Brian Kemp won big in Oconee County in the runoff election Tuesday, outperforming his strong-showing in the state, where he decisively defeated L.S. “Casey” Cagle for the Republican nomination for governor.
David Shafer carried Oconee County in the Republic Party primary runoff for lieutenant governor, while in the state, with 100 percent of the precincts counted, Geoff Duncan had just more than 50 percent of the vote.
More Oconee County voters cast Republican ballots in early voting for the runoff elections that ended Friday than cast Republican ballots during early voting for the party primaries in May.
That was true even though there was one fewer days of early voting in the runoff because of the July 4 holiday and no Saturday voting.
An estimated 31,250 of untreated sewage spilled into a tributary of Calls Creek on Saturday as a result of a blockage in a sewer line on Experiment Station Road near the Sheriff’s Office in Watkinsville.
Tim Durham, newly named Water Resources Department director for the county, said that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has been notified of the spill.
Oconee County High School will have 12 classrooms ready for use when students return on Aug. 1, rather than the eight originally scheduled to be ready for the beginning of the school year, Jake Grant, director of facilities, told the Board of Education on Monday.
Grant also said that the replacement of the tracks at North Oconee High School and Oconee County High School and the installation of artificial turf at the stadium fields for the two schools is on schedule and will be completed for the first home football games of the year.
The Oconee County School System is opening the doors of the new Dove Creek Elementary School to the public following a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on July 24, the same day teachers report back for duty.
The first day for students at the new school at 7921 Hog Mountain Road in the far west of the county is Aug. 1.
A future sewage plant on acreage Oconee County is purchasing on the Middle Oconee River might include picnic areas and walking trails if a concept plan presented at a Board of Commissioners Town Hall meeting last (Tuesday) night is implemented.
Commission Chair John Daniell said the county is about to close on two parcels of land on the river off Rockinwood Drive for a sewage plant, but construction of such a facility is years away.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday night to turn down a rezone request for a 77-lot subdivision on Rocky Branch Road across from Old Waverly subdivision.
Commissioners gave no reason for the denial, but they took the action after the attorney presenting the case for the rezone would not agree to construct the homes on foundations with crawl spaces or basements.
