Chuck and David Williams ended the year without a resolution to their efforts to move the proposed Wisteria Ridge Apartment Complex on North Main Street in Watkinsville from dormant to active.
Ken Beall, representing the Williams brothers, appeared before the Watkinsville City Council in November with the request that the city issue building permits for a sampling of the 103 residential units in the 15-building complex.
Fran Davis, director of Elections and Registration, told Oconee County Republicans that she does not believe voter fraud exists in Georgia, based on her experience in Oconee County.
She also said she believes the election system is secure because of the “checks and balances” built into it.
Jonathan Wallace gave Oconee County Democrats a decidedly upbeat assessment of the Nov. 6 election in which he was defeated in his bid to retain his House District 119 seat.
Wallace confessed he was not excited about “the actual outcome of the election,” which he lost to Republican Marcus Wiedower, but he said “There is a lot to be proud about.”
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority on Wednesday issued $127.8 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds for construction of Presbyterian Village Athens on U.S. 441 at Hog Mountain Road.
The issuance of the bonds followed a Nov. 15 ruling by Oconee County Superior Court Judge Lawton E. Stephens that the Authority had properly entered into an agreement with Westminster Presbyterian Homes Inc. of Quitman to pay off the bonds.
The “ribbon” was a yellow fire hose.
Rather than cut it, Oconee County Fire Chief Bruce Thaxton and Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell uncoupled it.
With that uncoupling, Thaxton said, “We’re now dedicating Station 8 to Oconee County.”
The meeting of the Oconee County Board of Education on Monday had a special feature, in keeping with the season.
Eighteen students, making up the Rocky Branch Elementary School Chorus and led by Josh Luke, performed a medley of holiday songs.
The Oconee County Planning Commission took quick action on Monday on three rezone requests dictated by the county’s settlement of lawsuits involving the massive Parkside and Westland projects that together will bring 1,175 new residential lots to the county.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners actually brought the rezone requests to the Planning Commission, as called for in the settlement of the lawsuits, and the Planning Commission dutifully recommended to the Board of Commissioners that it approve them.
Keith Newberry, managing partner at Keystone Custom Homes LLC of Athens, told the Oconee County Board of Commissioners at its regular meeting last week that his draftsman made a mistake in drawing site plans for two homes he built this year in Lee Ridge Subdivision southeast of Watkinville.
One house, a 2,370 square-foot structure at 2339 Maddison Avenue, now sits more than four feet closer to the street than the county’s Unified Development Code allows, and Newberry was asking the Board of Commissioner for forgiveness.
Oconee County schools will begin classes on the first Wednesday of August and end classes on the Friday of the third full week in May in each of the next three academic years if the Board of Education accepts the recommendation presented to it at its work session last week.
Anisa Sullivan Jimenez, director of Communications for the schools, told the Board the draft calendars were the result of work by a Calendar Committee and had been reviewed as well by Parent Advisory, Student Advisory, and Teacher Advisory groups.
Republican Brad Raffensperger got 67.1 percent of the vote in Oconee County in the runoff for Secretary of State on Tuesday, up just slightly from his 66.8 percent vote on Nov. 6.
Democrat John Barrow received 32.9 percent of the vote in Oconee County on Tuesday, up from the 30.7 percent he received in the three-way contest on Nov. 6.
Tony Townley won’t have to meet county standards requiring a 15 foot setback in the front yard of his Eastville Car Museum.
He also won’t have to move four existing silos, a windmill, and a water tower from the front yard of his property at Snows Mill Road and Cole Spring Road, even though they violate the county’s Unified Development Code.
