Resource Management Plan Developed for Elder Mill, Elder Mill Bridge, Athens Line and Apalachee River

Two Bike Meetings on Tuesday

The Northeast Georgia Regional Commission is scheduled to hold three meetings this coming week that will determine the kind of protection Elder Mill, Elder Mill Bridge, the Athens Line and the Apalachee River will receive as four of 25 resources identified by the Commission as regionally important.

At issue is a Resource Management Plan drafted by the staff of the planning division of the Commission that asks counties to take a series of steps to preserve the resources. Oconee is one of 12 counties served by NEGRC.

These steps include steering development away from these four resources, coordinating new development patterns with those of existing neighborhoods by use of compatible scale and design and preserving historic and cultural resources located on or adjacent to the sites.

The draft plan will be taken up by the Planning Advisory Committee of NEGRC at its 10 a.m. to noon meeting on Monday. That meeting will be held at the E.H. Culpepper Conference Room of the NEGRC offices, 305 Research drive in Athens.

A public hearing on the plan will be held at that same location from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The plan will be submitted to the Council for consideration at its meeting on Thursday. That meeting will begin at noon at the Holiday Inn in downtown Athens. Following the decision at that meeting, the plan will go to the Georgia Department of Communication Affairs for review and comment.

The Council is the governing body for NEGRC.

The mill, the bridge, the rail line, which stretches from Athens to Madison and runs through Oconee County, and the river were designated unanimously as regionally important and in need of protection by the Council at its meeting on April 15.

Melvin Davis, chairman of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners and a member of the NEGRC Council, expressed reservations about the inclusion of the Athens Line on the RIR list prior to the meeting, but he did not voice those reservations publicly at the meeting itself.

Davis and other members of the BOC said they were worried that designation of the rail line might hamper development in Oconee County.

Watkinsville Mayor Joe Walter, the municipal representative of Oconee County on the Council, voted for the Oconee County proposals as a member of the Planning Advisory Committee that screened nominations and presented the recommendation to the Council.

The third Oconee County member of the Council–-designated as a citizen representative–-is Amrey Harden, president and CEO of Oconee State Bank.

Though Oconee County officials could have submitted resources for possible inclusion on the RIR list, none of them did so.

Tony Glenn, an avid bicyclist, submitted the Athens Line proposal, suggesting that it would be appropriate in the future for a bike trail.

The Friends of Elder Mill and Elder Mill Bridge submitted the Elder Mill and Elder Mill Bridge nominations.

The Athens Line was listed as a resource for all three counties.

The Apalachee River, as a water resource, was included automatically and was listed as a resource for Barrow, Greene, Morgan, Oconee and Walton counties.

The draft plan lists 18 different activities that counties should take to preserve the Regionally Important Resources.

In addition to steering development away from the resources, coordinating new development and preserving resources located nearby, the plan asks counties to encourage the redevelopment or adaptive reuse of existing buildings, to develop site plans for nearby development that are sensitive to the natural features of the site and to use low impact development practices.

Every development within a mile of the Regionally Important Resource will be affected by the proposed plan.

The Tuesday evening public hearing conflicts with another meeting of interest to local bicyclists.

The Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning is scheduled to discuss on Tuesday a request from the Oconee County Cycling Organization that the county install Share The Road signs on roads used by cyclists throughout the county.

That meeting is to begin at 7 p.m. at the Community Center in Veterans Park.

Oconee County Board of Commissioners Approved Rezone for Oconee Waste Transport

Land Map Change to Follow?

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 tonight to set aside the Future Development Map it approved in March of 2008 and rezone 6.2 acres on Greensboro highway just south of Watkinsville so Courtney M. (Matt) Elder Jr. can move his Oconee Waste Transport business from downtown Watkinsville.

Only Commissioner Chuck Horton voted against the decision.

The public hearing and discussion of the rezone request lasted two hours and included a well-organized presentation by neighbors strongly opposed to the rezone.

The opponents argued that the relocation of the trash transport business was inconsistent with the county development map and with the county code and threatened the quality of their lives and value of their homes.

Proponents, including Oconee County Chamber of Commerce Chairman Kenneth Mann, argued that the rezone was necessary to support a local business that contributes to the local economy.

Elder threatened to move his business outside the county if he didn’t get the rezone.

Elder submitted a letter from AmeriPride Services Inc. saying that his current property on Experiment Station Road is contaminated as a result of past dry cleaning activities carried out on the AmeriPride-owned property adjoining Elder’s current location.

According to the letter, AmeriPride will install a groundwater extraction and treatment system on the Elder property.

Land Planner Jon Williams (above during break with Elder behind), representing Elder, said at the meeting that Elder could not find any sites for his business other than the one he owned.

