Tag Archives: Valdosta

Videos: Audit report and finance @ LCC 2015-02-05

Update2 2015-02-06:
Why HB 170 is bad –Harrison Tillman


Update 2015-02-06:
The rest of the videos from Thursday are up,
as they meet again this morning at 8:30 AM.
The new videos are about
Revenue and Tax Update,
SPLOST Facility Update (including boat ramp),
Budget Management,
Solid Waste Management,
Litter Control,
and an unscheduled
Closed Session.



Videos are already up for the

audit report
and

finance
from day 1 of the
Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting.
More to come.
Meanwhile, see also Gretchen’s notes about

the new boatramp on the Alapaha River

and
illegal trash dumping. Continue reading

Illegal trash dumping @ LCC 2015-02-05

I’m shocked, shocked, to discover there’s illegal dumping going on in Lowndes County!
County staff assured us all two yeas ago that wouldn’t be a problem,
while telling us all we had no choice about waste disposal.
Yet today at the county’s retreat they showed this map of
illegal dumping locations throughout the county.


300x400 Map, in Illegal trash dumping @ LCC Retreat 2015-02-05, by Gretchen Quarterman, 5 February 2015


300x400 Legend, in Illegal trash dumping @ LCC Retreat 2015-02-05, by Gretchen Quarterman, 5 February 2015

(If the county published Continue reading

Alapaha Boat Ramp progress @ LCC 2015-02-05

They’ve been working with Dr. Acree on land aquisition, and with GA-DNR

300x225 Beach at site of planned Naylor Park, in Alapaha River Outing, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 24 August 2014

on flow levels and ramp placement, as well as anticipation of survey and
final designs, they said during the SPLOST agenda item,
reports Gretchen from the

Lowndes County Commission retreat
.
No word of when they anticipate completing the boat ramp,
and it sounds like they haven’t actually purchased the land yet.

-jsq

Finance report @ LCC 2015-02-05


300x225 Around the table, in Finance, by Gretchen Quarterman, 5 February 2015

Your elected Commissioners and top county staff
listening to Finance Director Stephanie Black’s report,
around 9:30 AM on
the all-day retreat agenda
.
The seemingly most boring subject, but the key to all the others.
Gretchen is there videoing, but apparently nobody else other
than the VDT reporter. Continue reading

Pipelines are bad economics: invest in renewable energy instead –Harvard

Let’s stop wasting money on the slide-rule technology of Keystone XL
or Sabal Trail: they’re both bad investments, either short-term or long-term.

Andrew Winston wrote for Harvard Business Review 30 January 2015,

Why the Keystone Pipeline Is the Wrong U.S. Energy Debate
,



In the short run, with oil at $50 per barrel, Keystone will connect
refineries to oil that may be unprofitable to extract. In the long
run, as the world turns away from fossil fuels aggressively, the
pipeline will be moot — a relic of the past.

Either way it’s a poor investment.

What, then? Continue reading

County Commission retreats to Lake Park Thursday and Friday @ LCC 2015-02-05

Everything from Animals to ZBOA

agenda



for the annual Lowndes County Commission retreat, now billed
as 2015 Annual Planning Meeting.
Unlike
the Valdosta City Council,
this retreat is in Lowndes County,
at the same location as the recent Lake Park Chamber of Commerce
annual dinner.
Gretchen will be there with the LAKE camera.
You can go, too: it’s an open meeting.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

2015 Annual Planning Meeting

Quail Branch Lodge

7601 Zeigler Road, Lake Park, Georgia

Thursday, February 5- Continue reading

One variance at Lake Alapaha @ ZBOA 2015-02-03



One variance at Lake Alapaha, about not connecting to county water.
Since the county has had to

spend a lot of money recently on
upgrading the Lake Alapaha water treatment plant
, digging individual
wells down into groundwater containing Alapaha River water seems dubious
to me.
With no County Director of Utilities since Mike Allen moved on,
I wonder who will represent the county?

Here’s the agenda, which oddly is not yet on the
City of Valdosta

website
.
Thanks to Alexandra for sending it.


Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator

Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430

AGENDA

February 3, 2015

2:30 p.m.

  1. Call to Order



LOWNDES COUNTY CASES:


  1. VAR-2015-01 — Robert Dinkins (Lake Alapaha Boulevard, Naylor)


    Variance to ULDC Chapters 4.04.02 (F2) and 6.03.03 (D) as they pertain to water connection requirements



OTHER BUSINESS
:


  1. Approval of Minutes
    :
    January 6, 2014


  2. Adjournment

-jsq

Videos: One variance in Naylor @ ZBOA 2015-01-06



They approved the one

variance in Naylor
,
listened to a
presentation,
gave a plaque

to former Vice-Chair Scott Orrenstein
,
and met Valdosta’s

Media Coordinator
.
They meet again today.

Here’s the agenda for the January 2015 meeting,
which is still not on the
City of Valdosta

website
.
I added a few notes and some links into the one big video.

Valdosta -Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430

AGENDA

January 6, 2015

2:30 p.m.

Continue reading

Fixing climate change is profitable

Batteries are just one of many reasons,
including electric vehicles, smart grid, solar and wind power
(including

pass HB 57
and you can profit by getting financing
for your own solar panels),
plus massive savings on health care and electricity bills;
batteries are one of many reasons that fixing climate change will
save us all money, clean up our air and water, expand our forests,
preserve property rights, and make some people rich:



In fact, a recent report suggests that revenue from the distributed
energy storage market — meaning battery packs and other
storage devices located directly at homes and businesses (many of
which now generate electricity through solar) —

could exceed $16.5 billion by 2024
.
Another report predicts

$68 billion in revenue in the same time frame from the grid-scale storage market
.
This includes large-scale battery packs, hydro-storage systems that
use cheap abundant electricity to pump water uphill to drive
turbines later on, or even solar thermal systems that store energy
as heat in molten salt.

And it’s all happening fast,
so fast your jaw will drop if you’re not paying attention.
So let’s stop talking about the costs of fixing climate change.
It’s not just

no-cost and free
, not just in the future but right now;
we’re all actually going to be better off through fixing climate change:
healthier and more prosperous.

Sami Grover wrote Continue reading

Anti-tethering ordinance proposal by Dr. Amanda Hall and others @ LCC 2015-01-27



All the anti-tethering videos from the
Monday morning 26 January 2015
Work Session
(presentation by Dr. Amanda Hall)
and the
Tuesday evening 27 January 2015 Regular Session (four citizens and the Chairman)
of the Lowndes County Commission.
More details from the VDT

24 January 2015

and 28 January 2015, and see the
Break the Chains facebook page. Continue reading