Oconee County officials expect to let bids early in January or February for construction of a $2.5 million gravity-fed sewer line running along McNutt Creek from Jimmy Daniell Road to Parkway Boulevard at Kohl’s.
While the county has tried to stay outside the 25-foot buffer the state places on streams, that was not possible in all cases, and the county is waiting on a final approval of a variance to encroach on the buffer for 627 feet along the creek.
By the end of the last fiscal year, Oconee County had spent about three-quarters of the revenue it is expecting from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum passed by voters in 2009, according to a report just released by the county’s Finance Department.
By the end of the report period on June 30, 15 months of tax collection remained, meaning the county was spending at about the right amount to keep revenue and expenditures from the 1 percent sales tax in balance.
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board deliberated nearly 30 minutes at its regular meeting on Tuesday before deciding it had no alternative but to pay an additional $410,000 for professional services for the ongoing construction of the dam.
Schnabel Engineering, with offices in Alpharetta, requested the additional payment on top of the $923,000 originally agreed upon, or a 44.4 percent increase, to continue construction testing and engineering services for the dam through April 1 of 2015.
The developer of a proposed recreational vehicle storage facility at the corner of New High Shoals Road and Union Church Road today asked to withdraw the application for the rezone needed for the facility.
Williams and Associates, representing property owners Herbert E. Michael and Mark Selvidge and Ted Evans Jr., of Watkinsville Storage, gave no reason in the short letter filed with the Oconee County Planning Department for the request to withdraw the rezone from the Jan. 6 agenda of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
It is unlikely that Rep. Regina Quick won any friends at the Georgia Department of Transportation last week with the comments she made at the special session with local governmental leaders organized by the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce.
But it was clear she was not trying to curry favor with the state’s transportation leaders.
“I have some concern that there is a great sucking sound coming from Atlanta, from the transportation office,” she said.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight agreed to consider over the next three weeks changes in the draft ordinance presented to it that will allow for the sale of liquor by the drink in county restaurants.
Commission Chairman Melvin Davis recommended that the Board review the requirement in the draft ordinance that no more than 25 percent of the gross income at the restaurant be from the sale of alcoholic beverages.
The Oconee County Planning Commission tonight voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Commissioners that it turn down a rezone request for a recreational vehicle storage facility at the corner of New High Shoals Road and Union Church Road.
The Planning Commission took the action after hearing from 19 people who spoke in opposition to the rezone request. No one other than the applicant’s agent spoke in favor.
Liquor-by-the-drink legislation is now on a fast track, with the Oconee County Board of Commissioners scheduled to give an ordinance its first reading on Tuesday night and approve the law on Jan. 6.
County Clerk Jane Greathouse released the agendas for both meetings just before 4:30 on Friday, and the county web site contains a notice of the meetings and a draft of the ordinance commissioners will consider.
The Oconee County Planning Commission is scheduled to take up three rezone requests tomorrow night, the largest of which in terms of financial impact is likely to prove the least controversial.
After asking that its request be tabled in October, Oconee Medical Holdings LLC is seeking approval tomorrow of a rezone of a little more than 14 acres at Jennings Mill Road and Virgil Langford Road for construction of Phase III of Three Sixteen Professional Quarter.
The Watkinsville City Council voted unanimously last night to put a referendum allowing the sale of liquor by the drink in the city’s restaurants on the ballot in a special election on March 17.
The Council took the action after Mayor Charles Ivie informed the five council members and the public that he had concluded that the city could not determine precisely how city voters had cast their ballots in the county-wide referendum on Nov. 4.
Anyone who turned out at the called meeting of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners last night expecting a discussion of how the county is going to address future space needs would have been disappointed.
What the small group in attendance heard instead was presentations by an elected official and by representatives of eight county departments of what their current space use is and what they think they will need in 2035.
Georgia Department of Transportation officials have corrected two errors in materials provided to those who attended the informational meeting at the Civic Center last week.
The documents distributed at the meeting said that Mars Hill Road lanes could be closed from 2 to 4 p.m. on weekdays from the southern intersection of Windy Creek Drive to Hog Mountain Road.
Liquor by the drink is likely to be a topic of conversation at both the Watkinsville City Council meeting on Wednesday night and at the Oconee County Board of Commissioners meeting next Tuesday evening.
Watkinsville City Clerk Julie Sanders told me on Friday that while the topic is not an agenda item for Wednesday night’s meeting, based on her conversation with Mayor Charles Ivie, she expects the topic to be part of the mayor’s report.
When the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority meets in January, it will have a newly appointed member.
That person is Mark Thomas, who has been serving since Oct. 13 even though he was not appointed officially until Nov. 11.
Oconee County yesterday removed the two-sided sign that Jamie Boswell, District 10 representative to the state Transportation Board, had at the southwest corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector more than seven months after the county asked Boswell to move the sign.
Oconee County Code Enforcement sent Boswell a letter on Oct. 17 setting a deadline of Nov. 17 for him to bring the sign into compliance with the county’s ordinance, which prohibits signs in the public right of way.
Mars Hill Road construction is going to cause major disruptions to the lives of the people who live along and who use that roadway, but the state, the contractor and local officials are going to do everything they can to help everyone cope.
That was the message of those who spoke last night at the special meeting in the Civic Center called to give people in the community an overview of the project, which is now underway.
Oconee County will hold three meetings between now and Dec. 11 that will provide an overview of the Mars Hill Road widening, a discussion of space needs for the county in coming years, and the expectations of the county’s representatives to the General Assembly as that body gets ready to meet in January
The meeting on Mars Hill Road will be from 6 to 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Oconee County Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing. Project design details will be presented to the public.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners approved an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to go forward with widening of Jimmy Daniell Road Tuesday night but postponed action on two projects on Daniells Bridge Road.
The Board made no actual decision on what it will do to Jimmy Daniell Road, with construction of center turn and deceleration lanes one possibility and construction of four lanes, a new bridge over McNutt Creek and reconfiguration to meet with the roadway in Athens-Clarke County another.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is being asked to take up on Tuesday night project framework agreements with the state for widening of Daniells Bridge Road and of Jimmy Daniell Road and construction of an extension of Daniells Bridge Road with a flyover of SR Loop 10.
The agenda item is a response to a letter sent to BOC Chairman Melvin Davis on Oct. 28 asking for county action on a project framework agreement for the widening of Jimmy Daniell Road by Dec. 1, according to documents released Friday on the county web site.
