Oconee County Land Use Committee Chair Controls Meetings

I Wish I Knew

Abe Abouhamdan, chair of the Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning, runs a tight meeting.

His handling of the gathering of the group on Tuesday night illustrated that point well.

A seemingly mild-mannered guy with a soft voice, Abouhamdan started the meeting promptly at 7 p.m.--with a warning to the public.

"We have business to discuss," he said. The public should hold its comments to the section on the agenda for that purpose and limit those comments "to the items listed on the agenda," he added.

Abouhamdan passed out that agenda, which placed the public comments opportunity near the end--just ahead of the announcement of the time and place of the next meeting and of adjournment.

In case the public–and at that time, I was the only member of the public present–didn’t hear the admonition about holding comments and sticking to topic, Abouhamdan had it printed at the bottom of the agenda itself.

Abouhamdan then started into that agenda, but he stopped abruptly after getting approval of the minutes of the last meeting.

He had forgotten to introduce Jim Luke, a member of the Board of Commissioners, two members of the county staff, Blake Giles, editor of The Oconee Enterprise, and me. He acknowledged each of us--by name.

One other citizen arrived a few minutes later, as did a third staff member. They missed the chance to be introduced.

Abouhamdan is president & CEO of ABE Consulting, Inc., and he does contract work for the county, including on the design of the often-discussed but not-yet-realized widening of Daniells Bridge road.

He is in his second term as chairman of the 14-member committee, having been elected to that position by the members, who are appointed by the BOC.

Abouhamdan next turned to the discussion of the first item on the agenda, the future of the county courthouse.

He methodically outlined options, expressed his opinions about them, and let the individual members ask questions or make comments.

That agenda item exhausted (though without any agreement on what to do about the courthouse), Abouhamdan called for other business from committee members.

Richard McSpadden seized the opportunity to say he wanted to know the status of the mitigation resolution the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee reviewed at its November 2009 meeting.

McSpadden added that he "saw something in the paper" about it.

The committee voted on Nov. 10 not to recommend the resolution to the BOC, and the BOC has not taken any action on the resolution.

The only thing that has been in any paper about this in 2010 was a letter I wrote (using my name) to the Athens Banner-Herald. The paper published the letter (with my name) on Feb. 3.

I also had introduced the resolution to the BOC, had lobbied the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee to put it on its agenda, and had corresponded with Abouhamdan numerous times about it.

I did miss the November meeting when it was discussed because of a prior international commitment, but the resolution was presented to the committee by an attorney working with me. She told the committee she had written the resolution at my request.

Abouhamdan told McSpadden that as far has he knew, the resolution had not been addressed by the commissioners, but he was not certain.

He turned to Wayne Provost, county strategic and long range planner, who also said he didn’t know the status of the resolution.

"I wish I knew," Abouhamdan said apologetically as he brought the matter to a close.

Commissioner Luke, who certainly knew the answer, was still sitting at the back of the room, exactly where he had been when Abouhamdan introduced him earlier.

And I was still sitting exactly where I had been when Abouhamdan introduced me.

The next item on the agenda was citizen comment, and I stood and distributed to the committee a copy of a posting from this blog providing information on land for sale around the courthouse.

By my interpretation–and apparently by Abouhamdan’s–that was appropriate, given that the courthouse was listed on the agenda.

The mitigation resolution was not, and no one asked me about it.

Abouhamdan adjourned the meeting at 8:07 p.m., missing his stated goal of ending the meeting in an hour.

But he missed only slightly.

"The 'I wish I knew' Clip"

Discussion of Oconee County Courthouse Continues

Collecting the Dots

The Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning spent a little more than an hour tonight once again discussing options for the county courthouse.

As was true last month, the discussion ended with Chairman Abe Abouhamdan saying that maybe next month–or maybe the month after–the committee would give its recommendation to the Board of Commissioners.

On March 31 of last year the BOC asked the citizen committee for advice on what the county should to do address future space needs for court and administrative functions of the county.

The Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee began discussion of the issue the next month and has devoted most of its monthly meetings since to the issue.

