Based on data gathered by the Georgia Department of Transportation as part of its Traffic Monitoring Program, the volume of traffic flowing through downtown Watkinsville on Main Street decreased from 2019 through 2024, the most recent year for which counts are available.
This is true based on actual counts from a monitoring location at the center of Watkinsville and on projections from those counts.
After six days of early voting for the May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan elections, 1,277 of Oconee County 34,515 registered voters have cast a ballot, a just slightly higher percentage than had cast a ballot after six days of early voting in the May 2022 elections .
Another 41 voters have returned a mail ballot, bringing the total number of voters who have cast a ballot by the end of the day on Saturday to 1,318, or 3.8 percent of the total eligible voters.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners has put on its agenda for its meeting next Tuesday (May 5) discussion of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) plans for a truck bypass linking SR 15 and U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville.
The Board took this action at its Agenda Setting meeting on Tuesday (April 28) after citizens appeared before the Board asking it to oppose the current plans, which include three alternate routes for the bypass, none of which follows existing roadways and all of which would cut through undeveloped properties and farmland.
Oconee County Schools collected less than $1 million from its Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) in February, the first time collections dropped below the $1 million benchmark since February of last year and the first time collections have fallen below those from the same month a year earlier since December of 2023.
In January, collections had been up by 6.2 percent from January of 2025, and collections had been up by more than 2 percent over the month a year earlier every month since November of 2024.
More than 300 people turned out Saturday for a four-hour-long Democratic Party Voter Fair at the Oconee County Civic Center on Hog Mountain Road sponsored by the Democratic Party Committees of Congressional District 10 and hosted by the Oconee County Democratic Party Committee.
Candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State School Superintendent, Labor Commissioner, and the Public Service Commission spoke and answered questions.
The first question to each of the five candidates who participated in a nonpartisan forum Tuesday night for Oconee County's state legislative races was about the candidates’s plans for seeking citizen input once they are elected.
“A lot of us are very frustrated that people who say they represent us refuse to meet with us,” retired University of Georgia Adult Education Professor Margaret Holt told Republicans Michael Broun and Doug McKillip.
Three opportunities for voters to meet with candidates whose names will be on the May 19 General Primary and Nonpartisan Ballot are scheduled for the week before or just as early voting begins on April 27.
Candidates for the contested Democratic and Republican primaries for Senate District 46 and the contested Republican primary for House District 120 have been invited to participate in the April 21 Candidate Forum at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park.
