The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is considering changes to its plans for the McNutt Creek Road intersection with SR 316, switching from a flyover to a full access multi-grade intersection.
At the same time, GDOT is re-evaluating, in response to citizen input, its proposed intersection designs for Dials Mill Road and Dials Mill Extension with SR 316.
The planned flyover of Julian Drive of SR 316 also is being reassessed.
As the General Assembly heads into its final five days on Monday, decisions on legislation for which the Oconee County delegation has played prominent roles remain to be resolved.
Included are laws designed to create an oversight body for district attorneys and legislation to legalize some form of sports betting.
Terry Radford, representing the bus drivers of Oconee County Schools, told the Board at its meeting on Monday that he was before them to talk about something he did not think they wanted to hear.
“We're the number one county in the state as far as the schools go,” Radford said, repeating a statement Superintendent Jason Branch makes often and made in his report to the Board at its work session a week earlier.
Oconee County Sheriff James Hale said on Friday afternoon his office is investigating the distribution of anti-Semitic flyers early Thursday in subdivisions in the county.
Residents of Daniell Plantation, Twelve Oaks, Lake Wellbrook, and Welbrook Farms all reported having the flyers thrown on their driveways or porches and put into the mailboxes over night.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 105 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on March 15, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases each of the previous two weeks had been 165.
Oconee County reported nine fewer cases than it reported a week earlier, while Clarke County reported two more cases than a week earlier.
Houston Gaines and Marcus Wiedower, who represent Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, will be able to introduce legislation on Monday allowing county voters to decide whether to increase the homestead exemption for county and school property taxes.
They also will be in a position to allow voters to decide if they want to freeze property tax assessments for persons once they turn 65 years of age.
***Enterprise Reports Move Expected In Early 2024***
In 2015, Zaxby’s proposed to build a $42 million corporate campus on Daniells Bridge Road just west of its current corporate offices on Founders Boulevard.
The campus was to include corporate offices, test kitchens, educational areas, a cafeteria, a Zaxby’s private restaurant, employee gymnasium, and employee daycare facilities.
Athens commercial realtor Jamie Boswell has been reappointed as District 10 Representative to the Georgia Transportation Board.
A caucus of state representatives and senators whose districts include at least part of the 10th Congressional District selected Boswell in a meeting on February 21 or Feb. 22.
No record of the deliberation or candidates considered is public.
Dr. Brent Nail, whose existing Virgil Langford Road dental office is in the path of the planned new westbound on-ramp to SR 316 from the Oconee Connector, is holding an open house on Thursday to outline plans for his replacement facility.
The location that Nail has selected for his new office is a nearly three-acre lot at 2521 Mars Hill Road that currently has a single-family home on it and is zoned residential.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 165 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on March 8, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The number of added cases a week earlier–on March 1–also had been 165.
Oconee County reported adding two more cases than it reported adding a week earlier, while Clarke County reported adding 17 fewer cases.
As threatened, attorney David Ellison, representing Deferred Tax LLC, has filed suit in Oconee Superior Court asking the Court to overturn the denial of a rezone request for a shopping center with a Publix at the Oconee Connector and Mars Hill Road.
Ellison argues in the suit that Deferred Tax LLC, owned by Maxie Price, has a right to have a full commercial access to the property as a result of agreements with the county and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Oconee County Schools Superintendent Jason Branch recommended on Monday that the School Board accept a construction bid of $14.5 million the new Instructional Support Center in Watkinsville.
The recommended bid for the Instructional Support Center is $6.2 million more than the estimated cost of the facility in 2019 and $1.8 million more than the cost estimate given to the Board in January of 2022.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, in a 3 to 1 vote on Tuesday night, approved a settlement with Donald Hammett that will allow construction of Oconee Crossing Shopping Center on U.S. 78 at Hog Mountain Road.
Hammett will have to return to the Board of Commissioners with a new concept plan for the shopping center, and the Board will have to vote again on the rezone request by Hammett it turned down in October.
Oconee County Rep. Houston Gaines on Monday voted for a bill that would increase the weight of some types of commercial trucks on the local and state roads from 80,000 to 88,000 pounds, while Oconee County’s Rep. Marcus Wiedower voted against the bill.