At the meeting tonight and prior to the vote, Oconee County Planning Director B.R. White said he would recommend that the BOC change its Future Development Map if it approved the rezone since the use proposed by Elder was inconsistent with the designated uses in the area.

The planning staff recommended against the rezone.

The 2030 Future Development Map classifies the area as Country Estates. Areas so designated are to provide a transition from urban to more rural areas and should include estate farms or large-lot subdivisions.

None of the commissioners argued that the waste transport business was consistent with the designation, with Commissioner Jim Luke joining Horton in arguing most vocally that it was not. Luke said if the vote was positive he wanted to redraw the Future Development Map to allow for more such zoning in the future.

More than 100 people attended the hearing, which was moved from the usual commission chamber to a courtroom to accommodate the crowd.

The vote by the BOC changed the zoning for the 6.2 acres from A-1 (Agricultural District) to O-B-P (Office Business Park District).

The tract rezoned is part of a larger tract of 9.7 acres that Elder asked in 2005 be rezoned from A-1 (Agriculture District) to I (Industrial District). The BOC denied that request.

Land Planner Williams tonight said Elder has no firm plans for how to use the remaining acreage but that it could be used for future expansion.

He’ll have to come back for another rezone if he wants to do that, but the discussion tonight suggests the county will have changed the land use map by then to make it easy for him to do so.

Oconee County Commissioners Scheduled to Decide Oconee Waste Transport Request for a New Home

A Spot for a Rezone

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night is scheduled to consider a rezone request for 6.2 acres on Greensboro highway just south of Watkinsville that challenges the board’s commitment to the Future Development Map it approved in March of 2008 and its commitment to support local small businesses.

Courtney M. (Matt) Elder Jr. is asking the county to rezone the land so he can move his Oconee Waste Transport business from downtown Watkinsville.

Property owners in the area say the waste hauling facility will adversely affect their home values and is at odds with the pastoral landscape and land use patterns of the area.

The county’s planning staff has recommended against the rezone request, saying that the “request is not compatible with the land uses or zoning classifications of neighboring properties” and “does not meet the guiding principles, policies, development strategies” of the county land use map.

The Planning Commission voted Aug. 16, by a vote of 4-3, to recommend to the BOC that it approve the change requested by Elder from A-1 (Agricultural District) to O-B-P (Office Business Park District).

A majority of the four Planning Commission members representing the unincorporated parts of the county actually voted against the resolution. George Rodrigues, who made the motion, represents Watkinsville on the commission, and Karl Berg, who seconded it, represents North High Shoals.

Bruce MacPherson, representing Bishop, joined Rodrigues and Berg and county representative Mike Floyd in voting for the resolution.

Chuck Hunt, Bill Ramsey and Chuck Steen, all representing the unincorporated parts of the county, voted against the rezone request. Vice Chair Bill Yarbrough did not vote.

David Camp, representing Bogart, the county’s fourth city, was not present. Travis Marshall, Penny Mills and Chairman Dan Arnold also were absent.

The final decision is scheduled to be made by the BOC at its 7 p.m. meeting at the courthouse on Tuesday night.

The request the board will be considering is a redraft of one turned down by the Planning Commission by a vote of 5-3 on July 18, 2005. Yarbrough, Ramsey, Arnold, McPherson and then member Jim Butler voted for the denial.

The BOC also voted on Aug. 2, 2005, to deny the rezone. Current board members Margaret Hale, Chuck Horton and Jim Luke joined then member Don Norris in voting unanimously for the denial. John Daniell was not on the board at that time.

In 2005, Elder asked to rezone 9.7 acres from A-1 (Agriculture District) to I (Industrial District) to develop a waste transfer station.

The planning staff concluded that the zoning was out of character with the area and that zoning to industrial “would constitute a spot zoning of the area.” The staff report also said that the rezone was not consistent with development trends in the area or with the land use plan in effect at the time.

The current request uses only 6.2 of the total 9.7 acre-tract (at end of slide show) and is for a “solid waste collection company office facility” rather than for a waste transfer station.

The selected acreage is the northern part of the total tract. The proposal does not specify what is planned for the remaining acreage.

The proposal calls for construction of a 15,900 square-foot building and a 750 square-foot pole barn. It also calls for parking area for collection trucks and an area for storage of waste collection containers.

The site would include buffers to hide it from surrounding properties.

The staff report said “staff has concerns regarding contaminated run-off which could be generated by the site, including rainwater drained through the site.”

The report continues: “Additionally, cleaning and maintenance of the waste collection containers and vehicles will create contaminated run-off.”

“The proposed solid waste collection company office could negatively impact neighboring residential property values,” the staff report stated.

The report said the facility “will include outdroor storage of waste collection containers and collection vehicles resulting in incrased dust, odor and pest and rodent infestation. Noise generated by the delivery and removal of the waste containers, as well as the collection vehicles, could have substantial impact to neighboring residences.”

