Tag Archives: Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce

Videos: Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27

The Valdosta meeting about grants to non-profits from American Rescue Program Act (ARPA) funds consisted of a five-minute welcome by Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber, and a summary of the application process by Mike Smith of Valdosta United Way, followed by a half hour of questions and answers.

[Chuck Dinkins, Valdosta Finance Director, and Mike Smith, Valdosta United Way ]
Chuck Dinkins, Valdosta Finance Director, and Mike Smith, Valdosta United Way

The actual application is thirteen pages, yet is pretty straightforward.

Below are links to LAKE videos of those three segments, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading →

Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27

Update 2022-06-23: LAKE videos.

Posted yesterday on facebook and twitter, one of the committees announced a week ago is having a presentation this morning:

City of Valdosta
@CityofValdosta

Join the City of Valdosta tomorrow at 9 a.m. as we present to the community our Non-Profit Committee application process from the ARPA allocation. @greatervaldostaunitedway @valdostachamber

[Flyer, Committee members]
Flyer, Committee members

When: 9 AM, Friday, May 27, 2022

Where: Women’s Building, 1409 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA Continue reading →

Videos: Emergency road repair bids! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-22

The added agenda item 6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their usual no-bid emergencies) passed. The Chamber sent Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page) apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers did not get to see) of transportation projects to help “the business community”, apparently including the truck bypass.

They only appointed six of the seven members of the Development Authority of Lowndes County, although a Commissioner did ask about that. It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then, since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already expired in December 2016. Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots that expired in December 2016 until eight months later, and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.

Below are links to Continue reading →

Senator Perdue at Valdosta Rotary and Chamber 2016-08-24

Mostly what the assembled rotaries and homebuilders seemed to be interested in was getting the Senator to defend Moody Air Force Base against closure, which makes sense, since Moody is still by far the largest economic engine of the entire central south Georgia and north Florida region.

Maybe you can hear where he says anything about defending us from the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline; I must have missed that part. He ended by saying it wasn’t about rich vs. poor, and quoting from the Declaration of Independence about “we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” There’s no mutuality in the federal government giving eminent domain to a pipeline company from Houston, Texas to take our lands so they can profit by exporting fracked methane.

Below are links to each LAKE video, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Chamber goes to bat for Moody

Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, says the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce 300x243 MAZ resolution --VLCoC, in Chamber goes to bat for Moody, by Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce, 26 June 2015 about the county-proposed changes to the Moody Activities Zone (MAZ), in a resolution mailed to its members Friday.

Chamber Board of Directors action:

While the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce is extremely supportive of property rights and wary of intrusion upon those rights, we are also extremely supportive of Moody Air Force Base and its continued and varied missions in our community. Moody, for more than 70 years, has Continue reading →

Renewable Sustainable Energy Network —VLCoC

Had a chat today with Myrna Ballard, President of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, and ReKasa Deen, Business Development Director, about the Renewable Sustainable Energy Network. Note that word Sustainable that they’ve added since last I spoke with them. They’re moving along the idea of a series of meetings or workshops of Chamber members together with an online forum. The next step is for the Chamber Board of Directors to decide whether to approve the project or not. They’re talking to various people and organizations around the community; if you want to get involved, please contact ReKasa Deen.

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VSU study and videos of Economic Summit on VLCoC website

The Chamber has put videos of its Economic Summit along with the VSU report it commissioned up on its website. The videos are on vimeo, because they’re a tad lengthy. However, they are conveniently linked in by subject.

Here’s a quote from Chamber president Myrna Ballard:

Particularly our average weekly wage rates, which we started becoming very concerned about around 2004. My first human inclination was to go into denial. I spent several months deciding whether I should even mention this in our community or not. But the bottom line on it is, when you have a challenge, when you have a problem, you can’t fix it until you come to grips with the fact that you do have an issue that you need to deal with.
There’s part of the problem around here: nobody wants to talk about problems. That needs to change.

However, I don’t like her next point quite as much, which was that they already have a plan and were presenting it. That’s part of the reason people don’t want to speak up about problems: because so often nobody is listening.

She did go on about Opportunity Central, though. And the Chamber did put up videos of the whole thing on the web. Bravo, Chamber and ReKasa!

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PS: Rekasa told me they were going to do that, and Jim Parker noted that they had done it.

2011 Economic Summit by VLCoC

Myrna Ballard (President, Chamber of Commerce), Michael Jetter (Interim Executive Director for the Valdosta-Lowndes Conference Center and Tourism Authority), Amanda Peacock (Valdosta Main Street Manager), Allan Ricketts (Valdosta-Lowndes Industrial Authority Project Manager), Jane Shelton (Valdosta-Lowndes Airport Authority Member)
“Transforming our local economy”
“It’s the Mix that Matters”

Amber Eady wrote for WALB 18 May 2011 about Economic Summit meets to discuss economic health:
Community leaders in the Valdosta area came together at the 2011 Economic Summit to discuss the economic health of Valdosta-Lowndes County.

Economic Summit participants raised substantive questions for the panel and shared ideas for moving forward during the facilitated discussion portion of the Summit led by VSU Center for Business and Economic Research Director, Scott Manley.

WALB then quotes the Chamber’s press release.
Dr. Cynthia R. Tori presented the VSU Center for Business and Economic Research study, Lowndes County by the Numbers: How Do We Compare With Peer and Aspirant Communities?
That study sounds very interesting. Can we see a copy? Continue reading →