Tag Archives: Tom Call

Strategic Plan Update and Personnel Policy @ VLCIA 2012 03 20

The Industrial Authority meets this evening at 5:30 in their usual location. It seems to be mostly about business parks this time, plus these interesting items:

Director’s Report –Andrea Schruijer

  • Strategic Plan response

  • Update on Personal Policy and Procedure Manual

Maybe they’re serious about input from the community for their strategic plan process.

Their website still has sidebar error messages like this:

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/industri/public_html/modules/jsCookMenu/JSCookMenu.class.php on line 277

But it’s fixed enough that I could retrieve the agenda. This time they do not list what any of the expansion projects or potential projects are. They also still don’t say what the various executive sessions were for; I think real estate or personnel are the usual two reasons allowed by state law.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street

 

Continue reading →

Still time to contact VLCIA board before tomorrow’s private prison decision

We learned yesterday from Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) Executive Director Andrea Schruijer that we can expect an opinion from the VLCIA board at tomorrow’s 2PM board meeting about Project Excel, the CCA private prison whose contract expires March 13th unless VLCIA gives it a third extension, which they haven’t so far.

Roy Copeland
Roy Copeland
Chairman 		Tom Call
Tom Call 		Mary B. Gooding
Mary Gooding 		Norman Bennett
Norman Bennett 		Jerry Jennett
Jerry Jennett,

It’s not too late to express your opinion to this tax-funded (1 mil of your property taxes + SPLOST funds, for around $3 million a year) appointed board. Follow this link for contact information for the VLCIA board. Or sign the petition online and your signature gets emailed directly to VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer.

-jsq

VLCIA and local counties

In which of these five, seven, eleven, or thirteen counties is Athens, Georgia?

According to Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA), Regional Hub,

Valdosta is a regional hub for eleven Georgia counties and two Florida counties. Valdosta-Lowndes County acts not only as the regional hub for retail, medical, transportation and entertainment. Our community is also the regional hub for employment for five contiguous, predominantly rural Georgia counties and two Florida counties (as indicated in the chart to the right) and supports a thirteen county region referenced from the 2000 Census (see chart attached below).
The five Georgia counties are (alphabetically) Brooks, Cook, Echols, Lanier, and Lowndes, and the two Florida counties are Hamilton and Madison. In which of those seven counties is Athens, Georgia?

The thirteen counties, barely legible on VLCIA’s webpage, are: Berrien GA, Brooks GA, Clinch GA, Colquitt GA, Columbia FL, Cook GA, Dougherty GA, Duval FL, Echols GA, Fulton GA, Hamilton FL, Lanier GA, and Madison FL. Fulton County, Georgia? OK, that’s odd. Hm, the table is entitled

“Journeys To and From LOWNDES GA (Threshold = 50)”.
It’s about vehicles travelling in and out of Lowndes County. So Fulton makes some sense, due to people travelling between here and Atlanta. Local region, though? Not Fulton. Ditto Duval County, Florida. Jacksonville, local? I think not.

So maybe call it an eleven county region. In which of those eleven or thirteen counties is Athens, Georgia?

-jsq

Why doesn’t VLCIA buy locally?

Col. Ricketts reminded VLCIA board members at their most recent regular meeting (2012 01 17) that he had asked them for input about trees for Miller and Westside Business Parks.
We have identified trees from a nursery, Select Trees, in Athens, Georgia, with a special five year warranty on those trees, that meet our landscape plans for both Miller and Westside Business Park. As we discussed in our last board meeting, there is some cost savings available to us, and the ability for us to select trees now and hold them if we make a deposit.
OK, I commend VLCIA staff and board for trying to save we the taxpayers money.

But isn’t VLCIA supposed to be promoting local business and agriculture? Why is our Industrial Authority outsourcing to a company halfway across the state? Why doesn’t it buy locally, even if it costs a little more?

For that matter, aren’t there plenty of local trees, like sycamores, magnolias, and even longleaf pines that would cost very little to transplant to a local business park? Maybe those are the types of trees they’re buying. We don’t know, because only the board got the list of trees.

For that matter, why didn’t VLCIA put out a public request for bids for the trees?

Here’s the video:


Why doesn’t VLCIA buy locally?
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, 17 January 2012.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Videos of VLCIA Regular Meeting 2012 01 17

They sure did talk about Miller Business Park a lot.

Here’s the agenda.

