Tag Archives: Valdosta

Courthouse Preservation Committee Meetings

At different times of day so people with different work schedules can attend,
and actually asking for suggestions:
you can tell these meetings were organized by Judge McClane, not by the Lowndes County Commission.

Update 2015-03-21: Videos of
Hearing 1, 9 June 2014, videos of Hearing 2, 10 June 2014,
videos of Hearing 3, 12 June 2014,
and
Committee Report 12 January 2015.

On the county’s
front page:



The Lowndes County Historical Courthouse Preservation Committee will
host a series of public input meetings, beginning next week. The
meetings are being held in an effort to gather any ideas citizens
may have regarding possible future uses for the historic Lowndes
County Courthouse. Once the information is gathered, the committee
will present their recommendations to the Board of Commissioners.
Next week’s meeting schedule is as follows:
Monday, June 9, 6:00
p.m.; Tuesday, June 10, 3:00 p.m.; Thursday, June 12, 1:00 p.m. All
meetings will be held in Commission Chambers, Lowndes County
Administrative Building, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta. For more
information, please contact Amanda Smith, at 229-671-2400 or

asmith@lowndescounty.com.

These meetings are also listed in the county’s calendar, but if you click on any of them you get a blank page.



The VDT has more details today, Continue reading →

Sinkholes in Alachua County, FL

Curious how sinkholes get reported throughout the
Floridan Aquifer in Florida and south Georgia yet seldom
do the stories mention the aquifer and its porous limestone.



Kristy Wolski wrote for WTEV 2 June 2014,

Sinkholes open up in Alachua County,

Several sinkholes have opened up in Alachua County.

The sinkholes are on a private property in the Jonesville area. They
vary in size and at least three are visible from the fence at the
property line.

The largest of the sinkholes is located on the edge of a retention
pond. Alachua County Environmental Protection Director Chris Bird
told Action News it was created by heavy rainfall.

“Created by” heavy rainfall?
Seems like something is probably happening underground
to contribute to that.
Like pumping water out.

-jsq

A Suwannee County Commissioner publishes agenda packets



Commissioner Ricky Gamble
publishes the entire agenda packets even though the
Suwannee County Commission does not.


Suwannee County itself
publishes the basic agenda, such as

the current one for 3 June 2014,
and so does

the Suwannee County Democrat.

That newspaper also for the agenda packet
links to

Commissioner Ricky Gamble’s website,
which

has a page with Commission agendas,
including Continue reading →

Solar freakin’ roadways




Solar Roadways has raised $1,884,633 in six weeks from Earth Day to now
on a goal of $1,000,000 in indiegogo
(which was already

a record for most contributors with 36,000 people at $1.5 million).
Yes, to all those who have asked me, I think it could work.
Add solar roadways to rooftop solar and solar farms and wind,
and
the EPA’s new CO2 rule (which doesn’t even do much about coal for years
and does nothing about about “natural” gas)
will seem like a quaint baby step in a few years after this happens: Continue reading →

Energy Policy Act of 2005 considered harmful



The same Energy Policy Act of 2005 that

subsidized dirty oil and fracked methane including LNG exports
also funded

that oxymoron “clean” coal such as Southern Company’s Plant Ratcliffe
in Mississippi,

ethanol production lining the pockets of Monsanto, and

the $8.3 billion loan guarantee
to Georgia Power for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle.



2005 was a very long time ago in solar PV years:

prices are halved, and installed solar power production is up more
than ten times and growing exponentially like compound interest.
We need to stop throwing money at dirty, water-sucking,
centralized baseload 20th century non-solutions and get on with
clean 21st century distributed solar and wind power
for jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and water,
not to mention less climate change.

-jsq

Frontage, trees, daycare, and Wal-Mart @ ZBOA 2014-06-03



Two
Lowndes County
cases (
road frontage and

tree protection),
and two
Valdosta
Valdosta cases
(daycares on busy streets
and
Wal-Mart parking).
The county cases are both variances from the
Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)
and the city cases are both variances from Valdosta’s
Land Development Regulations (LDR),
and both the ULDC and LDR are supposed to be consistent with the

Comprehensive Plan.

Here’s

the agenda.
The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes

online in real PDFs.

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

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →

Videos: Regional water council meeting in Valdosta @ SSRWPC 2014-05-21



Anticipating water and wastewater needs,
coordinating with Florida and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
comparing water usage to available resources in the face of droughts,
floods, and climate change,
Georgia’s regional water management council for this area
considered all this and more when it met
in Valdosta to finalize a document:
Regional Assessment of Implementation Status.
Here are videos of the whole meeting.

