The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night took the unusual step of holding a zoning hearing at its agenda setting meeting and approved the issuance of a special use permit for a telecommunications tower on McRees Mill Road off Barnett Shoals Road.
The Board took that action following a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta overturning the Board’s denial in 2014 of the permit for Verizon Wireless on 42 acres at 1210 McRees Mill Road.
Oconee County planners told the county’s Planning Commission last week that they were recommending approval of Tony Townley’s request for a car museum on 11.1 acres surrounding by farmland only on the condition that it not include an events venue.
The planners said that use of the land on Snows Mill Road at Cole Springs Road for public events is incompatible with surrounding land use and that the 151 parking spaces are sufficient for the Museum and existing office but not for events that could attract large numbers of visitors.
Oconee County reported another major sewer spill on Wednesday after discovering that approximately 21,225 gallons of waste water were released into a tributary of Barber Creek at Rocky Branch Road.
The spill, which occurred on Tuesday, was the result of a break in the sewer main due to “pipe fatigue,” according to a news release from the county. The county’s Land Application System site is on Rocky Branch Road and is fed by a sewer line that runs along Rocky Branch Road.
It seems unlikely Republican Houston Gaines will run out of money as he seeks to unseat Democrat Deborah Gonzalez in Georgia House District 117 in November.
Gaines, in his second attempt to win a House seat, was sitting on $169,450 in unspent funds as the election entered its crucial stage this summer.
Tony Townley is asking the county to allow him to carve out and rezone 11.1 acres that are part of the Plant Sciences Farm on Snows Mill Road he purchased from the University of Georgia in 2014 so he can turn the property into commercial use.
Townley is proposing to operate what he is calling the Eastville Car Museum to display classic, vintage, and historical automobiles and equipment in buildings already on the property, including the University of Georgia’s Red Barn, which Townley purchased and moved to the site.
Enrollments at Oconee County Schools increased by 246 students over the last year, marking the fourth straight year that enrollments in the county schools grew by more than 3 percentage points.
Brook Whitmire, chief Human Resources officer for the school system, told the Board of Education on Monday that the growth in enrollments means that the county is adding enough students each year to represent about half of K-5 school.
The event honoring the victims of the terrorist attacks 17 years ago was nonpartisan, North Oconee High School Young Americans for Freedom Chapter Advisor Kirk Shook told the roughly 100 people assembled at the school on Sunday.
To emphasize the point, Shook noted that Democrat Deborah Gonzales, representing the 117th House District in the Georgia General Assembly, was among those gathered to place 2,977 small flags on the school’s lawn to commemorate the victims of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