The staff said if its recommendation for a denial of the rezone request was not accepted, approval should be with nine conditions.

The Planning Commission, in recommending the rezone, modified two of those conditions.

The staff had said that no overnight storage of waste should be allowed. The Planning Commission resolution passed stipulated that only construction and demolition waste could be stored on the site and only overnight or over a weekend.

The Planning Commission resolution expanded the allowed hours of business from the staff recommendation of 7:30 to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays to 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

At the Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 16, Jon Williams from Williams & Associates, a land planning company representing Elder on the rezone, submitted a 60-page rebuttal to the staff report.

Included was a statement by Rusty Haygood, Oconee County economic development director, estimating total annual economic impact of Oconee Waste Transport of $1.3 million on the county’s economy.

Elder said he will have to move the business out of the county unless he gets the requested rezone because he is being forced to leave his current location (at front of slide show) and cannot find an alternative site.

Williams of Williams & Associates told the Planning Commission that the current site is contaminated and must be abandoned but the problem is not because of the operation of Oconee Waste Transport.

In making application, Oconee Waste Transport argued that the proposed new site will have “no negative effect on adjoining property values.”

According to the submitted Zoning Impact Analysis, the Future Development Map should be treated only as “a guide” for future development, “current trends in the area have been predominately toward commercial growth,” and the project is located on a major traffic artery make the site appropriate for development.

Both OWT and the planning staff agree that the Future Development Map designates the area as for low-intensity residential community development that is “reminiscent of a rural environment” and serves as a transition to the part of the county to be preserved as rural and for agriculture.

The site is only about three-tenths of a mile south of the Watkinsville city line and its industrial area.

On Aug. 5, 2008, the Board of Commissioners voted to deny a rezoning request from planning commission member Travis Marshall for a subdivision about a mile south of the Elder site on the grounds that it was inconsistent with the Future Development Map.

The county successfully defended that decision in court after Marshall filed suit against the county for denying the rezone.

Commissioners Horton and Luke voted against the rezone request by Marshall. Commissioner Hale was absent, and Commissioner Norris voted in favor.

The Oconee Waste Transport rezone request in 2005 and the one this year have produced vocal opposition from residents in the area.

Residents have turned in petition in opposition to the current rezone request signed by more than 150 people.

In addition, someone dropped off at the Planning Department office a seven-page document that included, among other things, pictures of the current Oconee Waste Transport site on Experiment Station Road opposite the Watkinsville Post Office.

The planning staff forwarded the document from the unidentified person to the members of the Planning Commission, producing an email response from BOC Chairman Melvin Davis.

“I really have mixed reactions to this type of information being distributed to the PC by the Planning Department,” he wrote on Aug. 16. “Perhaps it would be in the best interest of the Planning Department to stick to the factual maters of a rezone/variance request and leave it up to those who do or do not support the request to make their preference known to the PC and the BOC.”

Alan Theriault, county administrative officer, disagreed.

“I personally think it is important that Planning Commission members have complete access to everything provided to staff about an issue if it provided to you in advance of their meeting,” Theriault wrote to planner Brad Callender. “Not to do so, might give some citizens the impression that we may be withholding information that is part of the public record.”

The email exchange is part of the Elder rezone file in the Planning Department. I came across it when I reviewed that file on Aug. 20.

Davis attended the Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 16, as did Commissioner Horton. Davis will vote on the rezone only in the case of a tie vote among the four other commissioners.

The rezone request has generated considerable interest in the development community.

Chuck Williams, president of North Georgia Bank and chair of the county’s Industrial Development Authority, was present at the Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 16, as was local businessman and developer Mike Power.

Neither spoke, but L.C. Givens, owner of Outdoor Speciality in Watkinsville, and local developer Tom Little did.

Both criticized the commission, assuming it was going to vote against the rezone.

“I think our forefathers would be ashamed of what we are going through tonight,” Givens said. “As an American people, we have took our country and brought it down to a point where nobody can do anything anymore unless it suits the neighbor.”

Little said “If you can’t support that, you can’t be pro business. You can’t say you’re pro business.”

“Those people who are against it," Little added, "if they don’t want him to be there, they can buy about a half acre apiece and let him go on down the road somewhere else.”

About 40 people attended the Aug. 16 Planning Commission meeting, and eight citizens spoke in opposition to the rezone.

At a Town Hall meeting held by the BOC on June 10, Chuck Williams from the development authority and Elder asked questions that anticipated the Oconee Waste Transport rezone request, which was submitted in July.

Williams asked how the board members would accommodate what he called “blue collar businesses” such as Elder’s waste hauling business when neighbors don’t want them nearby.

Commissioners Daniell, Hale, Horton and Luke said they thought the county needed to identify land for heavy industrial use and that they recognized there likely would be some public opposition to nearly any sight picked. (Chairman Davis missed the meeting because he was on vacation.)

