Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis last night refused to put onto the county website maps that the George Department of Transportation provided him in June showing the route under review for the widening of U.S. 441 and construction of the Bishop bypass.
Davis took that action following a request by Carole Ludwig, one of the landowners in the area, that the county and GDOT be more forthcoming in providing information about the project.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is asking his fellow commissioners tomorrow night to approve of his selection of an eight-member “Sounding Board” for the planned widening of U.S. 441 and construction of a bypass of Bishop.
At least two of those Davis has designed as members of the citizen group have property likely to be impacted by the road construction. Two others are members of the county’s Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning, which the BOC appoints.
The Oconee County Planning Commission tomorrow night will consider taking steps to bring Hot Thomas Bar-B-Que, a famous south Oconee family restaurant operating since 1984, into compliance with Oconee County zoning ordinances.
It also will consider plans to make a more recently opened reception hall in a historic seed house next door to an existing cotton gin consistent with current land use laws.
While representatives of the Georgia Department of Transportation last week emphasized the lack of firm plans for the future route of a widened U.S. 441 in southern Oconee County, the Request for Qualifications issued late last year for engineering design services presents at least a slightly different picture.
Brad Saxon, assistant state program delivery engineer for GDOT, told a gathering of citizens at Oconee Veterans Park on Nov. 30 that “we do not have a preferred alignment” for the route and “we are starting work anew.”
When given the opportunity to speak on Thursday night, Carole Ludwig, 1510 Old Farmington Road, outside Bishop, seized it quickly.
“Yea, I want to talk,” Ludwig told the more than 40 people assembled at the Oconee County Library in Watkinsville to discuss the proposed widening of U.S. 441 and construction of a bypass of Bishop.
The meeting on Monday night was on a technical issue involving funding for the widening of U.S. 441 and construction of a Bishop bypass, but the more than 30 people who crammed the room had a broader range of concerns.
Sherry McDuffie, planner with the Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS), anticipated those concerns, and she told the group at the beginning of what was billed as a drop-in session that she didn’t have information on the future route or other matters.
It has taken more than two years, but Boswell Properties finally has gotten its sign for property it is listing at the corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector into compliance with Oconee County’s sign ordinance.
The sign now is located between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road on the Oconee Connector at the location specified in the permit the county issued to Boswell properties on Aug. 22, 2013, and the sign is the size specified in the permit.
