Sunday, January 29, 2012

Oconee County Voters Will Help Select 76 Delegates In Presidential Primary March 6

Democratic Primary Already Decided

Following the election in Florida on Tuesday, attention will shift significantly to March 6--Super Tuesday-- when Georgia joins six other states in holding presidential primaries.

Barack Obama will be the only name on the Democratic ballot, but the Republican ballot includes the names of nine candidates or former candidates, including the four leading in the polls today nationally and in Florida.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Research Center Staff at the Campbell Center Outside Watkinsville To Be Transferred by June 18

Official Closing Date Not Set

All of the current employees of the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center outside Watkinsville received their reassignment letters last week and will be at their new jobs by June 18, a spokesperson for the Agricultural Research Service confirmed today.

ARS, a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has not yet set the final closing date for the 1,107-acre facility, Sandy Miller Hays, director of ARS Information, told me in an email message today.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Zoom Bait/St. Mary’s Sewer Line Likely to Be Resurrected after Oconee County Sewer Plan Vote

Water for Walton Controversial

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners last night gave tentative approval to a list of water and sewer projects for the next two years that included an extension of a sewer line along McNutt Creek.

The Board didn’t determine which of three proposed segments of that sewer line it was funding, but Chris Thomas, Utility Department director, told me after the meeting he expects to start on the segment between Jennings Mill Road and an existing pump station near Epps Bridge Parkway.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Oconee County Commissioners to Review Two-Year Water and Sewer Plan at Tuesday Meeting

Barber Creek Sewage Plant Off List

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night is scheduled to review water and wastewater treatment project priorities for the county as part of a proposed 2013-2014 Water and Sewer Improvements Plan.

Included will be a sewage line that could serve Zoom Bait, St. Mary’s Health Care and the Gordy tract, this time as part of a larger project providing sewage services in the northwestern part of the county, including Bogart.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Challenger Simpson Tells Oconee County Republicans Rep. Paul Broun is Out Of Touch

Also Uninvolved

In his first formal campaign presentation in incumbent Congressman Paul Broun’s home county, challenger Stephen Simpson tonight said Broun is not representing those who elected him and is absent when important business is being conducted in the country.

“We need someone who genuinely cares about his country and his constituents,” Simpson told about 30 persons attending an Oconee County Republican Party meeting. Simpson said Broun “is out of touch” with those who elected him.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Oconee County Less Conservative Than Its Reputation, Survey Finds

Not Tea Party Heaven

Oconee County has a reputation as a bastion of conservative Republicanism.

WGAU newsman Tim Bryant even referred to the county as “Tea Party heaven” in an interview he did on his Newsmakers program on Dec. 15.

But the characterization misses some subtleties about political sentiment in the county, a survey conducted by students in a graduate research methods class in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia shows.