Life Church of Athens asked the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night to withdraw its request for a special use permit to build a church at Summit Oaks Drive and Summit Grove Drive north of Watkinsville.
The Board was scheduled to hold a public hearing on the church’s request but instead voted unanimously to approve the request by Life Church to withdraw the application “without prejudice and without restrictions on future filings.”
Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday night gave informal approval to an economic development strategy outlined to them by Courtney Bernardi, president of the Oconee Chamber of Commerce, who now heads up economic development efforts for the county.
The strategy, according to Bernardi’s report to the Commission, includes supporting, nurturing, and investing in existing businesses, targeting professional and technology jobs, and leveraging the proximity to and relationships with the University of Georgia.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell and Public Works Director Jody Woodall got little input last week from the Task Force the Board of Commissioners appointed to help the county prioritize projects identified in the recently completed transportation study.
Woodall went through the list of 18 projects listed as Corridor Capacity Improvements in the county’s Long Range Transportation Plan and asked Task Force members for their comments on the proposals.
Oconee County Schools and the Board of Education have shifted their attention from spending money from the current Education Local Option Sales Tax to making sure that the revenue the tax produces in its remaining months will be sufficient to pay back the bonds sold against that revenue.
At the regular meeting of the Board of Education on Monday, Saranna Charping, chief financial officer for Oconee County Schools, told the Board that spending on the budgeted projects for the current Education Local Option Sales Tax, or ELOST V, is nearly complete.
Oconee County plans to target information technology, healthcare and professional services as sectors for its future economic development.
By contracting with the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce for economic development, the county will save about $40,000 from last year when it tried to promote economic development on its own.
The Oconee County Planning Commission Monday night voted 9 to 1 to recommend to the Board of Commissioners that it grant a special use permit to allow Life Church of Athens to build a community-scale church on just under nine acres at the corner of Summit Oaks Drive and Summit Grove Drive north of Watkinsville.
The Planning Commission took the action after a public hearing before an overflow crowd in the Board of Commissioners Chamber at the Courthouse during which neighbors complained about traffic problems and disruption of the neighborhood that the church would create.
Oconee County soon will have spent the remaining monies from the 2004 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax as it completes work on the $2.5 million expansion of the Courthouse, Wes Geddings, county finance director, told the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
Geddings, in his financial update for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2020, said a little more than $1 million in unspent funds remains in 2004 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) account at present.
