Trustees for the Elizabeth Price Dolvin Foundation are exploring the possibility of creating an Oconee County environmental and heritage center modeled after a similar facility in Gwinnett County.
The facility would be on Elder Mill Road and incorporate property owned by the late Elizabeth Price Dolvin surrounding the iconic Elder Mill Bridge.
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board last week agreed to spend $93,536 for design work for the intake structure on the Apalachee River across from North High Shoals that can be used in the future to expand the size of the reservoir.
The Board also reviewed plans for a water treatment plant for the reservoir that would rely on membrane filtration technology. Actual construction of the plant is thought to be at least three years away as neither county has a need for the water filling in the reservoir.
All three candidates for the special election on Nov. 8 to fill Post 2 on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners have agreed to participate in an election forum set for 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 15 at the Community Center in Veterans Park.
Oconee County School Superintendent Dr. Jason Branch also has agreed to answer questions on the district’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Education question, which also will be on the ballot in November.
Oconee County administrators, to accommodate Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, intentionally mislabeled $15,000 in expenses in giving a public presentation in June of a bill for added design work for Mars Hill Road.
Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. billed the county $10,000 for requested design work to reconnect Old Mars Hill Road to Mars Hill Road and $5,000 for design work on a median break requested by businessman Doug Dickens.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis’ proposal for the county to spend upwards of $1.3 million to extend Bishop Farms Parkway received no support last (Tuesday) night from the Citizen Advisory Committee On Land Use and Transportation Planning.
The plan is to extend Bishop Farms Parkway from Experiment Station Road to New High Shoals Road, giving University of North Georgia students, faculty and staff another access point to the campus.
A nine-person team from the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources walked 250 yards of Calls Creek last Thursday looking for fish.
Thirty species would be a good number from such a sampling, according to Patti Lanford, team leader and Stream Survey Program Manager for the Wildlife Resources Division in Social Circle.
Construction of passing lanes on SR 15 in both Oconee and Greene counties is on the list for conceptual planning with the Georgia Department of Transportation, Rep. Chuck Williams told members of the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority last week.
Williams said he has been working with Rep. Trey Rhodes of Greensboro on the project, made possible because of funds raised by the increase in fuel taxes and imposition of a hotel tax by the General Assembly in the 2015 session.
