Tonight we get to hear twice about the long-awaited
flooding study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:
once with no citizen input at the Valdosta City Council Work Session,
and then with citizen input at Valdosta City Hall Annex.
Presumably this study will say something about the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), the new
force main to prevent manhole overflows, and
maybe some upstream measures to keep quite as much water from getting there.
This study only addresses issues within the city limits of Valdosta,
not the larger watersheds upstream on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers
and downstream: that will take more funding.
People
downstream in Florida may be relieved to hear something is being done.
Tag Archives: Valdosta
Videos: church parking withdrawn @ ZBOA 2014-04-01
North Valdosta Church of God came to a decision.
Plus
a house variance in
Lowndes County was approved unanimously,
and
a gas station variance got its building variance approved, but its other variance requests denided, all on a split vote.
in
Valdosta.
See
the Meeting Results Summary,
which also lists all of ZBOA members as present.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes online in real PDFs. Continue reading
A newspaper opposes the pipeline: the Spectator
A major big city daily?
A local newspaper of record along the proposed pipeline path?
Nope: the Valdosta State University student newspaper, The Spectator,
has done what its bigger newspaper colleagues have not dared:
oppose the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and demand renewable
energy instead.
Where students lead, maybe their elders will follow.
Editorial in The Spectator 1 May 2014 (I added the links and images), Pipeline a risk to Valdosta, Continue reading
Video of Gretchen on Scott James radio show 2014-05-01
Lowndes County as the Jewel of the South, and how to get there, was the topic on drive-time radio Thursday.
Local policy issues include what would happen to us if we got
20 inches of rain like Pensacola just did?
The county needs to be appropriately staffed and prepared for emergencies.
The Army Corps of Engineers study on flooding
will be presented at the next
Valdosta City Council Work Session (5:30 PM May 6th at City Hall)
with a public presentation afterwards (6:30 PM at City Hall Annex).
Gretchen added that
Ashley Tye
will be giving a Lowndes County Emergency Management
Continuity of Business Workshop 5:30-6:30 PM 5 May 2014
at the Lowndes County Administrative Building, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta.
Radio host Scott James noted,
In case nobody picked up on it, I just quizzed Gretchen and she is involved. She answered both very well.
Gretchen added that having things online for people who can’t go to the meetings because they’re at work would be very useful in getting more people engaged. Scott James advocated livestreaming videos of meetings, “or at least recorded and played back”. Gretchen recounted an anecdote about wishing she could have heard the recent Valdosta City Council meeting livestreamed.
Here’s the video: Continue reading
Valdosta Farm Days starts today
9AM to 1PM
Valdosta Farm Days at the old Lowndes County Courthouse,
first and third Saturdays, starting today.
City of Valdosta Pr 24 April 2014, Downtown Valdosta Welcomes Back Farm Days,
On market Saturdays, vendors offer a variety of goods for sale such as locally-grown, locally-raised, locally-produced fruits and vegetables, plants, herbs, meats, farm-fresh eggs and dairy products, organic produce, baked and prepared foods, snacks and coffee. Patrons will also find a variety of artisan and natural products including products made from recycled goods, birdhouses, handmade soaps and body products, candles, and honey products. Those who arrive early to shop have the advantage of beating the heat and getting the best picks of the season.
The market also serves as a venue to educate the community on healthy local options. Cooking demonstrations and Continue reading
Ashby, Mass. grilled pipeline company
A tiny town of about 3,000 people grilled pipeline reps for two hours.
Why didn’t the pipeline companies fix the leaky pipelines they had
before building new ones, their Board of Selectment wanted to know
among many other good questions.
Representatives from Kinder Morgan and its subsidiary
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (TGP)
said stuff happens and those were bigger issues and basically
don’t worry your pretty little heads.
The locals weren’t buying it. Continue reading
Opaque Planning Commission agenda from Lowndes County @ GLPC 2014-04-28
Just in case it might work, I sent an Open Records Request to the
Lowndes County Clerk before Monday’s Planning Commission meeting.
The result just arrived, two days later, 47 hours after the meeting started.
It is in electronic form, as I requested, but it’s a
PDF of a scanned
image, so turning it into HTML would require OCRing it or transcribing it,
unlike
the real PDF I got by another means before the meeting
and posted Monday.
If the agendas and minutes for the Planning Commission were posted
on the web like the Lowndes County Commissions own agendas
and minutes already are, this problem wouldn’t arise,
and there would also be less work for county staff.
-jsq
Lowndes County Emergency Management Workshop May 5
Received today via the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce.
I added a few links from
posts in this blog featuring Ashley Tye.
-jsq
Lowndes County Emergency Management Continuity of Business Workshop,You Are Invited to attend the
Lowndes County Emergency Management
Continuity of Business Workshop
On Monday, May 5, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., Lowndes County Emergency Management will host a Continuity of Business Workshop on the second floor of the Lowndes County Administrative Building, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia. The session will be led by Lowndes County Emergency Management Director, Ashley Tye.
Attendees will receive Continue reading
2 megaWatts solar in Lanier County
Somebody told me a few weeks ago there’s a big solar farm near Lakeland. He was not very specific about where, but it’s big: two megawatts, organized by a company out of Chicago. Can anybody point me to where it is so I can go take pictures?
Evergreen Solar Services says,
2.0 MW Lakeland, GA
Completed in 2014, 2 — 1.0 MW Georgia Power ASI projects. Fixed tilt PV with central inverters, medium voltage interconnected.
You can see by this Evergreen Solar Services picture that Continue reading
Gretchen Quarterman on Chris Beckham radio show 2014-04-29
“People would have a lot more confidence in the government
if they understood it and they could see it happen,”
said Gretchen Quarterman this morning on drive-time radio.
She used last night’s
Brookhaven apartment building rezoning public hearing in
Lake Park to illustrate: local landowners have property rights and
there was a lack of communication between the developers
of a proposed apartment building, the Lake Park city government,
and the neighbors.
She also talked about jobs, including in local agriculture.
For example, she ran the
2014 South Georgia Growing Local Conference.
Money spent on local agriculture supports the local economy,
not companies far away.
She talked about stewardship of resources,
including preserving local property and environment from
the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline.
She advocated Continue reading