Tag Archives: VLCIA

Videos: a few appointees spoke @ LCC 2014-07-08

The Commission awarded no-bid contracts to Lovell Engineering (for Zipperer Road and Boring Pond Road) and ASA Engineering (for Coppage Road). Three of the seven board appointees showed up and spoke: Sam Allen and Penelope Schmidt for Library Board, and and Russell Mast for VLPRA. The Commission appointed all of them unanimously, including no-shows Terri Lupo to VLCIA, Martha Cunningham and Matt Lawrence to Library Board, and Susan Prince to VLPRA. Chairman Bill Slaughter consistently omitted the “Valdosta” from the names of all these boards, even though the reason VLCIA and VLPRA exist is a state law requirement for no overlap between uninincorporated and incorporated area taxation for such services.

There was no public hearing for Whitewater Road because the applicant withdrew it, and half of Nelson Hill was withdrawn while the other half was tabled.

Four of the nine contracts were approved all at once. Mr. Anti-Grant Commissioner Richard Raines actually made the motion to approve the EPMG grant request.

They finally posted an agenda after the Work Session. And they added another item to an amended agenda between the Work Session and the Regular Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Here are links to the videos in the order they actually held the meeting. See the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session for more detail on many of these items.

Here’s a video playlist:


Videos: a few appointees spoke
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 July 2014.

-jsq

Videos: opaque appointments @ LCC 2014-07-07

Terri Lupo (Georgia Power regional VP) for the Industrial Authority; Martha Cunningham, Sam Allen, Penelope Schmidt, Matt Lawrence for the Library Board, and Dan Deaver, Susan Prince, and Russell Mast (Chairman) for two positions on Parks and Rec. Apparently the public was supposed to guess about the two public hearings (one about the frequently-staff-varianced subdivision Nelson Hill) or the nine contracts, since the county didn’t post an agenda before the meeting. Commissioner Joyce Evans did ask if the applicants would be at the Regular Session Tuesday evening, and was told they would. Will they speak this time, unlike the applicants two weeks ago?

They finally posted an agenda after the meeting.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Thousands of solar jobs a thousand miles north of here: SolarCity buys Silevo

An Economic Development Council in snowy Buffalo has landed a solar manufacturer with suddenly even deeper pockets, while our Industrial Authority didn’t even meet this month. Maybe instead of supporting an unnecessary fracked methane pipeline that diverts resources we could get on with real solar industry here in sunny south Georgia?

WIVB.com wrote yesterday, Purchase of company coming to Buffalo could be boon for WNY,

Silevo, a company that had planned to set up shop at Buffalo’s Riverbend site, has been bought out by SolarCity, and the plan could mean thousands of jobs for Western New York.

Silevo is Continue reading →

Executive Session for Real Estate @ VLCIA 2014-05-27

The Industrial Authority is having a Special Called Meeting Tuesday at 4:45 PM, the agenda for which goes straight into Executive Session for no stated reason. Is that even legal, as I’ve asked before about a VLCIA executive session?

Also, why is G. Norman Bennett still listed as a board member and Vice Chairman, even though according to the VDT he resigned from VLCIA 13 March 2014? I asked him about that in Hahira a month ago today and he said he’d talk to VLCIA. Somebody didn’t follow through.

Here’s the agenda, which says they’re having an invocation for the purpose of discussing real estate and gives no reason for the Executive Session. Also from the Georgia Open Meetings Act of 2012, 50-14-3(b)(1): Continue reading →

Videos: Golf, aviation, and by-laws @ VLCIA 2014-04-15

A scheduled guest didn’t show up and an unscheduled guest did, about broadband. Perhaps 250 jobs from a prospective logistics distribution Project Royal and a potential agriculture-related Project Orange. Express Scripts brought 135 jobs last year and now are adding 175 jobs. Executive Director Andrea Schruijer emphasized the importance of existing industries in generating jobs and capital investment. She’s also discovered agriculture is 13% of Georgia GDP and 10% of that is grown in our region.

Next VLCIA meeting will be noon Thursday May 20th because of a trip to Atlanta later that same day. They may be in their “new digs” by then, and Building-Committee-UpdateChairman Mary Gooding promised an open house once they were moved in.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, April 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

Board appointments by Lowndes County

Here’s Lowndes County’s list of Boards, Agencies & Commissions. Unfortunately, unlike Valdosta’s list, most of the names in the county’s list have no links to further information, and there’s no indication of which positions might be open or how to apply for them.

Update: 4:30 PM 24 April 2014: And there’s the Board of Elections which is decided by a completely different process with a quicker deadline of 28 April 2014.