The Oconee County Land Use And Transportation Planning Committee tonight recommended to the Board of Commissioners that it sign project framework agreements for widening of Jimmy Daniell Road and Daniells Bridge Road and construction of an extension of Daniells Bridge Road with a flyover of SR Loop 10.
Bob Sanders, Land Use Committee member, said he was fearful the state would withdraw its contributions to the three projects if the Commissioners didn’t take action on the agreements the county received from the Georgia Department of Transportation in July.
The Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning resumes its deliberations about county road priorities tomorrow night with the goal of giving its feedback to the Board of Commissioners in February or March.
The proposed Daniells Bridge Road extension and flyover of SR Loop 10 has dominated both of the meetings the group has held since it began its discussion of road priorities at its meeting on Sept. 9.
Fifty volunteers, mostly teenagers, braved the cold yesterday morning to pick up litter on Antioch Church Road as a way to protect Rose Creek, which flows through the southern part of Oconee County before reaching the Oconee River at the Greene County line.
The litter, if not collected, would end up in Rose Creek, the organizers of the event told the volunteers.
Construction work on Mars Hill Road is scheduled to begin next week, according to a press release issued this afternoon by the Gainesville office of the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Crews are to start delivering equipment and materials to the site at the beginning of the week, and clearing along Mars Hill Road in advance of construction will start Wednesday at State Route 316, weather permitting.
Oconee County officials–at the request of Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis–met last week with commercial real estate broker Jamie Boswell and one of his clients to discuss a possible change in the plans for the widening of Mars Hill Road.
Boswell and his client, Maxie Price, wanted to discuss a cut in the median to provide access to property Price owns once the roadway is widened.
Boswell, in addition to being a commercial realtor, is the local representative to the state Transportation Board, which oversees the administration of construction contracts, including the one let in July for the widening of Mars Hill Road from SR 316 to Butler’s Crossing.
Oconee County is paying nearly $110,000 as the county’s share of the cost of repairing Orkin Drive, the main entranceway to the Caterpillar plant on the east side of Bogart.
The roadway failed shortly after the two counties accepted responsibility for it in August and September of 2013, and it was partially closed and rebuilt at the end of last year. Total cost of repair was just less than $220,000, with Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County splitting the expenses.
In the organizational chart the Oconee County Board of Commissioners passed in August of 2009–over the objection of Chairman Melvin Davis–the county’s economic development director reports to county Administrative Officer Jeff Benko.
Benko, in turn, reports to all five members of the Board of Commissioners.
Republicans Favored
Oconee County voters approved by large margins the sale of liquor by the drink in restaurants throughout the county and its cities and continuation of the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for another six years.
Unofficial results show 65.4 percent of those who cast ballots approving of liquor by the drink, and 65.1 percent approving of SPLOST.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority has entered into a contract to sell Andrew Clyde of Clyde Armory 18 acres south of SR 316 so Clyde can build a shooting range on the site.
Clyde will need to get a change in zoning for the land, now classified for agricultural use, before he can build the shooting range.
More people voted in the three weeks of early voting in Oconee County than voted in the primaries in the county in May.
A total of 5,482 voters cast their ballots by the end of the day today, the final day of early voting. The early voters represent 24.4 percent of the 22,498 active registered voters in the county.
Oconee County voters who want to improve the quality of life in the county, enhance the county’s infrastructure and spur economic development should vote Yes on Referendum 2 on Nov. 4, according to advertisements in today’s edition of both of the county’s weekly newspapers.
Voting for the referendum will make sales tax revenue go up and property taxes go down, the half-page advertisement on page A3 of The Oconee Enterprise claims.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office has sent letters to permit holders for signs on three properties at the busy Oconee Connector intersection with SR 316, telling them they have until Nov. 17 to bring their signs into compliance with the county’s ordinance.
Code Enforcement Officer Paul Smith posted the registered letters on Oct. 17 to Jamie Boswell, owner of Boswell properties, and to two other sign permit holders, pointing out that the county’s Unified Development Code prohibits the installation of signs on the right of way of a public road.
Regina Quick, who represents part of Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, has asked legislative counsel of the General Assembly to draft legislation that would force independent governmental authorities in the state to be more transparent.
Quick refers to these groups as “shadow governments” and said she wants the legislation to specify that these bodies, if they already are spending public money on a website, must post agendas, minutes, contact information of members, and core documents on those sites.
Almost six years after the county rezoned 13 plus acres on U.S. 441 north of Watkinsville at Lavista Road, Fred Gunter Property LLC has submitted plans to begin construction of an office complex on the site.
The plans call for a single 12,000 square foot building on the southern part of the property, furthest from Lavista Road. Access would be off U.S. 441, with a right-turn only exit from the property.
The Oconee County Industrial Authority voted in a called meeting on Thursday morning to extend its purchase agreement with the owner of Clyde Armory until Nov. 15, 2015, for property the IDA owns south of SR 316 in the west of the county.
The IDA had agreed to the terms of the extension in an executive session at the end of its regular meeting on Oct. 13 but had not taken formal action in public. The meeting on Thursday was to make public the decision.
The Oconee County Planning Commission will be asked tomorrow night to give its approval to the rezone of 14 acres at the corner of Virgil Langford Road and Jennings Mill Road that will be part of a 65-acre complex including medical and professional offices and a retirement community.
The project joins recently rezoned Resurgence Park, which now includes a dermatology and cancer center that is nearing completion and another retirement community under construction, in defining the area along Virgil Langford Road north of SR 316 as a medical office destination.
A big crowd turned out today on a picture-perfect fall Georgia Saturday to enjoy the Oconee County Fall Festival in downtown Watkinsville.
Vendors numbering 250 stretched from Main Street to beyond Thrasher Drive, with the heaviest concentration in Rocket Field opposite the old school gym.
The city of Watkinsville joins Oconee County in taking a lenient approach to enforcement of a key provision of its beer and wine ordinance.
License holders are required to document that they earn no more than 25 percent of their revenue from beer and wine, but, in the renewal applications for this year, only three of the four license holders provided information on food and beer and wine sales.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority voted Monday to spend up to $8,000 for consulting services as it moves forward with its study of prezoning properties the county thinks should be designated for development.
The Authority accepted the recommendation of its Product Development Committee that it enter into an agreement with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government (CVIOG) at the University of Georgia for the consulting services.
Oconee County Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue increased by less than a percentage point in the third quarter of 2014, while neighboring Clarke and Barrow counties experienced strong growth.
