Oconee County accepted bids of $731,250 last week for sale of two properties that are next door to the Courthouse and will be surplus once the county moves its nonjudicial functions to the new county administrative building in June of 2023.
The Board of Commissioners voted to accept a bid of $376,250 for the Elections Office Building, 10 Court Street, on the south side of the Courthouse, and a bid of $355,000 for the Ward Building, on the opposite side of the Courthouse at 3 Third Street.
Walton County plans to reapply for federal pandemic relief funds for construction of a water treatment plant at Hard Labor Creek Reservoir, if the state decides to allow for a second round of competition.
Even without the federal funding, the county plans to move forward with construction of a 16 million gallon per day treatment plant, and preliminary design work already has been completed and bond financing lined up.
Walton County plans to go ahead without Oconee County, its partner in the reservoir project, with the idea that Oconee County, which currently does not need water from the reservoir, can decide to participate at some point in the future.
Oconee County’s two representatives in the Georgia House voted with the Republican majority last week on three bills that, if passed and signed by the governor, will have impact on Oconee County Schools and on the University of North Georgia.
Republicans Marcus Wiedower and Houston Gaines voted to restrict how teachers handle “divisive concepts,” to allow parents to demand access to and challenge classroom materials used by teachers, and to eliminate “free speech zones” on college campuses.
Early voting for the May 24 primary will be held at the Oconee County Office of Elections and Registration, opposite the Courthouse in Watkinsville, rather than at the Civic Center, where early voting for county elections has been held since November of 2020.
Early voting for the June 21 runoff, if needed, also will be at the Elections and Registration Office, but early voting for the Nov. 8 elections will return to the Civic Center.
Qualifying for Posts 2 and 3 on the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners will take place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, also at the Elections and Registration Office.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 174 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days ending on Friday, down from 371 last week, and the lowest number added since 63 cases were added in the week ending on July 2, 2021.
The District added 20 confirmed deaths from the disease, down from the 34 deaths added last Friday. Deaths are a lagging indicator of the disease.
Three of the confirmed deaths were in Oconee County and four were in Clarke County.
Oconee County Democrats do not need to turn the county blue, Jen Jordan, a candidate for Attorney General, said at last month’s party meeting.
They just need to make it a little less red, Jordan said, for the party to have success in statewide elections in November.
To that end, Jordan said, it will be helpful if the party can field candidates for the county Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners races in November, as well as to run in the county’s two state House districts and the county’s state Senate district.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added only 371 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days ending on Friday, down from 654 cases added last Friday.
The District added 34 confirmed deaths from the disease, down by three from the 37 deaths added last Friday. Deaths are a lagging indicator of the disease.
