Tie In Watkinsville
Oconee County voters will be back at the polls on Dec. 6 to decide the outcome of the special election to fill Post 2 on the Board of Commissioners, as none of the three candidates got more than 50 percent of the vote.
With all but about 900 absentee ballots counted, Chuck Horton had 45.1 percent of the vote, Marcus Wiedower had 30.5 percent, and Ben Bridges had 23.7 percent.
Oconee County Parks and Recreation Director John Gentry told the Board of Commissioners on Aug. 30 that the county is at a decision point regarding the future of the operation of its parks.
The commissioners must decide if the Parks and Recreation Department should continue both to manage facilities and to manage youth and adult programs, or if the department should play a lesser role, perhaps only managing facilities.
The campaign for the open Post 2 seat on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners turned negative this week as a campaign flier attacking candidate Chuck Horton as a “career politician” who has threatened the county’s school system arrived in select mailboxes in the county.
The dark colored, six-inch by 11-inch flier does not indicate who paid for the mailing, but it lists as the mailing address the postal box used by Marcus for Oconee BOC, the organization of candidate Marcus Wiedower.
Oconee County Commissioner Jim Luke broke ranks with his fellow commissioners three times last (Tuesday) night in what is likely to be his fourth last meeting on the Commission.
He refused to go along with an attempt to remove former Commissioner Chuck Horton from the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board, where Horton serves as a citizen member.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is asking his fellow commissioners tomorrow (Tuesday) night to spend between $30,000 and $60,000 on a study to justify widening Daniells Bridge Road and building a flyover of that road to the Oconee Connector at Home Depot.
The exact cost of the study isn’t known because county Public Works Director Emil Beshara has not yet released the three bids received.
More than a quarter of Oconee County’s registered voters have cast ballots in the first 11 days of early voting.
On Friday, 927 persons voted to the office of the Board of Elections and Registration at 10 Court Street across from the Courthouse in Watkinsville, the highest number since early voting started on Oct. 17.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis has the proposed Daniells Bridge Road flyover of SR Loop 10 back on the Commission agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting.
A year and a half after the Board of Commissioners turned down his efforts to get approval of the flyover and widening of Daniells Bridge Road to Hog Mountain Road, he is asking for funding of a traffic study of SR 316 and Epps Bridge Parkway.
