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.
When Daniell finished reviewing that list for Williams, Jeff Hood wanted an elaboration on two of those GDOT projects: the SR 316 interchange with Julian Drive, near where Hood lives, and the SR 316 interchange with McNutt Creek Road.
Daniell said no decision had been made on the design for the Julian Drive interchange, but that the McNutt Creek Road exchange is set to be a right-in, right-out design with no cross traffic, rather than a full interchange, as had been originally proposed.
“Wasn’t that kind of an issue with the Georgia State Patrol coming over there?” Hood asked about the McNutt Creek Road interchange.
Daniell said that the Department of Driver Services, the Georgia State Patrol, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation all are planning to move to the 13.4-acre parcel on McNutt Creek Road south of SR 316 that the county donated to the state.
With the right-in, right-out design currently planned, west-bound traffic wanting to reach those three services will have to travel past McNutt Creek Road, exit at the full interchange at Dials Mill Extension, and circle back to the state offices.
“Nobody's happy about that,” Daniell said of the GDOT proposed right-in, right-out design. He left it at that.
Williams and Hood were two of the six citizens who spoke on a variety of topics, most dealing with transportation, at the hour-long Town Hall meeting held at the county’s Administrative Building north of Watkinsville.
Initial Presentation
Daniell often gives some introductory comments at the beginning of the quarterly Town Hall meetings.
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| Pritchard Before Board 1/29/2025 |
At the meeting on Jan. 29, Daniell invited Keep Oconee County Beautiful Commission (KOCBC) Director Cindy Pritchard to talk about a six-year-long project to remove Autumn Olive, or Elaeagnus, an invasive deciduous shrub native to Asia, from the county’s Heritage Park.
Pritchard said one day “a woman came up to me and said there's a terrible invasive at Heritage Park,” the 364-acre park on U.S. 441 south of Farmington, and the county “needs to do something about that.”
The woman told Pritchard the invasive “was impeding the trails and beginning to interfere with safe horse riding.”
That conversation led to a six-year program involving a partnership between Athens Land Trust, Oconee County Parks and Recreation Department, KOCBC, Kel-Mac Saddle Club, and the Parks Foundation, to identify and remove the invasive species.
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| Click To Enlarge |
Pritchard said “upwards of 100 acres” of the park had been invaded by the Autumn Olive when the project started. Little remains at present.
“Invasives are--well I mean they're not native,” Pritchard said, “so what happens is there's not a native caterpillar to them, and so when birds nest there's no caterpillars for them to feed the babies.”
“So what happens is you're creating a food desert for the birds and other wildlife,” she said. “The babies may be born but they struggle to make it--they struggle to live--because the birds are having to fly farther and farther” to find food.
“We have noticed over the years (of the program) the sounds of the birds have returned deep in the woods in Heritage Park,” she said. “And it really is a beautiful thing.”
The final two days for volunteer work are Feb. 11 and 25, and Pritchard said volunteers are still needed. Interested persons should register in advance at the Parks and Recreation Department site for Heritage Park.
First Citizen Comments
Victoria Cruz, who has been a frequent speakers at county meetings, was the first to come forward to speak when Pritchard had finished, and she said “I'm back again about our elections.”
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| Cruz Before Board 1/29/2025 |
“Just because the results changed from four years ago in terms of party,” she said. “I don't think it means anything has been corrected.”
Daniell does not restrict the amount of time those who come forward can speak, and Cruz remained at the podium for 10 minutes, ending with a request that the county do whatever it can to encourage the Secretary of State to adopt paper ballots for upcoming elections.
Bill Cray, who spoke next, asked the county not to opt out of the statewide floating homestead exemption approved by voters in November. House Bill 581 spells out how the exemption works and allows governing bodies to opt out of the exemption.
Daniell told Cray “We are not opting out. We had a strategic planning meeting this morning, reviewed how the bill works, and there's no consensus to move forward and opt out. So we will not be opting out of House Bill 581.”
Jeanne Barsanti, who followed Cray, thanked the commissioners for that decision.
“That really means a lot to me as a taxpayer,” she said. “And I thank you for that.”
Request For Transportation Update
Williams followed with his request for an update on transportation projects in the county.
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| Williams Before Board 1/29/2025 |
Daniell said that construction on the bundle of interchanges at SR 316 at Jimmy Daniell Road, Virgil Langford Road, and the Oconee Connector will begin this year, with completion in 2028.
Construction on the four-laning of U.S. 441from the Morgan County line to Bishop is scheduled to start in 2028, he said.
No dates have been set for a U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop, he said, but “hopefully we will get some conversation started soon.”
GDOT has said that construction of a full interchange at Dials Mill Extension also is scheduled for this year, Daniell said.
Daniell said “our last view” of design for McNutts Creek Road “was right-in, right- out.” The schedule for right away acquisition is 2026 and 2027, he said.
The existing intersection of Mars Hill Road at SR “will be cul-de-saced” in 2030, Daniell said, and construction of an as yet undetermined type of intersection at Julian Drive also is scheduled for 2030.
“There's a project on the books at SR 316 at the Georgia 10 Loop,” Daniell said. “That interchange there at Waffle House–that's scheduled to be totally rebuilt. They're showing design will start on that in 2030.”
Daniell said design work is underway for the SR 15 bypass of Watkinsville, with construction sometime between 2028 and 2051,
Design of a new interchange of U.S. 441 with Experiment Station Road is scheduled in 2047, Daniell said. “So that's way, way out.”
Also planned but not yet scheduled is an upgrade of Experiment Station Road from the U.S. 41 bypass to Main Street in Watkinsville, he said.
