Oconee County is exploring collaboration with Athens-Clarke County for future wastewater treatment, Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell told a small group of citizens this week at a Town Hall meeting in Oconee Veterans Park.
“We’ve had different conversations since I’ve been in office,” Daniell said in response to a question asking if the commissioners had “met with Clarke County to discuss wastewater?”
Oconee County commissioners last (Tuesday) night rezoned nearly two acres on the Oconee Connector and Daniells Bridge Road where the Barber Creek fire station sits in preparation for selling it for business development.
Although the property was donated to the county prior to 1997, the county owns the land outright and is preparing to sell it to the best bidder. The owners of the nearby SpringHill Suites by Marriott, 3500 Daniells Bridge Road, seem likely to be interested.
Oconee County expects to open Parkway Boulevard from the Oconee Connector to Kohl’s by the end of May, county Public Works Director Emil Beshara told a meeting of the regional metropolitan transportation planning organization on Wednesday.
Construction on the roadway is “winding down,” Beshara told the group, with work remaining only on such things as pedestrian islands, guardrails, and striping.
Construction on the Presbyterian Village at U.S. 441 north of Watkinsville likely will begin this summer, Frank Pittman from Williams and Associates told the Oconee County Development Review Committee on Friday morning.
Work will begin with the Village Health Services Center and the Independent Living Apartment Building, Pittman, chief operating officer at Williams and Associates, said.
Nearly two years after getting zoning approval, Presbyterian Homes of Georgia has preliminary site plans for its continuing care retirement community at U.S. 441 and Hog Mountain Road before the county’s Development Review Committee.
The plans to be reviewed by the Committee at its 9 a.m. meeting tomorrow (Friday) include a Village Health Services Center, an independent living apartment building, 113 single-family cottages, and 13 two-family villas.
Parkway Boulevard Extension will be paved and ready to be opened by the end of the month, Oconee County Utility Department Director Emil Beshara told a meeting of the regional transportation planning body.
Work on the project “is going very well,” Beshara told the Technical Coordinating Committee of the Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS) at its meeting late last month in Athens.
Marcus Wiedower said he will bring his listening skills and his planning skills to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners if voters select him for Post II in the special election on Nov 8.
“All I do all day long is plan,” said Wiedower, a custom home builder, in an hour-long interview. He said he will bring to the Commission “an educated, experienced voice” that “has a planning background.”
Chuck Horton said his experience and background will allow him to “hit the ground running” should he win the open seat on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners in the special election on Nov. 8.
Because of his service on the Board of Education, Horton said he understands the need for the Board of Commissioners to think through the implications of decisions it makes on the county’s schools.
Oconee County on Sept. 15 issued a permit for land disturbance activities for expansion of Epps Bridge Centre, but it has not yet issued a second permit that would allow for installation of site infrastructure.
The county permit followed approval on Aug. 18 by the Oconee River Soil and Water Conservation District of an erosion and sediment control plan submitted by Oconee 316 Associates LLC and developer Frank Bishop of Atlanta for the 54 acres for the shopping center expansion.
Simpson Trucking and Grading of Gaineville already has completed some of the clearing and grubbing work for Parkway Boulevard Extension, which will serve as a major entranceway for an expanded Epps Bridge Centre.
The company also is putting in temporary erosion control measures, according to Oconee County Public Works Director Emil Beshara, and plans to begin moving direct in the next couple of weeks.
Oconee County has experienced only modest growth in revenue it receives from sales tax in the last decade and a half even with significant expansion of its commercial inventory, changes in the county’s alcohol laws, and the opening of new restaurants.
The growth in sales tax revenue in Oconee County, in fact, is not so different from the growth experienced by Athens-Clarke County, which has lost some retail outlets to Oconee County and lost its exclusivity in selling alcohol in restaurants.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis’ efforts to get alcohol referenda on the ballot in November got a slight push-back from two of his Commission colleagues last (Tuesday) night.
Commissioner Jim Luke said the county needed to do more to warn the citizens that the referenda were under consideration by the Board, and Commissioner Mark Saxon agreed.
Oconee County Commissioners tentatively agreed on Tuesday night to pay the $10,000 bill for the design work ordered up by Chairman Melvin Davis without Commission approval last year to connect Old Mars Hill Road with Mars Hill Road.
The Commission ultimately rejected Davis’ plans, but not before county Public Works Director Emil Beshara had requested that Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. alter the design for the roadway.
Oconee County issued building permits for two tenants at Epps Bridge Centre in May and June, leaving only three suites in the main core of the shopping complex with Space Available signs.
Woks Up will join six other restaurants or food shops in the central building cluster opposite University 16 Cinemas, which has a restaurant inside it.
Oconee County commissioners voted In May of 2014 to move $2 million out of the water and sewer account in the 2009 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax at a time when the county’s Utility Department desperately needed money for maintenance and expansion of its two wastewater treatment facilities.
The commissioners took the action after deciding the Utility Department could delay spending its SPLOST funds and that the county instead could transfer the water and sewer money to pay off the debt on the Jail/Emergency Operations Center/E911 Facilities and Tower.
Oconee County commissioners, brushing aside concerns by Athens-Clarke County residents about the negative impact of the development on their residential neighborhoods, unanimously approved a rezone request last night for the expansion of Epps Bridge Centre.
The commissioners made minor changes to the proposed bylaws and establishing resolution for the Animal Control Board, after continued requests for more dramatic change.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners last week took final action to borrow $4.285 million to build a new road to promote further commercial development in the busy Epps Bridge Road corridor.
In order to avoid asking the voters to approve the bond sales, the commissioners agreed to have the county’s Industrial Development Authority do the actual borrowing.
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has listed funding for a renovated and expanded Bogart Library as its fifth highest priority among library capital projects that the state should fund for Fiscal Year 2017.
The ranking for the Oconee County library project in 2017 is two rungs higher than the ranking the project was given by the Board of Regents last year. Funding for the Bogart Library was cut from the capital budget in the final days of the legislature last year.
The government of Athens-Clarke County has raised concerns about the proposed $55 million expansion of Epps Bridge Centre, saying the project will have impact on both the transportation infrastructure and natural resources of the county.
The Athens-Clarke County Planning Department outlined the concerns in a letter sent to the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, which is conducting a review of the project as a Development of Regional Impact.
The developer of Epps Bridge Centre filed paperwork last month with the Oconee County Planning Department to rezone 54 acres of land from agricultural use to business use for a $55 million expansion of the existing shopping mall.
The land is currently owned by the Evelyn and Frank Gordy Family and lies across the Oconee Connector from Epps Bridge Centre.
