Oconee Commissioners Tentatively Agree To Increase Spending For Design Work For Bear Creek Treatment Plant Expansion

***Also Agree To Help Athens-Clarke With Elevator Problem***

Oconee County Commissioners on Tuesday night, in a short agenda-setting meeting, tentatively agreed to spend an additional $116,311 to cover increased design service costs for the Bear Creek Water Treatment Plant expansion.

The initial estimated cost for the design services, approved by the Board in November of last year, had been $2,298,279, but in May the contract cost increased to $2,786,779, and Oconee County’s portion of the cost increase is 23.8 percent, bringing the total cost to the county to $663,532.

Oconee Superior Court Judge Dismisses Request By Townley Family Partnership For A Review Of North High Shoals Denial Of Deannexation

***Says Town Acted Legislatively***

Oconee County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard has rejected the request by Townley Family Partnership LLLP for a review of the decision by North High Shoals Council to deny the Townley petition to deannex 175.8 acres from the city.

Haggard ordered that the Council’s ordinance passed on April 15, 2024, prohibiting the deannexation of any parcel of land in the Town exceeding 15 acres “should be affirmed.”

Disparities Between Metro Atlanta And Rest Of State Creating Challenges For Georgia, Data Analyst Says

***Library Was Venue***

Data analyst and blogger Charles Hayslett divides the state of Georgia into two parts that he calls Atlanna and Notlanna, and he says the two parts differ in terms of population, population health, economics, educational attainment, and politics.

The gap between the two parts of the state is large, Hayslett said, with Atlanna generally doing well and Notlanna not.

Oconee County Sheriff Says Hiring And Training School Resource Officers Is Big Challenge Facing Oconee County Schools

***Five Oconee County Schools Students Charged With Felonies***

Oconee County Schools and the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office have been talking about installing school resource officers in the system’s schools for 10 years and intensely for the last five years, Sheriff James Hall said at the meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party on Monday night.

As a result, he said, now that the Board of Education has voted to develop an agreement with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office to install deputies in the schools, it should be possible to move forward with those plans quickly.

Minutes Of Oconee County School Board Aug. 12 Meeting Make No Mention Of Conflict With Newspaper Publishers

***Video Also Edited To Eliminate Exchange***

Officially, the four-minute confrontation between the Oconee County Board of Education and the co-publishers of The Oconee Enterprise at the Board meeting on Aug. 12 didn’t happen.

At its meeting on last Monday, the Board approved minutes of that meeting that made no mention of the conflict, which resulted in Amanda and Michael Prochaska being escorted out of the room by school administrators and sheriff deputies.

Home Owner Tells Oconee County Planning Commission About Problems With Unfinished House, Existing But Unusable Driveway

***Commission Sympathetic, But Votes Against Request***

Kristin Gibson appeared before the Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday evening asking for help with problems she and her husband have with the 2.5 acre parcel on which their home sits at 1030 Garrett Road in the northwest of the county.

After the purchase of their home and the land in May of 2022, Gibson said, they discovered that no building permits had been issued for the partially completed guest house on the rear of their property.

Revenue In Fiscal Year 2024 For Oconee County Schools Greatly Exceeded Budget Projections; Spending Also More Than Budgeted

***Spending On Instructional Support Center Stands at $15.4 Million***

Oconee County Schools took in $7.8 million more in revenue than projected in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the Year-To-Date Budget Report for June 30 released to the Board of Education at its meeting on Monday.

The biggest gain in revenue over budgeted amount was for investment income, which totaled $2.7 million. The Board had budgeted investment income of only $50,000.

Democratic Candidate For Oconee County School Board Says Her Focus Is On Increasing Board Transparency

***Candidates For State Representative, DA, Also Speak***

Katie Green, seeking to fill open Post 5 on the Oconee County Board of Education, asked those present at the Democratic Party meeting last month if they had ever attended a Board meeting.

“They're really weird,” Green said. “The people who sign up to speak for three minutes, they get their three minutes to speak, and then there's just silence.”

Oconee County School Board Authorizes Superintendent, Sheriff To Reach Agreement To Put Resource Officers In All 14 Schools

***Decision Follows Packed Meeting***

Well more than 100 people filled the seats and the isles of the Board room at the Oconee County Schools new Instructional Support Center on Monday night to make sure the Board got the message that they wanted action following the Sept. 4 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County.

Twenty of those present spoke, with most calling explicitly for the placement of school resource officers in each of Oconee County’s 12 schools.

Republican Candidates For Oconee County School Board Face Questions About Board Transparency, Other Issues, at Party Meeting

***State School Superintendent Also Speaks***

Questioners of the three Republican Party candidates for the Oconee County School Board raised concerns at the party’s meeting last month about Board responsiveness to citizen input, transparency, and conflicts of interest.

Michael Ransom, currently Post 5 Member of the Board who is seeking to be elected Post 1 Board Chair, said he believes the Board and school administrators do respond to citizens and the Board is transparent in its actions.

Suit Filed Against Oconee County Elections And Registration Board Asks Court To Halt Voter Registration

***Candidate On November Ballot Filed Suit***

Suzannah Heimel, who is running for Post 1 on the Board of Commissioners in November, has filed suit in Oconee County Superior Court asking the Court to force the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration to stop registering voters.

Heimel said she wants to block registration of voters until the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration holds hearings on 228 voters whose registration was challenged in July.

Oconee County School Board To Vote To Place School Resource Officers In All 12 Schools

***Collaboration Sought With Sheriff’s Office***

The Oconee County Board of Education next week will be asked to approve discussions with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office designed to put a resource officer in each of the 12 Oconee County Schools.

A resource officer has been in each of those schools since the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last Wednesday, according to Sheriff James Hale.

Oconee School Board Struggles To Deal With Consequences Of Its Decision To Hold Tax Hearings Without Proper Notification

***State Department Of Revenue Required Redo***

The Oconee County Board of Education’s decision in June to hold hearings on its proposed 2.27 percent property tax increase without giving proper public notification has come back to haunt it.

Georgia Code is unambiguous in specifying that governing authorities can hold hearings on any planned tax increase no sooner than seven days after those hearings are advertised in the local legal organ so that citizens have a chance to offer comment.