Oconee County students taking the SAT college admissions test in 2019 had a mean composite score of 1157, down a small amount from the average score of Oconee County students who took the test a year ago and up slightly from the average score of Oconee County students who took the test in 2017.
Oconee County schools increased its graduation rate to 97.7 percent in 2019, up from 94.4 percent a year earlier and from 90.5 percent in 2012.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners last week reversed course and unanimously approved a rezone for Tracie and Thomas Hedges allowing them to subdivide their five-acre parcel on Moores Ford Road near the Apalachee River into three lots of 1.67 acres each.
Guy Herring, director of Planning and Code Enforcement for the county, told the Commissioners that the staff had changed its view of the request and was recommending approval in part because the Hedges made their rezone request during a “transition period” in the county codes.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners’ Economic Development Taskforce has identified three strategies for economic development for the county.
The county should invest in current businesses, create an environment for professional and technological innovation, and develop partnerships with the University of Georgia, the group has concluded.
More than 100 people turned out on Thursday night for an election forum in Watkinville that featured a very respectful exchange between incumbent Mayor Dave Shearon and challenger Bob Smith.
Though Smith, a real estate agent and former state representative, has had open disagreements with the Watkinsville Council in recent months regarding development of his property, little of the tension was in evidence on Thursday night, until the very end.
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board and the Walton County Water and Sewer Authority are waiting on final action by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division on a request for renewal of withdrawal permits from Hard Labor Creek and the Apalachee River.
Jimmy Parker, project manager for the reservoir, said “We have addressed all EPD comments related to water demand and future needs.”
Citizen feedback on the draft MACORTS 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan was wide-ranging, but positive comments on the inclusion of bike and pedestrian facilities on road projects, particularly in Oconee County, were dominant.
The Technical Coordinating Committee of MACORTS, the federally mandated metropolitan planning organization for the region, received a summary of the feedback before approving the draft 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan at its meeting on Wednesday morning in Athens.
The many pickleball enthusiasts who turned out at the Oconee County Town Hall meeting in February got the good news on Tuesday that the county will resurface the six tennis courts at Herman C. Michael Park on Hog Mountain Road and stripe two of the courts for their sport.
The Board at its meeting on Tuesday tentatively agreed to a contract with Advance Athletic Services LLC of Dublin for $56,698 for resurfacing the two quick start courts and the four regulation tennis courts.