Elder followed Williams at that meeting by asking the commissioners more specifically where they would be willing to locate industrial sites.

Luke said “near and around” the railroads in the county would be good sites. He also suggested some areas along U.S. 78 and “some areas in and around Watkinsville.”

Horton said he would look first at property adjacent to where these activities currently exist and also along the U.S. 78 corridor.

Hale said she would look at where current infrastructure exits and mentioned areas along U.S. 78 and U.S. 441. She said she also would consider some properties along SR 316.

Daniell didn’t commit.

The site Elder is seeking to rezone does have county water, but not county sewage treatment. Elder proposes to handle water treatment via a septic system.

What the site certainly does have is a small subdivision very near to it.

Planning Commission member Bill Ramsey said at the Aug. 16 meeting that “In this particular case, I have a hard time deciding whether this would be spot zoning or whether the subdivision would be spot zoning.”

The subdivision is question is known as Bell’s and is on Maple lane and Maple circle off Greene Ferry road.

Tax records show that of the four houses that are on properties that abut the full 9.7-acre tract (the northern part of which is under consideration for rezone), the first was built in 1966. The others were built in 1972, 1973 and 1983.

Ramsey said his concern was what the residents would see of the Oconee Waste Transport facility.

Jon Williams said they would be protected because of the buffers.

As a letter in today’s Athens Banner-Herald makes clear, at least some residents of the subdivision disagree.

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The full video of the Planning Commissioner meeting is on the Oconee County Observations Vimeo site.

Oconee County Board of Education Interviews Three Applicants for Post 5 Position

Questions in Rotation

The Oconee County Board of Education spent an hour tonight interviewing the three applicants for its open Post 5 position, tossing them a series of questions on such topics as the responsibility of the board, perceived strengths and weaknesses of the school system and how the board members should handle complaints from the public.

Applicants Wayne Bagley, Michael Burnette and Glenn Townsend, seated at a table in front of the board members, answered the questions in rotation, and they gave mostly similar answers to the questions posed.

Bagley, a vice president of development for Lassiter Properties, made reference to his experience on the Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning in response to several of the questions to indicate his familiarity with local governmental issues.

Burnette repeatedly made reference to his experience as a businessman. He is an area manager for Tires Plus.

Townsend, a retired teacher and administrator in the Oconee County system, stressed his knowledge of the system and of educational issues generally.

The applicants recognized that the Board of Education sets policy, but it does not run the schools day-to-day.

They also said that complaints from the public should be directed to the school administration and that board members should not get involved.

Candidates were given three minutes to answer questions, which board members took turns in asking.

Burnette said the biggest strength of the Oconee County school system is the “teachers, parents and the students.”

“I’m going to have to say it is the community,” Townsend said.

“I think it is the students,” Bagley said.

Townsend said that one of the biggest problems facing the schools is a lack of maintenance people “to take care of the plant and facilities.”

“The teacher-parent communication is something that I think could use a little help,” Bagley said.

“Just like in business when you have high performers and low performers, the low performers are the ones that get the most attention,” Burnette said. He said all students need to be given attention.

Near the end of the interview session, board member Mack Guest asked each applicant to indicate what he would cut if the school budget needed to be trimmed more.

Bagley said he didn’t know what he would cut, but he would protect the teachers.

Burnette said he would look for whatever did not affect the classroom.

Townsend said he would focus on such things as lights that didn’t need to be on, travel that was not necessary and ways to make the bus system more efficient.

Only about 20 people attended the session, which was held at the superintendent’s office in Watkinsville.

The Post 5 position became vacant in May when Tom Breedlove resigned and moved out of the county. Seventeen citizens applied for the opening, and the three candidates interviewed have been selected by the board as the finalists.

Board Chairman David Weeks said after the meeting tonight that he expected the board to make its decision on Breedlove’s replacement by October.

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The full video from the meeting is on the Oconee County Observations Channel of Vimeo.

Oconee County BOC Gives Citizen Committee OK to Make Presentation on Courthouse

Just a Recommendation

The Oconee County Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee got the blessing from the Board of Commissioners tonight to go ahead with its plans to show the public its PowerPoint presentation justifying its recommendation that the county build a separate judicial facility near the jail.

The presentation probably will be in October, but not at the regular meeting of the committee on Oct. 12, since that conflicts with a rescheduled meeting of the BOC.

In the meantime, the board is going forward with its plans to remodel the Government Annex on Greensboro highway on the south side of Watkinsville.

It voted tonight to spend up to an initial $2,990 to hire R.W. Allen, an Augusta company with offices in Athens, as construction manager at risk for the project.

In addition, the board decided that it will hold a public meeting on Sept. 21, probably at the Annex, to allow citizens to review options for the renovation of the facility, which currently houses the Utility Department, Public Works Department and the offices for the Fire Department.

