Suzannah Heimel, who is running for Post 1 on the Board of Commissioners in November, has filed suit in Oconee County Superior Court asking the Court to force the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration to stop registering voters.
Heimel said she wants to block registration of voters until the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration holds hearings on 228 voters whose registration was challenged in July.
The Oconee County Board of Education next week will be asked to approve discussions with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office designed to put a resource officer in each of the 12 Oconee County Schools.
A resource officer has been in each of those schools since the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last Wednesday, according to Sheriff James Hale.
The Oconee County Board of Education’s decision in June to hold hearings on its proposed 2.27 percent property tax increase without giving proper public notification has come back to haunt it.
Georgia Code is unambiguous in specifying that governing authorities can hold hearings on any planned tax increase no sooner than seven days after those hearings are advertised in the local legal organ so that citizens have a chance to offer comment.
MACORTS, the federal metropolitan transportation planning organization for Oconee County, is holding an Open House from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 20) at the Oconee Community Center at Oconee Veteran’s Park to give citizens a chance to comment on the proposed 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
That plan lists 33 priority transportation projects that will involve federal funding, including seven in Oconee County.
Public Comment dominated the Monday meeting of the Oconee County Board of Education, with 29 people speaking to the Board during the one hour and 40-plus minute session.
Most of those who spoke were concerned with the status of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Oconee County Schools, and the overwhelming majority who spoke want the organization present at elementary through high schools in the system.
The Oconee County Board of Education has agreed to pay Superintendent Jason Branch a base salary of $267,039 for the current year, up $13,968, or 5.5 percent, from his salary of $253,071 last year.
In addition to the base salary, the contract the Board approved on Monday night also includes a long list of other benefits, including dues and membership fees, a $1,000 monthly travel allowance, a cell phone, and his employee share of premiums (family plan) for health insurance, for dental insurance, and for vision insurance.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday night, after spending nearly an hour in executive session, voted unanimously in open session to extend the contract of Superintendent Jason Branch until June 30 of 2027.
The Board provided no details of the contract other than the end date, and Board Chair Kim Argo refused to provide a copy of the contract, saying it would be made available only in response to an open records request.