Gaines and Wiedower voted in favor of a bill to set up an oversight commission for district attorneys and in favor of a bill limiting the ability of city and county governments to impose a temporary moratorium on zoning decisions or issuance of permits.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 165 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on March 1, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases a week earlier on Feb. 22 had been 470.
Both Oconee County and Clarke County reported decreases in cases.
Georgia House Bill 71, introduced on Jan. 24 by Thomasville Republican Darlene Taylor, generated a lot of attention by groups around the state seeking to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from nearby mining.
The Georgia River Network, based in Athens and with many followers in Oconee County, urged its members to write their legislators in support of the bill.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners at its agenda-setting meeting on Tuesday night decided to move forward with postponed plans to reconstruct Malcom Bridge Road at the entrances to Malcom Bridge Elementary and Malcom Bridge Middle schools.
The goal of the changes, Board Chair John Daniell said, is to remove the deputies from the roadway at the entrances to the schools for the safety of the deputies.
The project will add a median along Malcom Bridge from the roundabout at the bus driveway north and south past the entrances for the elementary and middle schools.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said on Tuesday that legislation introduced in the Georgia General Assembly last week, if passed, would “nullify” Oconee County’s Comprehensive Plan.
Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton called the legislation “an attack on local control.”
The two were reacting to House Bill 517, called the Georgia Homeowner Opportunity Act, introduced by Rep. Dale Washburn, Republican from Macon.
Given the panel that Marvin Nunnally assembled for his presentation on Sunday on African-American History in Oconee County, it was almost inevitable that school desegregation would become the focal point of much of the discussion.
The four female panel members all had links to Oconee County Schools as students, teachers, or the children of teachers.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said on Friday that he remains opposed to House Bill 189, which has been revised to allow commercial trucks with only specified types of cargo to exceed the current weight limit on roads throughout the state.
Daniell had sided with the Georgia Department of Transportation in opposing the original version of Georgia House Bill 189 that would have increased the weight limit of all commercial trucks on state and local roads from 80,000 to 90,000 pounds.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 470 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Feb. 22, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases a week earlier on Feb. 15 had been 353.
Both Oconee County and Clarke County reported an increase in cases.
Kirk Shook, the Republican Party representative on the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, told his colleagues that he wants to review the policy and procedures that resulted in the Board voting to put the names of two Independent School Board candidates on last November’s ballot.
Shook said “it was a big shock” for him to be asked back in July of last year to vote to allow Ryan Repetske and Melissa Eagling to run following a review by the staff of the Office and Elections and Registration and County Attorney Daniel Haygood of the separate petitions submitted by the two Independents.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 353 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Feb. 15, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases on a week earlier on Feb. 8 had been 400.
Both Oconee County and Clarke County reported a decrease in cases.
In 2015, Halloran Masonry, an Athens construction contractor, told the county it planned to move its corporate offices to one of three lots in a business park it proposed to develop at the southwest corner of U.S. 441 and New High Shoals Road.
Halloran Masonry has changed its plans, and now it wants to build a self-storage facility consisting of up to four interior or external loaded building that could be up to two stories in height.
One in five of the Oconee County students who requested a different school assignment for next year from the one they were given through redistricting opted to move to Dove Creek Elementary School.
Nearly the same ratio opted not to attend High Shoals Elementary School and not to attend Malcom Bridge Elementary School, as they would have under the new redistricting plan adopted last year by the Oconee County Board of Education.
About halfway through her hour-long presentation to the Oconee County Board of Education, Oconee County Schools Chief Financial Officer Liz Harlow paused and asked a question.
Harlow had just reviewed the current fiscal year budget and presented a slide showing the calendar for the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
“Are there any goals that the Board would like to consider for the FY 24 Budget?” Harlow asked.
The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board on Monday approved an $8.3 million proposal from Jacobs Engineering Consulting Group Inc. of Atlanta for design of the water treatment plant at the reservoir jointly owned by Oconee and Walton counties.
The Board also agreed to shortlist and request competitive pricing from the three highest ranked firms for engineering design services for the transmission system from the plant to Walton County’s currently existing water distribution system.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported three new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including one in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health reported four confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week.