At the Aug. 3 meeting, the BOC approved a contract of up to $74,500 with Precision Planning Inc. of Lawrenceville for architectural services for the renovation.

Commissioner Chuck Horton told Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee Chairman Abe Abouhamdan (right) tonight to make clear at its meeting that no decision had been made on the committee recommendation.

Abouhamdan responded that he knew that only the BOC could decide on what the county should do regarding what the committee has been calling judicial and administrative facilities for the county.

The committee met for a year before it reached its recommendation in March that the county separate judicial facilities from the present courthouse and build a new judicial facility somewhere near the current jail on Experiment Station road.

It has spent the time since that decision working on a PowerPoint presentation to convince the public that it has made the right decision.

The BOC sent the issue of the future of the courthouse to the land use committee in March of 2009.

Board members tonight suggested that the committee might use the public hearing to get citizen feedback as well as make its case for its recommendation, though the committee has been clear as it discussed its presentation that the goal was to justify the decision it had reached.

“I think that is a great idea, personally to hold a public meeting, and get more public input,” Commissioner Margaret Hale told Abouhamdan.

Oconee County Lacks Policy and Formal Procedures for Its Web Site

Citizen Committee Forming

Oconee County has only an informal set of procedures for deciding what goes on the county web site, with four people involved in the decision, according to County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault.

Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, Theriault, Finance Director Jeff Benko and Clerk of Commission Gina Lindsey all can put something on the web, Theriault said.

Angela Helwig, administrative assistant to the BOC, is the “point person” who actually uploads the materials, Theriault added in that June 7 telephone conversation.

Over the last year, the Board of Commissioners has asserted its right to control the flow of information from county department heads to its members, but it has passed up chances to control the county web site.

Chairman Davis, in contrast, uses the web site to disseminate his view of county affairs via a column he posts there weekly, and he publicly has made other decisions unchallenged about what does and what does not go on the web site.

Davis’ column first appears in the weekly newspaper The Oconee Enterprise. He starts with a question and then provides his answer.

The Aug. 26 column, which leads the list today, deals with maintenance of vacant subdivisions. Davis asks: “What is the county doing to make sure the entrances, etc., are maintained?” He answers that the county is trying to guarantee that the required maintenance is done.

A week earlier, Davis posed this question: “I understand we only had a 20% turnout for the recent runoff election and a 29% turnout for the primary election. How much does it cost the county to hold an election?” Answer (shortened here): “The county budgets approximately $20,000 to conduct an election and a runoff costs the county approximately $10,000.”

Of course, the columns always represent Davis’ take on issues. On April 29, while the BOC was considering cutbacks to balance the budget without increasing the tax (millage) rate, he hinted that an increase in the millage rate might be worth considering.

“I do not believe this Board desires to raise the millage rate during these difficult economic times, even though over the past several years the county millage rate has dropped from 8.23 mils (should be mills) to 6.686 mils (mills). Therefore, at some point the Board of Commissioners will have to make some very tough decisions. Will some services and programs have to be reduced or eliminated? Will the costs of other services and programs have to be increased to meet revenue projections?”

Today, the county web site has the weekly columns by Davis back through January of 2009.

I told the BOC at its May 4 meeting that I felt the county needed a citizen committee to make suggestions on policy for the county’s site and that I would form such a committee. I invited all members of the commission and members of the county administration to join.

To date, Commissioner Margaret Hale has said she will be a member of the committee.

At the suggestion of Jay Hanley, chairman of the Oconee County Republican Party, I asked Kate McDaniel to join, and she has agreed. McDaniel is a frequent attender of BOC and other county meetings, is active in Republican Party affairs and has a blog called A Positive Vision for Oconee County.

At the suggestion of Jonathan Veit, chair of the Oconee County Democratic Committee, I asked Tony Glenn to be a member of the committee. He, too, agreed. Glenn is a resident of Farmington who has been active in community affairs there and has been involved with the county Democratic Party.

The Committee has not yet met. I am hoping this posting will generate some additional interest and that another person or two will join the committee.

I told the BOC at its May 4 meeting that at a time when the traditional media are struggling to find the resources to cover government, it is particularly important that citizens have the ability to obtain information on their own.

The reporter for the Athens Banner-Herald who is responsible for Oconee County, Erin France, also covers Madison and Oglethorpe counties. Before the cutbacks at the paper several years ago, the Oconee County reporter for the paper had only that assignment.

“The county web site is a powerful communicative tool for the county,” I said to the board, “but it is not owned by the elected officials of this county or those they appoint. It is owned by the citizens of the county.”

I proposed that the citizen committee develop policy on the timely provision of information to citizens and also address the right of citizens to comment on matters before the county.

