"We're industrial development" --Mary Gooding

After some some other things, I asked the VLCIA board (18 Jan 2011) about my previously submitted questions about house refitting for insulation and efficiency, and about rooftop solar, such as have been successful in Austin and Houston, Texas.

Mary Gooding answered:

"That really would be the city... we're industrial development."

She didn't say which city. There is more than one city in the county. The question as sent to them in writing refered to Hahira; maybe that's the city she meant. Should Hahira not expect any help from VLCIA?

And what about us who don't live in any of the cities? So far, all the new solar rooftop installations are in unincorporated parts of the county, although both are in Hahira's 31632 ZIP code.

Col. Ricketts, at the direction of the board, has since sent me a response, which will lead off tomorrow morning.

VLCIA seemed somewhat confused as to what their protocol is as to answering questions:

• Do they do that at their meetings? They did last time, and somewhat this time, and all of the County Commission, Valdosta City Council, Hahira City Council, and Lake Park City Council answer questions at their meetings.
• Do they need more than 24 hours? They said they did, then they said they'd already answered right there. Or some other amount of lead time?
• How should questions be submitted? I think they said by email or paper.

Such confusion is understandable, since apparently they're not used to getting questions from citizens. Doubtless they'll sort this out over time.

At least two things I think I've established:

• You must ask the board, not the staff, since staff ignored the two specific questions I asked Monday.
• You must send your questions directly to the board, since at least one of the same questions I'd asked before in a letter to the editor of the VDT the day before their previous board meeting and that didn't even get any acknowledgement that they'd ever seen it.

Maybe if more citizens show up and ask questions, that will help.

Several other citizens did at that meeting; more of those later, and eventually probably videos of the rest of that VLCIA board meeting.

-jsq