30 MW solar times 3 Army bases in Georgia with Georgia Power

An additional 90 megawatts of solar power by Georgia Power,
beyond what the GA PSC required last summer?
With whose Army?

Kristi E. Swartz wrote for EnergyWire 16 May 2014,

Georgia Power plan would install solar arrays on 3 Army bases,




Georgia Power and the

Army jointly released plans to install large
solar arrays at three military bases yesterday in what officials say
could be a model for other states.

The three solar arrays are scheduled to start producing power in
2015 and will lead to the Army getting 18 percent of its electricity
in Georgia from renewable fuels that are on-site.

The 90 total megawatts of solar electricity also will move the Army
9 percent closer to meeting federal goals for renewable energy.

Adding three 30 MW arrays would continue to boost Georgia’s rapidly
growing solar output and would help the military meet its renewable
energy goals to become sustainable and more secure.

The move also alleviates mounting political and public pressure on
Georgia Power to remove roadblocks that some say have made it
difficult for the military to meet its federal renewable energy
goals.

OK, that’s all good stuff.
However, I’m missing the part about SO is going beyond what GA PSC
required Georgia Power to do:

“From the commission standpoint, it’s a joint venture between the
Georgia Public Service Commission and the Georgia Power Co. It is a
partnership,” PSC member Lauren “Bubba” McDonald said in an
interview with EnergyWire. “Georgia will be the model state.”

At least a couple of state utility regulators have been working with
Georgia Power for months on a program specifically to install solar
at military bases. The utility will use a 90 MW self-build project
that the Georgia Public Service Commission approved in 2007 to
implement its plans.



So if that 90 MW was approved by GA PSC in 2007, how is it
beyond

the 525 MW GA PSC required of Georgia Power last summer?
Maybe Georgia Power and GA PSC won’t count that 90MW within the 525 MW.
This could confirm that interpretation:

McDonald said this program is an extension of his efforts last
summer when he shepherded a proposal to have Georgia Power add 525
MW of solar to the grid as part of the utility’s long-term energy
plan.

OK, that’s good.
It’s still not enough: Georgia Power should be doubling its solar
generation every year, not just adding 17% above what it’s required.
But it’s some sort of acknowledgement that something needs to be done,
and it is something Georgia Power is actually doing.

-jsq

First of two public meetings on the budget @ LCC Budget 2014-05-27



Chairman Bill Slaughter started this morning’s budget session as
“the first of our two public meetings on the budget before that
budget will be adopted; basically a work session to go over the budget.”
Does that mean it is a Public Hearing?
If so, why do the county’s front page and calendar link to

a blank page for a “Budget Session”,
and there’s no Public Notice, even though there were
Public Notices for

the two road abandonments on the agenda for the Work Session and Regular Session?
How can it be a Public Hearing if it’s not announced as such
and the public doesn’t know about it?
Gretchen says that near the end they clarified that this was not a
Public Hearing, and there would be two actual Public Hearings
before the budget was adopted, although when is still a mystery.

Here’s

a video playlist, followed by links to the individual videos.
There are no links to an agenda, because the county didn’t publish an agenda, nor a draft budget.

Continue reading →

Videos: Road work and apparently annexation @ LCC Work 2014-05-27



Nevermind the County Engineer said about the Cat Creek Road bridge,
“All construction will take place during the months of June and July”
(Work Session 2014-03-24),
it was closed when Gretchen was headed for this morning’s Work Session,
so she had to go by Moody AFB on Bemiss Road, and was a few minutes late.
That’s why there’s no video for the first few agenda items,
and the videos are handheld.
They vote 5:30 PM this evening at the Regular Session,
is the same time as the Planning Commission meeting.

The smaller acreage for the

return of the Hahira Annexation request
is because it no longer has frontage on Hagen Bridge Road,
only on GA 122, thus removing

the county’s previous grounds for objection
(but it’s also on

the Planning Commission agenda at 5:30PM today, same time as the Regular Session).
There is an appointment to the



Hospital Authority
and two reappointments to the

shadowy Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority
that approves bonds.
Two Public Hearings for road abandonments, of

Old Statenville Road
and
of

Excess Right of Way on James Road and Riverside Road.
All that plus a

GEMA Sheltering Memorandum of Agreement
and a

beer license,
plus

Poll Manager Recognition.

Here’s the
agenda,
with links to the videos and a few notes.
See
videos from the previous Regular Session for context on the
Public Hearings
and on the

James Road Subsidence.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →