The Georgia Department of Transportation has decided not to fund the widening of Jimmy Daniell Road, nullifying the project framework agreement signed by Oconee County in December of last year.
GDOT took this action because Oconee County never specified where it was going to find the $1.15 million estimated cost to the county for right of way acquisition for the project.
The county is expecting that the improvements to the intersection of the Hog Mountain Road and U.S. 441, now underway, will be completed by the end of the month, according to Emil Beshara, county Public Works director.
The roadwork will produce two left-turn lanes from Hog Mountain Road to U.S. 441 and a turn lane into the RaceTrac station for traffic heading west on Hog Mountain Road from U.S. 441. RaceTrac is on the southwest corner of the intersection.
Volunteers from the Upper Oconee Watershed Network (UOWN) plan to do sampling from Barber Creek tomorrow morning upstream and downstream from the sewage spill on Aug. 21.
Vicki Soutar, a retired Oconee County science teacher and UOWN volunteer, will lead the group. The goal is to determine if the spill had lasting impact on the water quality of the creek.
Oconee County citizens will have a series of opportunities this week to express their views on what amounts to tax increases both for county government and for the county’s schools.
While the Board of Commissioners has held the tax rate constant from last year, the increase in property value translates to tax increases of 3.45 percent for the unincorporated parts of the county and 2.95 percent for the incorporated parts of the county.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners last night turned back Chairman Melvin Davis’ attempt to get funding for the reconnection of Old Mars Hill Road to Mars Hill Road itself, but it agreed to revisit the question in a month.
The Board also learned that the actual cost of the project will be $140,000 or more, not the $115,000 originally listed.
The Oconee County Utility Department is reporting a spill of 5,500 gallons of sewage into a tributary of Barber Creek as a result of the widening of Mars Hill Road.
The spill occurred at 11 a.m. on Friday when the contractor for the Mars Hill Road construction project hit the force main at the corner of Mars Hill and Daniells Bridge roads, causing a break in the line, according to the county.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is asking his fellow Board members on Tuesday night to spend up to $115,000 to create a connection between Old Mars Hill Road and the new Mars Hill Road now under reconstruction.
The change will benefit a landowner who asked Davis to alter the road design, according to email messages among county officials.
