Oconee County Commissioners tomorrow night are to begin the public whittling down of the $100 million in requests for the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
If they stay on schedule–and Commissioner Margaret Hale has asked that they not–they will vote at their meeting on March 4 to put the referendum for the 1 percent sales tax on the May 20 ballot.
Oconee Farmers Market will launch its 11th season with the opening of the Saturday market on April 5 and the Tuesday evening market on May 13.
The Saturday market will once again be in front of the courthouse in downtown Watkinsville.
Oconee County’s two members of the Georgia House of Representatives voted with the Republican majority on Tuesday to pass an omnibus gun bill that would allow, among other things, licensed holders of guns to enter county government buildings that do not have security restrictions in place.
The bill is wide ranging, dealing with the rights of persons to carry guns in a variety of settings.
Residents of southeastern Walton County as well as others traveling through the area will soon get a clearer sense of the scope of the 1,400 acre Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir project.
Construction crews on Monday will begin clear cutting the area that will be filled by the lake, Project Manager Jimmy Parker told the Reservoir Management Board at its regular meeting yesterday afternoon at the Walton County Government Building in Monroe.
Oconee County Commissioner Margaret Hale tonight asked her fellow Commissioners to delay the vote on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum from May to November, but none of them expressed any support for her request.
“I think the Board is rushing the projects to get them through,” Hale said during the section at the front of tonight’s agenda for comments from Commissioners. “I think we need to take more time and vet out these projects more.”
A request by Flo Wilkes to rezone property she owns on Mars Hill Road so she can build a nursery and garden center will be before the Oconee County Planning Commission tomorrow night for a first public hearing.
Wilkes, in partnership with Chad Forehand, is asking to change the zoning of the nearly eight acre tract from agriculture and residential to business so they can build the garden center and nursery.
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.
