Scottsboro City Council Work Session, Airport Fuel Tank Needs Replacing March 24, 2014 & Scottsboro Runway 22 Approach

City Council Video


Longer Approach

Scottsboro City Council March 24, 2014 Goosepond Colony/City of Scottsboro Municipal Bond Issue

Goosepond improvements bond - $2.545 million. Goosepond Colony will incur a new payment, beginning next year, of $452,078.00. Scottsboro's Bond Rating using Standard & Poor was stated to be A+ Stable. Click on image for an expanded view.

Clarion's Heather Garner reports on the issue: "Ordinance 582 provides for the issuance of $6,015,000 aggregate principal amount of general obligation warrants. The City of Scottsboro will enter into a purchase contract in regard to these warrants (bonds)  with Raymond James & Associates, Inc." http://www.theclarion.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7676:city-re-finances-bonds&catid=42:clarion-rotation-stories&Itemid=142

 

Agenda

 

VIDEO

 

TVA Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant - The continuing Saga: When did the NRC and the TVA Know about the Defective Valves and Management Failures? Did the NRC Intentionally Deceive the Public

 

When and how long had the Tennessee Valley Authority's, TVA, Browns Ferry been experiencing degraded conditions as a result of failed valves? Was there an intentional cover-up by the TVA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC? Do nuclear Peer Review organizations such as WANO, World Association of Nuclear Operators, or INPO, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, have a moral, ethical and legal responsibility to disclose the existence of serious issues which may jeopardize public health and welfare of the public relating to nuclear power operations?

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION (NRC) 

BRIEFING ON BROWNS FERRY UNIT 1

OCTOBER 18, 2011

9:O0 A.M.

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

Public Meeting

Link: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/tr/2011/20111018.pdf

 

All the players were present, the NRC Commissioners and TVA Senior Executives. Quote from page 1 of the report -

"CHAIRMAN JACZKO: Good morning, everyone. The Commission meets today to discuss the safety challenges experienced by the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant and the steps being taken to strengthen safety at the plant.  In particular, in May 2004, Brown's Ferry Unit 1 was placed in Column IV of the  Reactor Oversight Process Action Matrix after it received a "Red" finding when a  reactor core cooling valve failed." Is that an error?

 

In the next paragraph Commissioner Jaczko goes on to say:

"This is not the only significant issue the Browns Ferry plant has experienced in recent years. In 2003, all units at Browns Ferry were placed in Column III after receiving a "Yellow" finding for fire protection issues. Given this recent history of issues, I'm sure that we can all agree that we want to see the plant perform more safely. To achieve that, there needs to be a strong commitment from the licensee’s entire organization, from its senior leadership to its frontline engineers to do what needs to be done for safety."

 

Had the plant actually received "Red finding" in 2004, or was this an error on the part of the NRC Chairman, Commissioner Jaczko? Attention to detail is important for the nuclear industry. The report continues; BILL BORCHARDT's comments on page 4 of the PDF linked: "...Browns Ferry Unit 1 entered Column IV of the Action Matrix in the fourth quarter of 2010." VICTOR MCCREE's comments on page 5: "...Unit 1 was assessed as being in the multiple repetitive degraded cornerstone, or Column IV, of the Reactor Oversight Process Action Matrix. Unit 1 was placed in this cornerstone column due to a "Red" finding in the mitigating systems cornerstone...On October 23rd, 2010, operators of Browns Ferry Unit 1 attempted to place Loop II of the residual heat removal low pressure coolant injection, or, RHR LPCI system in service to support refueling activities."

 

Maybe Commissioner Jaczko misspoke about the 2004 "Red Finding. Meanwhile, according to the NRC, the "Red Finding" is lifted and Browns Ferry Unit 1 is returned to the "Green" operating column stating, "The results of the inspection indicated that Browns Ferry was being operated safely." NUCPRO's listing of the Browns Ferry Assessment Letter: March 10, 2014 http://www.nucpros.com/content/browns-ferry-annual-assessment-letter

 

When did TVA and the NRC know there were valve problems at Browns Ferry?

Nuclear facilities have the privilege of receiving Peer Review Inspections by two separate groups of nuclear engineers. One of the groups is WANO, World Association of Nuclear Operators. Another group is INPO, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. Unfortunately for the public, when the INPO or WANO reports are issued  they have a statement that they are restricted from public view.  The TVA claims that the public is not entitled to see the reports nor entitled to a copy of the report for proprietary and financial reasons. TVA's position is highly suspect and reflective of TVA's attempt to continue with cover-ups and secrecy involving its nuclear program failures. However, the WANO and INPO groups themselves mark the reports as restricted.

