The seven persons seeking the three seats on the Watkinsville City Council agreed at the candidate forum earlier this month that the city needs more sidewalks, more bikeways, and more interconnectivity of those pathways.
All agreed that the big challenge is how to pay for these improvements to the city’s infrastructure.
Healthcare generally and Medicaid expansion specifically dominated the forum last week for candidates for Georgia Senate District 46 and House District 117 and House District 119 organized by the Athens Community Agenda.
Democrats Deborah Gonzalez and Jonathan Wallace, incumbents representing the 117th and 119th Georgia House districts respectively, said they support Medicaid expansion, as did Marisue Hilliard, the Democratic candidate for Georgia Senate District 46.
An average of more than 700 Oconee County voters has cast a ballot in the first seven days of early voting for the Nov. 6 elections.
The 4,996 votes cast as of the end of the day today (Tuesday) represents 18.1 percent of the county’s 27,530 active registered voters.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority today (Monday) agreed to sell up to $155 million in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of Presbyterian Village Athens.
The Authority will earn a total of $600,000 in fees for issuing the bonds for Westminster Presbyterian Homes Inc., which is building the continuing care retirement community on the 70-acre tract on U.S. 441 at Hog Mountain Road.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority cancelled its scheduled meeting for this afternoon because the documents needed for the Authority to go forward with authorization of a loan for Presbyterian Village Athens are not ready.
The county sent out a notice just before noon today announcing the cancellation of the 4 p.m. meeting but did not give a reason and did not indicate when the meeting would be held.
The three Republican state legislative candidates who spoke at the Oconee County and Athens Area Chamber of Commerce Candidate forum on Thursday night said they did not want the government involved in health care and that the market could provide solutions to health care problems.
The other five speakers–four Democrats and a write-in candidate–said the market was not working and government needed to step in to address health care problems.
Marcus Wiedower, Republican candidate for the 119th House District seat, raised more than $80,000 from July 1 to Sept. 30, topping all six candidates for Oconee County’s seats in the Georgia General Assembly.
Deborah Gonzalez, Democrat incumbent in House District 117, raised $68,381–more than $20,000 above the $47,987 raised by her Republican challenger, Houston Gaines.
