Bill Cowsert, who represents Oconee County in the Georgia Senate, told a group of local officials last month that he expects healthcare and education to dominate much of the work of the session of the General Assembly that starts on Monday.
Cowsert, who is Republican Majority leader, was speaking even before the U.S. Senate began its efforts this week to unravel the Affordable Care Act.
The two Georgia Department of Transportation representatives who attended the first meeting of newly appointed Sounding Board on the U.S. 441 widening project in southern Oconee County had a very clear message.
“There is no alignment set for this project at this time,” Brad Saxon, assistant state program delivery engineer, said near the beginning of the meeting.
The newly appointed Sounding Board on the widening of U.S. 441 and construction of a bypass of Bishop is set to hold its first meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the Community Center, 4951 U.S. 441 in Bishop.
Attendees will include legislators, Georgia Department of Transportation officials, and 441 Sounding Board members, according to an announcement released by Oconee County Clerk Jane Greathouse early this afternoon and now on the county web site.
The meeting on Monday night was on a technical issue involving funding for the widening of U.S. 441 and construction of a Bishop bypass, but the more than 30 people who crammed the room had a broader range of concerns.
Sherry McDuffie, planner with the Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS), anticipated those concerns, and she told the group at the beginning of what was billed as a drop-in session that she didn’t have information on the future route or other matters.
It has taken more than two years, but Boswell Properties finally has gotten its sign for property it is listing at the corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector into compliance with Oconee County’s sign ordinance.
The sign now is located between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road on the Oconee Connector at the location specified in the permit the county issued to Boswell properties on Aug. 22, 2013, and the sign is the size specified in the permit.
The Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS) is holding a public hearing from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday as a required step in removing the widening of U.S. 441 and construction of the Bishop bypass from the constraints of federal funding for the road project.
The meeting will be held in the Community Center at Oconee Veterans Park, 3500 Hog Mountain Road.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has decided to build the bypass of Bishop and widen U.S. 441 from the Morgan County line to Watkinsville entirely with state funds, bypassing the normal processes associated with federal highway funding.
That decision moves the timetable forward so that project engineering will begin in 2019 and right of way acquisition and actual construction is now slated for 2022.
Despite overwhelming opposition from the 50 people who turned out at a public hearing earlier this week on reconnecting Old Mars Hill Road to the new Mars Hill Road, the Oconee County Board of Commissioners has the proposed road project on the agenda for discussion on Tuesday night.
County Public Works Director Emil Beshara is scheduled to discuss the potential reconnection of Old Mars Hill Road early in the meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Courthouse in Watkinsville.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners decided back in 1999 that a key piece of property along what is now Old Mars Hill Road should not be rezoned for commercial use because it would adversely affect nearby Oak Ridge subdivision.
The effect of commercial development of property on Old Mars Hill Road is likely to be one issue that will come up on Tuesday night when the Board of Commissioners holds a public hearing on a proposal to make Old Mars Hill Road a cut through at the Mars Hill Road Oconee Connector intersection.
Oconee County Code Enforcement once again has taken down signs owned by Boswell Properties that violated the county sign ordinance and were in the intersection of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
It also took down signs owned by the county’s Industrial Development Authority that also were in the state right of way and violated the county’s sign ordinance.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has decided not to fund the widening of Jimmy Daniell Road, nullifying the project framework agreement signed by Oconee County in December of last year.
GDOT took this action because Oconee County never specified where it was going to find the $1.15 million estimated cost to the county for right of way acquisition for the project.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is asking his fellow Board members on Tuesday night to spend up to $115,000 to create a connection between Old Mars Hill Road and the new Mars Hill Road now under reconstruction.
The change will benefit a landowner who asked Davis to alter the road design, according to email messages among county officials.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office is once again investigating a two-sided sign installed by Boswell Properties on the southwest corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
Boswell Properties reinstalled the signs sometime in the last few weeks to list property owned by Maxie Price, the Loganville auto dealer and businessman who has several properties in the county.
Oconee County yesterday removed the two-sided sign that Jamie Boswell, District 10 representative to the state Transportation Board, had at the southwest corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector more than seven months after the county asked Boswell to move the sign.
Oconee County Code Enforcement sent Boswell a letter on Oct. 17 setting a deadline of Nov. 17 for him to bring the sign into compliance with the county’s ordinance, which prohibits signs in the public right of way.
Oconee County officials–at the request of Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis–met last week with commercial real estate broker Jamie Boswell and one of his clients to discuss a possible change in the plans for the widening of Mars Hill Road.
Boswell and his client, Maxie Price, wanted to discuss a cut in the median to provide access to property Price owns once the roadway is widened.
Boswell, in addition to being a commercial realtor, is the local representative to the state Transportation Board, which oversees the administration of construction contracts, including the one let in July for the widening of Mars Hill Road from SR 316 to Butler’s Crossing.
