Last week I went to the Rainwater Conference Center to attend the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center & Tourism Authority Board
Meeting.
I had discovered
the time and date of this meeting by asking at the
information booth at the Conference Center one day when I was there
for another event.
I arrived slightly before the 8:00 appointed time and was greated
warmly by
Councilman Tim Carroll
and
Conference Center Director Tim Riddle.
Being the Conference Center, they served a hot breakfast
(other morning boards have fruits and sweets but this was something
that you might get up for).
As 8:00 came there was apparently not a quorum, so calls went out to
missing
members to see if one more could be attacted. At 8:15 it was
clear that there would be no additional members coming so no formal
meeting was held, no votes were taken but an informal review of the
agenda was performed:
Stopped by the main desk of the Conference Center Wednesday.
I asked for a list of the current members of the board
and was provided a photocopy of a February 2012 list.
See also
LCC 2012-11-13.
-gretchen
Board of Directors
February 1, 2012
Commissioner Joyce Evans
Lowndes County Board of Commissioners
Term Expires: December 31, 2014
Councilman Tim Carroll
Valdosta City Council
Term Expires: December 31, 2015
Andy Anderson
Lowndes County Board of Commissioner Appointment
Term Expires: December 31, 2014
Rick Williams - Vice Chairman
Valdosta City Council Lodging & RV Appointment
Term Expires: December 31, 2012
Tired of Southern Company CEO Fanning's
maybe "next decade" for solar power?
Tired of Georgia Power's Bowers
trying to push solar off for fifty years?
Let's hear from somebody who takes on big tasks and gets them done:
Elon Musk, who's already built a rocket that is resupplying the International
Space Station, and who is also building all-electric cars.
When he's not launching rockets, Musk is disrupting the notoriously
obdurate automobile industry (see National Treasure, p. 42). While
industry giants like Chevrolet and Nissan and Toyota were dithering
with electric-gasoline hybrids, this upstart kid said he would
design and manufacture an all-electric car that would travel
hundreds of miles on a single charge. The Tesla Roadster hit the
streets in 2008 with a range of 200 miles, and the far more
functional Model S, starting at $57,000, was introduced in June.
It's the world's first all-electric car that does everything my old
gasoline version does, only better. The high-end model travels 300
miles on a single charge, leaps from zero to 60 in 5.5 seconds,
slows from 60 to a dead stop in 105 feet, can seat up to five, has
room for mulch bags and golf clubs, handles like a race car and its
battery comes with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty. If you
charged it via solar panels, it would run off the sun. One hundred a
week are being produced in a former Toyota factory in Fremont,
California, and nearly 13,000 people have put deposits on them....
I asked why the Old US 41 North widening project changed from $8 million on the unconstrained list to $12 million on the constrained list, an increase of $4 million or 50% when the description did not change?
The answer indicates GDOT and local governments want to drive development north in the county, leaving pedestrians and bicyclists stranded yet having to pay.
Corey Hull responded:
Halfway through we received new cost estimates....
GDOT did the cost estimates, in cooperation with the local government that was responsible for that.
A state employee told me after the meeting that GDOT raised some estimates because it thought the local government, in this case the Lowndes County Commission and staff, didn't put in enough to cover the project. I don't know whether GDOT was figuring by Atlanta costs or not.... At least the cost didn't go up further in the final project list; I just checked and it's still $12 million.
Corey elaborated that some projects increased and some decreased. I asked him which ones did which. He said he'd have to go back and compare. Later he helped me produce a list of comparisons of costs of Lowndes County projects, which shows that one went down by 30% and three went up by 50% or more. One, RC11-000099 St. Augustine at Norman Intersection Improvements, went up by 131.5%.
That $12 million for widening less than 3 miles of one road is more than one item that was in the unconstrained list but cut from the constrained list: $7.5 million for a bus system, with three bus lines that would connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown, Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall. A bus system recommended by the Industrial Authority's Community Assessment to aid in employee attendance, industry recruitment, and workforce.
You could probably even start up a substantial commuter rail system using existing freight line tracks for less than $12 million. Even though GDOT apparently only believes in roads and bridges, busses and trains are actually more cost-effective, especially for lower-income people. The same lower-income people who will be disproportionately taxed by T-SPLOST as a percentage of their income.
