Oconee County, as well as Clarke County, got amazingly good news with the release of the sales tax distributions for August.
With the addition of revenue from an audit that spanned several years of an unidentified company, sales tax distributions for August increased by two-thirds over a year ago for Oconee County and for Oconee County Schools.
With the addition of 39 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District, the seven-day rolling averages of both measures increased slightly on Sunday.
The 39 cases listed in the Sunday Department of Public Health Daily Status Report pushed the seven-day rolling average from 79.1 on Saturday to 80.7 on Sunday.
Oconee County did not add any new cases on Sunday, but Clarke County added 14.
The Northeast Health District added 88 confirmed COVID-19 cases with the Saturday release of the Department of Public Health’s Daily Status Report, producing a seven-day rolling average of added cases that has been relatively unchanged for the last week.
Every county in the 10-county Northeast Health District added at least one case, and the seven-day rolling average of added cases was 79.1 on Saturday. That figure had been 79.0 on Friday.
The Oconee Chamber of Commerce and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday were working out details for the virtual candidate forum being organized for 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 14 for races on the Nov. 3 ballot overlapping Oconee and Clarke counties.
Courtney Bernardi, president of the Oconee Chamber of Commerce, said Friday she was waiting on confirmation from three of the 11 invited candidates and well as from the invited moderator.
The Department of Public Health listed 91 new COVID-19 cases and one death from the disease in the Northeast Health District in the Daily Status Report on Friday, and the seven-day rolling averages of cases and deaths in the District remained largely unchanged.
The death was of a male in Walton County with a chronic condition aged 90 plus, and the seven-day rolling average of added deaths in the Status Report was 1.7, the same as on Thursday.
Laura Ormes joined two of the three other candidates for Board of Education Posts 4 and 5 in calling for a mask mandate at Oconee County Schools.
Only incumbent Post 4 Board Member Tim Burgess, Ormes’ opponent in the Nov. 3 election, opposes the mandate. Mask wearing is encouraged but not required under current school policy.
Ormes also said Board members should respond to citizens who write to them, something Joan Parker also said, but neither Burgess nor Michael Ransom did.
With the addition of two deaths from COVID-19 in the Department of Public Health Daily Status Report on Thursday, the Northeast Health District saw continued increases in the seven-day rolling average of added deaths.
The two deaths were in Elbert County. One was a 72-year-old male without a known chronic condition, and the other was of an 88-year-old female with a chronic condition.
