Oconee County is paying nearly $110,000 as the county’s share of the cost of repairing Orkin Drive, the main entranceway to the Caterpillar plant on the east side of Bogart.
The roadway failed shortly after the two counties accepted responsibility for it in August and September of 2013, and it was partially closed and rebuilt at the end of last year. Total cost of repair was just less than $220,000, with Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County splitting the expenses.
In the organizational chart the Oconee County Board of Commissioners passed in August of 2009–over the objection of Chairman Melvin Davis–the county’s economic development director reports to county Administrative Officer Jeff Benko.
Benko, in turn, reports to all five members of the Board of Commissioners.
Republicans Favored
Oconee County voters approved by large margins the sale of liquor by the drink in restaurants throughout the county and its cities and continuation of the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for another six years.
Unofficial results show 65.4 percent of those who cast ballots approving of liquor by the drink, and 65.1 percent approving of SPLOST.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority has entered into a contract to sell Andrew Clyde of Clyde Armory 18 acres south of SR 316 so Clyde can build a shooting range on the site.
Clyde will need to get a change in zoning for the land, now classified for agricultural use, before he can build the shooting range.
More people voted in the three weeks of early voting in Oconee County than voted in the primaries in the county in May.
A total of 5,482 voters cast their ballots by the end of the day today, the final day of early voting. The early voters represent 24.4 percent of the 22,498 active registered voters in the county.
Oconee County voters who want to improve the quality of life in the county, enhance the county’s infrastructure and spur economic development should vote Yes on Referendum 2 on Nov. 4, according to advertisements in today’s edition of both of the county’s weekly newspapers.
Voting for the referendum will make sales tax revenue go up and property taxes go down, the half-page advertisement on page A3 of The Oconee Enterprise claims.
The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office has sent letters to permit holders for signs on three properties at the busy Oconee Connector intersection with SR 316, telling them they have until Nov. 17 to bring their signs into compliance with the county’s ordinance.
Code Enforcement Officer Paul Smith posted the registered letters on Oct. 17 to Jamie Boswell, owner of Boswell properties, and to two other sign permit holders, pointing out that the county’s Unified Development Code prohibits the installation of signs on the right of way of a public road.
