Oconee County Commissioners on Tuesday night reappointed three current members of the Oconee County Library Board and filled two other vacancies with a housewife and community volunteer and with a retired university education professor.
Forty-seven citizens had applied for the five openings, and the commissioners passed over people who have been vocal critics of the Oconee County Library and its programming as well as those closely associated with the library.
The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday also gave final approval to changes in the county’s alcoholic beverage ordinance after the second hearing on the revisions. No citizen has spoken in favor of or opposed to the changes at either of the two hearings held by the Board
The Board also gave approval to a series of rezone requests, including one for a 90-room hotel and large recreational facility on Plaza Parkway across from Costco.
Clay Pilgrim from Rushton, an accounting and business advising firm, gave a summary of its Fiscal Year 2024 Audit of the county, telling the Commissioners that its “unmodified opinion” is that the county’s “financial statements present fairly...the financial position” of the county.
Oconee County Finance Director Melissa Braswell, in her Financial Update for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2025, said revenue and expenditures are as expected, with sales tax revenues exceeding those of the same period a year ago.
Citizen Appointments To Library Board
The Board of Commissioners went into executive session at the end of its agenda-setting meeting on Nov. 26 to consider personnel matters. On Tuesday, it announced its citizens appointments to four different committees.
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| Commissioners Chuck Horton, Daniell, Amrey Harden, Mark Saxon (Left to Right) Approving Library Board Appointments 12/3/2024 |
The Board appointed incumbents Angela Moss-Hill, Frederick Lutz, and Daphne Norton to second five-year terms.
Norton had been selected vice-chair of the 12-member Library Board at its meeting on Oct. 14, and Lutz had been re-elected as secretary.
The commissioners appointed Kelly Hansford to a full five year term on the Board, expiring on Dec. 31 of 2029, and Wanda Stitt Gohdes to a vacated term running to December 31 of 2026.
Hansford identified herself as a “housewife and volunteer” with a bachelor’s degree in economics and said she had “fond memories growing up using the library, taking children there, and doing research there.” She wrote that she “feels the library is a great resource that she would like to donate time to.”
Stitt Gohdes identified herself as a “retired college professor” with bachelor’s master’s, and doctoral degrees in business education. She said she is chair of the Oconee Area Resource Council Board, has worked in the University of Georgia College of Education for 24 years, is a 34 year resident of the county, and “believes the library is a precious resource for the whole county.”
The Board passed over the applications of Victoria Cruz, Stephen Aleshire, and Julie Mauck, who have criticized the Oconee County Library for how it handles materials they have deemed inappropriate for children and young adults.
Mauck, who heads the Oconee County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, wrote that if appointed she “would help keep the community library safe for all children and all families.”
The Board also passed over Penny Mills, former member of the Library Board who, in retirement, had worked in the Bogart Library as a Library Assistant, and Robert Alan Hickerson, who has been president of Friends of the Oconee County Library for 14 years.
Other Citizen Committees
The Board of Commissioners reappointed James Thad Padgett, a business owner, to the Farmland Preservation Ranking Committee from among the five applicants for the two openings on the Committee.
The commissioners selected Hunter Grayson, a cattle producer, as a new member of the Committee.
Six citizens applied for two openings on the Board of Health.
Michael Martin, retired, will serve a six-year term, and Amy Mistretta, an epidemiologist, will fill a vacated position, with her term ending on Dec. 31, 2026.
The Board appointed Kirk Shook to serve an open and continuing position on the MACORTS Policy Committee. MACORTS is the metropolitan transportation planning organization for the area.
Shook, one of two applicants for the position, listed his occupation as executive director. He is the Republican Party appointee to the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration.
Financial Reports
The report by Pilgrim on the Fiscal Year 2024 Audit was the first substantive item on the agenda on Tuesday night.
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| Pilgrim 12/3/2024 |
Pilgrim began by thanking the “team here at Oconee County. We ask a lot of questions. We request a lot of documentation. We bother them a lot...They all do it quickly and do it with a smile.”
“Our responsibilities are to express an opinion on these financial statements,” he said. “These financial statements are the responsibility of the county’s management.”
“I am pleased to present that we have an unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements for Fiscal Year 2024.”