Oconee County Schools has received and approved a whopping 379 applications for School Choice, meaning that the student requested and was granted transfer to a different school in the system than the one assigned as a result of redistricting.
Last year, by comparison, Oconee County Schools received 84 applications and seven of those were denied because the applications were made to schools, North Oconee High School and Malcom Bridge Middle School, where no space was available.
Three pieces of legislation introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives could have impact on the District Attorney Office serving Oconee County.
House Bill 48, introduced on Jan. 23, would make the election of the District Attorney of the Western Judicial Circuit consisting of Oconee and Clarke counties, and all other circuits in the state, nonpartisan.
Attorney David Ellison, representing Deferred Tax LLC before the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, made it clear his client was not interested in any compromise over the rezone request for a shopping center with a Publix on the Oconee Connector at Mars Hill Road.
“You should approve the rezone as submitted,” he said several times.
Land Planner Ken Beall, also representing Deferred Tax, said the same.
The Board of Commissioners responded by voting unanimously to turn down Deferred Tax LLC, owned by Maxie Price, with no real discussion.
Both of Oconee county’s high schools currently are under capacity.
School administrators are projecting, however, that North Oconee High School will be over capacity by eight students next year, while Oconee County High School will be over capacity in 2032.
In eleven years, by 2034, North Oconee High School will be 94 students over its capacity of 1,500 students, and Oconee County High School will be 99 students over its capacity of that same number, the administrators project.
It is time to make decisions about how to accommodate the roughly 200 students the existing two high school currently are not designed to accommodate, Superintendent Jason Branch and Associate Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told the Board of Education at its retreat last month.
One of the issues that has divided the Oconee County Board of Education and the Oconee County Board of Commissioners–the joint use of athletic facilities–is about to surface again.
Oconee County Schools Associate Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told Board of Education members at their retreat last month of his plans to move ahead with charging the county’s Parks and Recreation Department the same user fee charged to nonprofits.
None of the Board members pushed back on that plan.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported four new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including two in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health reported eight confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week, and seven the week before that.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 384 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Feb. 1, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
Oconee County received just less than $1.1 million in Local Option Sales Tax in December, the first time the monthly collection has exceeded the $1 million mark.
The increase in collections, attributed to the November opening of Costco, played a role at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday night as the Board gave tentative approval to Fiscal Year 2023 Mid-Year Budget Amendments for $1.8 million.
Based on current guidelines from the Georgia Department of Transportation and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, a full access intersection from the Oconee Connector should not be allowed for the proposed shopping center at the Connector and Mars Hill Road.
The intersection of the Oconee Connector and SR 316 already has crash rates and injury crash rates significantly higher than the statewide average.
As a result, a full-access intersection would work against the county’s desire to maintain long-term safe and efficient traffic operation on the Oconee Connector.
A roundabout is needed at the proposed full-access entrance to the shopping center off Mars Hill Road.
Although Oconee County’s three state legislators have been unwilling to confirm, the Board of Commissioner’s request for legislation to increase the county’s property tax homestead exemption is in the queue with the General Assembly’s Legislative Counsel, Board Chair John Daniell said on Friday.
County Attorney Daniel Haygood also said on Friday that he was aware that the request had been submitted to Legislative Counsel, but he had not yet heard from Counsel.
Donald Hammett, contending that the Oconee County Board of Commissioners ignored his “vested rights” in the nearly 43 acres he wants to develop as Oconee Crossing Shopping Center, has filed suit to overturn the county’s denial of his rezone request.
Hammett said that he obtained his “vested rights” to develop the property as it was rezoned in 1990 when he purchased the property on the southeast corner of U.S. 78 and Hog Mountain Road in 2005.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported eight new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including two in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health reported seven confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week, and seven the week before that.
Oconee County citizens will get a chance in the coming months to comment on preliminary plans for a multi-use trail system for the county that could be funded in part with money from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters in November.
The centerpiece of the plan is what is termed the Main Loop that would wind around the northern part of the county, connecting Hog Mountain Road, Malcom Bridge Road, Rocky Branch Road, Mars Hill Road, and Daniells Bridge Road.
