Oconee County Commissioners on Tuesday night are to take up Sunday sales of alcohol in the county with the possibility of having a referendum on the ballot in November.
Oconee County Clerk Jane Greathouse released the agenda at 1:24 p.m. today (Friday) with the 11th item being “Discuss Sunday Alcohol Sales Referendum.”
Doug Dickens, president of Dickens Farms Inc., told the Georgia Department of Transportation that it should assess his 102 acres on Mars Hill Road not as agricultural land, as it is zoned, but as the site of the large residential and commercial development he said he plans for the property.
The state ultimately accepted his argument, giving him a partial median cut that was not part of the original design and paying him $32,000 for 0.312 acres of permanent easement and 0.501 of construction easement.
Oconee County officials now say that the county does not have a written agreement to build a full median cut on Mars Hill Road to provide access to property owned by Dickens Farms Inc.
The officials also say that, prior to its meeting on Tuesday night, the Board of Commissioners had never voted to support that full median cut or to ask the Georgia Department of Transportation to modify its design for the road to include the full median cut.
Oconee County Commissioners Tuesday night agreed to spend $10,000 for design work–double the amount originally planned–as part of a previously unknown deal to create a full median cut on Mars Hill Road to provide access to 103 acres owned by Dickens Farms Inc.
The investment could be good money thrown after bad, as Oconee County Public Works Director Emil Beshara told the commissioners that the Georgia Department of Transportation already has rejected the proposed plans for the change in the roadway design.
Oconee County officials are refusing to disclose who requested a median cut on the new Mars Hill Road at the Athens Area Humane Society Adoption Center and Spay and Neuter Clinic.
Public Works Director Emil Beshara said on Thursday that he could not indicate who asked that the Georgia Department of Transportation modify the design in the roadway because “I have not been specifically authorized to discuss” the request.
Georgia already is “purple," or in-play in the presidential election in November, Paul Glaze, a field organizer for the Democratic Party of Georgia, told a gathering of Oconee County Democrats on Thursday night.
The goal now is to win the governorship in 2018 and then start to run Democrats in local elections, even in heavily Republican Oconee County, Glaze said.
Oconee County Commissioners tentatively agreed on Tuesday night to pay the $10,000 bill for the design work ordered up by Chairman Melvin Davis without Commission approval last year to connect Old Mars Hill Road with Mars Hill Road.
The Commission ultimately rejected Davis’ plans, but not before county Public Works Director Emil Beshara had requested that Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. alter the design for the roadway.