 

The restrictive markings, when covering up serious safety issues which reflect negligent actions on the part of management of nuclear power plants, are effectively covering up issues which are of grave public concern. In the case of the Browns Ferry GE Mark 1 Nuclear plants the issues covered up, if not corrected, place the public at a higher risk of physical injury as a result of TVA negligence and a failure to correct the negligent actions by the regulator, the NRC.  

 

The WANO and INPO reports contain information that should be and must be made public. There is an ethical, moral and legal responsibility of the government agencies and the professional nuclear engineering organizations to make public those defective items identified which may in fact cause a catastrophic failure thus endangering the public. Such is the case of multiple defective valves which insure a nuclear reactor is cooled properly in the course of normal operations and emergency events.

 

The reports contain information regarding the safety of operating nuclear reactors. In the case of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Facility the INPO report dated July 2010 indicates the TVA, and presumably the NRC knew of the repetitive valve failures at all of the 3 Browns Ferry Units going back to 2006. On pages 30 and 31 (of 83pages) all 3 Browns Ferry Units experienced various valve failures.

The following photo of the pages are hereby listed as news, criticism and educational use, this posting is a not for profit listing under the Fair Use Rule of Section 107 of United States Law.

 

This listing also casts grave doubt on the inappropriate classification of such documents and the Federal Government's and the INPO/WANO institutions responsibilities to divulge such information to the public. The INPO report discloses long time safety failures at Browns Ferry and brings to light the regulators failure, NRC, as well as the TVA's failure as to safety culture and executive management. This failure extends to the NRC having access to such reports and keeping the reports restricted. The restriction of the reports are immoral, unethical, and possibly illegal, as they disclose serious public safety hazards regarding nuclear reactors at the TVA Browns Ferry nuclear facility. 

 

Nuclear Power Plant Safety and the protection of the publics health and welfare should be a TEAM PROCESS to protect the public. Not a process of cover-ups and secret documents to protect the nuclear power industry, executives, defective systems and incompetent managers. 

 

The INPO report began its description as Follows for the defective valves at Browns Ferry on page 28: "High and Low Pressure Injection systems have experienced repeat and age related failures." It goes on to describe management failures and "insufficient actions to prevent reoccurrence of equipment failures." The exact findings are hereby submitted as a "Fair Use Right" for the purpose of news reporting, education, criticism and the exposure of systemic negligence in a safety culture involving nuclear power use by the TVA.

 

Click on images for an expanded view.

 

 

Due to the seriousness of the issues involved and the appearance of a cover-up and or negligent activities on the part of the NRC and the TVA in this matter, the INPO report relating to valve failures at the TVA Browns Ferry GE Mark 1 Nuclear Facility is disclosed.

 

The July 2010 INPO report goes on to describe other equipment failures as a result of a failed safety culture and management neglect.

 

Nuclear Engineer Henry Jones discusses the existence of Peer Review Reports and their implications.

Interview with Jackson County Commission Chairman Matthew Hodges March 21, 2014

Scottsboro, Alabama March 21, 2014 at the Jackson County Courthouse. Interview with Commission Chairman Matthew Hodges.

Questions for this interview were provided to Mr. Hodges 24 hours prior to the interview.

The interview - video below. 

 

3-21-2014 – Matthew Hodges Interview, Chairman of the Jackson County Commission

Intro: I'm Garry Morgan of "In the Boro" of Google Blogger at arklite.blogspot.com; I'm with Matthew Hodges, Chairman of the Jackson County Commission and this is a video interview with Mr. Hodges about his thoughts on challenges, accomplishments while he has been in office, and questions about the $225,000 transfer of TVA in lieu of taxes from the Discretionary Fund to the Jackson County Legislative Delegation Building Fund. There are eight questions in this interview which were provided to Mr. Hodges yesterday afternoon.

 Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule for this video interview.

1) Mr. Hodges how long have you been in office now as the commission chairman? 

2) What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Jackson County Commission at this point?

3) What do you think are your largest accomplishments since being elected as commission chairman?

 Let’s discuss the fund transfer of $225,000 from the TVA in lieu of tax Discretionary Fund to the Legislative Delegation's Office Account.