The third quarter report included only about six weeks in which electronics retailer Best Buy was operating in the county, since tax distributions are a month delayed. But other major retailers in Epps Bridge Centre have been operating for nearly a year.
Three people wanted to know about complaints filed with Animal Control.
Seven wanted information from Code Enforcement.
Mark Thomas, a businessman and member of the Oconee County Board of Education, got a slot on the county’s Industrial Development Authority tonight, but only after two rounds of balloting by the Board of Commissioners.
In the end, BOC Chairman Melvin Davis broke the deadlock, casting his support for long-time IDA member Larry Benson, owner of Benson Bakery in Bogart, at the expense of Robin Chasman, a realtor and Tanglebrook subdivision neighbor of Benson.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, if all goes to plan, will make appointments to five citizen committees or boards on Tuesday night in what normally is a routine procedure.
Eight of the citizens applying for appointment appeared before the Board at last week’s meeting, and two others sent word they wanted to be considered but could not attend the session because of scheduling conflicts. One of those had applied for two different assignments.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight voted to move forward with design work for an extension of Parkway Boulevard, which will run behind Wal-Mart and Lowe’s parallel to Epps Bridge Parkway and open up more land in the area for development.
Oconee County Administrative Officer Jeff Benko told the commissioners that he, County Attorney Daniel Haygood, and county Public Works Director Emil Beshara had reviewed the submitted proposals and their costs.
Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues increased 10.1 percent in Oconee County following the opening of a cluster of stores, including Marshalls, PetSmart and Gap, in Epps Bridge Centre in the third quarter of 2013.
But Clarke County also increased its revenue from its SPLOST tax during that same period even while it was losing stores to Epps Bridge Centre.
The contract for design of the extension of Parkway Boulevard is back on the agenda for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, but this time there is no indication that the county is prepared to award the contract.
The BOC tentatively agreed at its meeting on Aug. 26 to accept the low bid of $96,925 submitted by ABE Consulting of 2410 Hog Mountain Road but reversed course a week later–on Sept. 2-- and decided to review the five submitted bids another time.
A Massachusetts biopharmaceutical company with roots at the University of Georgia has signed a lease for two buildings being completed at Gateway Technology and Business Park in Bogart.
One of the two buildings will be used for production and the other for research, according to plans distributed Monday to the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority, which developed the park and sold the 12-acre site to Rooker Properties LLC last year.
The developer of The Falls of Oconee commercial complex on Old Macon Highway just inside the county line has submitted slightly revised preliminary site plans as the project moves through the review process.
The Bloomfield Hills, Mich., company turned in the latest plans for the five-building center to house restaurants and small shops on Aug. 29. Those plans have not yet been approved by the Oconee County Planning Department.
When Oconee County voters go to the polls for the Nov. 4 election they will be asked to vote Yes or No on a 1 percent sales tax that, according to the ballot language, is expected raise $55.6 million over the six-year life of the tax.
Voters also will be presented with list of projects to be funded, including water and sewer infrastructure, roads, farmland protection, libraries and parks and recreational facilities.
Oconee County’s plans to begin design work on a road being sought by Atlanta developer Frank Bishop are on hold while County Attorney Daniel Haygood looks into the bids and the bidding process.
At the request of Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, the awarding of the design contract to ABE Consulting, 2410 Hog Mountain Road, was removed from the consent agenda at the Sept. 2 meeting of the Commission.
Davis said it was necessary “to check a couple of things on the contracts,” and County Administrative Officer Jeff Benko told me in an email message on Sept. 3 that Haygood “was reviewing a few items.”
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board is focusing its attention on a site on the east of the reservoir rather than one more centrally located as it moves forward with planning for recreational facilities at the reservoir.
The Board made the decision to focus on the eastern site at its meeting on Aug. 19, and the members of the Board’s Recreation Committee have been reviewing a draft concept plan for the site in the weeks following that meeting.
A rezone request that would convert three pieces of property that front on Hog Mountain Road just west of Butler’s Crossing into a mixed use development with both retail stores and offices is before the Oconee County Planning Commission for review tomorrow night.
The property currently contains three houses, one of which is being used as a business, and abuts residential and agricultural properties at the rear.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office issued a building permit on Thursday for construction of the 70-unit Thrive Senior Living facility on Virgil Langford Road in Resurgence Park.
Construction of the $6 million, upscale, assisted living facility to be known as The Village at Athens is expected to begin in two weeks and be completed by the end of July of 2015, according to the building permit.
The plan to build the Daniells Bridge Road extension with a flyover of SR Loop 10 with only two lanes didn’t last long.
At a meeting yesterday morning, the Policy Committee of the Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS) changed the 2015-2018 Transportation Improvement Program document to say that the extension and flyover should be either two lanes or four.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority accepted the immediate resignation of member John Morrison at its meeting on Monday.
Morrison was chair of Product Development Committee of the IDA, which released two reports to the Board of Commissioners in the last year.
The Daniells Bridge Road flyover of SR Loop 10 has been reduced from four-lanes to two-lanes in the Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS) 2015-2018 Transportation Improvement Program document on the agenda for approval tomorrow morning.
The document also has been altered to list the widening of Daniells Bridge to three-lanes all the way from Hog Mountain Road to the Oconee Connector, rather than just to Chestnut Hill Road.
Georgia Department of Transportation Engineer Brandon Kirby said that the decision to send three project framework agreements to Oconee County for approval was the result of a “group effort.”
But he would not say who was in the group that decided it was time to move forward with the widening and reconstruction of Jimmy Daniell Road, the widening of Daniells Bridge Road, and the construction of an extension of Daniells Bridge Road with a flyover of SR Loop 10.
From Oct. 7, 2008, when the Oconee County Board of Commissioners approved the first beer and wine licenses for restaurants in the county, until Jan. 1 of this year, compliance with two key provisions of the beer and wine ordinance was entirely on the honor system.
The county simply assumed that the percentage of sales from beer and wine by each license holder was not more than 25 percent of total sales in the individual restaurant and that each sale of an alcoholic beverage in the restaurant also included “a reasonable order of a meal or appetizer.”
The owners of 24.6 acres just off Virgil Langford Road got their rezone last night from the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, but only after lengthy negotiations.
Ken Beall of Beall and Company, representing Eco Development Group LLC, agreed to place a condition on the rezone of the property for The Fairways Seniors Community requiring that buildings have brick, stucco, stone or cultured stone exteriors, architectural shingles, and varied facades.