At tonight’s meeting Abouhamdan led the group through a discussion of the four options it listed at the January meeting: (1) Keep all government activities in one place, (2) Separate judicial and administrative activities, (3) Do nothing, and (4), Combine administrative operations with the Oconee County Board of Education.

Abouhamdan and Wayne Provost, the county administration’s liaison to the committee, argued that it would be advantageous to separate the court and administrative offices of the county.

Abouhamdan said it would be "a pretty expensive deal" to create a single facility, that it would "require a large tract," and that "some departments cannot be physically connected" to the courthouse because of equipment.

He mentioned Public Works as an example of an office that he felt could not be at the courthouse. Presently it is at the Government Annex south of downtown Watkinsville.

No support for the third option–doing nothing–was voiced, and board member Courtney Gale made a motion that the third option be dropped. Abouhamdan argued successfully against doing that because he wanted the record to reflect that it was discussed.

The fourth item was expanded to include retail space as well as space for the county schools and county government.

Abouhamdan said that would be "tremendous if it works," but he expressed doubt that land was available for that purpose.

Questions about the availability of land came up frequently during the meeting, and several committee members made reference during discussion of the fourth option to the decision by the Board of Education to purchase land on the north of downtown Watkinsville for future administrative offices.

Committee member Flynn Warren also said there was land available in downtown Watkinsville.

The committee agreed that it would rank the four options at the next meeting by placing "dots" next to them on a board at the front of the room. Each committee member would have a number of dots and would place the dots next to the options favored.

During the citizen comment period, at the very end of the meeting, I passed out printed copies of the story I posted here Sunday on land being offered for sale near the courthouse and on the land purchased by the BOE.

Abouhamdan then said the committee would continue its discussion next month, asked for a motion to adjourn, and ended the meeting.

For Sale Signs Tout Available Land Around Oconee County Courthouse

Missing the Signs?

As the Oconee County Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee continues its deliberations Tuesday about the future of the courthouse and the Board of Commissioners awaits the Committee’s report, 11.44 acres of land sit for sale literally at the courthouse doorstep.

The asking prices for that land, which runs from the courthouse northwest toward the new jail, is just a little more than $2 million, according to Eddy Thaxton, who represents one of the sellers and checked with the other property owners to give me that price on Friday.

The assessed value on the tax records for these properties is $810,143.

As of June 30, 2009, the county was sitting on $4,281,944 in unspent and unallocated Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues dedicated to county facility expansion and renovation, including for the courthouse.

The Board of Commissioners voted last Tuesday night to spend $170,000 to renovate parts of the Government Annex building on Greensboro highway, which would reduce that figure to $4,111,944.

The county collected an additional $631,266 in SPLOST revenues before the tax expired with the November 2009 monthly collection and also has a yet unspecified amount of interest income from the tax.

If the $631,266 were allocated proportionately to the original categories, $116,153 would go to the courthouse and other facility projects.

The available properties are located on Durham street, Water street and North Third street, and anyone driving along Water street, a major access to the rear parking lot of the courthouse, has to pass three prominent signs touting the properties.



View Oconee County Courthouse, Watkinsville in a larger map

Thaxton said his property has been on the market for two years, and one of the others has been listed for more than a year.

Thaxton is with The Leader Real Estate Group, and he represents the family of Inez Christopher with three parcels totaling 5.15 acres at the corner of Durham and Water streets.

He told me on Saturday that he has talked to BOC Chairman Melvin Davis about the properties, but nothing has come of the discussions so far.

The BOC meets frequently in closed session, and land purchases are one of the topics the commissioners legally are able to discuss in secret. It is possible the properties have been discussed in those sessions. The BOC met in secret session as recently as Jan. 26.

Thaxton told me the asking price for his property is $1.1 million. The property runs all the way to Tanyard Creek, a tributary of Calls Creek, and contains two houses.

Two additional tracts lie between the Booth property and the courthouse. Helen Booth is listed as the owner of the tracts making up 4.34 acres.

