Oconee County officials are still waiting on Presbyterian Homes to indicate how much money it wants the county to borrow through bond sales to help finance construction of its Presbyterian Village Athens on U.S. 441 at Hog Mountain Road.
In the last two weeks the company began land clearance and construction of a chain-link fence along U.S. 441 for its complex. The county had issued a Land Disturbance Permit for the 79-acre property nearly a year ago.
Bishop Mayor Johnny Pritchett has written to the Georgia Transportation Board criticizing the proposed close-in U.S. 441 truck bypass of Bishop and saying the state should resurrect the 2007 plan that called for a bypass further east of the city.
Pritchett told state Transportation Board Chair Jamie Boswell that the current plan, which the state revealed in March, does not address his concerns about traffic inside Bishop reaching the bypass, the use of roundabouts on each side of the city, and the safety of the road south of Bishop.
The Georgia Secretary of State Office, which is responsible for elections in the state, does not know how many people voted in either the May 22 primary elections or the July 24 runoffs.
The 159 counties in the state filed that information with the Secretary of State Office shortly after each of the two elections as part of the certification process for elections.
Parents dropping their children off at Oconee County’s new Dove Creek Elementary School for the first day of classes on Wednesday will use the school’s entrance off the newly paved V.M. Osborne Road.
Buses will use another entrance directly off Hog Mountain Road.
The Walton County Water and Sewer Authority is waiting on a response from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to the Authority’s application for renewal of its permits to draw water from the existing Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir as well as from the Apalachee River.
The Authority submitted its renewal request for the two permits on May 3, but, according to Jimmy Parker from Precision Planning Inc., who represents the Authority, the Georgia EPD is holding up action until the Authority acquires land for an intake facility on the Apalachee River.
The Oconee County Development Review Committee approved a series of retail projects on Hog Mountain Road and in Butler’s Crossing at its meeting last week.
The Committee voted to approve the preliminary site plan for Butler’s Crossing Professional Park on an 8-acre parcel next to Publix in Butler’s Crossing.
Turnout in Oconee County for the Republican Primary Runoff on Tuesday was only slightly lower than turnout for the May 22 party primary, an analysis of elections data by party shows.
Democratic turnout dropped dramatically, however, and overall turnout was down from 29.8 percent in May to 22.7 percent on Tuesday.