Oconee County residents with opinions on the proposed Jimmy Daniell Road and Daniells Bridge Road projects as well as on other transportation projects in the county will have two back-to-back opportunities to express those views in meetings scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Community Center in Veterans Park.
Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS) will hold from 5 to 7 p.m. what is officially a public hearing on its 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan, which includes the Jimmy Daniell Road and Daniells Bridge Road projects as well as others in the county.
Oconee County has issued a building permit for Freddys’ Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, and construction is underway for the foundation footers for that building and for Cheddar’s Casual Cafe, to be located next door at the Epps Bridge Parkway entrance to Epps Bridge Centre.
The two restaurants will occupy reconfigured outparcels 1 and 2 in Epps Bridge Centre, bringing to three the number of outparcels in the complex with tenants. The core of the mall is surrounded by a total of 12 outparcels.
Oconee County’s 23.4 percent turnout in the May 20 primary election and 20.9 percent turnout in the July 22 runoff mask the fact that a smaller percentage of the county’s electorate participated in both elections.
Only 16.1 percent of the electorate voted both in May and again in July, with another 7.2 percent participating in the May primary but not in the July runoff and 4.8 percent voting in the July runoff but not in the May election.
The landowners behind Wal-Mart and Lowe's on Epps Bridge Parkway got approval of a contract for design work for a new roadway to open up their land for future development.
The Industrial Development Authority got encouragement to continue its work on prezoning of land now classified for other use to spur more commercial and industrial development in the county.
Oconee County will soon begin design work for an extension of Parkway Boulevard, which will open up new land for development behind Lowe’s and Wal-Mart, if the Board of Commissioners approves a design services contract for the project tomorrow night.
The new Parkway Boulevard would be an extension of the road that now leads to Kohl’s from Epps Bridge Parkway. The new road would turn back to and connect with the new Oconee Connector, crossing 114 acres owned by the Evelyn and Frank Gordy Family and 41 acres owned by Rod and J.L. Wright.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority is calling on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners to set aside its current practice of rezoning property only when an owner requests the change in favor of advance zoning to reflect county plans for future development.
The IDA is scheduled to deliver a report to the commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday night calling on the county to identify key commercial corridors and “pre-zone all parcels in those corridors consistent with the intended long-term use.”
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to get an update on Tuesday night on pending project agreements with the Georgia Department of Transportation for widening of Jimmy Daniell Road, for widening of Daniells Bridge Road, and for construction of an extension of Daniells Bridge Road.
At present, the BOC is not scheduled to take any action on those agreements.
Oconee County Public Works Director Emil Beshara last week described the upcoming reconstruction and widening of Mars Hill road as “fun,” “challenging” and “painful” in his latest update of the project to the Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning.
Beshara said he expects construction crews to be on the site next month or the month after and to continue working on the project for three years.
The federal government has approved $182,000 for protection of the Carole Ludwig farm in the south of Oconee County as part of the new federal farmland protection program, Sharon Holbrooks, easement specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservative Service, announced last night.
Funding was approved in early August for the Ludwig farm, Holbrooks told a gathering at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center of the University of Georgia at Government Station Road and Experiment Station Road.
Five intertwined but distinct Oconee County elections will be held on liquor by the drink on Nov. 4, though voters may not be aware of the complexity of the decisions they will be making.
Officially, voters will be asked if they want to allow “the governing authority of Oconee County” to “issue licenses to sell distilled spirits for beverage purposes by the drink.”
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office last week granted a building permit to C&P Restaurant Company of Macon for construction of a Cheddar’s restaurant at the Epps Bridge Parkway entranceway to Epps Bridge Centre.
The permit is for a 8,385-square-foot wood and steel building. Cost is listed on the permit as $2.3 million.
Eco Development Group of Athens is asking the Oconee County Planning Commission to recommend rezone of a mothballed residential subdivision off Virgil Langford Road so is can build what it calls a “seniors continuum of care retirement community.”
The request parallels in significant ways the 2012 request by Presbyterian Homes of Georgia to rezone an unbuilt subdivision on Rocky Branch Road for a continuing care retirement community, the official classification that also would apply to the Eco Development Group project.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners should not approve three pending project agreements with the Georgia Department of Transportation without a clearer understanding of project details, the county’s Public Works director told a citizen group last Tuesday night.
The agreements call for one project on Jimmy Daniell Road and two projects on Daniells Bridge Road, but Public Works Director Emil Beshara said the county should not allow GDOT planners “who may or may not have been influenced by other forces, dictate to us what our projects are.”
Watkinsville City Council tonight tabled discussion of a possible liquor-by-the-drink referendum in the city until it can get clarification on the legal implications of a county-wide referendum already on the November ballot.
While the Oconee County Board of Commissioners and County Attorney Daniel Haygood have discussed the November referendum entirely in terms of its impact on the unincorporated parts of the county, Watkinsville City Attorney Joe Reitman said the county referendum could affect the city as well.
With the student housing complex Athens Ridge on Old Macon Highway now fully leased, Kelly Mahoney said he is turning his attention to the future commercial complex across the street.
The goal is to make that complex, named The Falls of Oconee, a “more boutique version of Butler’s Crossing,” Mahoney said last week.
The Georgia Department of Transportation sent out a news release on Tuesday announcing that it had awarded the contract for the widening and reconstruction of Mars Hill Road to G.P.’s Enterprises Inc. of Auburn, Ga.
The announcement was not a surprise, as G.P.’s Enterprises Inc. was the low bidder among the four companies that had submitted bids. It also had received the contract for the work on the Oconee Connector Extension back in 2009.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight voted to put both a 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum and a referendum on liquor by the drink in restaurants on the November 4 ballot.
The Commissioners also denied a request for a cell tower on McRees Mill Road in the rural area of the county south of Barnett Shoals Road and postponed action on three agreements with the Georgia Department of Transportation on road projects on Daniells Bridge Road and Jimmy Daniell Road.
Anyone who went to the future location of Thrive Senior Living off Virgil Langford Road over the weekend in response to a news release issued last week by the company would have been surprised by what they didn’t find.
“Atlanta-based Thrive Senior Living has broken ground this week at The Village at Athens, an innovate new Assisted Living and Memory Care community in Athens, GA,” the news release on PRWeb stated, complete with the typing error for “innovative.”
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners will take up three controversial items on Tuesday night, each of which could bring out a crowd.
