Paige Dukes told us about this Monday, but why steal her thunder about the county’s new website and the videos on it?
Joe Adgie, VDT, 17 December 2014, Lowndes County website goes live,
County residents can pay bills, read county ordinances, search for real estate and read meeting agendas on the new site.
In addition, a first for the county government, videos of the Lowndes County Commission meetings are also available through the site and on YouTube.
“Due to schedules, Continue reading
Sabal Trail tries to teach us how to read, plus redefining centuries
of common law.
Joe Adgie wrote for the VDT today 3 December 2014, Sabal Trail: Accusations ‘lack any substance’,
Two representatives with Sabal Trail Transmission disputed complaints from property owners in correspondence with The Valdosta Daily Times and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Lisa Connolly, general manager of rates and certificates for Sabal Trail, said that letters sent to property owners should be read in a different light than was presented.
“A fair reading of these letters Continue reading
Andrea Grover’s response to being caught by the VDT actually knowing about Sabal Trail threats of eminent domain after she said were “hard to believe” is… to use the VDT to threaten eminent domain!
The example
the VDT quoted Wednesday
of an eminent domain threatening letter from Sabal Trail’s
Atlanta law firm was dated 26 November 2013.
Yet a year later, today, 28 November 2014, Joe Adgie in
Sabal Trail to install taps in Georgia
quotes Ms. Grover in the VDT: Continue reading
Who exactly is “hard to believe”?
Joe Adgie, VDT, today, 26 November 2014, Residents share eminent domain letters,
Letters submitted to the Valdosta Daily Times and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover.
Continue reading
Here are videos of last month’s event organized by
VDT editor Jim Zachary, director of the Transparency Project of Georgia,
and Holly Manheimer, director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation,
adding to
the still picture we already posted.
First time ever the VDT mentioned LAKE, so far as I can recall.
And we’ll see if the new VDT editor’s honeyed approach works this
time with the Lowndes County Commission.
Joe Adgie, VDT, 23 November 2014, Watchdogs use open government laws to the fullest,
Not everyone at the Open Government Symposium on Friday were affiliated with a government.
Some of them, like John and Gretchen Quarterman, serve as watchdogs for the government. These watchdogs attend the open, public meetings held by governing bodies, acquire the documents and records of these meetings and other governmental affairs, and serve to make sure our local governments behave like they should.
The Quartermans run the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), a repository of Continue reading
“I ask you and FERC to stop Sabal
Trail from telling newspapers things that Spectra
Energy’s own corporate documents refute, and to start
paying attention to multiple requests by county commissions
and other affected parties.”
Back in December, Spectra’s Andrea Grover and Brian Fahrenthold were “not familiar” with Spectra’s lengthy safety rap sheet (see above picture). Yesterday’s VDT had Sabal Trail: Eminent domain accusation ‘hard to believe’ by Joe Adgie. Meanwhile, the Moultrie Observer has picked up the VDT story. Maybe some newspapers will also publish better information than what trained pipeline PR people seem not to remember or believe, despite copious evidence of the actual facts.
Filed with FERC 19 November 2014 accession Number: 20141119-5232. The attachments are in the PDF, and they’re all in the links in the HTML version below. -jsq Continue reading
Update 2014-11-21: Brad Shealy from the District Attorney’s office called back. The reason there was no decision at day before yesterday’s Grand Jury meeting was there were no applicants. He said qualifications include you must be 18, a high school graduate, and a property owner, presumably meaning real estate. Plus you have to go to Tifton or Athens for a 40 hour course. Which he said is better than it used to be when the only location for the course was Athens: Tifton is close enough to drive up and back daily. If you want to serve, please contact the Clerk of Court (see below for her number).
When will new members be appointed to the Board of Equalization, who are the candidates, and how are people to know? Maybe you’d like to volunteer. If so, send your resume to the Clerk of Court (not the County Clerk). Apparently you have about two weeks.
As public comment on facebook by Becky Vaughn Herndon today:
Lowndes County is looking for volunteers to be members of the Board of Equalization (BOE). The purpose of the BOE is to hear property tax disputes between the Lowndes County Board of Assessors (BOA) and property owners. The board must not be biased towards the Lowndes County Assessor’s office or the taxpayer. It hears evidence from both sides and decides, based on the evidence presented, what the value of the contested property should be. The board may:
- Find the Continue reading
Not the Onion: VDT front page Saturday 15 November 2014, County plans open government meeting Friday,
VALDOSTA — An Open Government Symposium this Friday in Valdosta will be hosted by the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners.
Valdosta Daily Times Editor Jim Zachary, director of the Transparency Project of Georgia, will be joined by Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, for the open government training event.
Lowndes County leaders approached Zachary and Manheimer about bringing the symposium to Valdosta after they attended the first in a statewide series of open government training sessions held in Macon at the Center for Collaborative Journalism Oct. 17.
The article noted that Commissioner Clay Griner was among the attendees at the previous symposium in Macon and had asked for this local meeting.
All the events are Continue reading
Joe Adgie wrote for the VDT today 23 October 2014, Coalition: Sabal one of Dirty Dozen,
VALDOSTA — The Georgia Water Coalition has named the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline as one of its Dirty Dozen for 2014, which highlights “12 of the worst offenses to Georgia’s waters,” according to the organization.
The pipeline is proposed to run under the Withlacoochee river, near Valdosta.
Joe Adgie also took the first picture above, of Logan Hulsey and Blake Clark of Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.) at yesterday’s protest in front of the Valdosta Sabal Trail office. The other illustrations here are from WWALS Watershed Coalition about that Dirty Dozen item #9, Sabal Trail pipeline threatens Withlacoochee River and Floridan Aquifer,
In a press release, the GWC cited the risk of contaminating southwest Georgia’s well water, rivers and streams, as well Continue reading
