In Fiscal Year 2013, the year before the Oconee County Animal Control Department began its foster program, it euthanized 1.4 animals for every animal it was able to adopt out.
In Fiscal Year 2015, the first full year of operation of the adoption program, Animal Control reversed the ratio, adopting out 1.8 animals for every one it euthanized.
Wayne Haynie, director of the Oconee County Utility Department, told the 25 people who turned out on Thursday night at the Oconee County Library to discuss water quality in county streams that he wants to partner with them.
It was the first time a county official has met with the public to discuss sewer issues since serious problems with the county’s sewerage treatment plants were revealed in late May, and Haynie used the opportunity to present the image of a Utility Department that is responding to those problems.
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.
Three different samples drawn from Calls Creek following the sewage spill in the Watkinsville Cemetery on Sept. 10 show higher levels of bacteria downstream from the spill than upstream, though the differences have decreased over time.
Data gathered by volunteers from the Upper Oconee Watershed Network on Sept. 17 showed E. coli bacteria levels downstream just higher than those upstream and the level in the tributary into which the raw sewage flowed to be the lowest of the three readings.
About 50 citizens turned out at a meeting in Veterans Park tonight to tell the Oconee County Board of Commissioners how they feel about a proposal to reopen the connection between Old Mars Hill Road and the new Mars Hill Road now under construction.
All but one of those present said they are opposed to the project.
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.
Residents along Mars Hill Road–fresh from a four-hour session on future land use along the roadway–will have another opportunity to express their views on future development in their neighborhoods on Monday night.
The Oconee County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing that night on a proposal by one of the land owners to move forward with a rezone of property even before the county takes action on an overlay district it is considering for the corridor.
