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.
During his one hour and 15 minute meeting with Oconee County Democrats last week, veteran political journalist Greg Bluestein told inside stories, laughed about the tactics of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, speculated on career paths for Ossoff and others politicians, discussed the current campaigns, and predicted plans of the Georgia General Assembly.
Bluestein said that the Georgia General Assembly “likely” will be back in session after the elections in November, and the probability of that happening will increase if Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms wins the governor’s race.
Walton County Board of Commissioners Chair David Thompson reported to the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board last week that his efforts to obtain $7.5 million from a company wanting water from the reservoir for an additional data center in Social Circle have been unsuccessful.
Thompson said the approach from the data center operator came after Archer Western, contractor for the $141.5 million treatment plant under construction on the reservoir, said it was an ideal time to reverse an earlier decision to scale back the plant from 16 to 12 million gallons per day.Oconee County Schools had 130 fewer students as the school year began on Aug. 3 than it had at the beginning of last school year, according to First Day Counts released by system Human Resources Officer Justin Cofer on Thursday.
Last year, based on those same counts, enrollment had dropped by 259 students, and the year before the drop had been by 26 students.