4) The vote to transfer $225,000 of the TVA in lieu of tax from the Discretionary Fund to the Legislative Delegation's Office Account was 4 votes for the transfer, 2 votes against the transfer. All members of the legislative delegation  and you voted for the fund transfer, Mr. Crawford and Mr. Ledwell voted no. Why did you vote to approve the transfer of funds from the TVA in lieu of tax Discretionary Fund to the Legislative Delegations Building Fund in the amount of $225,000?

5) Did you have any prior knowledge of how the $225,000 would be utilized?

6) Is there any truth to rumors that you knew that the $225K was going to be utilized to purchase the current building the delegation uses instead of remodeling the previous purchased building?

7) Did any member of the current legislative delegation or private party suggest to you that it would be beneficial for you to support the transfer of the $225,000? 

8) Do you have anything that you would like to add? 

 Thank you Mr. Hodges for taking your time for this discussion.

 

VIDEO

Jackson County Commission Meeting March 17, 2014

 

The Jackson County Commission held a combined Regular Session continuation and a Work Session on Monday, March 17, 2014.

 

AGENDA

 

VIDEO

Scottsboro City Council, Regular Session March 17, 2014

Monday was a regular session of the Scottsboro City Council.

 

AGENDA

Click on image for an expanded view.

 

 

Jackson County Commission - Work Session, Mar. 3, 2014 and Regular Session, Mar. 10, 2014 Agenda and Videos - Legislative Delegation and the Black Mold Craziness Update

2014 Snow Day, Jackson County Courthouse - Scottsboro, Al. 

(photo - Face Book Judge J. Holt - (Fair Usage Rights))

 

More on Mold Craziness of the Legislative Delegation

(photo by G Morgan) Who voted yes and who voted no to waste public funds.

 

Update on Mold Craziness of the Legislative Delegations multiple building purchases, a past issue.  Discretionary Fund Committee, Jackson County Revenue Commissioner, Ron Crawford; Chairman of the Jackson County Commission, Matthew Hodges; Commission Member Stacey Ledwell sit on the Discretionary Fund Committee along with the 3 local state legislators, Sen McGill-Republican; Rep. Robinson-Democrat; Rep. Johnson-Republican whose residence is Madison County. A small part of Jackson County was included in Madison County's much larger legislative district. Madison County voters out number Jackson County voters in that district by 3-1. The abusive practice of disenfranchising voters is a hold over authority from the post Civil-War Jim Crow Alabama government of which its bigoted remnants remain in Alabama's Constitution. An out of county state representative determines the outcome of governmental practices and fund distributions for Jackson County citizens, namely Wayne Johnson, whose residence is Madison County Alabama, not Jackson County. Mr. Johnson has voted on all issues pertaining solely to the disbursal of funds to Jackson County entities via his position on the Jackson County Legislative Delegation.

 

The Vote on the approval to transfer $225,000 to the Legislative Delegation's Office Account:  Mr. Ledwell and Mr. Crawford VOTED NO (good for them); Mr. Hodges, Commission Chairman and the 3 state legislators voted yes to transfer funds to the delegations office account from the Jackson County Emergency/Discretionary Use Fund. It is my belief the vote to transfer funds to purchase the building was a waste of public funds. This is the second building the delegation has purchased for their office space. The first building purchase involved a local insurance company family. Both buildings have or had serious problems due to the age of the buildings structure and weather damage.

 

It is my opinion that Chairman Hodges' support of the wasteful expenditures was based on political reelection financing purposes and has nothing to do with efficient or sensible management of public funds. The Legislative Delegation's building is owned by the Moody's, an old time Scottsboro "power broker" family. Mr. Hodges, in my opinion, supported the wasteful transfer of funds to purchase the building for personal, political/financial support reasons to gain the political financial support of the "Scottsboro Power Brokers."

 

Update Mar 12, 2014, 12:35PM: I informed Mr. Hodges' about my concerns and my opinion directly related to him about this subject yesterday morning. Mr. Hodges has stated he had nothing to do with the purchase of the building and disagrees with my opinion about this issue. (Update 3-17-2014}Mr. Hodges has indicated interest in a video addressing this and other issues.

 

The use of the upstairs portion of the Scottsboro City Hall was rejected, it was the most economical choice. Instead, the delegation decided to waste money to the tune of $300,000. After inquiries, it appears the current delegation office space on the corner of South Broad and Peachtree Streets, just purchased, will cost another $200,000 to repair and mitigate the serious problems within the building. 

