A lively crowd of local government leaders, county employees and their families, former employees, and local residents filled the atrium of the new Oconee County Administrative Building on Tuesday afternoon for the building’s official ribbon cutting.
County Administrator Justin Kirouac did the honors, at the request of County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell.
“We’re going to ask Justin to do the ribbon cutting for all of his hard work on everything he has done,” Daniell said.
Only four persons spoke on Monday at the first two public hearings on the proposed 9.53 percent increase in property taxes for Oconee County Schools.
All four asked the Board to reduce the millage rate below the proposed 15.0 mills.
The two who spoke on Monday evening also were strongly critical of the Board for embargoing the legal advertisements announcing the increase in the county’s legal organ, The Oconee Enterprise.
Oconee County Attorney Kevin Epps, who has filed a writ of mandamus directed at Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, will be a featured speaker Monday at the July meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Lobby Meeting Room at the main building of the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus, 1305 Jennings Mill Road. A half-hour social precedes the meeting.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 63 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on July 19, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The number of cases added a week earlier in the Northeast Health District had been 71.
The Department of Public Health reported no new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday.
Oconee County Schools begins the school year on Aug. 2 with 126 new hires, including 93 new certified employees, 78 of whom are teachers, Justin Cofer, Chief Human Resources Officer, told the Oconee County Board of Education on Monday.
More than half of those new teachers have six or more years of teaching experience, he said, and 64 percent of the certified new hires have advanced degrees.
In a wide ranging talk to the Oconee County Democrats last month, Greg Bluestein, political reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reflected on his career, lamented the decline of newspapers, commented on the 2020 election, and presented an analysis of Georgia politics since that time.
He also speculated on future political developments, saying he doesn’t think Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will run for president this year but also that he doesn’t think Kemp has fully ruled it out.
The Oconee County Library in Watkinsville featured prominently in the beginning and ending of the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
Three citizens addressed the commissioners in the citizen comment section as the meeting got underway, raising concerns about the library and its programming, all referencing the packed-hall meeting of the Library Board of Trustees the day before.
