The first of two informational meetings related to the launch of a study of a truck bypass south of Watkinsville will take place virtually on Monday evening, followed by an in-person meeting at Oconee Veterans Park on Thursday.
The virtual meeting will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday via Webex.
The in-person meeting will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Community Center at Oconee Veterans Park, 3500 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing.
Oconee County’s Board of Education and Board of Commissioners have agreed to meet jointly on Sept. 29 in the small Oconee County Schools Board Room in what is being called a training session.
While the public is invited to attend–as is required by Georgia’s Open Meetings Act–the notices on the web sites of both Oconee County Schools and Oconee County Government, state that “there will not be an opportunity for public comment.”
Neither web site provides an agenda for the meeting, which stretches across the evening dining time from 5 to 8 p.m.
It seems unlikely Oconee County voters in 1964 gave much thought to the provision of a Constitutional amendment they approved that the current Board of Education relied on earlier this month to fill vacancies on the Board without seeking citizen input.
Prior to the vote in 1964, members of the county’s Board of Education were appointed by the county Grand Jury.
Citizens in 1964 overwhelmingly approved a referendum on the ballot that gave them the right to elect a five-member Board to oversee operation of the county’s schools.
Students in Oconee County Schools scored lower on 17 of the 25 Georgia Milestones Assessment System measures released last month than they did in July of 2019 when the state last released results from the standardized tests.
Across the state, test scores were lower in 2021 than they were in 2019, likely reflecting differences in the education experiences of students in the last academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as differences in testing procedures.
The 10 county Northeast Health District added 2,115 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Friday and 27 new confirmed deaths from the disease.
One of the confirmed deaths was in Clarke County.
The 2,115 added cases of COVID-19 and 27 confirmed deaths compared with the 2,817 new cases and 21 confirmed deaths added in the week ending Sept. 10.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said in advance that the Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday night was going to have a “special focus” on the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum on the ballot in November.
As a lead-in to the discussion of the tax, Daniell gave a rundown of road projects underway in the county and then transitioned to what the county will do with the sales revenue if voters approved the 1 percent additional sales tax.
Audience members certainly picked up on the word “transportation” in those introductory comments.
The Georgia Department of Transportation will review possible routes just south of Watkinsville for a truck bypass to link SR 15 and U.S. 441.
Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz and Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell made fleeting references to close-in routes for a bypass at the Wednesday meeting of the MACORTS Policy Committee.