These two tracts are listed by Oconee Properties, and Thaxton told me the asking price is $500,000. These properties also contain two houses, and the larger tract also runs to Tanyard creek.

The third property technically is not on the market, but Thaxton told me yesterday he talked with the owner and learned that it could be purchased with the others.

This 1.95-acre tract contains a house that is now used as a law office by Dennise Grayson and was formerly occupied by the Oconee County Planning Department. Thaxton said the owner, Leona Grayson, is asking $425,000.

The Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee has received briefings from county officials indicating that the county needs to dramatically increase the space available for both the court activities and the administrative needs of the county.

Courtroom safety has been mentioned as a prime concern, as has proximity to the jail on Experiment Station road.

County officials also told the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee that the existing 5-acre parking lot is only adequate for current needs, meaning that space could not be used for future construction. That parking lot is adjacent to the Grayson law office building.

County officials meeting with the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee also have quested whether the courthouse could be expanded by adding additional floors because of structural limitations.

At present, the county uses space in what is called the Courthouse Annex, which sits across Main street from the courthouse. That building, according to tax records, is owned by the Bank of America.

County officials have acknowledged that there has been some preliminary discussion of working with the Oconee County Board of Education on future office space needs.

The Oconee County BOE late last year voted to set aside $1 million in Educational Local Option Sales Tax revenue to purchase land on North Main street for a future administrative office facility.

The BOE spent $900,000 on two adjoining tracts totaling 6.6 acres that were assessed, according to the tax records, at $632,844.

The smaller of these was owned by John David Williams and Charles Edward Williams, and the larger by Will-o-War LLC. The secretary of state lists Charles Edward Williams as the registered agent for Will-o-War.

Charles Williams is the president of North Georgia Bank.

Will-o-War also owns a 12.81-acre tract valued for tax purposes at $1,575,900. That property abuts the property sold to the Board of Education and also the land on which the county’s jail sits.

County officials discussed with the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee the possibility of moving from the current courthouse site in central Watkinsville entirely, arguing that only the court functions need even to stay within the county seat itself.

The Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee is schedule to meet from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Community Center at Veterans Park on Hog Mountain road.

Georgia River Network Announced River Celebration Award Recipients

Volunteer Winner a Local

The Georgia River Network today announced the winners of its 2010 River Celebration Awards, to be recognized Feb. 19 at the group’s sixth annual conference at the Jekyll Island Convention Center.

The winners are: the Coosa River Basin Initiative from Rome as the Watershed Group of the Year, Gordon Rogers of Albany as the River Conservationist of the Year, and I as the Volunteer of the Year.

To say I’m delighted and honored is truly an understatement.

The Georgia River Network is a statewide organization working to preserve clean water in the state. It’s offices are at 126 S. Milledge avenue in Athens.

Dana Skelton, director of administration and outreach for the network, made the announcement.

The Coosa River Basin Initiative was founded in 1992 and through its advocation, education, restoration and water monitoring programs has “helped improve water quality in the Coosa River Basin and helped citizens better understand water resource issues,” according to the news release by Skelton.

Rogers is the Flint Riverkeeper and a “stalwart of the river protection community in Georgia,” the news release said. He became the Flint Riverkeeper last year and has been a founding board member of the Altamaha Riverkeeper organization and served for five years as the Satilla Riverkeeper.

The news release said my contributions to the Oconee County area are twofold, citing the creation of Friends of Barber Creek in early 2006 and this blog, which it calls an important news source focusing on issues facing the county.

“It is not a stretch to say that Lee, who is both a professor of journalism and a 21st-century citizen journalist, has changed the landscape in Oconee County,” the release said.

I am president of Friends of Barber Creek, but each of the other four board members–Karen Kimbaris, Eleanor Cotton, Tim Price and Joe Block–certainly deserves a share of this award.

Jim Butler, a lawyer in Columbus, Paul Deloach, a business development manager in Andersonville, and Mark Woodall, a lobbyist for the Sierra club from Woodland, were winners of the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2009. They set up the Flint Riverkeeper.

