of economic trends between the seven rural counties in New York that hosted a prison and the seven rural counties that did not host a prison. While prisons clearly create new jobs, these benefits do not aid the host county to any substantial degree since local residents are not necessarily in a position to be hired for these jobs. The most significant findings are as follows:
They go on to detail effects on unemployment during economic recovery, downturn, and boom, and in each period Continue reading →

Solar Companies Booming in Buffalo

There’s still time to lead the solar parade:
“The solar market is the fastest-growing market worldwide, bar none,” said Ryne P. Raffaelle, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Center for Photovoltaics in Colorado. “For the last half-dozen years, it’s grown at about a 40 to 45 percent compound annual growth rate per year.”

That growth is expected to accelerate next year, said Raffaelle, who was a Rochester Institute of Technology faculty member for 10 years. But the vast majority of that growth, both in the manufacturing and deployment of systems, is happening outside the United States. Asia has taken a “commanding lead” in manufacturing, and Europe leads in deployment, he said.

“But the rest of the world, they’re still watching the United States. They still see us as the 800-pound gorilla,” Raffaelle said. “It’s like, ‘When are they going to do something?'”

That was from a conference held in the Buffalo area recently.

In Buffalo, New York, they’re not just talking about solar power: Continue reading →

If it’s sunny enough in Buffalo….

Charlotte Hsu writes in the UB Reporter about Site preparation to begin on ‘Solar Strand’:
Workers will begin mowing, clearing and grading land adjacent to Flint Road next month to make way for “The Solar Strand,” a 1.1 megawatt solar-energy array designed by internationally renowned landscape architect Walter Hood and funded by a $7.5 million grant from the New York Power Authority.

The installation, with 5,000 photovoltaic (PV) panels powering more than 700 student apartments at UB, is calculated to reduce carbon emissions by more than 500 metric tons per year. That will bring the university closer to its goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 under its Climate Action Plan. But the project is more than a means of generating energy.

Buffalo is at 42 degrees 53 minutes north, about a thousand miles north of Valdosta at 30 degrees 49 minutes north. On the NREL solar radiation map, Buffalo shows significantly less solar radiation than Valdosta.

So if Buffalo can do it, why can’t Valdosta? Continue reading →