Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t ask him when the walking trail at Veterans Park will be completed, Oconee County Parks and Recreation Department Director John Gentry told the Board of Commissioners at its meeting on Nov. 6.
That trail now dead ends abruptly behind the soccer fields on the eastern side of the popular park on Hog Mountain Road west of Butler’s Crossing.
Oconee County commissioners last night asked County Attorney Daniel Haygood and Administrative Officer Jeff Benko to draft a resolution for next week’s meeting that would call for the county to be reunited in a single district in the Georgia House of Representatives.
While Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis expressed doubts about the initiative, Commissioners Chuck Horton and Jim Luke made strong statements of support for such a resolution. Commissioner Margaret Hale also said she wants the county to have a single representative.
The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board has postponed the dates for approval of a state loan for construction of the 1,400-acre reservoir in southeastern Walton County pending the outcome of negotiations over the language of the loan contracts.
The loan documents as presented to the Board obligate only Walton County to repay the loan, while both Walton County and Oconee County officials expected and want the debt to be split on the agreed-upon ratio of 71/29, with Oconee County the minority partner.
Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton has asked County Administrative Officer Jeff Benko to add legislative redistricting to the agenda for the Board of Commissioners meetings scheduled for Nov. 27 and Dec. 4.
Horton told me in email messages from Sunday and again today that he will ask the BOC to endorse an effort to restore Oconee County to a single district in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Construction is underway on the University 16 Stadium Theatre at Epps Bridge Centre following the issuance last month by the Oconee County Code Enforcement Office of a foundation permit and a shell permit for the 70,412-square-foot building.
The county currently is reviewing detailed building plans for the theater prior to issuing a full building permit.
NOTE: The Georgia Secretary of State's Election Division released updated results for Oconee County at 12:56 p.m. today (Nov. 12, 2012) and updated results for the state as a whole at 4:46 p.m. I have revised the chart and all of the text below to reflect these new results. These new data changed the interpretation of the lower turnout rate, and that change is reflected below as well. Lee
Mitt Romney got 13,098 votes in Tuesday’s election in Oconee County, which is 978 more votes than John McCain received in the county four years ago.Barack Obama finished with 4,421 votes, which is 404 fewer than he obtained in the county four years earlier.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is waiting for Caterpillar to submit its application for a pretreatment permit for discharge from the plant it has under construction at its site straddling the Oconee and Clarke county borders.
Bill Noell, unit manager for the industrial permitting unit of DNR, told me on Friday that Caterpillar has said it has filed the permit request, but he said DNR has not yet received it.
