The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is considering allowing its contractor to close the Oconee Connector interchange with SR 316 for 45 days during reconstruction of that intersection.
Construction of the three-interchange bundle consisting of Jimmy Daniell Road, Virgil Langford Road, and the Connector is expected to begin later this year with the Virgil Langford Road flyover of SR 316.
The widening of Experiment Station Road from Butler’s Crossing to the U.S. 441 Bypass is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of the year.
Even though all four of the county’s cities as well as the county itself decided not to opt out of the floating homestead exemption, there is no interest at present among those five governing bodies in enacting an allowed additional 1 percent Local Option Sales Tax.
The Sheriff’s Office already has been able to hire five deputies to replace those assigned as School Resource Officers as part of a collaborative program with the Oconee County School Board, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Board of Commissioners.
The County issued 212 new residential building permits last year, up by 34 from the year before.
These were some of the announcements Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniel made in his State of County address at the Civic Center on Wednesday (March 12).
“The county is strong, and our future is bright,” Daniell said in closing his comments.
Connector
Daniell’s comment about the possibility of a complete closure of the Oconee Connector intersection with SR 316, one of the busiest and most congested in the county, came about 20 minutes into his presentation and was a surprise.
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During a virtual Public Information Open House in June of 2022, Chris Edmondson, a GDOT consultant, said explicitly that during construction, two lanes of traffic in each direction will be maintained on the Oconee Connector. SR 316 also will remain open.
At that 2022 meeting, GDOT officials said “there is a potential need for a detour during construction” of the Oconee Connector interchange that would last 45 days, but that detour only involved closing of the eastbound exit of SR 316 onto the Connector.
That detour of the eastbound exit is still showing on the GDOT web site.
Daniell, in an email the day after the State of the County address, said “There was discussion at a meeting I attended that talked about closing Oconee Connector at 316 for 45 days.”
“The final plans have not been reviewed or approved by GDOT,” he continued. “Until the final plan is released, a possibility exist the intersection will remain open.”
“I will continue to prepare everyone for the most difficult scenario,” he said.
The State of the County address was hosted by the Oconee Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President Courtney Bernardi presided.
Revenue And Spending
Daniell began his comments to the more than 100 assembled at the Civic Center with an overview of the county budget.
His second slide, listing expenditures, showed $865,173 for the county’s Property Appraisal Office and $812,220 for the County Tax Commissioner, and Daniell noted that “we share between the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners” the revenues these two offices generate.
In fact, for the unincorporated parts of the county, 71.9 percent of the revenue goes to Oconee County Schools, based on the millage rates (14.25 for schools, and 5.574 for the county). That school percentage is lower in the county’s four cities, but it never falls lower than the 62.3 percent, the amount in Watkinsville.
Daniell said back in Fiscal Year 2024, when the county Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education came to an agreement on joint use of sports facilities, the county dropped the percentage rate it charged the Board of Education for collecting taxes from 2.5 percent to 2 percent.
“Between FY 24 and so far in FY 25, that's kept $500,000 in the School Board’s coffers,” Daniell said.
School Board members, minus Board Chair Michael Ransom, were seated at the first table in front of Daniell as he spoke, and Daniell had introduced each of those four Board Members when he began his talk.
Increased Assessments
Daniell said the county has rolled back its millage rate by 34 percent over the last four years, but “even with that we’ve had some property owners that were receiving tax increases last year.”
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He mentioned a 61-year-old woman with a 1,200-square foot home built in 1984 “and despite our rollback, her assessment went up 27.6 percent in one year. So she hasn’t received a decrease despite our millage rollback.”
“Hence we have House Bill 581, which passed both houses (of the General Assembly) with more than the 2/3rds required majority. The bill was signed by the Governor. There was a referendum in November, with 63 percent passage statewide and also 64 percent passage in Oconee County with 86 percent turnout.”
House Bill 581 created a Floating Homestead Exemption that limits the taxable amount of the increase of the assessed value of homestead properties to the inflation rate, calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban areas.
Floating Homestead Exemption
The year 2024 is the base year for the floating exemption calculations, Daniell said, and the Department of Revenue will not calculate an inflation rate for 2025, so the assessed value will remain the same in 2025 as it was in 2024.
The county has 14,100 single family homes, Daniell said, with between 9,200 and 9,300 of those homesteaded.
Daniell said the county could have opted out of the floating homestead exemption, and the Board of Commissioners did discuss the option.
“Based on the sentiments of our citizens, and also we looked at what the actual impact of what our services would be had this Bill been in place before,” he said. “We looked at our unrestricted fund balance and also at the stewardship of our millage rate, so we decided not to opt out.”