Instead, the description for the Old US 41 North project admits the county is driving
Who is on the Tourism Authority Board, and why do they have
such rapid changeover in executive directors?
The Commissioners considered Monday 9 January and made Tuesday 10 January
three appointments to the Tourism Authority:
Commissioner Joyce Evans (reappointment),
Jerome "Andy" Anderson (reappointment),
and Greg Charbeneau apparently to replace
Linda Jenson (who had been appointed to fill a vacancy for ? Montgomery).
5.a. Valdosta/Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority
County Manager Joe Pritchard said at the Tuesday Regular Session that
Greg Charbeneau is a Vice President at Wild Adventures.
Here's
video of that session:
3 Appointments to VLC Conference Center and Tourism Authority LCC 2012 Jan 10
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
We learned a little more at the Monday Work Session, but not much.
Here's
video:
3 Appointments to VLC Conference Center and Tourism Authority LCC 2012 Jan 9
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
VLCCCTA's own
webpage
has no indication that such a board even exists,
much less
Commissioner Crawford Powell wanted exemptions or exceptions
to Lowndes County's travel policy for
"department heads, elected officials, County Manager".
Commissioner Richard Raines just wanted the limits raised.
Commissioner Joyce Evans preferred they
...make a statement that we should not exceed a certain amount per day.
Chairman Ashley Paulk said exceptions were a problem and indicated they
would be a bad idea.
Powell and Raines are the same Commissioners who thought accepting a
federal grant for NOAA Weather Radios would be "wasteful spending"
of tax dollars and who refused a federal grant for an emergency vehicle.
Spending local taxes seems fine with then when it comes to their travel expenses.
They finally adopted a total of $75/day for meals.
I hate to agree with Frank Barnas, but
GSA standard for trips to Atlanta is $56/day.
At the Monday 24 October 2011 County Commission Work Session,
County Manager Pritchard said the county's travel policy had been discussed
during their retreat and during budget preparations,
with changes for mileage reimbursement, meal limitations, and use of tax forms.
.
This is the policy we have been acting under since the adoption of the budget.
I just wanted to bring it back before you to make this adoption public.
Joyce Evans expressed a concern about it saying the County Manager or his
designee could approve expenses.
She seemed to want the designee part removed.
Look at all those other railroads converging on Valdosta in
that GFRR project proposal map.
Valdosta is a historical rail hub for passenger traffic to Atlanta,
Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando, Thomasville, Tallahasssee, and
beyond. All the tracks are still in place and still in use for freight.
With some rolling stock and a few deals with the railroads, Valdosta
and Lowndes County could become again a passenger rail hub with a mass
transit system for local commuting to jobs and for long distance travel.
Add
a bus system and local commuting becomes very practical.
People could take the train to town and catch a bus to work.
Many people could walk or take a bicycle to their work from the
train station.
This could work the other way around, too.
People could live in Valdosta and work in Ray City or Lakeland or
Hahira or Lake Park or Clyattville and not have to drive to get there.
That would save
a lot of wasted time and wasted fuel.
This kind of mass transit would attract the knowledge-based workers
we supposedly want around here.
Including jobs our high school and college graduates could take,
so they wouldn't have to move elsewhere.
And upgrading the railroads, building stations, building
and refurbishing houses and apartments near the stations, etc.,
would employ a lot of construction workers;
probably as many as road projects and sprawling subdivision projects,
but without the sprawl.
Now here's a T-SPLOST project I like:
upgrading the railroad that runs
from Valdosta to Moody AFB
and on to Ray City and Nashville in Berrien County,
and Willacoochee in Atkinson County.
This proposal is to aid freight, but with this upgrade to the track,
the same track would be even more readily usable for passenger rail.
That same track was used for passenger travel up into the 1950s.
My mother used to catch the train at Barretts (just north of Moody) to go visit her relatives in Pearson (a bit east of Willacoochee).
It's true the project sheet talks about "potential customers in the region":
This project will provide for more efficient train operations along
the rail corridor to accommodate the increase rail traffic serving the
existing and potential customers in the region.
However, rail promotes development in existing population
centers and at stations, unlike all along automobile roadways.
This project is also another example of how
the economic area of Moody AFB includes
What are some ideas for economic and cultural growth that don't require huge population growth? Richard Florida has many ideas for large and mid-sized population areas in the article discussed below. Who's the Richard Florida for places the size of Lowndes County?
the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
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