Sharon Gregg, who took over as director of Elections and Registration in Oconee County in September, introduced herself to Oconee County Democrats last week with a report on the November and December elections and tips on things to come.
Gregg said the two elections took place without any glitches and that turnout was high.
“The longest anyone waited in line was 20 minutes,” Gregg said referring to the December 6 runoff. “And that is great. We had people just swarming in. I love it. I love it when people want to vote.”
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns last week appointed Oconee County’s state Rep. Marcus Wiedower chair of the General Government subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee when he announced new committee assignments for the current House session.
Burns also appointed Oconee County’s other state representative, Houston Gaines, as vice chair of the subcommittee on Higher Education.
Amanda McCoy says that the covered arena at Oconee County’s Heritage park is in disrepair and underutilized and that she has a plan to change that.
A self-described “horse lady,” McCoy appeared before the Board of Commissioners back in November with suggestions on how to make the facility more usable for horse events.
McCoy followed that up with a presentation last week before the county’s Recreation Advisory Committee, of which she is a member.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported seven new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including two in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health also had reported seven confirmed deaths from the disease on Wednesday of last week.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 494 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Jan. 18, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
Julie Mauck has called a meeting of interested local citizens for 6 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at Mars Hill Baptist Church to develop a new plan for incorporating Christian instruction into the curriculum of Oconee County Schools.
Working with LifeWise Academy, Mauck plans to ask the Board to allow K-5 students at Oconee County Schools to leave their campuses during regular school hours for Bible-based instruction.
The three Republicans who are representing Oconee County in the General Assembly session that got underway last week received just more than 63 percent of the votes cast in the three multi-county districts that selected them.
They won their seats after receiving 88 percent of the campaign funds raised during the election year in the three districts and accounting for just less than 81 percent of the campaign spending during the year in those districts.
Even with the high levels of spending, the three were so successful at fund raising that they ended the year with just a little less than 100 percent of the unspent campaign funds.
Fred Ricketson, Director of Facilities for Oconee County Schools, didn’t sound the alarm at the first meeting of the year of the Oconee County Board of Education.
But he did tell the Board that the weather has caused delays in construction of the system’s new Dove Creek Middle School, planned to open for the next academic year, and that “dry warm weather will do us a lot of favors.”
Ricketson’s report was one of many to the Board on Monday, which merged the usual work and regular sessions of the Board into the single meeting for the month.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported seven new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, up from the four reported a week earlier.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 664 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Jan. 11, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases on Jan. 4 was 729, and on it Dec. 28 was 758. The decline is the first going back to Nov. 30.
Jamie Boswell, President and owner of the Boswell Group, which includes insurance, real estate and appraisal companies, has confirmed that he will ask area legislators to appoint him to a new five-year term on the State Transportation Board.
Boswell’s term expires on April 15, and state law requires that members of the Transportation Board be elected by a majority vote of the members of the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate “whose respective districts are embraced or partly embraced within” the Congressional District.
Oconee County commissioners are asking the county’s state legislative delegation to help it increase the homestead exemption as a way to decrease homeowner property taxes and freeze property tax assessments for persons once they turn 65 years of age.
The commissioners passed a resolution at their meeting on Tuesday calling on the legislators to introduce bills in the General Assembly this year that would allow for a referendum in 2024 on the homestead exemption and the freezing of assessments.
The changes in the property taxes would reduce county and school revenue, and Board of Education Chair Kim Argo said the School Board does not intend to pass a resolution making the request of the legislators but it supports the changes proposed by the county.
The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 64 COVID-19 patients, up from 52 on Friday of last week and the highest number of cases since February of last year.
The number of ICU beds in use on Friday was 76, down from 80 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 28, down from 32 last Friday.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported four new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including one in Oconee County and one in Clarke County.
Oconee County ranked number 1 in the state in turnout in the December runoff election, as it has in the last four state-wide elections going back to November of 2020.
Oconee County retained its top ranking in terms of the percentage of active voters who cast a ballot in December despite a drop-off of 8.4 percentage points in turnout from the vote in November.
