The Oconee County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the county’s proposed 2022 Fiscal Year Budget at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday before its agenda setting meeting.
County Finance Director Wes Geddings released spending requests and recommendations for the General Fund portion of the budget at the Commission’s May 4 meeting and promised to provide additional detail at the May 25 meeting.
Watkinsville’s nonpartisan special election on June 15 had taken on the character of an inter-party affair before the surprise announcement on Tuesday by Peter Steckel that he was withdrawing from the mayoral race.
The Oconee County Republican Party has organized a candidate forum for the election in partnership with Bethel Baptist Church for 6:30 p.m. on Monday (May 24), with Tim Bryant, WGAU news director and conservative commentator, serving as moderator.
When Oconee County commissioners gathers on June 1 and approve the minutes of their May 4 meeting, they will set the parameters for any near-term plans for development of a shopping center at the corner of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector.
Property owner Maxie Price has 30 days from that date to file an appeal to Oconee County Superior Court of the May 4 denial by the commissioners in a 3 to 1 vote of his request to rezone the nearly 47 acres he owns at that intersection for a large shopping center anchored by a Publix.
The Northeast Health District added 264 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Friday and seven new confirmed deaths attributed to the disease.
The 264 new cases compare with the 303 cases and two confirmed deaths added in the week ending on May 7.
The average of 37.7 new cases per day for the week ending on Friday compares with 43.3 cases per day in the week ending on May 7.
Oconee County added 11 cases in the week ending on Friday, while Clarke County added 51.
Walton County Board of Commissioners Chair David Thompson announced on Tuesday that he has been meeting with officials from Newton County about sale of water from the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir to Newton County.
Thompson said he had three meetings with Newton County officials in recent months and that state officials also had been involved.
Thompson said the state is supportive of the interbasin transfer of water from the Oconee to Ocmulgee river basins. The water could help with development of a massive research park along I-20 on the southern tip of the county, he said.
Oconee and Clarke counties are above average in rate of full vaccination for COVID-19 in comparison with other counties in the Northeast Health District and with the state, but the number of added vaccinations per day is declining in the two counties as well as in the state.
In Oconee County, 35.3 percent of the population is fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, and in Clarke County, 27.8 is fully vaccinated.
Consistent with the rollout plans, vaccinations are disproportionately concentrated among those who are 55 years old and older in both counties.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 303 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days ending on Friday, or an average of 43.3 cases per day, and only two confirmed deaths attributed to the disease.
In the week ending on Friday of last week, the District had added 371 cases, or an average of 53.0 cases per day, and eight confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19.
