Oconee County Liquor Referendum Had Support Of Major Political, Social And Demographic Groups

Survey Analysis Shows

Oconee County voters gave overwhelming support to the liquor-by-the-drink initiative on the ballot in November, and an analysis of survey data from the weeks before that vote shows that all major political, social and demographic groups approved of the change in county liquor laws.

Political conservatives, voters more than 60 years old, evangelical Christians, those who attend church weekly or more often, and voters with children under 18 years of age all favored allowing the county to issue licenses for restaurants to sell liquor by the drink.

Oconee County To Let Bids Early In 2015 For New Gravity Sewer Line Along McNutt Creek

Will Cross Jennings Mill Course

Oconee County officials expect to let bids early in January or February for construction of a $2.5 million gravity-fed sewer line running along McNutt Creek from Jimmy Daniell Road to Parkway Boulevard at Kohl’s.

While the county has tried to stay outside the 25-foot buffer the state places on streams, that was not possible in all cases, and the county is waiting on a final approval of a variance to encroach on the buffer for 627 feet along the creek.

Report Outlines Spending For Oconee County 2004 And 2009 SPLOST Projects

2004 Facilities Money Unspent

By the end of the last fiscal year, Oconee County had spent about three-quarters of the revenue it is expecting from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum passed by voters in 2009, according to a report just released by the county’s Finance Department.

By the end of the report period on June 30, 15 months of tax collection remained, meaning the county was spending at about the right amount to keep revenue and expenditures from the 1 percent sales tax in balance.

Hard Labor Creek Board Agrees To Pay Extra $410,000 For Professional Services To Keep Dam Construction On Schedule

Reason For Cost Not Determined

The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board deliberated nearly 30 minutes at its regular meeting on Tuesday before deciding it had no alternative but to pay an additional $410,000 for professional services for the ongoing construction of the dam.

Schnabel Engineering, with offices in Alpharetta, requested the additional payment on top of the $923,000 originally agreed upon, or a 44.4 percent increase, to continue construction testing and engineering services for the dam through April 1 of 2015.

Developer Asks To Withdrawal Plans Before Oconee County Commissioners For RV Storage Facility

Board Must Accept

The developer of a proposed recreational vehicle storage facility at the corner of New High Shoals Road and Union Church Road today asked to withdraw the application for the rezone needed for the facility.

Williams and Associates, representing property owners Herbert E. Michael and Mark Selvidge and Ted Evans Jr., of Watkinsville Storage, gave no reason in the short letter filed with the Oconee County Planning Department for the request to withdraw the rezone from the Jan. 6 agenda of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.

Rep. Quick Tells Oconee County Government Leaders She Questions The Need For Additional Funding for GDOT

Local Maybe Better

It is unlikely that Rep. Regina Quick won any friends at the Georgia Department of Transportation last week with the comments she made at the special session with local governmental leaders organized by the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce.

But it was clear she was not trying to curry favor with the state’s transportation leaders.

“I have some concern that there is a great sucking sound coming from Atlanta, from the transportation office,” she said.

Oconee County Commission Chairman Davis Suggests Revisions To Draft Alcohol Ordinance

Next Reading In January

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight agreed to consider over the next three weeks changes in the draft ordinance presented to it that will allow for the sale of liquor by the drink in county restaurants.

Commission Chairman Melvin Davis recommended that the Board review the requirement in the draft ordinance that no more than 25 percent of the gross income at the restaurant be from the sale of alcoholic beverages.