When the Oconee County Democrats invited Oconee County Sheriff James Hale, a Republican, to speak to them last week, they asked him to talk about two issues, school safety and immigration.
Hale obliged, spending more than 50 minutes talking and answering questions about various aspects of those two topics.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday night gave approval to a $122.5 million preliminary Fiscal Year 2027 budget, up 1.6 percent from the $120.5 million budget for the current fiscal year.
Revenue is projected at $120.7 million, and the budget is balanced by a transfer of funds from the General Fund Balance, or money held in reserve.
One of the three alternate routes the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has proposed for a truck bypass linking SR 15 with U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville would pass near the property line for Colham Ferry Elementary School, but it would not require any changes at the school.
If the Board of Education decides to expand the school or do updates or repairs, it will have to get state approval, and the state Department of Education could require construction of a berm and modifications of such things as windows to accommodate the dangers of truck traffic.
Early voting for the May 19 Party Primary and Nonpartisan elections is running just ahead of early voting in the those elections in 2022, with 9.8 percent of the county’s 34,014 voters having cast a ballot by the end of the second week of early voting on Saturday.
Of that total, 3,214 votes were cast Advance In Person, up from 2,516 at that same point two years ago, when the county had 32,034 registered voters. The 3,214 is 9.4 percent of registered voters this year versus 7.9 percent four years ago.
Oconee County Finance Director Melissa Braswell on Tuesday night presented to the Board of Commissioners and the public an $85.5 million total budget for the county for Fiscal Year 2027, up 2.1 percent from the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Included is a $49.0 million General Fund Budget, up 7.2 percent from the $45.7 million General Fund Budget adopted last June for the current Fiscal Year.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night officially and unanimously asked the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to slow down its planning for a truck route linking SR 15 and U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville.
The request came in the form of a resolution passed by the Board after a crowd of a just more than 100 gathered in the Commission Chamber of the county Administrative Building in anticipation of Board action on GDOT’s stated plans for a bypass.
Oconee County Republican Party Chair Kathy Hurley invited five office seekers to her final "Cavalcade of Candidates" last week, as early voting was just getting underway, but only Kate Patterson was an unknown to the group.
Patterson, who is on the Party Primary Ballot as the nominee for Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Education, is running unopposed in the May 19 election.
