Deferred Tax LLC will be back before the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night with its latest plan for development of the 46.9 acres it owns on the Oconee Connector between Mars Hill Road and SR 316 stretching to Virgil Langford Road.
This time, Deferred Tax is proposing a two-building, 26,000 square foot retail center with a restaurant on a 6.8 sub-parcel at the northwest corner of Mars Hill Road and the Connector.
Patrick Graham, owner of the Walton Tribune, announced on Friday that he has purchased The Oconee Enterprise from Oconee County businessman Mark Martin.
The purchase will take place immediately, and Graham said the Enterprise will not miss an issue.
A candidate forum for the contested state Senate District 46 and House District 120 races in the May 19 Party Primaries is scheduled for 5:30 to 8 p.m. on April 21 at the Community Center, Oconee Veterans Park, 3500 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing.
Voters will have the opportunity to pose questions in one session to Republican candidates seeking the party’s nomination for Senate District 46 and in a separate session to the Democrats seeking the party nomination for Senate District 46.
Oconee County Schools released its official March 6 enrollment report on Friday, showing a decline in enrollments of seven students from the count on Oct. 7 of 2025.
Enrollment on Oct. 7, 2025, had been down by 192 students from Oct. 1 of 2024, and enrollment on March 6 of 2026 was down by 134 students from March 5 of 2025.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night agreed to put on its agenda for next week discussion of a proposal that the county launch its own Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operation.
The Board also will consider purchasing five 2026 F-350 Ford trucks for a total cost of $1,124,000 and purchasing $768,279 in ambulance equipment for those trucks as the first step in establishing the county program.
State Rep. Eric Gisler’s Third Town Hall meeting quickly became a conversation, and he exchanged ideas with the audience on topics including gun control, voting rights, education funding, property and income taxes, and the state budget surplus.
Gisler, representing Oconee County in House District 121, noted as the session at the Town of North High Shoals Town Hall got underway that he knew everyone in the audience, and many had been involved in his campaign leading up to the special election last December that put him in the General Assembly in January.
More than 230 people turned out on a sunny but cool Saturday afternoon in front of the historic Eagle Tavern and in front of the Oconee County Courthouse on Main Street in downtown Watkinsville to join the national No Kings rally.
Protesters carried hand-created signs with the No Kings theme, but also protesting the war in Iran, the cost of gasoline, President Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, and the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell waited until about 12 minutes into his 40-minute-long State of the County address on Wednesday to talk about what he said he knew his audience was most interested in hearing: his annual transportation project update.
Daniell reviewed the status of 11 Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) projects in the county and eight county funded projects.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell took a pause in his summary of county finances in his State of the County address on Wednesday (March 18) to comment on property tax legislation passed by the Georgia House of Representatives and now before the Senate.
Daniell said the current version of House Bill 1116 would impact the county in three ways.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, seeking input on the provision of emergency medical services (EMS) in the county, will hold a called Town Hall Meeting at 6 p.m. on March 26 at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
The meeting will focus on the current arrangement for provision of EMS in the county and on options for the future, according to the announcement on the county web site.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday night approved spending $108,128 for the purchase and installation of 120 new access control panels for doors in the system’s 12 schools.
Tony McCullers, Chief Technology Officer for Oconee County Schools, told the Board the purchase will address technology needs of the schools and strengthen overall security across the district.
When the Oconee County Democratic Party asked County Commissioner Chuck Horton to give an overview of the proposed new Dawson Park last week, Horton focused on what he sees as the immediate need for new sports fields and a gym.
The long-range plan for the 250-acre site on Rocky Branch Road that now is the county’s Land Application System (LAS) site includes bike and walking trails, a dog park, ponds, playgrounds, and picnic areas.
An unidentified interested party has approached the Oconee County Board of Education about the possibility of purchasing 42.7 acres on U.S. 41 north of Bishop that the School Board has owned since 2007 but has never utilized.
The Board spent an hour and 45 minutes in executive session after its regular meeting on Monday (March 2) discussing the possible sale of the property as well as the Personnel Report from Superintendent Melissa Butler.
Only one candidate has qualified for each of the four Oconee County local races on the ballot on May 19, meaning the only wholly local question before voters is the referendum on renewal of the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
At the end of qualifying at noon on Friday, only incumbent Chuck Horton qualified for Post 2 on the Board of Commissioners, and only incumbent Amrey Harden qualified for Board of Commissioners Post 3.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, in a 3 to 1 vote, on Tuesday night turned down a request to build a contractor’s office/showroom/warehouse building with outdoor storage on Jimmy Daniell Road at the entrance to Silver Leaf subdivision.
Oconee Medical Properties LLC, owned by Gavin Griffith and Tim Burgess, was asking the Commission to grant it a special use to build the 25,000 square foot facility without rezoning the land from its current Agricultural District (AG) classification.
