The Oconee County Animal Control Advisory Board, meeting on Wednesday evening, will address a full slate of issues, including tethering and hoarding of animals, the status of the foster program, changes to the county’s Animal Control Ordinance, and the status of the shelter facility.
The Advisory Board also will discuss the ordinances passed by the Board of Commissioners creating the Advisory Board and consider changes to its bylaws.
Oconee County Attorney Daniel Haygood has referred to Special Master James C. Warnes an ethics complaint that Sarah Bell has filed against Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis.
Bell contends that Davis violated at least eight sections of the county’s ethics code by “using taxpayer money to pay an employee and to prepare and purchase plans” for the reconnection of Old Mars Hill Road to Mars Hill Road proper “as a special favor for one citizen.”
Oconee County late yesterday informed the Georgia Environmental Protection Division of yet another problem with the operation of its Calls Creek wastewater treatment facility.
From 5 to 8 a.m. on Sept. 25 the plant released an estimated 50,000 gallons of discharge containing total suspended solids that exceeded the permitted level, according to the county’s report.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight let die without comment the proposal to reconnect Old Mars Hill Road with Mars Hill Road proper.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, who initiated the redesign of the roadway to allow for the connection, brought the proposal before the other commissioners, but none of them wanted to go forward with it.
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.
