Two-thirds of Oconee County voters who participated in the May 21 Republican Party Primary favored a closed primary in which only registered Republicans would be allowed to vote.
Six in 10 of the Oconee County Republican voters asked for hand-marked paper ballots, scanned and verified by hand count on live stream video, and nearly eight in 10 approved of a statewide vote on allowing gaming in Georgia.
The rain moved the ceremony to the gym at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park on Monday, where about 150 people turned out to honor all military veterans and the 39 fallen from Oconee County whose names are engraved on the memorial at the front of the park.
The program kicked off with Art Ryder, representing the William Daniell Society, Children of the American Revolution, reading In Flanders Fields, a poem from the First World War.
The four speakers at the first required public hearing on the tentative Fiscal Year 2025 Budget for Oconee County Schools on Wednesday mostly asked questions.
Particularly focused on questions was the final speaker, Jeff Hood, who pointed out that the Fiscal Year 2020 General Fund Budget–the oldest available on the Oconee County Schools web site–shows projected interest income of $195,000.
When Courtney Bernardi, who handles economic development for Oconee County, finished her very upbeat report to the county commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday night, Commissioner Amrey Harden thanked Bernardi and her staff.
Bernardi had just reported that Costco has outperformed greatly its revenue estimates in its first year, that the Oconee Walmart is the fourth most profitable in the state, that a new tenant is expected soon for the empty Bed Bath & Beyond, and that IMI Industrial Services Group will have double its staff capacity at its new site near Bogart.
The Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday set aside the recommendation of the county planning staff and instead told the Board of Commissioners it should approve a rezone request for development of 3.4 acres on Moreland Way just north of the Watkinsville city limits.
The Commission made this recommendation after Justin Greer, speaking on behalf of property owner Richard Grayson, and Grayson himself, said that the project was a positive development for the neighborhood and had support of owners of the adjoining properties.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), in responding to comments received following its virtual Public Information Open House on March 22, confirmed that the current plans remain for a full interchange of SR 316 at Dials Mill Extension.
Those project plans may need to be revised, GDOT Environmental Administrator Eric Duff wrote in a letter dated May 20, but, if “no significant changes” are proposed, the project will proceed to right of way acquisition, final design, and construction based on current plans.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, Commissioner Mark Saxon, and School Board Member Michael Ransom beat back challenges in the Republican Party Primary on Tuesday.
Adam Hammond and Brock Toole won the Republican Party nominations for open posts on the Board of Education. Hammond won convincingly in a three-way race, negating the need for a runoff.
Kevin Olasanoye, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said last week he would be glad to help Oconee County Democrats decide how to deal with the three candidates who qualified for county offices but have no association with the party.
Olasanoye cautioned the group, however, that great care should be taken with the process.
Townley Family Partnership LLLP has filed suit against the Town of North High Shoals asking Oconee County Superior Court to reverse the Town’s decision on April 15 and grant Townley’s petition for deannexation of 175.8 acres from the city.
The suit contends that the decision by the Town Council “was an abuse of discretion, was not sustained by sufficient evidence, and contained legal errors.”
The Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday will get a rare recommendation from the county’s planning staff–that it deny a request for a rezone–as it reviews plans for development of 3.4 acres on Moreland Way just north of the Watkinsville city limits.
Pittman and Greer Engineering, on behalf of property owner Richard Grayson, wants to combine two parcels, one zoned Mobile Home District (M-H) and the other Agricultural Residential District (AR) , to create a single lot zoned Two-Family Residential District (R-2).
Early voting in Oconee County for the May 21 General Primary/Nonpartisan General Election picked up sharply in the final five days of voting, with 1,707 out of Oconee County’s 33,143 voters casting a ballot, or more than had voted in the previous 12 days of early voting.
The county Office of Elections and Voter Registration also has received 203 returned Absentee By Mail ballots.
Voters going to the polls in Oconee County on Tuesday, as well as those who already have participated in early voting, most likely have seen campaign signs around the county for Kalki Yalamanchili.
The signs say Yalamanchili is running for district attorney, though voters, when they see the ballot, do not find his name anywhere on it.
Yalamanchili is in the midst of a petition drive to get his name on the ballot in November as an Independent.
Republican State Rep. Marcus Wiedower had a very good April, raising $129,050 from the end of the legislative session early in the morning of March 29 to the April 30 filing deadline for campaign contributions.
That average of just more than $4,000 per day put him far ahead of his colleague Republican Rep. Houston Gaines, who raised $60,925 during that same period, and Republican Sen. Bill Cowsert, who reported raising only $2,750 in the days following the end of the legislative session.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday adopted its tentative Fiscal Year 2025 budget unanimously and without discussion.
The budget is based on $114.9 million in spending, up $8.9 million from the current fiscal year.
It also includes $116.6 in projected revenue, up from $106.1 million in the current budget.
Early voting in Oconee County for the May 21 General Primary/Nonpartisan General Election picked up just slightly in its second week, with 788 out of Oconee County’s 33,143 voters casting a ballot.
The county Office of Elections and Voter Registration has now received 102 returned Absentee By Mail Ballots.
The Oconee County Fiscal Year 2025 Proposed Budget, released to the public on Tuesday night, shows increased General Fund spending of $1.9 million over the original budget for the current fiscal year, but a drop in spending of $3.7 million from the budget as amended.
The General Fund Budget is balanced, with revenue and expenditures at $40.7 million.
The total County Budget, which includes the General Fund as well as Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, and Water Resources Enterprise Fund spending, will increase $1.8 million over the original Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
Oconee County Schools Superintendent Jason Branch is asking the Board of Education to adopt a tentative Fiscal Year 2025 budget on Monday that increases spending by $8.9 million over the current fiscal year.
Much of that increased spending results from dictates from the state and is covered by increased state revenue, the bulk of it for teacher pay raises.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night will review and almost certainly approve a concept plan for the future IMI Corporate Campus on Aiken Road in the Gateway Technology and Business Park on the edge of Bogart.
The Conceptual Site Plan shows an eight-building complex for IMI Industrial Services Group that includes a corporation office, a fabrication building, a machine shop, a stainless steel shop, and buildings for future expansion.
Only 635 of Oconee County’s 33,143 registered voters cast a ballot in the first six days of Advance In Person voting for the May 21 General Primary/Nonpartisan General Election.
The Oconee County Elections and Registration Office received and accepted another 34 Absentee By Mail ballots in the first week of early voting, meaning that only 2.0 percent of the county’s voters have cast a ballot to date.
Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Engineer Marvin Gavins said in late March that the Department had picked Dials Mill Extension over Dials Mill Road for its preferred full interchange at SR 316 in part because of the existence of a historic house on the northwest corner of Dials Mill Road and SR 316.
The owners of that property literally have removed that justification.
UCS Dials Mill Road LLC applied for and received a permit in the middle of January to demolish the historic home, and the site is now cleared of what was the Lee Daniel Farm homestead, built in 1910, according to county tax records.
In the March 12 Presidential Primary, Oconee County was sixth from the bottom among Georgia’s 159 counties in the percentage of Republican Party vote going to former President Donald Trump.
The only counties in the state ranking lower than Oconee County in terms of the percentage of Republican vote for Trump were Chatham, Cobb, Clarke, Fulton, and DeKalb, in that order.