Democratic State Rep. Eric Gisler began his second Town Hall meeting on Saturday with an update on legislation under consideration in the Georgia House of Representatives and a summary of his position on the legislation.
Gisler said he will vote against House Bill 1116, which is designed to eliminate local property tax for homesteaded property in 2032, because local governmental leaders in both Oconee and Clarke counties are opposed. His House District 121 includes parts of both counties.
The Oconee County Board of Education does not have any plans to add a third high school in the near future, given the current decline in enrollments in the Oconee County Schools system.
The Board is anticipating some future growth in enrollments and is monitoring the zoning and the issuance of building permits, but both high schools are under capacity and can absorb some growth.
The Georgia State Election Board last week voted to send to the Georgia Attorney General for further investigation a complaint filed against the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration about qualification for the 2024 Watkinsville Council races.
The Board took that action after former Mayor Bob Smith told the Board that three candidates wanted to run for the three Watkinsville Council seats in 2024 but did not qualify because the date of qualification had changed from past years and because the interested persons did not know of the change.
Oconee County government will lose $9.8 million in property tax revenue if the legislation being considered by the Georgia House of Representatives is approved in its current form, while each of the county’s four cities will lose between $13,504 and $306,307, and Oconee County Schools will lose a whopping $32.2 million.
For the counties, Watkinsville, and Bogart, the loss likely can be offset by reallocating some of the revenue from the county’s 1 percent Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), if the legislation being considered is modified to allow that use of LOST funds.
Jeff Hood touched a fresh wound when he asked the first question at the Oconee County Board of Commissioners Town Hall meeting last week.
Hood wanted to know how the county is going to “make up the missing revenue” if the state prohibits local governments from collecting property taxes on homesteaded property, as the Republican Party House leadership has proposed.
The Oconee County Boards of Education on Monday agreed to spend $917,178 for improvements at Oconee County Elementary school, including replacement of the gym roof, metal siding, and floor activity area and replacement of the floors in the outside classroom pod.
The Board also approved spending $899,748 for new digital scoreboards for the North Oconee High School and Oconee County High School stadiums.
Principals at Oconee County primary, elementary, and middle schools informed parents through their December newsletters that Oconee County Schools has updated its policy on use of electronic devices by students effective July 1 of this year.
The new policy requires that all cell phones and personal electronic devices must be turned off and stored away during the “bell-to-bell” school day.
Eric Gisler, elected in December to represent much of Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, received a hero’s welcome when he appeared before Oconee County Democrats last month.
“You know, this is the first time that the representative from House District 121 has ever come to any of our meetings,” Party Chair Harold Thompson said in introducing Gisler, to laughs and a loud round of applause.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is moving toward approval of a new concept plan that would close completely access of Julian Drive to and from SR 316.
Under the plan, Julian Drive traffic from the north would be blocked from entering SR 316 and instead would travel to US 78 via a new road parallel to SR 316 that would be an extension of Tall Oaks Road.
After requests for two commercial developments in the northern part of the county were pulled from the agenda of the Oconee Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, more than half of the standing room only crowd left the Commission Chamber.
A cluster of a dozen citizens remained, however, determined to fight approval of two variances being sought by the developer of just more than 181 acres in the far south of the county.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration on Monday voted 4 to 1 to table indefinitely consideration of adding five or six days of early voting at a site other than the county Administrative Building just north of Watkinsville.
The Board took that action after, during the public comment section at the beginning of the meeting, Oconee County Republican Party Chair Kathy Hurley, who said she was speaking for the party, stated her strong opposition to adding a second early voting site.
The owners of the five-acre tract on the west side of Jimmy Daniell Road and the north side of Silver Leaf Road are asking the county for the third time since 2006 to make zoning changes to allow them to develop the property commercially.
In 2006, they asked that the property, which abuts Silver Leaf subdivision, be rezoned from its agricultural classification to Office Institutional Professional District (OIP) to build an office park containing four, two-story office buildings totaling 40,800 square feet in size.
The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees has selected artwork for the library in Wire Park consisting of three large sets of photographic panels for the inside walls of the main room and nine paneled murals for the children’s library space.
The Board chose the artwork after presentations by three individual artists and a collaborating pair of artists at it meeting last week.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) agreed on Tuesday to spend up to $4 million from its reserves to cover the added costs of using synthetic turf rather than natural grass on eight fields at the future Dawson Park on Rocky Branch Road.
The IDA is using this investment in what it is calling sports tourism to bring in out-of-county visitors for tournaments and other sporting events who will stay in county hotels, patronize local restaurants, and spend money at retails outlets in the county.
Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday night voted to ask the county Board of Elections and Registration to place on the May 19 General Primary and Nonpartisan Election ballot a referendum for renewal of the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
If voters approve the referendum, which is expected to generate conservatively $75 million in revenue, the county will spend $13.3 million of that amount to pay off debt from construction of Oconee Veterans Park and from construction of the county Administrative Building.
More than 130 people turned out last week for the Public Information Open House held by the Georgia Department Transportation (GDOT) and contractor Archer Western on the proposed six-month closure of the interchange of Jimmy Daniell Road with SR 316.
Attendees had the opportunity to view two sets of easels with maps of the proposed detour and of the design for the grade-separated diamond interchange already under construction.
Houston Gaines, who represents part of Oconee County in the Georgia House of Representatives, updated Oconee County Republicans early last month on his campaign for the party nomination for the 10th Congressional District as well on as his plans for the legislative session now underway.
Gaines said he has no announced opponents in the May primary but “We are running as though 25 people are running against us.”
Over the objections of the developers of 8.1 acres on Daniells Bridge Road, the Oconee County Planning Commission on Tuesday night voted unanimously to recommend that the Board of Commissioners approve a new concept plan for the property with the conditions recommended by the county planning staff.
Kris Robinson told the Commission that he and business partner Joe Polaneczky objected to five of the 13 conditions that the county planning staff said should be applied to their request for approval of their plan for a seven-building office/ warehouse/ flex space complex.
Oconee County School Superintendent Melissa Butler found both strengths and areas for improvement in her 90-day assessment of the school system she took responsibility for on Oct. 14.
In a report she released last week, Butler said community members and faculty and staff said Oconee County Schools has high quality educators and staff, a positive school culture, and academic rigor.
The owners of 8.1 acres on the north side of Daniells Bridge Road east of the curve at SR Loop 10 are scheduled to be before the Oconee County Planning Commission on Tuesday night seeking permission to radically alter the concept plan for that property approved by the county in 2008.
Krojo LLC is asking that it be allowed to put seven office and warehouse buildings on the property instead of the single large office building approved by the Board of Commissioners in 2008.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) is considering spending $5 million from its reserve to put synthetic turf rather than natural grass on sports fields at the planned Dawson Park to support sports tourism in the county.
At its meeting on Tuesday, Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, who is a member of the IDA, said the county is prepared to spend $25 million it has in hand to launch Dawson Park.
The developer of a shopping center on U.S. 78 just west of Mars Hill Road says he has executed a lease with Publix and expects to break ground on the project this spring.
Fred Hand IV of Hand Properties Inc. of Atlanta said on Thursday that signage will go up on the property next week announcing the project.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday voted to spend $4.6 million from the current Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) for HVAC renovation at Oconee County Primary School and Oconee County Middle School and for a replacement of its Transportation Office.
The Board on Monday also received an update from Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services, on acquiring digital video scoreboards for the stadiums at North Oconee High School and at Oconee County High School.
The more than 100 people who turned out at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park on Saturday for newly elected State Rep. Eric Gisler’s Town Hall meeting engaged in a dialogue on topics ranging from affordable housing, school safety, the costs of medical care, and cell phones in classrooms.
Gisler began the two-hour session by talking about what he has done since his election on Dec. 9 to prepare himself for the legislative session that begins tomorrow (Monday), saying he has talked extensively with government and civic leaders in both Oconee and Clarke counties.
Attorney Jeffrey DeLoach, speaking to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, rejected the county initiated rezone plan for the 33.7 acres on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road.
DeLoach said his client, Deferred Tax LLC, was interested in a settlement of the lawsuit Deferred Tax had filed against the county, but not in the proposal the county was offering through its rezone.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration decided on Monday to explore adding a second venue for early voting in the May 19 Party Primary Elections to increase turnout in the Oconee Northeast Precinct, which includes Bogart.
Board Chair Jay Hanley said he had been approached by candidates who are running for House District 120 and are concerned about turnout in the Northeast Precinct, which falls in that District.
The Oconee County Democratic Committee announced on Sunday afternoon that it is joining two protests on Monday in Athens of Saturday’s aerial invasion of Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro.
The “Hands Off Venezuela” protests are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the corner of Alps Road and Baxter Streets and at 4 p.m. in downtown Athens outside the UGA Arch on Broad Street.
Oconee County commissioners face an agenda with a long list of rezone requests in their first meeting of the New Year on Tuesday night, including three with the potential to have significant impact on development in the county in the coming years.
Members of the Bishop family, who own 17.8 acres stretching from Experiment Station Road along the east side of Bishop Farms Parkway to the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia, are seeking to rezone 4.8 acres at the corner of Bishop Farms Parkway and Experiment Station Road for a small grocery store, restaurant, and gas station.