My comments were made at the citizen comment section of the May 4 meeting and were in part because of the way Chairman Davis responded to a question I had posed at the April 20 meeting. (Davis is pictured at left from the April 20 meeting.)

At that meeting, I asked members of the commission about a story written by Banner-Herald reporter France on April 19, 2010, that quoted Davis saying the commission had been “pricing various lots around the courthouse and near the jail.”

I said I recognized that the board could have secret meetings–I should have said could meet in secret–to discuss property. I asked the commissioners to indicate nonetheless what they had been discussing.

Each of the members of the commission except Chairman Davis said she or he had not been discussing any purchases.

Chairman Davis said he would put a response to my question on the county web site.

On April 22, I found on the county web site an unsigned response to my question at the April 20 meeting.

Since the unsigned response mentioned me by name and, in my view, gave a misleading rendition of the question I posed, I sent an email message to Chairman Davis, copied to Theriault, Clerk Lindsey and Jane Greathouse, Davis' assistant, at 10:31 p.m. on Sunday, April 25.

In that email message, I asked that a response I had attached to my email message be added to the county web site with an appropriate link on the home page indicating it was a response to the posting using my name.

At 10:32 p.m., I received a receipt indicating that Chairman Davis had opened my message. I received receipts from Theriault on 7:58 a.m. on April 26, from Ms. Lindsey at 9:32 a.m. that same day, and from Ms. Greathouse at 9:01 a.m. on April 28.

I did not receive any actual response from the chairman or from any of those to whom I copied my request.

At the May 4 meeting, I asked during the citizen comment section once again that my message be posted on the county web site, with a headline on the front page indicating that it has been posted as a reply to the earlier message.

No member of the commission responded to my comments, and to date my response has not been posted on the county web site, though the original message remains there.

At that same April 20 BOC meeting, Oconee County Attorney Daniel Haygood presented the Board of Commissioners an 11-page draft ethics ordinance that spelled out ethical standards and set up conditions for creation of a Board of Ethics to hear complaints about board members.

Haygood said he drafted the ordinance at the request of the board and that he forwarded it to members along with a Draft Model Ethics Ordinance for Counties prepared by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

He said he also sent to the board an analysis of ethics ordinances prepared by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.

As is usual, the citizens in attendance had no information on what Haygood was talking about. No copies of the ordinance or other materials he was discussing had been presented to the public in advance, and none were available at the meeting, either in written form or via a visual presentation.

After the discussion, County Administrative Officer Theriault said he would put the materials provided by Haygood on the web for the public to view, but Chairman Davis told him not to do so, saying he wanted to wait until after the commissioners had discussed it further.

None of the commissioners objected.

I obtained the documents via an open records request and placed them on the web as public files on April 22.

The ethics issue is on the agenda for discussion again at the BOC agenda-setting meeting on Tuesday.

Prior to the May 25 meeting of the BOC, the commissioners held the first of two required public hearings on the 2010-2011 budget.

Before the meeting, the final budget to be discussed had not been released to the public, and nothing was available at the door as the meeting began.

The hearing began with a PowerPoint presentation on the budget by Finance Director Benko, who summarized what he considered to be the key features of the budget. Among the things he left out was mention of an increase in the water and sewage rates that was included in the budget.

After the citizen comment on the budget, Chairman Davis announced the proposed budget and the proposed fee schedule that supported it would be placed on the county website the next day and would be available at the courthouse and the county library.

They remain available on the web site today.

At the July 27 meeting, I thanked the county for providing the PowerPoint and the single page summary of the budget, and I asked if the county could provide a full budget for the county that would include details at the departmental level. I also asked for a finalized budget for fiscal year 2009-2010, which ended on June 30.

I said these could be provided either on the web or as a hard copy for citizens to review and copy.

No one responded to my request.

I had asked Commissioner Hale after the June 17 forum sponsored by the Oconee County Republican Party and by the Oconee Regional Republican Women if she would give me a copy of the final budget for 2010-2011 so I could make a copy. She told me she only had budget requests, not the final department budget that the commission had approved.

During a break in the July 27 meeting, Commissioner John Daniell said he would obtain a copy of the budget for me.

He told me last week he had received the budget and would bring me his copy. He dropped it off at my house yesterday.

Included is the 2010-2011 budget, but not the 2009-2010 reconciled budget.

The detailed Utility Department budget, more than twice the size in terms of dollars allocated of any other departmental budget and more than the combined separate budgets for the jail and for law enforcement, was not included.

My plan is to scan the budgets I have and make them available to the public through this blog.

After I made my comments about formation of a citizen committee to develop policy for the county web site, Lisa Davol, then interim director and now deputy director of programs at the Parks and Recreation Department, told me she would be glad to discuss with the committee the departmental efforts to create a modern and clean web site.

The Park and Recreation website, which has its own look and structure, it linked to the main county web site.

