Watkinsville Mayoral Candidates Differ More in Style than on Issues at Oconee County Forum

Disagree on Colors for Signs

Charles Ivie is a man of few words. Dan Matthews is a man of many.

At least that was the persona the two Watkinsville mayoral candidates demonstrated in the forum organized for them on Thursday night.

Trails in Oconee County’s Heritage Park Expected to Reopen in Early December

Bikers, Horses and Hikers Waiting

Reconstruction of stream beds and trails in Heritage Park is on schedule, according to Oconee County Parks and Recreation Director John Gentry, and he expects the park to be reopened as planned in early December.

The trails have been closed since early August, when the county began a $1 million mitigation project in the park to offset stream bed destruction that will result from construction of the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir in Walton County.

Oconee County Commissioners Set to Decide on New Member for Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Board

And on Farmland Protection

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday is set to fill the vacancy on the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board created back in early July when citizen member Hank Huckaby resigned to become chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

At its Sept. 27 agenda-setting meeting, the commissioners tentatively decided to replace Huckaby with Commissioner Chuck Horton, and the Board is scheduled to take final action on that decision at its regular meeting on Tuesday.

Citizen Advisory Committee and Oconee County Public Works Director Come to Terms on Traffic Concerns

Revoted Priorities

Emil Beshara, Public Works director for Oconee County, started at the top of the list of road projects presented him by the Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning.

The Committee had spent two full meetings identifying and then ranking in terms of importance the 23 roadway projects in the county that, according to Committee Chairman Abe Abouhamdan, “could use some improvements.”

The Committee said improvements to the intersection of Union Church and Hog Mountain roads was its top priority.

Funding for Agriculture Research Center in Oconee County More Precarious After Senate Committee Vote

Future Bleak

Funding for the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center on Government Station Road outside Watkinsville officially comes to an end on Sept. 30, and long-term prospects for the facility are bleak at best.

Congress has not agreed on an agricultural appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012, which starts on Oct. 1.

McKillip Said He Intervened to Lessen Negative Impact of Redistricting on Oconee County

Now Happy With Outcome.

Oconee County residents unhappy with the partition of the county in house redistricting last month should appreciate that it could have been a lot worse, Rep. Doug McKillip and Rep. Chuck Williams said Thursday night.

The “guys in the map office” wanted to split the county in half, McKillip told those who gathered at the Oconee County Republican meeting at the Civic Center in Watkinsville, but McKillip said he advised against it.

Oconee County Planning Commission to Look at Downzone Request for Subdivison Along Apalachee River

Part of River Walk.

The Oconee County Planning Commission tomorrow night is scheduled to take up a request from the owner of a 422-acre tract along the Apalachee River south of Farmington who wants to downzone the property from a category that allows for development of five-acre housing plots to simple agriculture.

This is the third such downzone request in the county since the crash in the local housing market in 2008. Both of the other two also involved the conversion of land rezoned for residential development back to agriculture use.