Tag Archives: Valdosta

Appointments upcoming by Lowndes County Commission

Health, Planning, Tourism, Construction, and KLVB: this is said to be a list of the remaining appointments to be made by the Lowndes County Commission for the rest of this year. The source document didn’t say who’s currently on those boards, but I’ve added links to other sources where those could be found.

Remaining Appointments-2014

Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities

  • Vacant seat as of 7/13/14

Region 4 ha a Regional Planning Board:

The Region Four Planning Board represents 24 counties in the region. Members are appointed by their county commissioners; they are business and civic leaders with a strong interest in mental health, developmental disabilities and addictive diseases as well as consumers or family members of consumers.

the Lowndes County members of which are: Continue reading →

100 Black Men BBQ today

Local cooking, competition, and take-home, today at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse, by 100 Black Men of Valdosta (facebook) in their Annual Barbecue Cook-Off.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT Thursday, 100 Black Men of Valdosta hosting 19th annual BBQ cook-off,

The community is invited to the 19th annual 100 Black Men of Valdosta barbecue cook-off, 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the old County Courthouse in downtown Valdosta. Continue reading →

All of the above: mercury water, methane fracking, radioactive waste, water overuse; EPA go clean renewables instead –Susan Corbett

South Carolina Sierra Club Chair Susan Corbett summed up the problem with the EPA’s carbon rule: it opposes one poison while promoting others. We can make a real green clean energy policy based on conservation, efficiency, solar, and wind energy. Remember, you can still send in your own comments directly to EPA.

SC Sierra club, chair at EPA Atlanta hearing, by Elaine Cooper on YouTube 30 July 2014: Continue reading →

Videos: New name, new member @ VLCIA 2014-07-15

They’re aiming at 20 August 2014 for a meeting with local educational and business leaders. After mulling it over for more than two years, VLCIA waited until somebody in Atlanta told them to, and finally added a trading name of Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority (VLDA), which two board members immediately said wrong. Still, much actual thought, discussion, investigation and potential courses of action was presented, especially in the Executive Director’s Report and in the answers to Alvin Payton’s questions.

Only three board members attended VLCIA’s first meeting in its new office near the hospital: Roy Copeland, Vice-Chairman Jerry Jennett (presiding), and new member Georgia Power VP Terri Lupo, who was just appointed to VLCIA by the Lowndes County Commission. They did not have the expected officer nominating committee report, because Chairman Mary Gooding and Tom Call were not there; they barely had a quorum with 3 out of 5 board members. Also attending were Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, Valdosta Mayor John Gayle, and Valdosta City Council Alvin Payton. All three spoke in Citizens To Be Heard, as did I, delivering the traditional welcome gift.

This move uptown leaves their old building to Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline. Has VLCIA ever developed an opinion on that boondoggle?

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, followed by a video playlist.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Tuesday, July 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda
Continue reading →

Nelson Hill and new county appointee + 2 Valdosta @ GLPC 2014-07-28

Tonight at 6PM, neverending Nelson Hill is back after GLPC tabled it last month and half of it was withdrawn at the County Commission and the other half tabled. Is that other half related to the staff variances of 2009 and 2011 without any public hearings? Roger Budd Jr wants to rezone 4.28 acres. Plus recommendations for a county appointee to GLPC. In Valdosta, requests to rezone 3.59 acres to Community Commercial and to rezone 7 parcels of 3.14 acres total to Multi-Family Residential.

Here’s PDF of the agenda (no, not from Lowndes County), and it’s below in HTML.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue

Monday, July 28, 2014* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail admits no Georgia customers, tree destruction, to VDT

The VDT’s page-long coverage wasn’t just fluff. Spectra’s Andrea Grover admitted they need complete survey data, and Sabal Trail admitted they have no Georgia customers, which means they have no Georgia eminent domain, so every landowner who refuses is indeed putting a crimp into Spectra’s fracked methane pipeline. Plus Grover admitted trees don’t grow back fast, so her promise “It’s restored to what it was before” is pretty hollow. She admitted she knows the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Fuels can approve LNG export, but she didn’t admit that it has already done so for three companies right there Spectra’s Sabal Trail pipeline leads on Florida’s Atlantic coast. She still can’t seem to remember Spectra’s long list of safety violations. And she’d already forgotten exactly when her posse of seven rode into Leesburg, GA seeking an eminent domain court order, and rode away without it.

Not a word, though, about Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter’s fourteen points of Continue reading →

EPA hearings in AJC: where’s the second step about natural gas?

AJC on the EPA hearings this week: they didn’t print my proposed second step for natural gas, but they did quote Sierra Club on efficiency.

Kristina Torres wrote for the AJC today, EPA brings ‘clean power’ plan to Atlanta. Will it hurt Georgia? Continue reading →

Climate Rally and EPA Hearings next week in Atlanta

High noon rally Tuesday and 9AM to 8PM hearings Monday and Tuesday 29-30 July 2014 at the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, Main Tower Bridge Conference Area, Conference Room B, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA. Plus you can comment online, maybe about mercury from coal Plant Scherer in the Alapaha River and how shifting to “natural” gas just promotes more fracked methane pipelines like that Sabal Trail boondoggle. EPA could take a second step on methane, and we can get on with faster, cheaper, cleaner, and far more environmentally beneficial solar power in the sunny southeast. For details see the Sierra Club or WWALS or SpectraBusters postings.

-jsq

Brad Lofton leaving Myrtle Beach, SC

Looks like Horry County, SC stuck to its initial three-year offer, both for Lofton, and for millage to fund his development authority there. There are things the newly-renamed Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority could do to let sunshine turn Lofton’s local land legacy green.

Jason M. Rodriguez and Amanda Kelley wrote for Myrtle Beach Online yesterday, Brad Lofton leaving Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation,

Membership to the EDC increased earlier this year, but revenue from the membership decreased by nearly $60,000, impacting the organization’s marketing services and more.

Loton has had many projects succeed, and met some challenges during his time in Horry County.

Earlier this month Continue reading →

5PM Tuesday: Central Valdosta Development Authority @ CVDA 2014-07-22

No idea what this is about, piled onto an evening already full of meetings. CVDA published today, picked up by AP and VDT.

There will be a special called meeting of the Central Valdosta Development Authority (CVDA) Board of Directors at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22. The meeting will be held in the Multi-Purpose Room in the City Hall Annex, located at 300 N. Lee Street.

Please contact the Valdosta Main Street Office at (229) 259-3577 if you have any questions in regard to this information.

What is that board, anyway? According to the City of Valdosta: Continue reading →