Commissioners asked some perceptive questions
two weeks ago at their work session,
as well they should, when South Georgia Medical Center
was asking the county to guarantee a hundred million dollars in bonds.
Some questions may remain.
Representatives from SGMC gave a two part presentation
about expansion of SGMC facilities, to include 96 new
private rooms in the Dasher Heart Center, the 5 story
parking deck, now under construction and due to be completed
in early 2012, and Life Safety and Generator Equipment updates.
Additionally, they spoke briefly on the acquisition of Smith Northview
Hospital on September 1, 2011. Smith Northview operates
as a campus of SGMC and all Smith Northview employees are now
SGMC employees.
The second part of the presentation was about the financial
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Dear Andrea, We spoke not long ago by phone. I just want to let you know
that plans to bring in a private prison here are not going to sit well with
many of us. In fact, it will most likely bring about a repeat of the recent
Biomass issue. I don’t mean we are opposed to it. I mean we are vehemently
opposed to it. It seems that Allen Ricketts and the other Board members
don’t understand that Valdosta’s citizens don’t want to be informed of, for
example, what finished products and raw materials will be stored in the
distribution center slated to locate in Valdosta AFTER the contract has been
signed. We have a right to know beforehand what kind of facility it is and
what will be stored there. Informing us after the fact is not transparency.
This is an issue that will continue to be revisited as long as the VLCIA
continues to act unilaterally without considering the wishes of those who
live here. We don’t want to be presented with a fait accompli. Also, the
VLCIA is really not doing due diligence when it continues to court
businesses that raise concerns over the ethical standards of the Board
itself. Thanks. Matt Flumerfelt
A private prison in Lowndes County would be a bad business decision: it would not increase employment, it would be likely to close because of lack of “customers”, and it would drive away knowledge-based workers. The letter I read to the Industrial Authority Board and Staff Tuesday on behalf of some members of the community sumarizes
appended documentation of all those and other points.
If you’d also like to sign, I’m still collecting signatures,
and will periodically drop off more signed copies.
Or, even better, write your own letter and send it to the Industrial Authority.
Submit it to this blog and we’ll probably publish it.
Opposed to a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. —John S. Quarterman
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
I am sure you are aware that the vote of whether or not to consolidate
the Valdosta City Schools into the Lowndes County School System will be
held November 8, 2011. The City only is being asked to vote on whether
to dissolve the Valdosta City School charter. The proponents of the
referendum had a choice between putting the referendum in front of the
county and city or the city alone. The Lowndes County Board of
Education asked
For those of you concerned about nuclear energy, here are some quick, meaningful actions you can take today.
Maybe you aren’t concerned about nuclear energy. I bet you ARE concerned about $$$$.
Learn more
about how Georgia Power is getting your money at the state and federal
level. All US taxpayers all over the US are basically cosigning a loan for
$8.3 B for the Vogtle reactors. Simultaneously, Georgia Power is raising
your electric rates to fund the pre-construction costs by pulling the same
advanced cost recovery scheme as SC and FL. You can learn more about the
controversy surrounding the loan guarantees
here
Mr. Bowers’ visit and his comments are almost comical, particularly his
quote that “the government is stimulating for renewables to give them a
running chance but, when you remove them, the question is can they run
on their own two feet?”
A good question! Fact is that neither coal nor nuclear would be able to
“run on their two own feet” if it wasn’t for the large subsidies both have
received for decades. Now these are nicely hidden subsidies so that the
average consumer thinks he is getting a bargain, without realizing that it
is us, the consumers, who have actually paid for this “inexpensive rate”.
At the same time truly renewable and clean energies
Would you buy two new nukes from a company that ran over budget by a factor of 13 last time it built nuclear reactors at the same site? When one of those reactors got shut down for days
a couple mnths ago? When another reactor even closer to us was discovered leaking radioactivity into our aquifer?
A company that got the state to agree it could keep all its profit and socialize any cost overruns by passing them on to you, the customers? Well, Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers thinks you should trust such a company to build nukes for gapower’s profit you!
Georgia Power president and CEO Paul Bowers visited Valdosta late last
week to talk nuclear energy, solar and what the company has been doing
to cut energy costs for their customers.
Yet another dignitary visits without telling the public first.
Anyway, much of the story is about how cost-effective and safe
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The first question Kent Bishop asked at the Chamber’s Candidates Forum,
where he got eight minutes to speak for school consolidation while
each of the candidates for Valdosta Mayor only got five,
still hung in my mind at the end:
What qualifies you to come talk about education?
Like so many CUEE speakers, he isn’t an educator and he hadn’t done his homework.
You know, what I hear is that, from the other side, is that our taxes would go up
because of consolidation.
The facts just don’t point to that.
Generally what you’d see is some blending of the costs.
And if we do that and average it out, we’re gonna find the two
millage rates will come out somewhere in the middle.
It makes total sense.
Well, maybe it makes total sense if you like just making stuff up.
Or you can see, hear, and read
the extensive research by the Lowndes County Board of Education
that demonstrates if consolidation passes taxes will go up and public
school services will go down.
The speaker went on about ongoing white flight,
without ever mentioning that consolidation would cause
bright flight to head out of the county to Lanier and elsewhere.
He did come right out and admit something I’ve been saying:
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CUEE has staked their efforts on catch phrases & false promises that look
& sound good. All of their info is at best a half truth. The promises
that are imposible to keep are lies. I was raised believing a promise
broken is a truth untold, which is a lie.
Unfortunately this tactic
will work for today’s lazy voters who won’t even take the time to go
to a website where the true facts are posted much less do their own
research. Surely don’t ask them to leave the comfort of their homes &
entertainment & personal addictions to attend any public meetings on
either side when they should be visiting both sides at least once. They
are part of the convenient idiot masses that facilitate take overs by
the clever greedy for money & power few.
Both school boards [VBOE, LCBOE]
and their
supporters have done a great job of researching to produce true evidence
that dissolves all the CUEE false rhetoric & print.
We cannot assume
that truth will prevail because it is much easier to believe the fast
sell that requires no personal effort. CUEE is banking on this. Most of
the
school consolidations that have occurred
had many that were shocked
when they passed because they did not account for the money/power ruses
of the facilitators working so well with the lazy voter public. Many will
not even show up claiming they have no stake since they have no children
in either system. They are too lazy to check the researched facts to
see they will be paying higher taxes for a handicapped unified system.
Dr. Troy Davis spelled out where we are financially in the school systems,
and what consolidation would do to that: it would raise taxes and reduce services.
He took CUEE’s own figures for how much more consolidation would require
to be spent per each Valdosta City school student, and demonstrated that
not only would that require raising taxes for both Valdosta and Lowndes
County residents to near the state-capped maximum of 21 mils, but even
then there is no way enough tax revenue would be generated to pay for all
the things CUEE proposes to do after consolidation, and probably not even
enough taxes to continue employing all the teachers currently employed
by the two school systems. Oh, plus consolidation would lose state and
federal grant money by increasing the composite school system size, so the
local taxpayers would have to make up that slack, too.
about expansion of SGMC facilities, to include 96 new
private rooms in the Dasher Heart Center, the 5 story
parking deck, now under construction and due to be completed
in early 2012, and Life Safety and Generator Equipment updates.
