Oconee County’s representative on the state Transportation Board, Jamie Boswell, has not responded to state House District 121 Rep. Eric Gisler’s request for assistance in obtaining information on the proposed SR 15 Truck Bypass of Watkinsville.
Boswell said on Wednesday that instead “Jason Dykes out of the Gainesville office responded to Mr. Gisler based on info I received.”
Gisler on Wednesday confirmed that he has not received any response from Boswell to his Oct. 1 letter asking for assistance or his Oct. 6 follow-up email that also contained the Oct. 1 letter as an attachment.
Gisler said in a text message that the last correspondence he had with Dykes, a District Engineer at the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), was on May 13, months before he wrote to Boswell on Oct. 1 asking for access to data, analysis, and studies supporting or the proposed bypass.
Alan Bell, who has been active in the Save South Oconee group that is opposing the bypass, told the Oconee County Board of Commissioners at it’s Tuesday meeting he had learned that Boswell had not responded to Gisler and that Save South Oconee is still seeking the information that Gisler asked for in his Oct. 1 letter.
Bell said he spoke with Boswell at the Oct. 15 meeting of the state Transportation Board and again on Monday and that Boswell told him both times that “no one has reached out” to him about the bypass.
Bell said he found this “extremely alarming” and that he wanted his exchange with Boswell to be a part of the “official record.”
At the meeting on Monday, the Board agreed to spend $3.2 million for construction of an Emergency Services Building and Facilities Shop behind Fire Station Number 1 across from the county administrative Building on Macon Highway.
Bell On Boswell
Bell, speaking during the Public Comment period of the Commission meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 3), said that Kristen C. Thompson, Executive Secretary to the State Transportation Board, confirmed on Oct. 22 that Boswell has received the letter from Gisler.
Thompson said Boswell would respond to Gisler.
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| Bell 11/3/2026 |
Bell said he went to the Oct. 15 meeting of the state Transportation Board in Atlanta with a sign reading "Mr. Boswell Oconee doesn't want your Watkinsville bypass."
“Mr. Boswell approached me before the meeting,” Bell said, “and I simply asked him if he had spoken with anyone from Oconee County or even Rep. Gisler yet.”
Bell said that Boswell responded “that no one had ever spoken with him. I find that hard to believe considering all the meetings and the discussions and the Oconee County Board of Commissioners resolution.”
The Board passed a resolution directed to GDOT on May 5 asking GDOT to study the SR 15 corridor inside the Watkinsville city limits, combine a consideration of the SR 15 and U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop, and consider a fourth route inside the Watkinsville city limits south of McRee Street.
The “Oconee County Board of Commissioners opposes any route that would result in the displacement of farmland protected by the Oconee County Farmland Preservation Program,” the resolution reads. Two of the routes under consideration would affect the Breedlove Farm that is a part of the county’s farmland protection program.
“I had an eye-opening conversation with Mr. Boswell yesterday,” Bell said, “and I think it's something you should all be alerted to as well as on official record. When I asked Mr. Boswell if anyone had spoken with him yet concerning the bypass he had stated again no one has reached out to him.”
Commission Response
Bell said that Boswell “requested that anyone who wishes to speak with him or email him can call him, text him, or send an email to his personal email at jamie.boswell@boswellgroup.org.”
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| Horton 11/3/2026 |
Commissioner Chuck Horton, responding to Bell’s account of his conversations with Boswell, said “if they don't pass stuff along to him, you know, maybe that's why they're having so much trouble with our issue.”
“But I didn't know that he required me to personally call him, but I will,” he said. “I would really think a place that's that big they could transfer messages to one another, but maybe they just don't have that ability. I don't know.”
Bell said that the Transportation Board has scheduled a meeting for 3 to 5 p.m. in the Parthenon Rooms 1 and 2 at the Classic Center in Athens as part of a Georgia Transportation Summit.
Board meetings are open to the public, and Bell told the Board “I'd request your presence to speak with Mr. Boswell and Mr. McMurry in person.” Russell McMurry is Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation.”
Correspondence with Thompson, Gisler, Boswell
I sent an email to Thompson at the state Transportation Board this afternoon (Nov. 4), asking if she could “confirm that Mr. Boswell has responded to Rep. Gisler.”
Thompson replied almost immediately saying “Let me follow up to make sure and I will get right back to you.”
When I did not hear from Thompson, I contacted Gisler via a text message asking if he “had heard from Boswell” in response to his Oct. 1 letter. Gisler said he had not.
I next contacted Boswell at his business email address and asked if he had responded to Gisler.
“Please in the future contact me by email and phone at office. GDOT email has not been timely or without issues,” he wrote.
I asked him in two subsequent emails if he had responded to Gisler, to which he finally wrote: “Jason Dykes out of the Gainesville office responded to Mr. Gisler based on info I received.”
Gisler responded to a subsequent text from me saying “The last email I see in my legislative inbox from Jason Dykes is from 5/13.”
Other Board Action
County Administrator Justin Kirouc said the county had received 10 bids in response to its Oct. 29 solicitation of bids for EMS Building and Facilities Shop to be located behind Fire Station No. 1 on Macon Highway. Access will be from Fuller Road.
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| Kirouac 11/3/2026 |
Kirouac recommended awarding the contract to Headley Construction Group out of Newnan for $2.9 million.
In addition, other work, including grading and signage, will bring the total cost of the project to $3.2 million, Kirouac said, with $2.8 million to be funded from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue and the remainder from the county’s Capital Budget.
Commission Chair John Daniell said the county is planning to build two other EMS stations at locations in the county to support the EMS program the county is launching at the end of this year.
The Board approved the request from Kirouac.
The Board also approved variances for a side year setback and front yard building at 1660 Old Epps Bridge Road.
The Board also approved $8.1 million to resurface and patch 25.29 miles of roadway in the county, with $906,024 coming from the state and the remainder funded by the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Finally, the board approved the Farmland Preservation Committee recommendation that the farm of Darryl Matthews, 2591 Astondale Road, be added to the list of protected properties under the county’s Farmland Preservation Program.
Video
The video below is on the county’s YouTube Channel.
The meeting begins at 5:39 in the video, and Bell began his comments at 6:37 in the video.
I attended the meeting and recorded a video as a backup. The still images used above are frames from my video.
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