The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is moving toward approval of a new concept plan that would close completely access of Julian Drive to and from SR 316.
Under the plan, Julian Drive traffic from the north would be blocked from entering SR 316 and instead would travel to US 78 via a new road parallel to SR 316 that would be an extension of Tall Oaks Road.
After requests for two commercial developments in the northern part of the county were pulled from the agenda of the Oconee Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, more than half of the standing room only crowd left the Commission Chamber.
A cluster of a dozen citizens remained, however, determined to fight approval of two variances being sought by the developer of just more than 181 acres in the far south of the county.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration on Monday voted 4 to 1 to table indefinitely consideration of adding five or six days of early voting at a site other than the county Administrative Building just north of Watkinsville.
The Board took that action after, during the public comment section at the beginning of the meeting, Oconee County Republican Party Chair Kathy Hurley, who said she was speaking for the party, stated her strong opposition to adding a second early voting site.
The owners of the five-acre tract on the west side of Jimmy Daniell Road and the north side of Silver Leaf Road are asking the county for the third time since 2006 to make zoning changes to allow them to develop the property commercially.
In 2006, they asked that the property, which abuts Silver Leaf subdivision, be rezoned from its agricultural classification to Office Institutional Professional District (OIP) to build an office park containing four, two-story office buildings totaling 40,800 square feet in size.
The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees has selected artwork for the library in Wire Park consisting of three large sets of photographic panels for the inside walls of the main room and nine paneled murals for the children’s library space.
The Board chose the artwork after presentations by three individual artists and a collaborating pair of artists at it meeting last week.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) agreed on Tuesday to spend up to $4 million from its reserves to cover the added costs of using synthetic turf rather than natural grass on eight fields at the future Dawson Park on Rocky Branch Road.
The IDA is using this investment in what it is calling sports tourism to bring in out-of-county visitors for tournaments and other sporting events who will stay in county hotels, patronize local restaurants, and spend money at retails outlets in the county.
Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday night voted to ask the county Board of Elections and Registration to place on the May 19 General Primary and Nonpartisan Election ballot a referendum for renewal of the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
If voters approve the referendum, which is expected to generate conservatively $75 million in revenue, the county will spend $13.3 million of that amount to pay off debt from construction of Oconee Veterans Park and from construction of the county Administrative Building.
