Oconee County was sitting on $9.2 million in unspent funds in its Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax accounts on June 30, three months before the 2009 tax came to an end, according to the annual report the county is required to publish by the end of the month.
The money includes $3.6 million in collected but unspent revenue from the 2004 SPLOST and $5.6 million from the 2009 SPLOST, which went into effect in September of 2009 when the 2004 SPLOST expired.
The upcoming session of the Georgia General Assembly likely will be brief, because 2016 is an election year and the legislators want to get home to campaign.
Two topics the legislators are likely to deal with are education and casino gambling.
The newly appointed Sounding Board on the widening of U.S. 441 and construction of a bypass of Bishop is set to hold its first meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the Community Center, 4951 U.S. 441 in Bishop.
Attendees will include legislators, Georgia Department of Transportation officials, and 441 Sounding Board members, according to an announcement released by Oconee County Clerk Jane Greathouse early this afternoon and now on the county web site.
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.”
