Oconee County Schools Planning To Begin Work Next Year On New $12.7 Million Instructional Support Center

***Construction To Be Completed In 2024***

Oconee County Schools plans to issue a request for proposals for construction of a New Instructional Support Center on North Main Street in Watkinsville on April 4 of next year, with construction to be completed in July of 2024.

Cost of the 35,000-square-foot building is now estimated at $12.7 million, or more than 50 percent higher than the $8.3 million estimate when the project was planned in 2019.

The Instructional Support Center will be funded entirely by the Educational Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) approved by voters in March of last year and will be the second most expensive project to be funded by that tax, behind the $34.2 million for the new Dove Creek Middle School.

Oconee County Commissioners Approve Townley Rezone Requests For Subdivison, Approve Own Rezone For Administrative Building

***Citizens Again Raise Issue of Rentals***

Oconee County Commissioners on Tuesday night, despite opposition from neighbors and a negative vote of the majority of the Planning Commission, approved what amounts to a seven-lot subdivision surrounded by farmland in the west of the county.

The proposal for the subdivision came in the form of two requests by Tony Townley to subdivide two plots of land he owns totaling 15 acres, most of it currently farmland, so he can build houses.

Townley also owns most of the land surrounding the planned residential development, making those seven lots–and future houses–residential nodes in the pastureland surrounding them.

COVID-19 Cases Drop Dramatically In Oconee, Clarke, Northeast Health District; Deaths From Disease Also Down

***Hospital Cases Show Lesser Decline***

The 10-county Northeast Health District added 2,442 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days, or less than half the number added in the week ending on Jan. 28.

The District added 18 confirmed deaths from the disease, compared with 34 added in the week ending on Friday of last week.

Three of the confirmed deaths were in Clarke County.

Oconee County Board Of Education Updated On Dove Creek Middle School Construction At Retreat

***Details Remain Sketchy***

The new Dove Creek Middle School will be a two-story building facing Hog Mountain Road just southeast of the existing Dove Creek Elementary School in the far northwest of Oconee County near the Barrow County line.

Parent entrance to and exit from the school will be off Osborne Road, with Drop Off in front of the school.

The bus entrance and exit will be off Hog Mountain Road, using the existing bus entrance and exit now serving Dove Creek Middle School.

Oconee County Finance Director Gives Commissioners Fiscal Update, Says Old SPLOST Accounts Now Exhausted

***Bond Sales For Costco Approved***

Oconee County has now spent all of the funds collected as part of the 2004 and 2009 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Taxes and more than 86 percent of revenue from the tax referendum passed by voters in 2015.

The county has collected $1.3 million from the 2021 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, which the county began collecting on Oct. 1 of last year and which will run for six years, but so far it has not spent any of the funds from the tax.

These were some of the messages County Finance Director Wes Geddings had for members of the Board of Commissioners at their Agenda Setting meeting last week.

Candidate For Georgia Secretary Of State Tells Oconee County Democrats November Election Is Crucial For Democracy In Georgia

***Focuses On Republican Candidate Hice***

The Georgia General Assembly, in the 2021 legislative session, gave itself new powers over the operation of local Election Boards and at the same time began using local legislation to change the composition of those Boards.

These two changes, Bee Nguyen said during the Oconee County Democratic Party January meeting, represent a threat to democracy in the state and country.

While the legislature also weakened the role of the Secretary of State, Nguyen said, that office remains important in safeguarding elections in the state.

For that reason, Nguyen said, she is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for Secretary of State in the May 24 primary.

COVID-19 Case Counts Remain High In Northeast Health District, Oconee, Clarke Counties, But Down From A Week Ago

***Oconee Recorded Seven Confirmed COVID Deaths***

The 10-county Northeast Health District added 5,078 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days, and 34 confirmed deaths from the disease.

Seven of the confirmed deaths were in Oconee County, and three were in Clarke County.

Last week, the District had added 17 confirmed deaths from the disease.

The average number of added cases per day in the last seven days in the Northeast Health District was 725.4, compared with 917.4 in the seven days ending on Jan. 21.