THE AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS PROJECT Climate change impacts the urban centers in many ways

The purpose of the African American Business Project is to promote African American economic empowerment and independence in the United States for present and future African American generations.

Please, come and go with me on a short journey and allow me to share a few facts with you related to climate change. One might ask what does climate change have to do with obtaining economic empowerment and independence for African Americans? Answer: everything fundamental from the corner store to the supermarket, and from your home to becoming homeless.

Climate change is always in the shadow of many issues, for example the 2019 Covid pandemic, also known as the Coronavirus Pandemic, which infected 103,436,829 American citizens and killed 1,127,152 American citizens, along with the war in Ukraine.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science relate to climate change, its impact and future risk, and its options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place. It is estimated that as many as 3.7 million United States residents in 2,150 costal areas could be battered by damaging floods caused by global warming and induced storm surges.

To make a long story short by the year 2050, according to the IPCC a large proportion of the United States will be under water, and some of the states that will be affected the worst is Florida, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey.

The United States have been drilling for oil since 1859 and burned a lot of oil and other fossil fuels especially during the Industrial Revolution. A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material such as coal, oil, and natural gas, formed naturally in the Earth’s crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel which is the cause of global warming.

Because so many scientists and engineers in the United States consider the effects form climate change a host manufactured by unreliable representation connected to the United Nations, as American citizens we need to know the truth. We need to know the truth about climate change because 25 years from today many of

RICHMOND COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION

Bond Issue Program us might not be living, but our children and grandchildren will be in a predicament in which we could have help prepare for by planning now. We don’t need another Hurricane Katrina situation in which 1,500 residents died in New Orleans, Louisiana, waiting for help that showed up too late.

A week ago, former Augusta commissioner Sammie Sias was sentenced to three years in Federal prison after being found guilty last year of destroying records related to a federal investigation and lying about it to law enforcement.

In addition to the 36-month prison sentence, Sias was also ordered to pay $5,000 and serve three years of supervised release, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

Sias was recently denied a new trial following his conviction in July 2022. Sias deleted 7,000 files, according to an FBI agent at his trial, minutes after receiving a grand jury subpoena for bank records. The subpoena came as part of an investigation into the spending of tax dollars at the Jamestown Community Center.

Sias served as the president of the Sandridge Community Association, which operates the publicly-owned center. The SCA received $150,000 in sales tax dollars to perform upgrades at the center without Sias ever having to submit a receipt, and it appeared he transferred much of the money to a personal account.

I will continue to write about climate change and urban revitalization in my future newsletters, please discuss these matters with your legislative representatives. Let the truth be known about climate change.

– Melvin Lorenzo Kelly

PROPOSAL NUM.: B-21-024-0103

PROJECT NAME: Freedom Park Roof Replacement

County Board Of Education Of Richmond County Invitation To Bid

Sealed proposals from Contractors will be received for the B-21-024-0103 – Freedom Park Elementary School Roof Replacement project by the County Board of Education of Richmond County at the address below until 3:00 p.m. local time, July 26, 2023, at which time the bids will be publicly opened and read. No extension of the bidding period will be made

A Pre-Bid Conference will be held July 13, 2023 @11:00 AM local time in the Media Center Conference Room, Freedom Park Elementary School, 345 42nd Street, Building 43400, Fort Gordon, GA 30905.

Drawings and project manual on this work may be examined at the Department of Maintenance and Facilities, Richmond County Board of Education, 2956 Mike Padgett Highway, Augusta, Ga 30906

Bidding documents may be obtained at the Office of the Architect: 2KM Architects, Inc., 529 Greene Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901. Applications for documents together with refundable deposit of $125.00 set should be filed promptly with the Architect. Bidding material will be forwarded (shipping charges collect) as soon as possible. The full amount of deposit for one set will be refunded to each prime contractor who submits a bona fide bid upon return of such set in good condition within 10 days after date of opening bids. All other deposits will be refunded with deductions approximating cost of reproduction of documents upon return of same in good condition within 10 days after date of opening bid.

Contract, if awarded, will be on a lump sum basis. No bid may be withdrawn for a period of 35 days after time has been called on the date of opening.

Bid must be accompanied by a bid bond in an amount not less than 5% of the base bid. Personal checks, certified checks, letters of credit, etc., are not acceptable. The successful bidder will be required to furnish performance and payment bonds in an amount equal to 100% of the contract price.

The Owner reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive technicalities and informalities.

To promote local participation, a database of Sub -contractors, Suppliers, and Vendors has been developed by the Program Manager, GMK Associates. Contact Jeanine Usry with GMK Associates at (706) 826-1127 for location to review and obtain this database.

Bids shall be submitted and addressed to:

Dr. Kenneth Bradshaw

County Board of Education of Richmond County Administrative Office 864 Broad Street

Augusta, Georgia 30901 c/o: Mr. Bobby Smith, CPA