The Planning Department, working within the structure of the existing county site, has taken steps on its own to provide information to the public in advance of Planning Commission and BOC meetings.

For example, the department has key documents for the upcoming BOC discussion of a rezone request by Courtney Elder already available online.

This is the strategy also being followed by the Oconee County Board of Education, though navigation of that site is quite difficult.

Anyone who is interested in helping citizens develop recommendations for the county on how to make the best use of its web site and on policy for the site should contact me at lbbecker@mindspring.com.

Oconee County’s Zoom Bait/St. Mary’s Sewer Project Given Promotional Boost in Paper

Sewage for Development Theme

The headline that ran across the top of the page of the Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010, edition of the Athens Banner-Herald was clear enough.

Sewer line will help prevent job drain, it said.

PROJECT TO SERVE MAKER OF FISHING TACKLE, ST. MARY’S HOSPICE FACILITY, the subhead explained.

“A new sewer line will keep jobs in Bogart and encourage more commercial growth on Jennings Mill road, Oconee County officials say,” the lead, or first paragraph of the story, elaborated.

The problem is that neither the “maker of fishing tackle” nor the St. Mary’s facility is in Bogart, so the sewer line won’t keep jobs there.

The bigger problem is that, even when pushed by members of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners at its July 27 meeting, the Oconee County officials most involved in the sewer line project said it would not have much of an effect on future development on Jennings Mill road.

There simply isn’t land in the immediate area that can be developed, and what is available can better be served by an existing sewer line, they said.

The $773,000 sewer line, the officials said, is to provide Oconee County sewage services to Zoom Bait, located at 1581 Jennings Mill road, and St. Mary’s Highland Hills Village and the accompanying St. Mary’s Center for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care and St. Mary’s Hospice House.

The St Mary’s facility is located at 1660 Jennings Mill road.

Zoom Bait currently is on a septic system. St. Mary’s is sending its sewage to Athens-Clarke County for treatment.

Where–and what–is Bogart?

Bogart is an incorporated city lying partly in Clarke County but mostly in Oconee County whose eastern border starts near the intersection of Fowler Mill road and the Atlanta highway several miles west of Georgia Square Mall.


View Directions to 1581 Jennings Mill Rd, Bogart, GA 30622 in a larger map

The bait manufacturer and the St. Mary’s facilities are on Jennings Mill road between SR Loop 10 and McNutt’s creek, which forms the Clarke/Oconee county border at that point.

Jennings Mill road intersects the Atlanta highway opposite Logan’s Roadhouse restaurant.

By car, it would be 4.7 miles from Zoom Bait to the Bogart city border. It would take, according to Google maps, about 10 minutes.

The Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s properties do have a Bogart Zip Code, as do large parts of western Athens.

Zip maps are a mishmash in the area. (The Zip Code for Bogart is 30622.)

Now to the second problem.

Oconee County Economic Development Director Rusty Haygood and Utility Department Director Chris Thomas came to the BOC at that July 27 meeting to explain why they needed an additional $400,000 on top of the $186,711 the county had already committed and the $186,711 the state had committed to the County for the sewer line.

The state was using federal money for its commitment.

The pair explained that the original estimate of the cost of the project they had used was bad, and that they now thought they were likely to need another $400,000.

Several of the commissioners were pretty unhappy, and they wanted to believe that the sewer line was going to do something more than simply take sewage from the “maker of fishing tackle” and St. Mary’s.

They asked that question of Thomas, and in the exchange, Thomas seemed to be conceding that the new sewer line might be used by customers other than Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s.

Haygood stopped him and corrected him.

The land available for development behind WalMart and Lowe’s can be better served by an existing line the county installed more than a decade ago, Thomas said.

“This project is specifically designed for those two businesses,” Thomas said. No other customers had been identified, he said, but, at least theoretically, others could use it.



When I called Haygood on the phone on July 30 and asked him again if there were others customers, he said the sewer line was for two customers, Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s.

In fact, a check of the tax records for the county shows that Zoom Bait sits on two pieces of property totally 16.1 acres and owned by William Edward Chambers Sr. and Faye S. Chambers.

Georgia Secretary of State records list William E. Chambers as CEO of Zoom Bait and William E. Chambers Jr. as CFO.

St. Mary’s Highland Hills Inc. sits on 66.6 acres.

These are the only two pieces of property along which the sewer line will run until near where it reaches the pump station behind Kohls. From there the sewage will be pumped to one or the other of the county’s two sewage treatment locations.

I posted my story, with this statement from Haygood and summary of the customers for the sewer line on Aug. 2.

Two days after the July 27 meeting The Oconee Enterprise had run a story on page 1 under a single column headline reporting that the sewer line was going to cost $400,000 more than projected and that the undeveloped land behind the big retailers on Epps Bridge Parkway would be served by a different sewer line.