Daniell said he doesn’t have a firm date on completion of the current work on Experiment Station Road from Butler’s Crossing to the U.S. 441 interchange.
Officially, work is to be completed by the third quarter of this year, he said.
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| Daniell 1/29/2025 |
U.S 78 from Walton County to Clarke County will be paved this year, Daniell said. That is the last of the projects on his list to be funded fully by GDOT, he said.
Construction of a roundabout at SR 53 (Hog Mountain Road) and Snows Mill Road/Rocky Branch Road will start this year, and construction of a roundabout at SR 53 and Malcom Bridge Road/Rays Church Road is expected to start next year, he said.
Construction of a new bridge over Barber Creek on Clottfelter Road is expected to start this year as well, he said.
These are joint county and GDOT projects, he said.
“We have a project on the books to connect Bishop Farms (Road) North to Bishop Farms (Road) South,” Daniell said. “That's kind of been put on hold. I don't think that project will say stay at the same scope. So that'll probably drop off here (the list).”
The county, using its own funds, is building a roundabout at Snows Mill Road and Lane Creek Road, he said, with construction to start this year.
A roundabout at New High Shoals Road at Union Church Road also should start this year, he said.
Three other roundabouts, at Astondale Road and Colham Ferry Road, at Cole Springs Road at Snows Mill Road and Aycock Road, and Moore’s Ford Road at Lane Creek Road, also are in design stage, he said.
Hog Mountain Road Multi-Use Path
Dan Magee, said the “trail--sidewalk--on Hog Mountain (Road), it's great. Love it. I'm going to be out there running, walking, whatever.”
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| Magee Before Board 1/29/2025 |
Magee asked if there was going to be a buffer between the multi-use path and the roadway, such bushes or “anything to kind of separate older pedestrians, runners, walkers like me from the street while kids are on their phones, driving down that road.”
“You're one of the probably five people that have said anything positive about that project,” Daniell said. “It's been an interesting endeavor. It's always been talked about in comprehensive plans about walkability and being healthy.”
“We developed the trail master plan, which had input from citizens and the rec board,” he added. “We voted on that plan in this room in an open meeting.”
“We started design, authorized design, and construction,” he said. “Not a single comment, and I told somebody today that of all my years in politics, I've never been chewed out as much about anything other than that.”
“So what I'm telling people is, message received,” Daniell said.
He said there was not sufficient right of way for the additional buffer Magee requested. “What you see is what we’ve got,” he said.
Magee then turned to his complaint about the construction on Experiment Station Road, saying the contractor, ER Snell, has not cleaned up after its construction and has been unfriendly to citizens of Magee’s Loch Lomond neighborhood.
Magee asked Daniell to register the complaint of his neighborhood to the contractor.
Hood On Julian Drive, McNutt Creek Road
Hood asked Daniell to confirm that GDOT does not plan to close all access to Julian Drive from SR 316, as had been planned in the past.
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| Hood Before Board 1/29/2025 |
“We had a predesign meeting and they threw that out there,” Daniell said, of the plan to close access. “We had immediate comment that that wasn't going to work,” he said.
Hood then turned to the proposed right-in, right-out intersection of SR 316 and McNutt Creek Road.
“That is kind of an issue with the Georgia State Patrol coming over there,” Hood said. “I mean they weren't happy about that, right?”
“Nobody's happy about that,” Daniell responded.
The Department of Driver Services “had started their design process,” Daniell said.
“Then State Patrol decided to come out,” Daniell said, “And now GBI is coming. With that many agencies, they decided to turn the project over to the State Building Authority.”
“So they're working on design, and figuring out the cost share, and that type of thing,” Daniell said.
State Rep. Houston Gaines confirmed in an email on Feb. 7 that an additional $14.6 million was approved the previous day for the project as part of the amended budget for the current fiscal year.
Update On Tennis Courts
When no one came forward with an additional question, Daniell provided an update on parks and recreation project, saying that design work for up to 16 additional tennis courts at Oconee Veterans Park is 90 percent completed.
Pricing will determine how many of those courts can be built, he said.
Design work also is 90 percent completed for upgrades to the covered show area and surrounding facilities at Heritage Park, he said. For Heritage Park, the design process is at 90 percent.
Williams then asked Daniel if he could provide any update on the closing of the B&T Food Fresh Market in Butler’s Crossing.
Daniell said he was aware of a possible ownership change but had no details.
The Oconee Enterprise reported in its Jan. 30 edition that part of the land in the shopping center where the B&T Food Fresh Market in Butler’s Crossing is located is changing hands and that the Market is closing.
According to county tax records on qpublic, Bell’s Food Market Inc. sold 3.7 acres to Southeastern Property Development LLC in October of 2023. That acreage includes part, but not all, of the building that houses the grocery store.
Another 2.6 acres in two separate parcels are owned by Oconee Plaza Partners LLC, according to those records.
The Bean Team owns a separate 0.5-acre parcel that houses Dunkin, and PB&J Squared LLC owns another 1.14 acres where the Ace Hardware is located.
The Bank of Georgia owns 1.8 acres at the corner of Hog Mountain Road and Experiment Station Road.
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County YouTube Channel.
I attended the meeting and recorded my own video. The still images above are from my video. The audio is better on the county’s YouTube channel, so I did not upload my own video.
Pritchard began her presentation at 0.54 in the county video.
Cruz came to the podium at 13.59.
Daniell gave his overview of transportation projects, in response to the question from Williams, at 29:15 in the video.
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