After hearing from 13 speakers who opposed the proposed 15.0 mill school property tax rate or at least the way the Board managed it, the Oconee County Board of Education adopted that rate unanimously on Monday evening.
Opponents focused on the 9.53 percent tax increase the rate represents, the way the Board handled the budget process, and questions about the need for the $34.8 million budget surplus in the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget for Oconee County Schools.
The Oconee County Board of Education and school administrators received a report on the size of the county’s tax digest in late June or early July, and they revised the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget for Oconee County Schools sometime after that date.
The new budget shows a reduction of the millage rate to 15.0 from the 15.5 in the budget the Board passed on June 5.
Because of the exceptional growth in the tax digest, however, the 15.0 mills produces $2.1 million more in revenue from local property taxes than the original budget the Board approved.
Decisions by the Georgia Secretary of State Office and by the Georgia Department of Transportation last week have had reverberations in Oconee County.
Secretary Of State Brad Raffensperger announced on July 18 that he was sending a mailed notice to 677 registered Oconee County voters who have been on “inactive” status for two general elections and have failed to update their voting records within that time.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday will hear requests from two petitioners, each seeking permission to build a gymnasium.
Core Blend Training LLC wants to change the conditions of an earlier rezone for 2.1 acres on Jamestown Road off Hog Mountain Road west of Butler’s Crossing to allow for an office building and a gymnasium.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has changed its plans for the three western most SR 316 interchanges in Oconee County and is now proposing to build a full access interchange at McNutt Creek Road, to close access at Dials Mill Road, and to build a full access interchange at Dials Mill Extension.
Earlier plans had called for a full access interchange at Dials Mill Road and flyovers at McNutt Creek Road and Dials Mill Extension.
A lively crowd of local government leaders, county employees and their families, former employees, and local residents filled the atrium of the new Oconee County Administrative Building on Tuesday afternoon for the building’s official ribbon cutting.
County Administrator Justin Kirouac did the honors, at the request of County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell.
“We’re going to ask Justin to do the ribbon cutting for all of his hard work on everything he has done,” Daniell said.
Only four persons spoke on Monday at the first two public hearings on the proposed 9.53 percent increase in property taxes for Oconee County Schools.
All four asked the Board to reduce the millage rate below the proposed 15.0 mills.
The two who spoke on Monday evening also were strongly critical of the Board for embargoing the legal advertisements announcing the increase in the county’s legal organ, The Oconee Enterprise.
Oconee County Attorney Kevin Epps, who has filed a writ of mandamus directed at Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, will be a featured speaker Monday at the July meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Lobby Meeting Room at the main building of the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus, 1305 Jennings Mill Road. A half-hour social precedes the meeting.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 63 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on July 19, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The number of cases added a week earlier in the Northeast Health District had been 71.
The Department of Public Health reported no new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday.
Oconee County Schools begins the school year on Aug. 2 with 126 new hires, including 93 new certified employees, 78 of whom are teachers, Justin Cofer, Chief Human Resources Officer, told the Oconee County Board of Education on Monday.
More than half of those new teachers have six or more years of teaching experience, he said, and 64 percent of the certified new hires have advanced degrees.
In a wide ranging talk to the Oconee County Democrats last month, Greg Bluestein, political reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reflected on his career, lamented the decline of newspapers, commented on the 2020 election, and presented an analysis of Georgia politics since that time.
He also speculated on future political developments, saying he doesn’t think Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will run for president this year but also that he doesn’t think Kemp has fully ruled it out.
The Oconee County Library in Watkinsville featured prominently in the beginning and ending of the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
Three citizens addressed the commissioners in the citizen comment section as the meeting got underway, raising concerns about the library and its programming, all referencing the packed-hall meeting of the Library Board of Trustees the day before.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 71 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on July 12, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The number of cases added a week earlier in the Northeast Health District had been 32. That week had included the holiday. The number of added cases had been 74 the week before that.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Wednesday afternoon announced the dates for three public hearings on a proposed 9.53 percent increase in school property taxes for the current year.
The announcement includes a surprise proposed drop in the millage rate for the schools from the current 15.5 mills to 15.0 mills.
The meeting room at the Oconee County Library in Watkinsville was standing room only at 4:10 p.m. on Monday, though the meeting of the Oconee County Library Board of Trustees wasn’t scheduled to start for another 20 minutes.
By the time Library Board Chair Mark Campbell called the meeting to order, the room was filled way beyond capacity.
Eric Eberhardt, representing QuikTrip, was emphatic in telling the Oconee County Planning Commission last month that the gas station and convenience store his company wants to build opposite the intersection of North Main Street and U.S 441 Bypass north of Watkinsville has truck bays but is not a truck stop.
Ben Qualls, real estate manager for QuikTrip, told the Commission that QuikTrip knows what a truck stop is since it operates them elsewhere, and what is being proposed at that site is not a truck stop.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 32 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on July 5, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The number of cases added a week earlier in the Northeast Health District had been 74. The number of cases had increased just slightly in each of the last three weeks prior to the July 5 report.
The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees, in its meeting on Monday, is scheduled to respond to a citizen request from March that the Oconee County Library reclassify or relabel a book because of its discussion of sex and use of language.
Board Chair Mark Campbell also anticipates that the Board will discuss possible responses to a controversy regarding programming at the Watkinsville Library in June that included a reading from the children’s series Little People, Big Dreams about RuPaul.
Oconee County commissioners are set to approve a new millage rate for the vast majority of property owners in the county that represents an 8.4 percent cut in property taxes.
The millage rate of 4.824 reflects a larger cut than the 1 mill drop in property taxes the commissioner promised when voters approved the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax last November.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 74 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on June 28, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The number of cases added a week earlier in the Northeast Health District had been 42. The number of cases has increased in each of the last three weeks.
