Valdosta budget hearing: no citizens spoke

Valdosta city officials advertised a budget hearing and no citizens spoke.

David Rodock wrote today in the VDT, Valdosta’s 2012 budget reviewed by citizens and public officials

City officials and staff gathered Wednesday night to discuss and review the fiscal year 2012 budget. Public participation was advertised, but no citizens presented any concern at the meeting. This is the first budget hearing, with the final adoption of the budget taking place at the upcoming regular City Council meeting on June 23 at 5:30 p.m.

No citizens. I don't live in Valdosta, so I didn't go. Apparently no Valdosta residents who have any economic concerns went, either.

That's too bad, because among the items discussed was this:

• Energy and fuel prices are a threat, since the private sector controls the costs. Public Works, the Valdosta Fire Department and the Valdosta Police Department use significant amounts of fuel.

And I bet the city spends significant funds air conditioning its buildings. Costs that could be offset by investment in solar panels for those same buildings. Solar panels that would limit ongoing electrical expenditures, and would also be a visible sign to residents and potential investors that Valdosta means renewable and sustainable energy business.

According to Hanson, for every dollar spent by residents, $1.17 is spent by non-residents.

And many of those non-residents would see those solar panels, which would spread the green reputation of Valdosta back to whereever they came from.

If Valdosta wants to be forward-looking,

it could also convert some of its public works vehicles to electricity and run them off of solar.

There's also this:

Much of the budget this year will be spent on water and sewer infrastructure; $4.9 million for the replacement of the elevated water storage tank at Savannah-Fry; $4.85 million for a new outfall expansion at Mud Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant; $5.17 million for a de-watering facility at Mud Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant. Approximately $30 million will be spent on water and sewer infrastructure.

Water is a huge local issue. Solar PV, unlike many electrical generation methods (such as biomass or nuclear) does not use water to generate electricity.

Meanwhile, none of the anti-biomass speakers at the 14 June VLCIA meeting showed up at the last regular VLCIA meeting to talk about anything. Leigh Touchton was there as NAACP president to talk about other issues; hm; I thought that video was online, but it isn't; I'll fix that. I spoke as usual about transparency and opportunity, on private prisons, minutes, and solar energy.

More activism, please.

-jsq

Comments

[Tim Carroll]

John,
At the June 23rd city council meeting, the city will vote to adopt the proposed budget. Citizens will have an opportunity to speak at this meeting. The budget is $2.9M higher than last year, but still at our 2005-06 levels by comparison. No tax increase, no lay-offs or furloughs, no utility/sanitation rate increases and pay raises for 5 year service anniversaries for staff. Still lowest cost for services and taxes of ALL comparable size cities in Georgia.
Do you know of any grant funds we could look at for solar panel conversion on some buildings?
I will inquire with staff on this as well.
Thanks for posting on LAKE.

[Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange]

Tim, DSIRE has most of what I know about GA solar incentives: http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/index.cfm?getRE=1?re=undefined&ee=1&spv=0&st=0&srp=1&state=GA
There's also the Georgia Solar Energy Association http://www.gasolar.org/index.php
They have a page on incentives: http://www.gasolar.org/georgia_solar_incentives.php
You may also notice Hannah Solar among GSEA's sponsors. Hannah Solar knows quite a bit about incentives; their CEO Pete Marte was at the governor's signing of the recent expansion of state incentives. More about HB 346: http://lake.typepad.com/on-the-lake-front/2011/05/georgia-clean-energy-tax-credits-yes-they-are-available.html
It might be worth talking to Georgia Power. Their new CEO claims to be "bullish on solar", they just connected Wiregrass Solar's plant in Valdosta, and they're doing various "experiments" and "demonstrations". Maybe they need to do a demonstration above Valdosta City Hall's parking lot....
-jsq

[Sara swain]

that is really sad to hear, we are always going to are meeting here in Birmingham. last year we got the council to commit to increasing investment in green technologies like solar PV cells, now all government owned building will have solar panels by 2020.