Monday, July 31, 2017

Oconee County Commissioners To Approve Sewer Contract And Consider Alcohol License For Convenience Store At Athens Ridge

Rezone On Agenda

Oconee County commissioners are set to give final approval tomorrow (Tuesday) night to a $1.9 million contract to upgrade the sewer line running from Epps Bridge Parkway at McNutt Creek and down Daniells Bridge Road and Government Station Road.

The upgraded sewer line will allow the county to divert sewage now being pumped to the sewage treatment facility on Rocky Branch Road to the Calls Creek plant currently under expansion outside Watkinsville.

Commissioners also are being asked to take action on a request for a license to sell beer and wine from an as-yet unbuilt convenience store on Macon Highway opposite the Athens Ridge student housing complex.

Commissioners also will take action on their own request to rezone just less than two acres on the Oconee Connector and Daniells Bridge Road that currently is used for the Barber Creek Fire Station pursuant to relocating the fire station and are to discuss a contract with the state for a county-wide transportation study.

Consent Agenda

The Board of Commissioners gave tentative approval at its meeting last week to the $1.9 million contract with Griffin Brothers Inc. of Maysville for the sewer line upgrade.

Proposed Forced Main Sewer Line Upgrade In Red
Green Lines Are Gravity Lines

Griffin was the low bidder among nine bidders for the project, which will replace an existing 6-inch pipe with 12-inch pipe and result in the decommissioning of the pump station on Daniells Bridge Road at Barber Creek.

The pump station on Daniells Bridge Road at Barber Creek will remain in place in case of future need.

The upgraded and existing line runs from the pump station on McNutt Creek across Parkway Boulevard from Kohl’s to behind the shopping center with Trader Joe’s, under SR Loop 10 and Daniells Bridge Road, and down Daniells Bridge Road and Government Station Road to the Lampkin Branch collector.

The Lampkin Branch collector is on Lampkin Branch of Calls Creek, and the sewage flows from there via gravity to the Calls Creek wastewater treatment plant off Durhams Mill Way on the north side of Watkinville.

Construction Timetable

The existing sewer line is on the west side of Daniells Bridge Road and Government Station Road, and the new line will be as well.

Oconee County Utility Department Director Wayne Haynie told me last week he estimates that construction will start in late September or early October. The project will take about six months to complete, he said.

The contract documents require that traffic will continue to flow on Daniells Bridge Road at all times, Haynie said.

Traffic flow on Daniells Bridge Road has been heavier since construction began on Mars Hill Road, and that construction is scheduled to continue through the end of May of 2018.

The award of the contract to Griffin Brothers is on the consent agenda, meaning it will not be discussed further unless a commissioner requests that it be opened up for discussion.

TreeHouse Market

Carlos Miranda from Newberry, Fla., has applied for a license to sell package beer and wine from TreeHouse Market in Falls of Oconee, the retail complex under development on Macon Highway at McNutt Creek.

Building 200 And Treehouse Market On Left

According to the application, the convenience store will include a deli and sell snacks, drinks, ice cream, cigarettes and lotto tickets.

The shopping center currently has a speciality food store, Olive Basket, a physical therapy facility, and a Board and Brush custom sign store.

According to a billboard opposite the shopping center, it will include a Mama’s Boy restaurant in the future, though no building permit had been issued for the restaurant as of Friday of last week.

The alcohol license application says TreeHouse will be located in Building 200, which is the western most of the existing four buildings and currently is unoccupied. No build-out permits were showing in the window of Building 200 late this afternoon. (The Planning and Code Enforcement Department confirmed on the morning of 8/1/2017 that no permit has been issued for TreeHouse.)

The shopping center is easily accessible on foot to Athens Ridge, the student complex on the eastern side of Macon Highway.

Rezone Request

The Board of Commissioners is asking itself to rezone the land on the east side of the Oconee Connector and the north side of Daniells Bridge Road where Fire Station #8 currently is located.

The 1.9 acres currently are zoned Office-Institutional-Professional. The county wants to change the zoning to Business.

The county has not given any explanation for the rezone request or indicated where Fire Station #8 will be located in the future.

The county planning staff produced a single page review of the request and did not provide its standard analysis of the impact of the rezone request or offer a recommendation.

The Planning Commission recommended approval of the rezone at its meeting on July 17. (A video of that meeting is on the Oconee County Observations Vimeo site.)

Traffic Study

At the Board of Commissioners meeting last week Commission Chair John Daniell indicated that the county was about to enter into an agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation for a county-wide transportation study.

Emil Beshara also outlined the project at the Technical Coordinating Committee meeting of the Madison Athens Clarke County Regional Transportation Study last week.

GDOT is entering into a $215,082 consultant contract with HNTB Corporation of Atlanta to provide a multi-modal transportation study for Oconee County, according to documents released by the county.

HNTB will document and evaluate the exiting transportation system of the county and recommend needed improvements, those documents state.

The cost to Oconee County will be $45,091.

Video

The video below is of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners on July 25.

Utility Department Director Wayne Haynie gave a series of presentations to the Board on water and sewer projects in the county.

Haynie’s comments on the sewer line upgrade begin at 23:28 in the video below.

Daniell’s comments on the county-wide transportation study begin at 42:20 in the video.

OCO: BOC 7 25 17 from Lee Becker on Vimeo.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Commissioners also are being asked to take action on a request for a license to sell beer and wine from an as-yet unbuilt convenience store on Macon Highway opposite the Athens Ridge student housing complex.

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Lovely. That sharp turn on Macon Highway is treacherous. The college students pulling in & out of Athens Ridge have little regard for others. Now add beer & wine to the mix, with Athens Ridge college students crossing Macon Highway on foot. Thank you Melvin Davis.

Anonymous said...

If you think beer & wine aren't already in the mix at this intersection, you don't know college students very well. ;-)