We do know there’s a vacancy on the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA), which presumably will be filled after the upcoming Special Election May 20th, but the county has given no indication of when. The only way the county usually announces open positions is when they appear on the County Commission’s agenda, which usually shows up online Friday for voting on Tuesday. For example, the county has appointed: Continue reading →

You can apply to serve on a board or commission

You can apply to be appointed by Valdosta to a local board or authority that decides or recommends on issues that affect everyone: do interesting work and serve your community. Dealine: April 30th. You don’t even have to live in Valdosta: anybody in Lowndes County can apply. If you want to run for a city council or county commission seat someday, this is a good way to start. And if you want to run for the state legislature or higher office, that’s the most common path to get there.

Update: 4:30 PM 24 April 2014: And there’s the Board of Elections which is decided by a completely different process with a quicker deadline of 28 April 2014.

Winnie Wright wrote for WCTV 23 April 2014, City Of Valdosta Looking To Fill 15 Vacancies In Boards, Authorities, and Commissions, Continue reading →

Golf and aviation @ VLCIA 2014-04-15

Some interesting stuff on there, such as the South Georgia Golf Classic, which appears to actually be 2-4 May 2014 (even though that event’s facebook about still refers to last year), and the South Georgia Fly-in, which apparently already happened on April 4th. I wonder what is the Presentation by Mr. Ben Futch about? And VLCIA’s May meeting has a time change, to when this agenda does not say.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, April 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

How to invite toxic industries to your county

Maybe we should stop inviting toxic industries to Lowndes County. We’ve been doing that with coal ash, PCBs, superfund wastewater, used diapers in recycling, and suing local businesses while not terminating an exclusive franchise with a company that is involved in all of that. Not to mention Sterling Chemical.

Here in Lowndes County we have TVA coal ash and Florida coal ash in our landfill, and the landfill operator spreads the coal ash on roads on the site, which is just uphill from the Withlacoochee River. GA EPD fined that landfill operator $27,500 in January 2013 for accepting PCBs into that same Pecan Row Landfill. The same landfill that accepted 196,500 gallons of wastewater from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross, GA.

A landfill that is in an aquifer recharge zone. Continue reading →

VLCIA high noon last week @ VLCIA 2014-03-13

An Industrial Authority board member resigned to run for an office he qualifed for the previous day, at a meeting that had apparently been rescheduled the day before he qualified. OK, who’s going to replace him, and when and by whom will that be decided? Oh, and that rescheduling means there’s no VLCIA meeting today.

The Industrial Authority rescheduled its March meeting for Thursday last week at noon, and at that meeting, according to the VDT, VLCIA board member Norman Bennett said:

“I am announcing that at the end of the day today, I will resign from the Industrial Authority,”

Puzzled by that, I called the Board of Elections to ask if they had told him there was some conflict of interest. They said no, they had read about it in the newspaper like everybody else.

I asked when he qualified to run for District 5. Answer: March 12th, which was the day before he resigned from VLCIA at its rescheduled board meeting.

When was that meeting rescheduled? Their website gives no clue. But their facebook page notice of the new meeting is dated March 11 at 3:15pm.

What do all those dates mean? Probably nothing, since local appointed and elected boards reschedule on whims around here. But it’s a curious series of coincidences:

More interesting is: when and by whom will a new board member be appointed to the Industrial Authority?

Here’s the agenda. Maybe some year we’ll get to see their minutes. It’s been more than two years since Roy Copeland said he’d try to make that happen. He’s no longer Chairman (although he did get reappointed to the board), and another board member has just resigned. You know, that VDT editorial I’m fond of quoting was actually about the Industrial Authority’s minutes:

When officials act like they have something to hide, they often do….
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:00 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street

Agenda

General Business

  • Call to Order
  • Invocation
  • Welcome Guests

Minutes

  • Regular Meeting, February 18, 2014

Financial

  • Review Compiled Balance Sheet and Income Statements for February 2014

Public Relations & Marketing Update-Meghan Duke

  • Public Relations Opportunities
    • International Trade Representatives
    • County Commission Presentation
  • Marketing Opportunities
    • Marketing Materials
    • ValdostaLowndesProspector Mobile Site
    • South Georgia Classic

Project Report-Allan Ricketts

  • Project Maroon

Existing Industry-Allan Ricketts

  • Existing Industry Visits
  • Existing Industry Expansion Projects
    • Project Wire
    • Project Treadway
    • JHS-14
  • Community Business and Industry Partnership

Executive Director’s Report- Andrea Schruijer

  • Business Development Opportunities
    • Georgia Quail Hunt February 2013
    • March Regional Marketing Trip to Consultants
    • Recruitment activities
    • International Representative Visit South Joint Regional Development Authority
    • Staff Planning Session
    • Board Planning Session
    • Met with Department of Agriculture to discuss regional food processing activity

Attorney Report

Citizens to Be Heard

Adjourn General Meeting Into Executive Session

Adjourn Executive Session into General Meeting

Adjourn General Meeting

Mission of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority
“Create an environment to attract new industry and promote the growth of existing industry to drive job creation and capital investment.”

-jsq