The three 2010 award recipients will receive the recognition in a special ceremony starting at 6 p.m. on the first day of the two-day conference.

The conference will include discussions of current state legislative and policy issues, a history of and recent developments in the water wars between Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and an exploration of current environmental issues on the coast and discussion of what is being done by groups to address those issues.

My wife and I are looking forward to attending the conference.

Oconee County BOC Enjoys a Short Meeting

Maybe a Record

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight met for only a dozen minutes.

The mood was relaxed as the board approved appointments to citizen committees agreed upon in advance and approved all five items on the consent agenda without discussion.

Commissioner Margaret Hale missed the meeting for health reasons.



That consent agenda included funding of a staff position for the tourism department using about $26,000 from the county's hotel/motel tax and agreement on a budget submittal plan for fiscal year 2011.

The consent agenda also called for spending $170,000 to renovate parts of the Government Annex building on Greensboro highway, $12.8 million for a Transportation Improvement and Maintenance Plan for fiscal years 2011 and 2012, and $4.5 million for a Water and Sewer Improvement Plan for fiscal years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Commissioner John Daniell again announced the town-hall style meeting scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Feb. 16 at the Civic Center on Hog Mountain road.

Commission Chuck Horton said he thought there might be a little more tension at that session.

Once the budget schedule gets underway, the mood also is likely to change, given the decline in county sales tax revenue and the drop in value of property in the county.

That process actually started yesterday and will culuminate with adoption of a budget in June.

Daniells Bridge Road Set for Improvements, Oconee County Official Says Again

Good Place to Stop

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is scheduled tomorrow night to approve a Transportation Improvement and Maintenance Plan for fiscal years 2011 and 2012 that includes an additional $205,000 for the widening and upgrade of Daniells Bridge road.

The widening ultimately is scheduled to run from the Daniells Bridge road intersection with the Oconee Connector to just east of the blind curve at Lynn drive.

Work on construction in the intersection itself is expected to start in about three weeks, Emil Beshara, public works director for the county, told me in an email message of Jan. 28.

Beshara said that QuikTrip, which is building a gas station and convenience store on the northeast side of the intersection, is supposed to start work on the roadway at the site in five to six weeks. The county has to have the road work done on the opposite side to handle the resultant traffic, he explained.

Standardization of Daniells Bridge road to three lane with turn lanes from the Oconee Connector intersection to Founders boulevard will be completed this summer, Beshara said in his email message.

Beshara said he planned to wait to do work on the roadway beyond Founders boulevard "until such time as the Lance-Anglin property development begins. I say this because there will be no need for widening DBR (Daniells Bridge road) on that leg until that property develops."

In November of 2008, when the Board of Commissioners first considered a rezone of the 9-acre tract owned by Dolores N. Lance and Dorothy N. Anglin just east of the blind curve on Daniells Bridge road, the commissioners asked Beshara to come up with a plan for improvements in the road to the development site.

The BOC voted to approve that rezone from agricultural and residential use to Office Business Park in December after Beshara presented preliminary plans for the widening of the road to three lanes with a center turn lane.

Beshara said at that time that the work would be finished during the summer of 2009, but no work was ever done. Beshara also told me in July of 2009 that work on the intersection would begin in late summer or early fall, and again nothing happened.

The BOC had approved $400,000 from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues for the Daniells Bridge road improvements as part of an earlier TIM Plan, and Beshara said at the rezone hearings that $400,000 would cover the costs.

Beshara told the BOC at the agenda-setting meeting on Jan. 26 that he needed an additional $205,000 in SPLOST funds because of new cost estimates for the roadway.

No one from the board asked any questions about the additional expenditures or for a timetable of the work. The commissioners put the proposal on the consent agenda for tomorrow night, meaning it will be voted on without discussion unless a member of the commission objects.

The Transportation Improvement and Maintenance Plan calls for $12,845,000 in spending in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, with $3,380,000 of that coming from SPLOST.