Daniell said all four of the county’s cities reached the same conclusion, allowing the county to add an additional 1 percent sales tax, bringing it to 9 cents on the dollar.
“There is no plan at all right now, over the next few years even, to talk about this option,” he said. “But it is an option.”
If the county were to do that in the future, “each dollar collected will apply to a reduction in your millage rate. So that will be another four or five hundred dollars in saving on the property tax if we decide to head in that direction.”
The Board of Education has decided to opt out of the floating homestead exemption, meaning that the Tax Commissioner will calculate two different tax digests for homesteaded properties, one without the floating homestead exemption for the much higher school property tax rate and another with the exemption for the lower county property tax rate.
School Resource Officer (SRO) Program
“As you all know,” Daniell told the gathering, September 4th, 2024 was the shooting at Apalachee (High) School.”
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“I got a call from Sheriff (James) Hale the next day, Sept. 5th, talking about the SRO program, what he thought he needed to move forward to put deputies in 12 schools,” Daniell said.
The county is responsible for the budget of the Sheriff’s Office.
“That number was 16 deputies,” Daniell said. “This is more than just a security guard type situation.”
“On Jan. 29th of this year,” Daniell continued, “I think was the first ever business meeting of the Board of Education and Board of Commissioners. We adopted an agreement for a School Resource Officer Program.”
“I want to say that this agreement would not be in place if it had not been for the hard work and involvement and negotiations going on direct between the Board of Commissioners and Board of Education.”
Daniell then singled out and thanked individually members of both boards.
Program Update
“We’re going to have one deputy in each of the 12 schools,” Daniell said.
Sheriff Hale was able to begin recruitment upon passage of the agreement, and five of his deputies have been moved to the SRO program, according to Daniell.
Hale also has been able to replace those deputies with new hires into the Sheriff’s Office, Daniell said.
“The Board of Education will reimburse 90 percent of the program costs,” Daniell continued.
For a full fiscal year, based on current pay, annual cost of the program is $2,482,563, meaning the cost to Oconee County Schools is $2,234,307. For the remainder of the current school and Fiscal Year, cost to Oconee County Schools is fixed at $1,391,282.
On Dec. 9, the Board of Education approved a Memorandum of Understanding and sent it to the Sheriff’s Office and the Board of Commissioners to provide one SROs for the system’s two high schools this year and one deputy to each of the systems 12 schools next school year.
That memorandum left unspecified the amount of money Oconee County Schools would provide to cover the costs of the SRS, but earlier documents circulated to the School Board by School Superintendent Jason Branch's staff had called for Hale to hire 12 SROs at a cost to Oconee County Schools of between $375,233 and $557,579 per school year.
At the December meeting, and again at its meeting on Jan. 13, Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services at Oconee County Schools, told the Board he was exploring the option of creating a school police force separate from the Sheriff’s Office.
Oconee County Schools Superintendent Branch attended the State of the County and was seated at the table in front of Daniell with members of the Board of Education.
Residential Permits, Water
Daniell told the gathering that the county issued 212 residential permits last year, up from 178 the year before.
Between 200 and 250 permits per year is “a very sweet spot,” Daniell added.
From 2002 to 2006, Daniell said, the average number of new residential permits was 435 per year.
The county still has roughly 2,600 residential lots that were zoned, with 70 percent zoned prior to 2009, Daniell said.
Westland subdivision on U.S. 78 is being built at present, Daniell said, and “likely accounts” for the increase in permits issued this past year.
Through the county’s participation in the upgrade of the Upper Oconee Water Basin Authority treatment plant in Jackson County, the county will see an increase from 4 million gallons per day to 9 million gallons per day in available treated water, Daniell said.
Design of the doubling of the treatment plant is at 90 percent, he added.
Orange Barrels
Daniell began his comments on transportation projects by saying “The Orange Barrel Syndrome is alive and well in Oconee County.”
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“Just so you know,” he continued, “it’s not getting any better.”
Daniell said he expects construction on the bundle of intersections on SR 316 to start this year, with completion in 2028, “if it stays on schedule.”
“You thought Butler’s Crossing was tough,” he said, referring to the disruption caused by widening of Experiment Station Road from Butler’s Crossing to U.S. 441. “Just be ready to start making your plans now how you're going avoid certain areas (on SR 316) at certain times.”
“The last word we got was the flyover at Virgil Langford will be the first part of the construction project,” he said. “At some point the Oconee Connector and (SR) 316 will close for up to 45 days.”
