Twenty eight people, one with a dog on a leash, turned out around noon on Friday at the intersection of the Oconee Connector and Parkway Boulevard to show their appreciation to Costco, which has been steadfast in its support of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program.
The rally, which began at 11:30 a.m outside Epps Bridge Centre and lasted an hour, resulted from the initiative of Pam Davis of the Oconee County Democrats and Karen Covi of Indivisible 10.
Oconee County resident Suzannah Heimel has filed a motion asking Georgia Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren to recuse herself from the Court’s dismissal of Heimel’s appeal of a lower court decision regarding an action of the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration last August.
The state Supreme Court on Feb. 18 dismissed Heimel’s appeal of an Oct. 24 ruling by Oconee County Superior Court Chief Judge Lisa Lott denying Heimel’s request for a writ of mandamus directed at the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration.
Oconee County Republican Party Vice Chairman Colby Baker opened the party’s meeting on Monday with a review of the schedule for the upcoming county, district, and state conventions.
Guest speaker Jason Thompson, one of three Georgia members of the Republican National Committee, took the cue.
Oconee County experienced two major spills in the last nine months on its major force main sewer line servicing the county’s commercial hub due to problems during installation of the pipe joints or with the pipe itself, county leaders now believe.
The two breaks occurred about 100 yards apart at joints on the line, which runs along an unnamed tributary to McNutt Creek that separates Tanglebrook subdivision and the Pinewood Estates South mobile home park.
Kalki Yalamanchili, who took over as Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney in January, had a clear message for Oconee County Democrats when he met with them last week.
The staffing problems he confronted when he assumed his job were worse than he had anticipated, he said.
About 100 people turned out at the front entrance to the historic William Daniell House off Daniells Bridge Road on Saturday morning to help Oconee County celebrate its 150th Birthday.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, a descendant of William Daniell, described as an American Revolutionary Patriot, was present to read a proclamation of the Board of Commissioners wishing “our community the very best and happiest birthday.”
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) last week released the list of 426 schools in the state that fall into the bottom quartile on its weighted index of scores from the state’s College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI).
None of Oconee County’s 12 schools were on the list of “failed” schools, but several schools in neighboring districts were.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously dismissed Suzannah Heimel’s appeal of the Oconee County Superior Court ruling just before the Nov. 5 election denying Heimel’s request for a writ of mandamus.
Heimel had asked Oconee County Superior Court Chief Judge Lisa Lott to force Oconee County to hold a hearing on a challenge filed by Victoria Cruz to the registration of 228 persons.
Frank Bishop’s request to be allowed to add an oil change shop and car wash next door to Costco in Epps Bridge Centre ran into some opposition at the Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday night.
Only one citizen spoke in opposition to the request by Bishop for an amendment to the concept plan and allowed uses for a 2.5 acre outlot in Epps Bridge Centre II to accommodate the oil change shop and car wash.
The Oconee County Planning Commission will be asked on Monday night to give its approval to a rezone request for a 107 room hotel on Parkway Boulevard west of the Piedmont Healthcare Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital.
The plan is to carve 3.14 acres out of a 28.16 acre parcel currently zoned AG (Agricultural). The request is to rezone that 3.14 acre parcel B-2 (Highway Business) for the hotel.
Oconee County on Friday morning (Feb. 14) reported a major spill of untreated sewage into an unnamed tributary just south of where it flows under Tanglebrook Drive at the entrance to Tanglebrook subdivision and then into McNutt Creek.
The spill resulted from a break in the 12 inch force main that follows the tributary, according to the notification from the county.
Oconee County’s three representatives in the Georgia General Assembly took in $86,040 in campaign contributions in the first days of the year leading up to the opening of the legislative session on Jan. 13, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.
Sen. Bill Cowsert received $42,775 from contributors. Rep. Houston Gaines received $27,065. Rep. Marcus Wiedower took in $16,200.
Oconee County Schools received $1.3 million in revenue from the Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) for December 2024 collections, the largest amount received in the two years the 1 percent tax has been in place.
The December 2024 collections were up just less than 9 percent from the $1.2 million intake for December of 2023 and represents the eighth month in a row that collections have been more than $1 million.
When former State Rep. Chuck Williams asked Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell at the Town Hall Meeting late last month to provide an overview of transportation projects in the county, Daniell was happy and ready to respond.
Daniell routinely gives road work updates at Town Hall meetings, and earlier that day at a planning session with other commissioners he had gone over the long list of projects funded fully by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), funded jointly with GDOT, and funded by the county alone.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, in a 3 to 2 vote on Thursday night, reduced the number of precincts in the county from eight to four, with the largest new precinct stretching from the Greene County line in the south to the Clarke County line in the north.
Ten citizens spoke at the consolidation hearing held before the vote, with all of them in opposition to the change.
Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services for Oconee County Schools, told the Board of Education on Monday that Sheriff James Hale currently is working to fill the positions created by an Agreement approved on Jan. 29 to place a deputy in each of the county’s 12 schools.
Yancey, in his update to the Board, gave no time line for staffing of the school resource officer program within the Sheriff’s Office created by the Agreement signed by Hale and the chairs of the School Board and the Board of Commissioners at the end of the joint meeting on the 29th.
The Oconee County Board of Education, in a 4 to 1 vote Monday evening, passed a resolution to opt out of the statewide homestead exemption approved by voters in November to rein in the impact of increases in assessments on property taxes.
The Board voted in its regular work session following the third of the required public hearings two hours earlier, with only Post 4 Board Member Adam Hammond voting against the decision.
Oconee County is expecting to collect $20 million more than budgeted when it asked voters to approve the current Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) in November of 2020, and commissioners at their strategic planning meeting on Wednesday discussed how to allocate the funds.
At the top of the list is a plan to pay off the General Obligation Bond voters approved in 2002 for purchase of land and development of what is now Oconee Veterans Park.
Four citizens spoke at the second public hearing on Tuesday (Jan. 28) on the Oconee County School Board’s announced intent to opt out of the statewide floating homestead exemption, all telling the Board they want the exemption.
Two of the citizens emphasized that the clear majority of Oconee County voters (64.3 percent) had approved a Constitutional Amendment in the Nov. 5 election allowing for the new homestead exemption.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, the Board of Education, and Sheriff James Hale came together on Wednesday to establish a 16-person division within the Sheriff’s Office to provide School Resource Officers (SROs) in each of the county’s 12 schools.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed at the end of the meeting was the result of discussions among the three entities that began immediately after the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County that left two students and two teachers dead and seven others injured.