 

 Does the Jackson County Legislative Delegation really need a plush office space to disburse public funds in violation of the Separation of Powers of our National and State's Constitution which they swore support?? The delegation and the commission chairman is being sued by former commissioner Horace Clemmons, Senate District 8 Candidate.

 

Here we have a group of legislators passing law to fund themselves, then distributing the funds to various entities, groups or people. This abuse has been going on for over 30 years. It was an issue with the Democrat delegation; the Republican legislative candidates stated they would end this abuse of power; instead they have taken advantage of the abusive practice and continue the abuse under the color of abusive laws they created.

 

I have personally asked the County Commission to take a stand against the Delegation's abusive practices. The votes of our political representatives reflect their position.

 

This violates the principle of Separation of Powers,  the delegation's actions created an unconstitutional authority to budget, disburse and issue funds under one authority - IT IS A DANGEROUS PROPOSITION, similar to government forms which do not have a separate legislative and executive branch of government.  

 

The delegation has also attempted to claim they are a non-profit entity and created a faux non-profit document outside the 501c3 authority of which the IRS authorizes. They attempt to utilize state law to authorize their "special non-profit status" in the attempt to justify their abusive practices.

 

The abusive practices of the legislative delegation have been a historical problem for 30 years, of which the current corporate political control party, the Republicans, instead of correcting the problem, have continued the abusive practices by those which they constantly complained. Let's spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E-S.

 

Back to the County Commission 

March 3, 2014 Work Session Agenda

 

VIDEOS

                                        REGULAR SESSION AGENDA

 

VIDEO of Regular Session

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More on Mold Craziness - Jackson County Legislative Delegation - Are They Infected?

Jackson County's Legislative Delegation, mak'em beg for money team: from left to right Rep. Wayne Johnson, Republican who makes decisions on Jackson County funds but does not live in Jackson County; Rep. John Robinson Democrat, from Jackson County who apparently agrees with the local Republican's waste of purchasing 2 buildings for an office space, he hasn't said one word in opposition to the mismanagement of the peoples public funds; and the notorious Senator Shadrack McGill, elected as a Republican because the people got tired of the ridiculousness of the Democrats. Now they have more ridiculousness from right wing extremists.

 

The Jackson County Legislative Delegation's control of TVA in lieu of taxes has created a historical corrupt political office going back for 30 years. These public funds are funds which pass through the county commission; but due to 30 years of corrupted legislative actions the millions upon millions of dollars of TVA in lieu of tax funds were diverted for the use of the legislative delegation's political reelections. Now the money is being spent on the purchase of buildings for their office space.

 

I ask the question -

 Has Black Mold affected our elected representatives ability to reason and function?

More on Mold Craziness and the Jackson County Legislative Delegation.

The purchase by the Jackson County Legislative Delegation of the 2nd building for their office space may be indicative that these political representative decision makers may be affected and infected by Black Mold.

Have they performed any testing prior to spending public funds on these buildings for their office space? There is serious water damage upstairs in the delegation office. Do they realize the health problems that mold creates? Do they realize that their staff may be infected along with others who may come and go out of this public building? Do they realize the waste they have created by spending in excess of $300,000 on their office space? Is Exposure To Mold Making Us Crazy? http://www.restorepro.com/insurance-professionals/articles/mold-remediation/13-is-exposure-to-mold-making-us-crazy

 

Scottsboro City Council Work Session Video, March 3, 2014

What were they thinking? Or, is the problem medical and environmental in nature - Black Mold?

 

What were they thinking - Jackson County Legislative Delegation buys the building they currently inhabit. Cost - $200,000. Lets see, over $100K for the building across from the courthouse on Laurel Street; now they purchased the building whose roof leaks and upper structure has serious problems, including "Black Mold."

Has the mold destroyed their brains?? Think I'm joking, NO: " Our research in mold toxic patients has correlated their mold toxin levels with toxin-induced changes in their brain chemistry patterns, and the toxin-induced changes on their brain scans. Our research has clearly proven that mold toxicity causes the following psychological and neurological disorders: Anxiety, Brain Fog, Bipolar symptoms, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Insomnia, Irritability, Memory Loss, Multiple Sclerosis, Neuropathy, OCD, Panic Disorder and Seizure Disorders." http://sponauglewellness.com/wellness-programs/mold-toxicity/

More on this serious issue - from a Huntsville, Al. scientist: http://users.physics.harvard.edu/~wilson/soundscience/mold/lees.html