Fran Thompson and Andrea Wellnitz, seeking spots on the Oconee County Board of Education, told a packed room of citizens gathered for a candidate forum on Thursday night that they want the Board to be more transparent and more open to citizen input.
Incumbents Kim Argo and Amy Parrish said the Board already is transparent and open to citizens ideas and feedback and they want to make sure the community understands that.
Oconee County commissioners, with minimal discussion, unanimously approved the request for a shopping center at the intersection of Lenru Road and Malcom Bridge Road and for a museum, office, and events venue at Cole Springs Road and Snows Mill Road.
Just fewer than 50 citizens turned out for the meeting, about half of them interested in the shopping center decision, despite their having been told in advance it was unlikely they would get a chance to speak. They did not get that chance.
The Oconee County Board of Education members, in keeping with policy, did not respond last month when Joyce Reifsteck, 1141 Thornwell Drive, north of Watkinsville, asked them to address her concerns about the burden placed on teachers by testing in the county’s schools.
“I don’t have to tell you about constant preparation and testing, and the tedious attention that is paid to the Georgia Standards of Excellence, formerly called Common Core,” Reifsteck said.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night took the unusual step of holding a zoning hearing at its agenda setting meeting and approved the issuance of a special use permit for a telecommunications tower on McRees Mill Road off Barnett Shoals Road.
The Board took that action following a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta overturning the Board’s denial in 2014 of the permit for Verizon Wireless on 42 acres at 1210 McRees Mill Road.
Oconee County planners told the county’s Planning Commission last week that they were recommending approval of Tony Townley’s request for a car museum on 11.1 acres surrounding by farmland only on the condition that it not include an events venue.
The planners said that use of the land on Snows Mill Road at Cole Springs Road for public events is incompatible with surrounding land use and that the 151 parking spaces are sufficient for the Museum and existing office but not for events that could attract large numbers of visitors.
Oconee County reported another major sewer spill on Wednesday after discovering that approximately 21,225 gallons of waste water were released into a tributary of Barber Creek at Rocky Branch Road.
The spill, which occurred on Tuesday, was the result of a break in the sewer main due to “pipe fatigue,” according to a news release from the county. The county’s Land Application System site is on Rocky Branch Road and is fed by a sewer line that runs along Rocky Branch Road.
It seems unlikely Republican Houston Gaines will run out of money as he seeks to unseat Democrat Deborah Gonzalez in Georgia House District 117 in November.
Gaines, in his second attempt to win a House seat, was sitting on $169,450 in unspent funds as the election entered its crucial stage this summer.
