Fairway Outdoor Advertising removed its three signs at Ruth Jackson Road and U.S. 78 earlier this month and has illuminated the third side of its LED sign at Epps Bridge Parkway and the Oconee Connector.
Despite what county officials said would be the case, however, the county will see no increase in sales tax revenue as a result of the new, large illuminated signs Fairway has installed at two locations on Epps Bridge Parkway.
The contrast on Saturday between Oconee County’s Epps Bridge Centre and the shopping centers on Atlanta Highway in Athens-Clarke County was striking.
Epps Bridge Centre was celebrating the official opening of three Gap Inc. stores, and cars filled the parking lot in front of the stores later in the day.
The parking lot in front of the closed Old Navy store in the Athens Promenade on Atlanta Highway was nearly empty.
Most Georgians are more progressive than their elected state leaders, Bryan Long, executive director of Better Georgia, told a small group gathered for the Oconee County Democratic Committee meeting on Aug. 15.
Long didn’t define what he meant by progressive, but he said Georgians are in favor of better funding for education, are opposed to laws severely restricting a woman’s right to decide on matters of her health, in favor of funding needed government services, and in favor of infrastructure investment.
When the Garrett family sought local and state permission to convert its recovered materials processing facility on Dials Mill Road into a materials recovery facility earlier this year, it invited both public and government scrutiny of its current operations.
As a result of that scrutiny, four citizens filed complaints with the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources about the recovered materials processing facility at 1441 Dials Mill Road or about Roll Off Systems, headquartered nearby on B. Garrett Drive.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office issued permits earlier this month for construction of stores to house Lane Bryant, Sleep Number and Alumni Hall, all to be located in the new Epps Bridge Centre.
Lane Bryant and Alumni Hall will be in the central cluster of the strip mall, between the now-open University 16 Cinemas and the Oconee Connector.
The editors of Oconee Patch and Athens Patch survived the first round of terminations yesterday by parent AOL.
The Oconee Patch web site today continues to list Stephanie Gross as editor, and she filed stories today on the site with that title. (Click image to enlarge it.)
The Oconee County media scene could change dramatically as early as tomorrow.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that AOL, the owner of the local Oconee Patch web site, plans to close or find partners for 400 of its 900 sites. The Georgia sites, including the one in Oconee County, could be on the list of those cut.
The New York Times reported today that the closings are expected to be announced internally as early as tomorrow or Friday. The story focused on an apology for an awkward firing at Patch on Friday. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act makes it easier for Georgia to revisit redistricting in the 2014 session, Oconee County’s two representatives to the Georgia House of Representative say they are unsure the General Assembly will take up the issue.
If it does, however, they think their plan to bring all of Oconee County back into a single district stands a good chance of being approved.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight rezoned 23 acres at the corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector, making way for a medical and office complex that will include an assisted living facility to be developed by Thrive Senior Living.
The rezone included two additional parcels at that intersection, one of which is being developed for a dermatological medical center. The other is being developed speculatively for a hotel.
In the past six months, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners has invested nearly two hours of public meetings to a controversy of its own creation about a program involving relatively small amounts of money and relatively few people.
The program has required the county to spend just a little more than a half million dollars, but it has received nearly $3 million in state and federal funds.
Williams and Associates Land Planners is asking the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night to modify zoning conditions on three parcels of land in the northeast corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector for a medical office building, a hotel, and an office park with an assisted living facility.
The Northeast Georgia Regional Commission found the project to be in the best interest of the region and state, though it did express concerns about encroachment on wetlands on the site, excessive surface parking and less-than-ideal pedestrian access.
