Traffic on the Oconee Connector will be greatly restricted beginning at 7 p.m. today (9/18/2026) as Archer Western Construction begins work on mid-span vertical supports for the two bridges that will carry SR 316 over the Connector.
The current four lanes of traffic now moving through the intersection in each direction will be cut to two lanes, one for through traffic and one for left-hand turns.
Lisa and Bill Douglas have granted a conservation easement deed to Madison-Morgan Conservancy that will prohibit the development of almost all of their 332-acre historic Hedgerow Farm on Price Mill Road west of Bishop.
The easement allows the Douglases to continue to own and farm the property and to sell it, but the easement prevents the Douglases or anyone who purchases the land from dividing it or altering its “relatively natural, pastoral, agricultural, forested, open and relatively undeveloped condition.”
All five of Oconee County’s commissioners on Tuesday night said they were opposed to the close-in route for a truck bypass linking SR 15 with U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville that consultants for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) said they are considering as the recommended route.
The commissioners were joined in that opposition by Georgia House District 121 Rep. Eric Gisler and Georgia Senate District 46 candidate Ray Smith, both of whom were in the audience of more than 80 at the called Board of Commissioners Town Hall Meeting.
Forums scheduled two nights in a row in Oconee County next week will give voters a chance to hear candidates for state House District 120, state House District 121, and state Senate District 46 answer questions on issues in the Nov. 3 election.
On Sept. 23 candidates will be asked to respond to questions from directors of the Oconee County Farm Bureau on issues that impact farmers and rural Oconee County.
Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives, in a meeting at the Bogart Library last month, argued that their opposition to legislation in the General Assembly earlier this year that would have eliminated the property tax for homeowners was based on opposition to the resultant increase in sales taxes.
They also said elimination of property taxes on homeowners would have transferred the tax burden to renters and businesses and would have resulted in cuts to police, schools, and other local services.
Oconee County Schools has received approval of its application to the Georgia Foundation for Public Education (GFPE) allowing it to raise money through the PEACH Education Tax Credit program for upgrades to its Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) programs.
The money Oconee County Schools is able to raise from donors will be used for development of “innovative 21st-century learning environments across Oconee County Schools' CTAE labs and specialized spaces,” according to the application submitted by Oconee County Schools to the Foundation.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has released a new detour map for the closure of Jimmy Daniell Road at SR 316 scheduled for Sept. 14, underscoring that travel along that major artery in the county is about to get much more difficult.
The very busy intersection of the Oconee Connector with SR 316 now also has a flashing sign indicating that a change in the traffic pattern there will begin on Sept. 18.