Here’s a playlist:


Videos: Regular Session @ VLCIA 2012 01 17
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, 17 January 2012.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Video: Infrastructure, Westside Business Park @ VLCIA 2012 01 17

According to what Col. Ricketts said at their most recent regular meeting, apparently what VLCIA is accepting bids for today is Phase 2, not Phase 1, of Infrastructure for Westside Business Park. I still give them credit for at least posting an announcement of today’s meeting on their website.

The red rectangle indicates the area of clearing and grading for Phase 1 Infrastructure for Westside Business Park. Col. Ricketts said that had already been completed. This is all on Belleville Road near Lake Park.

They had already asked for bids for Phase 2, which is for an internal roadway, storm water and sewer, lighting, paving, etc.

They called for bids on the 24th, so the special called meeting of today (27th) is presumably to accept a final bid for Phase 2.

Here’s the video:


Video: Infrastructure, Westside Business Park @ VLCIA 2012 01 17
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, 17 January 2012.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Special Industrial Authority meeting today at noon

At least this time it’s on their website (under “RECENT NEWS”):
Notice of a Special Called Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority for the purpose of reviewing bids and awarding a contract for Westside Business Park Phase I Infrastructure Project on Friday, January 27, 2012, 12 Noon at the Authority offices, 2110 N. Patterson St. 229-259-9972.
That’s not a link in the middle; they underlined the date and time. Soon, maybe they will discover italics!

Here’s a picture from when they discussed this item at their most recent regular meeting:

Update 12:20 PM 2012 01 27: And here is video of Col. Ricketts at that 17th January 2012 Regular Session, saying Phase 1 had already been completed and they had asked for bids for Phase 2. So Phase 2 is presumably what they’re accepting bids for right now. I still give them credit for posting a notice of today’s special called meeting on their website. -jsq

Westside Business Park Phase 1 Infrastructure (Clear/Grading)
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, 17 January 2012.
Picture by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

I only got the answering machine —Michael G. Noll

Received today on Industrial Authority held unannounced meeting last night. -jsq
Unfortunately I missed this meeting as well, and not by choice.

I vaguely remembered that Roy Copeland mentioned after the October meeting that the December date might be changed to December 6. Thus, I called Tuesday shortly after 5pm to verify if a meeting was indeed scheduled. I only got the answering machine (indicating to me that the office was closed) and the IA website (as so often) was no help.

Thus I, too, was assuming the meeting would be later this month … only to find out the next day in the VDT that there had been a meeting after all.

Our community has gone through so much these past couple of months, highlighting more than ever the need to communicate and cooperate. I was hoping after all this that we could finally start working together, despite any differences we might have. That would, however, not only require a certain amount of transparency but also communication of such simple matters as meeting agendas and calendars. How difficult can that be?

Communication is, and always will be, the key to success. Whether this is about your children’s education, such matters as energy efficiency and energy conservation, or a Strategic Planning Process which can only benefit the community … if that very community (not just the same old status quo) is actually included in the process.

Michael G. Noll, President
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE)

After the VLCIA meeting: brain storming sessions —Dr. Noll

Dr. Noll sent this postscript to What can we do as a community to better cooperate? -jsq
I was approached after the meeting and informed that the Industrial Authority intends to invite communal leaders like myself to brain storming sessions in the future, although I do not know yet the design for such a forum, nor have I received any invitations as of today. Still, if there is one thing that has again become clear in the context of the consolidation issue, our community desperately needs structures that a) allow for more transparency and b) forums in which we can take advantage of the creative energy that exist in our community, INSTEAD of trying to shut people out, to hide information from them, or to push through divisive agendas.

It is my hope that the leaders of the Industrial Authority, as well as the City Council, the Lowndes County Commission, and the Chamber of Commerce for that matter, understand the opportunity we have: to turn a weakness (as exposed by the way we handled biomass, and are currently handling the consolidation issue) into a strength … via communication and cooperation … as is appropriate for a true community.

-Michael.

What can we do as a community to better cooperate? —Dr. Noll

Update 3:45 PM 3 November 2011: Better transcript and pictures. See also what happened after the meeting.
Dr. Michael Noll, longtime opponent of the Industrial Authority’s formerly proposed biomass plant, asked that same board at their most recent meeting:
What can we do as a community to better cooperate, to better communicate?
He also referred to the school consolidation issue and to the nuclear vs. renewable energy issue among the reasons he gave, along with some suggestions on how to proceed, and said he would take the same message to other bodies.

Here’s the video, and a transcript is appended.


What can we do as a community to better cooperate? –Dr. Noll
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 John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Dr. Noll sent an edited transcript removing some of the repetition to clarify what he was trying to say: Continue reading →