In addition to the Daniells Bridge road widening, SPLOST funds will cover 36 miles of county road repair and resurfacing and maintenance and improvements of county bridges, including the Clotfelter road bridge over Barber Creek and the Old State Route 15 bridge over McNutt Creek.

The TIM Plan also includes $9,465,000 for what are labeled as major transportation upgrades and improvements.

Included are design and right-of-way acquisition for the first phase of Mars Hill road widening from SR 316 to Hog Mountain road, design and sidewalk work for the Oconee Connector extension now under construction, and design, right-of-way acquisition and construction of sidewalks in Butler’s Crossing.

The TIM plan lists $5,518,400 of that as reimbursable from the state.

Oconee County Chairman Gave Contract Employee Higher Salary Adjustment Than Contract Specified

5 vs. 2.3 percent

When Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis gave John McNally, then executive director of the Keep Oconee County Beautiful Commission, a cost-of-living salary increase for fiscal year 2008-2009, he overshot the mark.

McNally’s contract called for him to be paid $33,500 plus "the annual cost-of-living adjustment" set by the Board of Commissioners for regular county employees.

McNally was paid $35,175 for 2008-2009, according to Finance Director Jeff Benko, or 5 percent more than a year earlier.

The coat of living increase that county employees received for fiscal year 2008-2009 was only 2.3 percent, county Administrative Officer Alan Theriault told me in an email message on Jan. 19.

Theriault wrote that he had confirmed that figure with the county’s Human Resources office before releasing it to me.

I asked Theriault and Benko via email for a confirmation of the cost-of-living rate increase for regular county employees when I filed an earlier report on McNally's salary on Jan. 17, a Sunday. The following day was a holiday.

The 2008-2009 budget approved by the Oconee County Board of Commissioners included $33,500 for the salary of McNally, yet the final expenditures for KOCBC showed that McNally had received $35,885.

I had obtained that budget as a result of an open records request I filed. When I met with Benko on Dec. 11 to review the budget, I asked him about the discrepancy between the $33,500 budgeted for McNally and the $35,885.

Benko told me that Chairman Davis had made the decision that McNally should receive a cost-of-living adjustment because other county employees had received one.

Benko subsequently told me that $710 of the $35,885 was not salary but a reimbursement to McNally for expenses associated with "disposal of tires."

If McNally had received an adjustment of 2.3 percent, he would have earned $34,270 rather than the $35,175–or $905 less.

Even at the higher level, however, KOCBC did not exceed the total amount budgeted for the office that year of $52,600. McNally spent only $7 of the $2,500 budgeted for travel, and only $522 of the $1,200 budgeted for education and training.

On June 23, the BOC approved a budget of $19,100 for KOCBC for 2009-2010, including $12,000 for McNally.

McNally, who turned 84 last year, chose to take the $12,000 and remain in his position through the end of October. The KOCBC voted on Oct. 5 to elect Esther Porter to serve as its volunteer executive director to replace McNally.

The KOCBC funding is part of the Public Works Department budget. When Public Works Director Emil Beshara presented his proposed budget for 2009-2010 to the BOC on April 15, he had eliminated the funding for McNally and the operation of the office.

Davis did not object to the budget request when Beshara presented it. At that time, Beshara reported directly to Davis.

At the June 23 meeting of the BOC, after a public hearing on the budget, Davis asked the Board to restore the full salary of McNally.

Porter, a member of KOCBC, Mary Mellein, president of KOCBC, and Kate McDaniel, also a member of KOCBC, argued during the public hearing for a restoration of KOCBC funding.

The three pointed out that members of KOCBC do a lot of fundraising and volunteer work and that the services provided KOCBC and its members would be badly missed if the organization were eliminated.

The documents given me in response to my open records request show that KOCBC had $16,400 in an income account as of Aug. 4, 2009. Most of that was in its Compost Bin Sales Fund, to which $2,065 had been added from Jan. 1 to July 8, 2009.

To promote recycling, KOCBC sells compost bins for $40 out of Porter’s American Building Products office on Industrial drive in Watkinsville. The office is open from 8 to 4:30 weekdays.