The first, in order of appearance on the agenda, is a call for a referendum on the sale of distilled spirits by the drink in restaurants in the county.
W.E. “Bubber” Wilkes defeated incumbent Margaret Hale in the July 22 runoff for Post 3 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners by adding votes in each of the county’s 13 precincts over his May 20 tally.
Wilkes almost certainly picked up the majority of the 892 votes cast for Maria Caudill in the May 20 Republican Primary, an analysis of the precinct data from both elections indicates.
W.E. “Bubber” Wilkes spent nearly $12,000 to regain a seat on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, or four times the amount spent by incumbent Margaret Hale, whom Wilkes defeated by 105 votes in the July 22 runoff.
Wilkes spent almost all of his $11,988 on advertising, with $5,256 going to The Oconee Enterprise, $1,375 to The Oconee Leader, and $4,546 for printing of signs, campaign materials, and T-shirts.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, anticipating a large turnout tonight for its discussion of a liquor-by-the-drink referendum, moved its meeting from the relatively small Commission Chamber to the much larger Courtroom 1, but the change of venue proved to be unnecessary.
Only nine people spoke, with three of them expressing opposition to the proposal to put the issue before voters in November.
Discussion of a liquor-by-the-drink referendum tops a busy agenda of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night that also includes consideration of contracts for three roadway projects, at least one of which has been controversial in the past.
Also on the agenda is an amendment to the benefits plans for retired county employees that led to open disagreement among commissioners early last month and an update on Mars Hill Road widening project that has been let for bid by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority decided to weigh in on the liquor-by-the-drink issue on Monday afternoon, voting unanimously to ask the Board of Commissioners to put the issue on the November 4 ballot.
BOC Chairman Melvin Davis, a member of the IDA, said the commissioners will take up the issue at their meeting next Tuesday night and then vote on whether to put it on the ballot at the meeting on Aug. 5.
Former Oconee County Commissioner W.E. “Bubber” Wilkes unseated incumbent Margaret Hale in the Republican primary runoff for Post 3 on the Board of Commissioners today, with 51.2 percent of the 4,253 votes cast.
Wilkes will have no opposition in November, meaning he will return to the Commission after an absence of 10 years.
Melvin Davis’ name is not on the ballot on Tuesday, but he is very much a part of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners Republican primary runoff election.
Post 3 commissioner candidates Margaret Hale, the incumbent, and W.E. “Bubber” Wilkes, seeking to regain a spot on the Commission after a 10 year absence, have made the role of the Commission chairman a key issue in the campaign.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis seems to have it about right.
The state does not have the time for, resources for or interest in enforcing its ban on signs in the right-of-ways for highways around the state, according to Georgia Department of Transportation Deputy Commissioner Todd Long.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is set to give formal approval tomorrow night to an agreement whereby the county will pay John W. Rooker and Associates nearly $250,000 to build a roadway to property Rooker Properties LLC bought from the county in its Gateway Business Park.
The Georgia Department of Transportation gave the county a $172,000 grant to pay for the bulk of the cost. The county, through its Industrial Development Authority, will pay the remaining $75,674 from the money it earned from the sale of the property to Rooker.
The Oconee County Planning Department has approved the final construction planning documents for the proposed Cheddar’s Restaurant on Epps Bridge Parkway at the front of Epps Bridge Centre, signaling that the project is moving forward even without the certainty of liquor sales.
Engineers for Cheddar’s submitted the documents on June 25, and the Planning Department stamped them as compliant with county requirements that same day. The next step is the application for and issuance of actual construction permits.
The Oconee County Republican Party Tuesday night will host the second of three scheduled debates between Mike Collins and Jody Hice, candidates seeking the Republican Party nomination for Congress from the 10th District.
The debate is scheduled to take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the library on Experiment Station Road in Watkinsville.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office issued a sign permit on Friday for two temporary signs on the property being listed for sale at the southeast corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
In issuing the signs, the Code Enforcement staff noted in the accompanying documents that the signs must be set back 5 feet from the roadway right of way.
Oconee County Post 3 Board of Commissioners candidates Margaret Hale and W. E. "Bubber” Wilkes take similar stands on some of the issues facing the county, but they differ markedly on one important one.
Hale wants to keep in place the current organizational chart for the county in which the administrative officer and the finance director report to all five Commission members equally and in which all other department heads report to the county administrative officer.
Wilkes wants to revert to the old system in which all county administrators report to the BOC chairman alone, who then reports to the other four commissioners.
In March of 2009, voters in Oconee County overwhelmingly approved a 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum setting aside $1.1 million for spending on “recreational, historic and scenic facilities” in the county.
More than three years later, in May of 2012, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to spend $90,000 from that “recreational, historic and scenic facilities” category of SPLOST 2009, with most of that money going to replacement of a damaged “bridge” in Northwest Woods.
The Commission will be reviewing a rezone application from Benson’s Bakery in the city of Bogart.
Oconee County officials now believe that the lack of congressional action to address a projected shortfall in federal highway funding will not affect the pending Mars Hill Road widening project.
Emil Beshara, director of the county's public works department, told the Citizens Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning last night that he expects the state to let bids for the project in July.
Oconee County officials have made a conscious decision not to enforce the county’s sign ordinance for a property in the busy intersection of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
Code enforcement officials believe a double-sided sign the county approved for the property was installed in violation of the county requirement that such signs be five feet from the property line. The sign, the county contends, is outside the property itself and is in the state right of way, which is a violation of state law.
The Public Service Commission of Georgia will spend $0.5 million to run a gas pipeline under SR 316 to Resurgence Park, the commercial subdivision being created by Nichols Land and Development Company on Virgil Langford Road.
The gas line was requested by David Dwyer of Atlas Real Estate Advisors of Athens on behalf of his clients, Thrive Senior Living and Georgia Skin Cancer and Aesthetic Dermatology, which plan to open facilities in Resurgence Park.
The Oconee County Chamber of Commerce released a report on Monday showing that 79 percent of its members responding to a Chamber survey said they would like to see a referendum on liquor by the drink on the November ballot.
And 77 percent said they would like the Chamber to encourage the Oconee County Board of Commissioners to put the issue before the voters.
The Oconee County Board of Commissions last night approved a $36.6 Fiscal Year 2015 budget, agreed upon a $47.3 million spending plan as part the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum to be on the ballot on Nov. 4, and rezoned property for a mini-warehouse and storage facility.
The budget approved was unchanged from the one reviewed by the Board at its meeting on May 27, meaning that Coroner Ed Carson did not get his requested transport van.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tomorrow night will be asked to rezone a three-acre tract that is part of an island circled by SR Loop 10, SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
Owners of the tract, at the eastern terminus of Virgil Langford Road as it crosses a stub of Jennings Mill Road, want to build an indoor mini-warehouse and self-service storage facility on the property.
Oconee County citizens will get their second and final chance to comment on the Fiscal Year 2015 budget on Tuesday night just before the Board of Commissioners takes final action on the $36.6 million spending plan.
The budget was outlined to the public for the first time in a 26-minute PowerPoint presentation by county Finance Director Wes Geddings last Tuesday night.
The Oconee County Republican Party Executive Committee’s attempt to assist in reuniting Oconee County in a single district in the Georgia House of Representatives is likely to have the reverse effect.
Less than half of the Republican voters in the May 20 primary said they want to change the county representation in the Georgia House so that the county has a single representative.
Oconee County will hold its first public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2015 budget tomorrow night, but county Finance Director Wes Geddings said on Friday no details of the budget will be released until after the public hearing is held.
Geddings refused to release a summary of budget requests from elected officials and county department heads or the amount of money he is projecting that will be available to meet those requests.
In a session lasting little more than an hour, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners last night all but wrapped up its discussion of the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum to be on the ballot in November.
The Commissioners agreed to include $47.3 million in projects in the list that will go before voters, who will have to decide if they want to continue the 1 percent sales tax to fund the items.
Epps Bridge Centre will get its first fast food restaurant if preliminary site plans filed with the Oconee County Planning Department on April 25 are realized.
TGC Development Group of Wichita, Kan., submitted plans for a Freddy’s Frozen Custard And Steakburgers to be located just west of the sign and entranceway to the shopping center off Epps Bridge Parkway.
Board of Commissioners incumbents Margaret Hale and John Daniell bested their challengers in the Oconee County Republican primary today, though Hale did not get a majority of votes in the three-way race and will meet challenger Bubber Wilkes in the runoff election on July 22.
Rep. Paul Broun, seeking the Republican nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat, led the field in his home Oconee County, with 31.1 percent of the vote. David Perdue got 26.6 percent of the vote, and Jack Kingston got 21.4 percent.
Oconee County County Clerk Jane Greathouse sent a memo to the county’s Industrial Development Authority and other county advisory boards and committees on May 8 requesting that they hold executive sessions as “a rare occurrence” and only after contacting County Attorney Daniel Haygood.
Rick Waller, chairman of the county’s Industrial Development Authority, discussed the memo as part of his chair’s report at the IDA’s regular meeting on May 12, saying the IDA had not “stumped our toes as far as we know, but we want to be sure that we don’t” in the future.
Oconee County Representatives Regina Quick and Chuck Williams should have a better sense on Tuesday evening of how at least a segment of the county’s voters feels about the boundaries of their districts in the Georgia House of Representatives.
That is when the results of a nonbinding question the Oconee County Republican Party placed on the ballot for the Republican primary will be announced.
The Athens Land Trust is processing paperwork to submit the Oconee County farm of Carole Ludwig for protection following an announcement earlier this month that the federal government is accepting applications under the new Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
Ludwig’s livestock farm,1510 Old Farmington Road in the south of the county, was selected by the Farmland Preservation Ranking Committee late last year after the Board of Commissioners took over review responsibility for the county’s long-successful farmland protection program.
Only four people spoke Monday night at the final public hearing on the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum, held in the courthouse in Watkinsville.
The meeting covered little new ground and was the shortest of the four hearings held since January on projects to be funded by the 1 percent sales tax should voters approve it in November.
At a time when county officials are considering a referendum to allow the sale of liquor by the drink to entice restaurants to the area, the city of Bishop is going in the opposite direction by considering a rezone request to convert a historic home into a restaurant that will not be allowed to sell even beer and wine.
The parallel actions show the complexity of decisions that could be before voters in November.
Citizens in the county’s four cities will vote in a referendum, if the Oconee County Board of Commissioners decides to put on the ballot, as is widely expected.
Only about 20 people turned out tonight at the third meeting on proposed projects for the Oconee County 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
And only four citizens spoke, with one advocating for spending for the libraries and another calling for funding for farmland protection and historic preservation.
Oconee County citizens get another chance tomorrow night to tell members of the Board of Commissioners what projects they want on the referendum for the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Under the revised timeline, the first of two public meetings will begin at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the auditorium of the Civic Center on Hog Mountain Road.
While liquor by the drink has played a prominent role in all three of the candidate forums, and was particularly central at the forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, it is likely that the issue will be resolved before the terms of the current commissioners expire at the end of the year.
Post 3 Commissioner Margaret Hale acknowledged that likelihood at the forum last night, when she said the issue probably will be on the ballot in November.
Oconee County voters will get a chance to vote on liquor by the drink if two of the challengers to incumbents John Daniell and Margaret Hale are successful in the May 20 Republican primary.
John Larkin, running against Daniell for Post 2 Commissioner, told about 40 people at a candidate forum last Thursday night at the Watkinsville Community Center that he would support putting a referendum on liquor by the drink on the ballot.
When the Oconee County Board of Commissioners began its overhaul of its farmland protection program 15 months ago, it did so, County Attorney Daniell Haygood said at the time, to make the process more transparent and to make sure the county was following state open records and open meetings laws.
Since that time, the Board assembled two different committees, one of which replaced a citizen committee that had been screening farms for the county’s program.
Candidates for the two slots on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners will have a pretty good idea in a little more than a week about what issues the politically active citizens in the community are most concerned about.
And those citizens will have an idea about which of those issues, if any, separate the candidates.
The Watkinsville City Council last week interjected itself into the ongoing discussion about what to do with the existing Oconee County courthouse by unanimously passing a resolution stating that it believes county offices should remain in downtown Watkinsville.
The vote on Wednesday evening comes as the Oconee County Board of Commissioners is about to relaunch its discussion of the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum, now scheduled to be on the ballot in November.
The developers of The Falls of Oconee project on Old Macon Highway have submitted revised preliminary site plans to the Oconee County Planning Department that eliminate access to the falls and the creek below it.
The falls are not natural, but rather were created by an old mill pond dam made of rock, and they are not on the Oconee, but rather are on McNutt Creek, a tributary to the Middle Oconee River.
Oconee County rather quietly has cancelled its Easter Egg Hunt originally scheduled for April 19–the day before Easter–at Oconee Veterans Park.
The web site of the Oconee County Parks and Recreation Department contains the simple announcement that the egg hunt “will not be held this year due to park conflicts.”
C&P Company of Macon has submitted preliminary site plans to the Oconee County Planning Department for a Cheddar’s Restaurant on Epps Bridge Parkway as part of Epps Bridge Centre.
The plans call for a 8,465-square-foot building seating 324 persons and with 206 parking spaces spread across parts of two of the mall’s 12 outparcels. It also would include an outdoor patio seating 60 persons.
Twenty-nine vendors offering eggs, goat milk, pies, cakes, meats, boiled peanuts, herbs, landscape plants, fresh greens and more set up booths in front of the courthouse in downtown Watkinsville yesterday for the launch of the 11th season of the Oconee Farmers Market.
The cool but sunny day brought out a good crowd of customers, and several vendors reported doubling their sales from market opening a year ago, according to Market Manager Cindy Pritchard.
Oconee County granted permits in August of last year for signs on two undeveloped pieces of land at the busy intersection of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
The signs are for land offered for sale by Boswell Properties, owned by Jamie Boswell, Athens real estate broker and, since early 2013, District 10 representative to the 14-member State Transportation Board.
Oconee County citizens will have at least three opportunities in April to put questions in open meetings to the five candidates seeking two spots on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
The Oconee County Republican Party is holding the first of three scheduled forums on Thursday, April 17, at the Watkinsville Community Center, 191 VFW Drive. That meeting starts at 6 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m.
Water and sewer customers in Oconee County will pay about 3 percent more in fees starting July 1 if the Board of Commissioners approves the budget request presented by Utility Department Director Chris Thomas earlier this month.
The water rate increase would be the seventh in as many years for the county, and the sewer rate increase would be the sixth in six years.
Oconee County Commissioners tonight agreed to a new schedule for the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum, setting up public hearings in June and July that will lead up to a vote on Nov. 4.
The schedule calls for the Board of Commissioners to vote at its meeting on Aug. 5 on the final list of projects to be funded by the SPLOST, should voters approve it in November.
Athens-Clarke County plans to close Whitehall Road between the Middle Oconee River and Milledge Avenue for three to four months in the summer of 2015, altering the flow of traffic into and out of Oconee County via Simonton Bridge Road.
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| Simonton Bridge At Main Street |
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis has written two columns in The Oconee Enterprise about the county's most recent car tag survey.
Davis also spoke enthusiastically about the survey on Feb. 10 when the county presented citizens a list of proposals for possible funding by the planned 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Oconee County late last month issued a building permit for the third of three permitted buildings in the long dormant Legacy Building Park on Hog Mountain Road east of Butler's Crossing.
The exteriors of two 1,735-square-foot-buildings are completed. They were permitted in November of last year.
Caterpillar said its monthly average of full-time jobs for 2013 on the site of its new plant on the Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County border was 214. The goal stipulated in the memorandum was 100, allowing Caterpillar to state that there was no jobs shortfall for 2013.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 tonight to postpone from May 20 until November 4 the referendum on a new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Commissioners Margaret Hale and John Daniell were joined by Commissioner Jim Luke in voting for the delay.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners agreed after a five-hour meeting last night to a tentative list of spending priorities for the planned 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Whether the agreement will be sufficient to result in a vote to put the issue on the May 20 ballot only will be known at the regular BOC meeting tonight, which starts at 7 p.m. at the courthouse, and which includes further discussion of the tax referendum.
Oconee County Commissioners have agreed to a called meeting on Monday to discuss funding priorities for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum they are scheduled to take up again at their regular meeting on Tuesday night.
The goal of the Monday meeting is to get enough agreement on the priorities so the Commissioners can decide on Tuesday night to put the issue on the May 20 ballot rather than postpone the vote until November.
The date for the referendum on the Oconee County 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax now seems more likely to be in November than May, as originally planned.
Three of the four voting members of the Board of Commissioners tonight said they were not ready to decide on what projects should be listed on the ballot, making it unlikely there will be a majority next week to vote to go forward with the referendum on May 20.
Oconee County Commissioners tomorrow night are to begin the public whittling down of the $100 million in requests for the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
If they stay on schedule–and Commissioner Margaret Hale has asked that they not–they will vote at their meeting on March 4 to put the referendum for the 1 percent sales tax on the May 20 ballot.
Oconee Farmers Market will launch its 11th season with the opening of the Saturday market on April 5 and the Tuesday evening market on May 13.
The Saturday market will once again be in front of the courthouse in downtown Watkinsville.
Oconee County’s two members of the Georgia House of Representatives voted with the Republican majority on Tuesday to pass an omnibus gun bill that would allow, among other things, licensed holders of guns to enter county government buildings that do not have security restrictions in place.
The bill is wide ranging, dealing with the rights of persons to carry guns in a variety of settings.
Residents of southeastern Walton County as well as others traveling through the area will soon get a clearer sense of the scope of the 1,400 acre Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir project.
Construction crews on Monday will begin clear cutting the area that will be filled by the lake, Project Manager Jimmy Parker told the Reservoir Management Board at its regular meeting yesterday afternoon at the Walton County Government Building in Monroe.
Oconee County Commissioner Margaret Hale tonight asked her fellow Commissioners to delay the vote on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum from May to November, but none of them expressed any support for her request.
“I think the Board is rushing the projects to get them through,” Hale said during the section at the front of tonight’s agenda for comments from Commissioners. “I think we need to take more time and vet out these projects more.”
A request by Flo Wilkes to rezone property she owns on Mars Hill Road so she can build a nursery and garden center will be before the Oconee County Planning Commission tomorrow night for a first public hearing.
Wilkes, in partnership with Chad Forehand, is asking to change the zoning of the nearly eight acre tract from agriculture and residential to business so they can build the garden center and nursery.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office issued 502 single family and town home permits in 2013, exceeding the number issued for residential construction in 2006--before the housing collapse of a year later.
The county also issued 105 commercial permits in 2013, again exceeding the number in 2006.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority has made its last payment to Williams and Associates, an engineering and land planning company, under that firm’s contracts for the Caterpillar project, county Finance Director Wes Geddings reported on Monday afternoon.
Geddings told those attending the regular meeting of the county IDA that actual payments to Williams and Associates by the Oconee County and Athens-Clarke County industrial development authorities was $146,808 less than the $870,079 budgeted to cover the firm’s services.
Twenty-two speakers last night made their pitches to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, arguing that the projects they favored should be funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax scheduled to be on the May 20 ballot.
Many of those who spoke advocated for more than one project, with 11 speaking up for farmland protection, seven for funding for recreation projects, and five each for monies for the libraries and for historic preservation.
Summer Hill Recreation Club has withdrawn its request for Oconee County to grant it a permit to hold a Splash and Dash swim and race event on May 3 at its facility at the corner of Chestnut Hill Road and Daniells Bridge Road.
County Clerk Jane Greathouse late Friday afternoon removed the item from the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting, which is to start at 7 p.m. at the courthouse in Watkinsville.
The industrial development authorities of Oconee and Athens-Clarke counties in early 2012 granted two no-bid contracts totaling $870,079 to Williams and Associates land planners of Oconee County for engineering services for the Caterpillar project.
Georgia law requires bidding for construction projects, but not for the professional services provided by Williams and Associates, according to Oconee County Attorney Daniel Haygood.
Chief Superior Court Judge David Sweat wants a $25 million judicial facility added to the list of projects to be funded by Oconee County’s 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Oconee County Coroner Ed Carson wants $55,000 for a transport van.
These two requests bracket $100.2 million in requests that will be summarized in a public hearing with the Oconee County Board of Commissioners that will start at 6 p.m. on Monday at the Civic Center on Hog Mountain Road.
During 2013, Caterpillar created 364 of the 1,400 full-time jobs it has said it eventually will have at its newly-opened manufacturing plant on the Oconee County and Clarke County border just east of Bogart.
That figure comes from a report Rick Waller, chairman of the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority, filed on Jan. 30 with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs OneGeorgia Authority.
Architect Robert Smith got a warm reception Sunday afternoon from the 35 people who turned out for his second presentation of his plan for a revitalized downtown Watkinsville centered around the existing courthouse and a new, nearby government building.
The crowd twice applauded enthusiastically and thanked Smith for coming forward with his vision for the county seat.
The first phase of the Mars Hill Road widening project will take three years to complete, significantly disrupt traffic in the process, cost the county up to $4 million on top of state costs, and increase the volume of water in Barber Creek and its tributaries.
This is what Emil Beshara, director of the Oconee County Public Works Department, told the county’s Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning last month.
Editorial control of the Oconee Patch web site, moved in August to Athens, has shifted again, this time to metropolitan Atlanta.
As part of a major restructuring of Patch, about two-thirds of the editorial staff members nationally have lost their jobs, according to media blogger Jim Romenesko, who has a record of breaking inside stories about Patch.
While the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce provided Epps Bridge Centre developer Frank Bishop the platform to go public with his campaign for liquor by the drink in the county, the Chamber has taken a much weaker stand itself.
Bishop, the keynote speaker at the Chamber’s Banquet and Annual Meeting last Thursday night, asked the Board of Commissioners to put the issue on the ballot and the public to vote to allow restaurants to sell liquor.
The message on Wednesday evening for any of the roughly 75 people in the audience who wanted to hear it was very clear.
Barrow, Jackson and Walton counties made mistakes by moving their government buildings out of the center of their county seats.
The Oconee County Utility Department has assigned sewer service capacity in Epps Bridge Centre for Kinnucan’s, a speciality outfitter that already had one area store in the Alps Shopping Center on Alps Road in Athens.
The county has not yet issued a building permit for the store, which will be located in an extension of the building now housing Guitar Center.
Frank Bishop, developer of Epps Bridge Centre, used his keynote speech before the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce tonight to call for a county referendum to approve the sale of liquor by the drink in restaurants.
Bishop first asked those in attendance to shop locally to help guarantee the vitality of his shopping center.
House Bill 310, passed by the Georgia Senate on Jan. 14 and by the Georgia House on Jan. 17 and signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal yesterday, contains a provision that will allow the Oconee County Board of Commissioners to put the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax on the May 20 ballot.
The Commissioners are scheduled to make that decision at their regular meeting on March 4, but they could not have put the issue before voters until later in the year–probably in November--had the General Assembly not passed and the governor not signed the House bill.
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board this afternoon decided not to grant an extension in the time line for construction of the reservoir and dam despite an estimate that between 45 and 60 days had been lost due to heavy rains on Dec. 22.
The 3.4 inches of rainfall over a 19-hour period resulted in a breach of the coffer dam being used in construction of the actual dam, Project Manager Jimmy Parker told the Board at its meeting in the Walton County government building.
Resurgence Park, the large development underway between SR 316 and Virgil Langford Road east of the Oconee Connector, will be before the Oconee County Development Review Committee tomorrow morning as the next step in getting the project and its assisted living faculty underway.
Thrive Senior Living, an Atlanta-based company, has said it will operate an 85-bed facility on one of the lots in the 23-acre project, but developer Nichols Land and Investment Company must get approval of the site plans for the overall Resurgence Park before it can more forward on the assisted living facility.
Oconee County officials, in a meeting at the Civic Center last night, provided citizens with the first overview of projects under consideration for the proposed 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum planned for the May 20 ballot.
The list contained some surprises.
The three Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate on Friday night asked those in attendance at the Oconee County Democratic Party gathering in Watkinsville to remember who had come to meet with them and, by extension, who had not.
“We shouldn’t anoint our candidates,” Steen Miles from Decatur said. “Every candidate should present their views before you, the voting public, and let them make their decision.”
Oconee County is projecting that it will receive $55 million from the proposed Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to be on the ballot on May 20, up from the $40 million projected from the current SPLOST.
Revenue from the current 1 percent optional sales tax is running behind projections, however, and county officials now are expecting it will generate only about $35 million by the time it expires at the end of next year.
Best Buy is joining a lengthening list of Atlanta Highway retailers moving their operations to Oconee County’s Epps Bridge Centre.
Oconee County Code Enforcement issued a commercial building permit on Monday for a 30,299-square-foot-building for Best Buy to be located on the east side of the shopping mall, adjacent to Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Oconee County farmland activist Russ Page and Laura Hall from the Athens Land Trust have called a meeting for Thursday to push for inclusion of funding for farmland protection in the county’s 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
The meeting comes before two oportunities—on Jan. 13 and Feb. 10—for citizens to indicate what projects they want to have included in the language for the next SPLOST referendum, scheduled to be held May 20 of this year.
