The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office issued 502 single family and town home permits in 2013, exceeding the number issued for residential construction in 2006--before the housing collapse of a year later.
The county also issued 105 commercial permits in 2013, again exceeding the number in 2006.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority has made its last payment to Williams and Associates, an engineering and land planning company, under that firm’s contracts for the Caterpillar project, county Finance Director Wes Geddings reported on Monday afternoon.
Geddings told those attending the regular meeting of the county IDA that actual payments to Williams and Associates by the Oconee County and Athens-Clarke County industrial development authorities was $146,808 less than the $870,079 budgeted to cover the firm’s services.
Twenty-two speakers last night made their pitches to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, arguing that the projects they favored should be funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax scheduled to be on the May 20 ballot.
Many of those who spoke advocated for more than one project, with 11 speaking up for farmland protection, seven for funding for recreation projects, and five each for monies for the libraries and for historic preservation.
Summer Hill Recreation Club has withdrawn its request for Oconee County to grant it a permit to hold a Splash and Dash swim and race event on May 3 at its facility at the corner of Chestnut Hill Road and Daniells Bridge Road.
County Clerk Jane Greathouse late Friday afternoon removed the item from the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting, which is to start at 7 p.m. at the courthouse in Watkinsville.
The industrial development authorities of Oconee and Athens-Clarke counties in early 2012 granted two no-bid contracts totaling $870,079 to Williams and Associates land planners of Oconee County for engineering services for the Caterpillar project.
Georgia law requires bidding for construction projects, but not for the professional services provided by Williams and Associates, according to Oconee County Attorney Daniel Haygood.
Chief Superior Court Judge David Sweat wants a $25 million judicial facility added to the list of projects to be funded by Oconee County’s 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Oconee County Coroner Ed Carson wants $55,000 for a transport van.
These two requests bracket $100.2 million in requests that will be summarized in a public hearing with the Oconee County Board of Commissioners that will start at 6 p.m. on Monday at the Civic Center on Hog Mountain Road.
During 2013, Caterpillar created 364 of the 1,400 full-time jobs it has said it eventually will have at its newly-opened manufacturing plant on the Oconee County and Clarke County border just east of Bogart.
That figure comes from a report Rick Waller, chairman of the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority, filed on Jan. 30 with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs OneGeorgia Authority.