Construction is scheduled to start in 2026 on the SR 316 interchange with Dials Mill Extension, Daniell said.
The McNutt Creek interchange upgrade is to start in 2028, he said.
Mars Hill Road at SR 316 “will be cul de saced,” he said, with construction in 2030.
“Julian Drive–we don’t know exactly what that will look like–is going to be 2030 as well,” he said.
Other Construction Projects
The four-laning of U.S. 441 from the Morgan County line to Bishop is scheduled to start in 2028, Daniell said.
“The Bishop Bypass is yet to be determined–timing or route or anything along that line,” he said.
Daniell said Gov. Brian Kemp has authorized money for design and right of way acquisition for a bypass of SR 15 of Watkinsville, and money will be available after 2028 for construction.
“No path has been decided,” he said. “In the preliminary review, they had some suggestions. Right now they are taking a deeper dive into those suggestions.”
“There will be public meetings available to talk about the routes,” he said. “You'll have an opportunity to comment on that.”
Daniell said the redesign and reconstruction of the intersection of Experiment Station Road and U.S. 441 won’t take place until 2047 and 2051 respectively, so “You’ll be fussing at somebody else besides me.”
Plans for widening of Experiment Station Road from U.S. 441 to Main Street in downtown Watkinsville “has been moved to long term, with no dates certain on any of that,” Daniell said.
Daniell said construction on Experiment Station Road from Butler’s Crossing to U.S. 441 is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of the year.
“They're making some progress,” he said. “They’re starting to move stuff around. Hopefully we'll have a traffic shift in the next 30, 45 days, and I think that'll help a lot (with) some of the frustration that we're experiencing.”
More Construction, TSPLOST
“Highway 78--that will be getting repaved,” Daniell said.
“I think I’ve covered every road that you might use,” he said, but he went on to add even more road changes to his list of projects underway or planned.
Construction on the roundabout at Snows Mill Road/Rocky Branch and SR 53 (Hog Mountain Road) is underway, he said, and will be followed by a roundabout at Malcom Bridge/Ray’s Church Road and SR 53, with construction scheduled for 2026.
Construction has started on the replacement of the bridge over Barber Creek, Daniell said. Starting on June 2, and for 120 days after that, “you will not be able to cross the bridge,” Daniell said.
The county put out an advisory on that closure on Friday (March 14).
“I can’t tell you how important TSPLOST has been,” Daniell said, referring to the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters in November of 2022.
The amount of roads the county is able to pave because of TSPLOST “is amazing,” Daniell said.
Roundabouts funded by TSPLOST are planned at Lane Creek Road and Snows Mill Road, New High Shoals Road and Union Church Road, Astondale Road and Colham Ferry Road, Cole Springs, Aycock, and Snows Mill Roads, and Moores Ford Road and Lane Creek Road.
Parks And Recreation
Daniell said that the number of tennis courts is being increased at Oconee Veterans Park and once they are in place “that will allow Herman C. Michael to become the Pickelball Park.”
“Depending on who you talk to, if you’re a pickleball fan you say tennis is dying,” Daniell said. “If you’re a tennis fan, you say pickleball is not that big of a sport.”
“We should be in really good shape after completion of this project,” he added.
The current plans for the first phase of the Wendell and Betty Dawson Park on Rocky Branch Road call for six multi-use fields.
“We have a need for additional and gym space in the park system,” Daniell said at the beginning of his presentation on Parks and Recreation.
Plans for gyms are in subsequent phases of development of Dawson Park.
Call For Involvement
“So I really do want your engagement,” Daniell told the crowd. “We believe if you understand and believe in the direction of Oconee County, you understand how your role impacts us, and you generally want Oconee County to succeed, we really want you to be part of this.”
“The more engagement we have, the better decisions we make, the more productive we become and the more innovative we become,” he added.
He directed people to the SeeClickFix app or a page on the county web site to report problems in the county and learn about the app.
“So you get that on your phone,” Daniell said. “You got a dead deer, you can pop it on there and shoot it. It goes the right department. Pothole or anything along that way.”
Daniell ended his comments after a little more than 35 minutes and opened up the floor for comments.
No one stepped forward to speak.
Video
Daniell began his comments at 1:57 in the video.
He reviewed transportation project starting at 20:15.
Director of Communications Diane Baggett said 110 people had registered in advance for the State of the County but she doesn’t have a count of how many of them actually attended.
1 comment:
I have a comment once again from someone who did not use a full, real name. I will only publish comments that include that information.
Lee
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