Oconee County has obtained nine of the 11 easements for construction of a sewer line along Colliers Creek and Barber Creek that will be used to provide sewage treatment for the massive Parkside subdivision between Mars Hill Road and Hog Mountain Road.
Discussion with one of the remaining landowners is ongoing, according to County Attorney Daniel Haygood, but negotiations with the other–and most important landowner in terms of total needed acreage--has resulted in court action.
While acknowledging citizen opposition to its plan, the Georgia Department of Transportation has decided that closing the SR 186 bridge over the Apalachee River at High Shoals and detouring traffic 15.8 miles around the construction of a replacement bridge is the preferred option.
The project is now in preliminary design stage, Mindy Sanders, GDOT project manager said Tuesday.
The Oconee County Planning Commission has a full agenda Monday night, including a request for commercial development along U.S. 78 near the Walton County line and for a new subdivision in the far south of the county at the Greene County line.
In both cases, the request is to convert land designated for agricultural use to development.
Unable to decide if a builder should be allowed to violate a buffer on six lots in Morningside subdivision off Hodges Mill Road to deal with storm water drainage, the Board of Commissioners last week put off a decision until its August meeting.
Commissioner Mark Saxon had made a motion to deny the request, and Commissioner Chuck Horton seconded the motion, but they could not get support from the other three commissioners.
Jeff Carter of Carter Engineering told the Oconee County Planning Commission that his client, Jud Shiver, has discovered problems with six of the lots he bought back in 2013 in Morningside subdivision off Hodges Mill Road.
The lots do not drain well, Carter said, and Shiver, operating as Scout Construction LLC, wants to disturb the 40-foot buffer on the six lots to create a drainage ditch to solve the problem.
Oconee County Commissioners decided Tuesday night to purchase 7.63 acres just outside of the northern boundaries of Watkinsville for a future administrative building.
The planned new facility will house the non-judicial government functions currently located in the Oconee County Courthouse in downtown Watkinsville and at the Oconee County Annex on Greensboro Highway on the south of Watkinsville.
The Oconee County Board of Education last week approved unanimously an $82.3 million Fiscal Year 2020 budget that includes a decrease in the millage rate from 17 to 16.5.
More than half of the revenue in the budget--55.0 percent--comes from the state, with local sources, primarily property taxes, contributing the remaining 45.0 percent.