Oconee County Schools Chief Financial Officer Liz Harlow told Board of Education members at the start of their final tax hearing last week that state law required them to gather “for the purpose of listening to the public.”
Before citizens were given a chance to speak, however, Board Member Tim Burgess talked for 10-minutes about the importance of the proposed nearly10 percent tax increase–which most citizens present had come to oppose–for maintaining the school system’s fund balance.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration met last week to put the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax on the county ballot in November and to set the qualifying dates for Watkinsville Council Posts 3 through 5.
The Board also received an update on the investigation by the Secretary of State Office of irregularities in the petition drive that put Independent candidates Ryan Repetske and Melissa Eagling on the November School Board ballot.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget has informed Walton County that its application for funding for a water treatment plant for Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir has been approved tentatively at $42 million.
Walton Commission Chair David Thompson announced at a called meeting of the reservoir Management Board last week that he had been notified of the favorable review of the county’s application for funding on July 14.
The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 53 COVID-19 patients, a 36 percent increase from the 39 cases on Friday of last week.
The number of COVID-19 cases at the area hospitals is the highest reported on a Friday since 70 were reported on Feb. 25 of this year.
The number of ICU beds in use was 71, up from 54 a week earlier but at roughly the same level as on each of the other Fridays in July.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday evening unanimously adopted a final millage rate of 15.5 for 2022, rather than the 16.25 rate proposed by Superintendent Jason Branch.
The 15.5 millage rate represents a tax increase of 4.7 percent from the 2021 rate.
The Board would have had to have reduced the millage rate to 14.8 to have avoided an increase in property taxes for Oconee County property owners for the year.
The Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported on Friday that area hospitals had 39 COVID-19 patients, up from 33 on Friday of last week.
The number of ICU beds in use was 54, down from 70 a week earlier, and the number of adult ventilators in use was 23, down from 25 a week ago.
The Oconee County Board of Education on July 18 approved for discussion three policies mandated by legislation approved by the General Assembly this year.
The policies specify Unstructured Break Time, a Divisive Concepts Complaint Resolution Process, and a Material Harmful to Minors Complaint Resolution Process.
