On the LAKE Front

The last Hahira Pick-In

On the stage just west of town, November 9, 2009:

Here's another view:

Train in Hahira

A frequent occurence:

Coming:

Cost of Incarceration in Lowndes County

I don't know what we pay in local or state taxes to lock people up in Lowndes County, Georgia, although probably it's in line with the high cost of incarceration in Georgia. I do know there are a lot of indirect costs, including this one:

Prisoners have to be released from prison or the county jail into the same community, and can't get a job because they're ex-cons, and often not even an apartment. Result? Homeless ex-cons turning to crime.

Female ex-cons in Lowndes County have some places they can turn to for housing. Male ex-cons have only the Salvation Army, and they have to leave there every morning early. In Atlanta they've examined their situation and determined that housing is the most central issue.

Which would we rather do? Pay as much per year to send them back to jail as it would cost to send them to college? Or find a way to provide housing for them?

How about helping ex-prisoners learn job-hunting skills and job-holding skills? Employment is the best preventative for crime. There are local organizations ready to work on that, such as CHANCE: Changing Homes and Neighborhoods, Challenging Everyone.

Local tax dollars need to be spent in a way that benefits the entire community, and not just a few. Maybe we can afford to do something about getting ex-prisoners a place to live and jobs so they stay out of crime and improve the local economy. Actually, can we afford not to do that to reduce incarceration expenditures?

Cost of Incarceration in Georgia

Carrie Teegardin and Bill Rankin
write in the AJC about A billion-dollar burden or justice? AJC investigation: Georgia leads nation in criminal punishment:

Georgia taxpayers spend $1 billion a year locking up so many criminal offenders that the state has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation. When it comes to overall criminal punishment, no state outdoes Georgia.

They note that scare tactics made that happen.

But today, many public figures with strong anti-crime credentials are asking if that expenditure is smart, or even if it’s making Georgians safer. The debate about crime and punishment, once clearly divided along party lines, is now a debate in which conservatives often lead the charge for change.

Drug War Goals Not Met

Geoffrey Alderman writes in the Guardian about What next – penalising students for taking caffeine?

For the past 90 years this debate has been dominated by the professional purveyors of moral panic in our society – a toxic combination of politicians, pressmen, prelates and policemen, aided and abetted by ill-informed parents, who have sought to pre-empt any serious discussion of "psychoactive" substances.

That's in the U.K.

Meanwhile, AP IMPACT: US drug war has met none of its goals:

Effects of proposed biomass plants in Massachusetts

Very interesting projection of Massachusetts Forest Impacts if Proposed Biomass Incinerators Are Allowed by Chris Matera, P.E., and Ellen Moyer, Ph.D, P.E., with GIS analysis and programming by Gordon Green:

The animations add the demand for wood for 5 proposed biomass incinerators in Massachusetts to the current wood demand, which is mainly for lumber and cord wood. The animations demonstrate the land area in western and central Massachusetts that would be required to be logged to satisfy the total demand for these 5 plants which would add only about 1 percent to Massachusetts' electrical generating capacity (see calculations below).

Quite a price for such a small percentage of electricity generation. Solar, wind, and wave could generate far more electricity, even in far northern Massachusetts.

And the animation above is a conservative projection. Follow the link for

...the extreme case where all forested land in central and western Massachusetts would be made available for biomass cutting - including rare species habitat, scenic landscapes, public “protected” land, and other protected open space. In this case, all forested land in central and western Massachusetts would be logged in only 16 years.

In Georgia, that would include places like Reed Bingham State Park.

-jsq

Biomass Permit Expected Fortnightly

The VDT published on May 18 Projects in the works: Industrial Authority reviews and discuss items at meeting, by Kara Ramos, in which there is this paragraph:

WIREGRASS POWER, LLC

The project should be approved and issued an air quality operating permit in the next 14 days, according to Lofton. A power purchase agreement should also be complete by June 1, 2010. The VLCIA granted an eight month extension for the project to begin construction.

(VLCIA is the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. Brad Lofton is its executive director.)

We know from previous reports that this wood and sewage sludge incinerator is expected to produce a maximum of 25 long-term jobs. Many questions were asked at the air quality hearing about particulates, CO₂, mercury, and other pollutants. The answers ranged from "we don't monitor that" to

100 Black Men, Valdosta, 15 May 2010

At the annual Black Tie Banquet of 100 Black Men of Valdosta on May 15, Johnny P. Ball, III gave Community Service awards

• to Helen Jackson, a guidance counselor at Valdosta High School,
• to Percy Chastang, a youth development coordinator at the South Health District, also involved in Poetic Magic,
• and to Pastor Angela Manning of New Life Ministries.

Kwame Holder played the saxophone and the food was by Antoine's Flavor of New Orleans.

Here is MC Donald Williams introducing the evening:

County Commission Expansion

On May 12, the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) published Expansion No Go: No additional commissioners this year. About that, John S. Quarterman sent this letter to the editor (LTE) yesterday:

I see by the VDT that the current County Commission's plan to expand the commission by adding two super districts failed in the legislature on a technicality. This pause provides useful time to see if there might be a different strategy. It's already 2010, and census data for redistricting should be available in spring of next year. That will take a lot of the guesswork out of redistricting.

While the voters said last year they were for commission expansion, it is not clear that people actually favor super districts, since no other option was on the ballot. Each current district has more people than the total population of several nearby counties. This makes commissioner elections needlessly expensive and less representative of the variety within Lowndes County. It's never been clear to me how adding two larger districts solves that most basic problem, when there are other options available.

Lowndes County could use more commissioners, and the current Commission made a good try at that. Soon it will be the turn of a new Commission to try again.

John S. Quarterman is running for County Commission, District 2.

The VDT responded:

The editor has reviewed your letter. She did not approve your letter because as a candidate for office, we cannot run a letter to the editor from you as it is considered campaigning and we would have to give equal opportunities to the other candidates as well.

Indeed he is, see www.JSQ4LCC.com. And as readers of On the LAKE Front are aware, he is also one of the founders of LAKE.

We understand the VDT has space constraints because it is primarily on paper. However, LAKE is online, and LAKE welcomes statements on this subject from any and all candidates. Send them in, and LAKE will post them, just like this one. Online, please: no paper, no fax. So lengths will be comparable, please keep it to 250 words, like a VDT LTE. Send a picture of yourself if you want to.

Pine Grove Elementary Closing

Let's run hear the principal:

Principal Mrs. Mickie Fisher MCs a picnic on the grounds of Pine Grove Elementary (PGE) to celebrate its 140 years of operation before it moves to its new location. The last day of classes is Wednesday. First, hear former prinicpal Reuben Jenkins, Clerk or Courts Sara Crow, and especially the PGE Chorus: