Oconee County is at a decision point, Parks and Recreation Director John Gentry told the Board of Commissioners last (Tuesday) night.
The commissioners must decide if the Parks and Recreation Department should continue both to manage facilities and to manage youth and adult programs, or should the department play a lesser role, perhaps only managing facilities.
Drivers traveling on Hog Mountain Road heading west from Butler’s Crossing in recent months have come upon a collection of tightly clustered, similarly designed homes facing the roadway.
Further from the road, additional homes are being built, with a total of 45 dwelling units planned for the subdivision.
A crew began work yesterday (Friday) on the large sign Oconee County permitted for just south of the intersection of Mars Hill Road and Daniells Bridge Road, and by the end of the day today (Saturday) the pole base was installed and sign materials were above the base suspended from a crane.
When completed, the top of the 8-foot-by-12-foot LED sign will be 35 feet about ground level.
Athens-Clarke County has excess capacity at its Middle Oconee Water Reclamation Facility, the sewer plant closest to Oconee County, an analysis of the Discharge Monitoring Reports for the plant since January of this year shows.
Athens-Clarke County also has a gravity feed sewer line running along its side of McNutt Creek, paralleling the sewer line that Oconee County is building from Bogart to Epps Bridge Parkway on its side of the stream.
Trustees for the Elizabeth Price Dolvin Foundation are exploring the possibility of creating an Oconee County environmental and heritage center modeled after a similar facility in Gwinnett County.
The facility would be on Elder Mill Road and incorporate property owned by the late Elizabeth Price Dolvin surrounding the iconic Elder Mill Bridge.
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board last week agreed to spend $93,536 for design work for the intake structure on the Apalachee River across from North High Shoals that can be used in the future to expand the size of the reservoir.
The Board also reviewed plans for a water treatment plant for the reservoir that would rely on membrane filtration technology. Actual construction of the plant is thought to be at least three years away as neither county has a need for the water filling in the reservoir.
All three candidates for the special election on Nov. 8 to fill Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners have agreed to participate in an election forum set for 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 15 at the Community Center in Veterans Park.
Oconee County School Superintendent Dr. Jason Branch also has agreed to answer questions on the district’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Education question, which also will be on the ballot in November.
Oconee County administrators, to accommodate Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, intentionally mislabeled $15,000 in expenses in giving a public presentation in June of a bill for added design work for Mars Hill Road.
Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. billed the county $10,000 for requested design work to reconnect Old Mars Hill Road to Mars Hill Road and $5,000 for design work on a median break requested by businessman Doug Dickens.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis’ proposal for the county to spend upwards of $1.3 million to extend Bishop Farms Parkway received no support last (Tuesday) night from the Citizen Advisory Committee On Land Use and Transportation Planning.
The plan is to extend Bishop Farms Parkway from Experiment Station Road to New High Shoals Road, giving University of North Georgia students, faculty and staff another access point to the campus.
A nine-person team from the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources walked 250 yards of Calls Creek last Thursday looking for fish.
Thirty species would be a good number from such a sampling, according to Patti Lanford, team leader and Stream Survey Program Manager for the Wildlife Resources Division in Social Circle.
Construction of passing lanes on SR 15 in both Oconee and Greene counties is on the list for conceptual planning with the Georgia Department of Transportation, Rep. Chuck Williams told members of the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority last week.
Williams said he has been working with Rep. Trey Rhodes of Greensboro on the project, made possible because of funds raised by the increase in fuel taxes and imposition of a hotel tax by the General Assembly in the 2015 session.
The ballot that Oconee County voters will see on the screens of the voting machines for the Nov. 8 election has gotten fuller in recent weeks.
The Board of Commissioners on Aug. 2 put two referenda on Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages on the ballot.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis and county Administrative Officer Jeff Benko met with their counterparts in Athens-Clarke County in late June to discuss possible collaboration in wastewater treatment.
Benko described the session as “a short meeting with no meaningful results.”
The day after the Oconee County Planning Commission recommended that the Board of Commissioners turn down a rezone request for an auto dealership complex on SR 316, the administrative assistant to Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis set up a meeting for Davis with the firm representing the developer of the project.
Davis attended the scheduled meeting with Jon Williams of Williams and Associates on May 23–a week after the Planning Commission vote--at the firm’s offices at 2470 Daniells Bridge Road.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners last (Tuesday) night voted unanimously to put two Sunday sales referenda on the November ballot.
One of those referenda, if approved by a majority of voters, will allow the sale of beer and wine in grocery, convenience and beverage stores in the county on Sundays.