Pilgrim reviewed the statements on the county’s General Fund, its Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax Fund, and its Water and Sewer Fund, as well as other funds of the county, over the 12 months leading up to June 30, of 2024.
Braswell, in her report late in the meeting, reviewed the revenue and spending over the first three months of Fiscal year 2025, July, August, and September.
Braswell said the county has collected $4.5 million of the anticipated $40.8 million in General Fund revenues to date, or just less than 11 percent, which “is exactly where we would anticipate being.” Property taxes were not due until Nov. 15.
Expenditures are at 20.0 percent, she said.
Braswell said Local Option Sales Tax revenue is up $2.8 million over the first three months of Fiscal Year 2024, Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue is up $3.1 million over last year, and Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Tax revenue is up $2.9 million from July, August, and September of last year.
“So our sales taxes are trending just slightly better than we had planned,” she said. “I don’t have any reason to think that would change in the near future but we are watching those on a regular basis.”
Alcohol Ordinance
County Attorney Daniel Haygood reviewed the changes in the county’s Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting
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| Haygood, County Administrator Justin Kirouac 12/3/2024 |
At present, the granting of licenses is administered by County Clerk Holly Stephenson, and the revised ordinance moves that responsibility to the county’s Department of Planning and Code Enforcement.
Haygood labeled this “a major change in the ordinance.”
The proposed expansion of the service area will allow for alcohol sales in the strip shopping center now under construction on Malcom Bridge Road opposite Malcom Bridge Middle School.
The revised service area map creates a service area island at The Village At Malcom Bridge.
The new ordinance allows for brew-pubs, allows for restaurants serving alcohol within grocery stores, and allows restaurants in cinemas to serve alcohol in all theaters in its facility rather than only in restricted ones, as is required in the current ordinance.
The ordinance includes a “significant beefing up of reporting and audit provisions,” Haygood said. The Planning and Code Enforcement or Finance Department can use these to check on payment of taxes or whether the definition of a restaurant is being followed, he said.
No commissioners had any comments on Haygood’s presentation, and no citizens came forward to speaking when offered the opportunity by Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell.
Zoning
The Board on Tuesday approved a request from White Oak Development Partners of Atlanta to rezone a 14.3-acre parcel on Plaza Parkway currently owned by St. Mary’s Highland Hills Inc. from R-3 (Multiple-Family Residential District) to B-2 (Highway Business District).
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| Greer Before Commission 12/3/2024 |
White Oak Development Partners is proposing to create two lots, one for a 15,000 square foot, 90-room hotel and the other for a 72,000 square foot exercise facility with an outdoor pool and pickleball and tennis courts.
Justin Greer, of Pittman and Greer Engineering, representing White Oaks, described the exercise facility on Tuesday as a “high end indoor/outdoor health fitness club” that will include an outdoor lap pool, pickleball and tennis courts, and indoor workout floors, fitness studios, personal training services, and cardiac group classes.
Greer called the hotel a “business hotel” but gave no further details.
The Board also approved a rezone of 0.68 acres at 1001 Ruth Jackson Road from Agriculture to Office Institutional Profession District for an office for Armor Homes, a local construction company.
The Board turned down a hardship variance request from Elizabeth Price Dolvin Foundation LLC to be allowed to operate a short-term rental on 56.1 acres on Greensboro Highway (SR 15) just east of Elder Mill Road with an off-site property manager.
Board members expressed opposition to changing the county’s restrictions on short-term rentals.
The Board approved a hardship variance request by Hunter and Debra Hargrave to reduce the minimum required rear and side setbacks for a storage shed on 0.6 acres at 1230 Oconee Forest Drive.
Commissioners approved a hardship variance request from Michael and Theresa Heath to reduce the minimum required rear setback for 1.076 acres located at 1381 Hickory Hill Drive and allow a guest house in the side yard of that property.
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County YouTube Channel. The still shots above are from video I shot of the meeting.
The meeting begins at 5:24 in the video.
Pilgrim begins his report to the Board at 6:48 in the video.
Haygood began his presentation on the Alcohol Beverage Ordinance at 29:33 in the video.
Zoning cases begin at 34:42 in the video.
Braswell made her report at 1:18:28 in the video.
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