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.