Banner-Herald reporter Erin France, who was at the July 27 meeting and wrote the Aug. 17 story about the sewer line, seems have been more interested in the theoretical than the real.

She quoted County Finance Director Jeff Benko as saying that the sewer line will help protect existing jobs, but it also will prepare surrounding property for commercial development along Jennings Mill road.

She quoted Benko as saying specifically:

“That line will strategically open up a corridor that goes towards Epps Bridge parkway.”

That is exactly what Thomas said at the July 27 meeting is not the case.

I talked with Haygood the day the Banner-Herald story appeared and asked him a few additional questions.

He told me that Williams and Associates, a land planning firm with offices on Daniells Bridge road in Oconee County (but with an Athens Zip Code), had provided the $373,422 cost estimate for the project that the county used for its Georgia Department of Community Affairs grant application.

He also told me that no contract had been let for the project, and in response to my request he gave me a copy of the list of the six bids the county had received for the May 7 bid opening.

At the July 27 meeting, the “low responsive bid” was referred to as for $642,700, and Harrison & Harrison, Inc., of Athens, submitted a bid of $642,766, according to the list.

I also asked Haygood if the county had made any calculation of how much money the Utility Department would take in from sewage fees per month from Zoom Bait and St. Mary's once the line was built. He told me that Thomas had made just such an estimate.

Thomas told me later that day that he had calculated, based on current water usage, that Zoom Bait will pay about $300 per month and St. Mary’s about $160. Sewage fees are calculated on water use, and both customers currently get water from the county.

Thomas estimated that Zoom Bait’s figure could easily double to $600 per month if the firm expands, as he said it has said it will if it gets a sewer line. Thomas said that St. Mary’s could be paying more than at present as well when its new facilities are fully operational.

The Board of Commissioners approved the extra $400,000 for the new sewer line at its Aug. 3 meeting. (The minutes call it the “Zoom Bait/St. Mary’s Sewer Line Project.”)

The BOC took the money for the $400,000 investment–as well as the $186,000 committed earlier--from Special Purposes Local Option Sales Tax revenues, not from the Utility Department budget.

This means that the financially strapped Utility Department will get the improvement that will generate the new sewer revenue without paying for those improvements from its budget.

The Aug. 17 story about the Zoom Bait and St. Mary’s sewer line was not the only one the Banner-Herald ran last week about sewer projects and development.

On Aug. 16, it ran a story on page 1 about a sewage project in Oglethorpe County, also written by reporter Erin France, under the single column headline: Sights set on sewer

The city of Crawford is building a new sewage plant to replace the two antiquated ones it now operates, and France quoted Crawford Mayor Jimmy Coile on the prospect:

“Hopefully, with this system, it will encourage more business to come into the area. That’s what Oglethorpe County needs right now.”

Sewage projects are complex, with someone getting rid of the sewage and someone receiving the effluent. They use different technologies with different effects. And they cost a lot of money.

The Aug. 16 story about the Oglethorpe project did not say where the treated sewage water will go once it is treated. Part of Oglethorpe County is in the Oconee River watershed, and part is in the Savannah River watershed.

I called the Crawford city office and was referred to Austin Rambin, project manager with Peoples and Quigley in Sandy Springs.

He told me that the effluent, which will be treated to close to reuse standards with a disk filter system, will discharge into Barrow Creek.

Barrow Creek flows to the Oconee River, meeting just upstream from where Oglethorpe, Greene and Oconee counties intersect.

The math is in the favor of the Crawford mayor’s assertions about the ability of the plant to meet future needs.

Rambin told me (and France also reported in the last paragraph of her story) that the plant will have the capacity to handle 250,000 gallons per day of sewage, and that the two old Crawford plants are handling only about 80,000 combined today.

Rambin said that 80,000 includes surface water that is entering the antiquated sewer lines.

To help finance the project, Crawford has agreed to sell sewage treatment to Lexington, which relies wholly on septics at present, according to Rambin.

Even with the Lexington sewage, Rambin said, the new Crawford plant will have plenty of unused capacity.

The plant–a relatively small one by area standards–has been built so that it can be expanded if needed, he added.

The Banner-Herald story didn’t contain much detail about financing.

Rambin said the city got a $4 million federal grant and a federal loan for $3.3 million. The agreement with Lexington to treat its sewage was part of the package presented to the federal government to demonstrate that Crawford can repay the loan, he said.

The story did expand on the sewage for development theme.

France wrote the following summary of her take of the situation:

“People in Oglethrope County have yearned for more commercial development–maybe a fast-food restaurant, or even a big-box store like Home Depot–when thinking about what a sewer system could mean for the county.”

She didn’t mention any yearning for a “maker of fishing tackle.”

That would be Bogart, or at least the Bogart Zip Code.