The Oconee County Boards of Education on Monday agreed to spend $917,178 for improvements at Oconee County Elementary school, including replacement of the gym roof, metal siding, and floor activity area and replacement of the floors in the outside classroom pod.
The Board also approved spending $899,748 for new digital scoreboards for the North Oconee High School and Oconee County High School stadiums.
Principals at Oconee County primary, elementary, and middle schools informed parents through their December newsletters that Oconee County Schools has updated its policy on use of electronic devices by students effective July 1 of this year.
The new policy requires that all cell phones and personal electronic devices must be turned off and stored away during the “bell-to-bell” school day.
Eric Gisler, elected in December to represent much of Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, received a hero’s welcome when he appeared before Oconee County Democrats last month.
“You know, this is the first time that the representative from House District 121 has ever come to any of our meetings,” Party Chair Harold Thompson said in introducing Gisler, to laughs and a loud round of applause.
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.
