The Georgia Department of Public Health reported seven new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including two in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health also had reported seven confirmed deaths from the disease on Wednesday of last week.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 494 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Jan. 18, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
Julie Mauck has called a meeting of interested local citizens for 6 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at Mars Hill Baptist Church to develop a new plan for incorporating Christian instruction into the curriculum of Oconee County Schools.
Working with LifeWise Academy, Mauck plans to ask the Board to allow K-5 students at Oconee County Schools to leave their campuses during regular school hours for Bible-based instruction.
The three Republicans who are representing Oconee County in the General Assembly session that got underway last week received just more than 63 percent of the votes cast in the three multi-county districts that selected them.
They won their seats after receiving 88 percent of the campaign funds raised during the election year in the three districts and accounting for just less than 81 percent of the campaign spending during the year in those districts.
Even with the high levels of spending, the three were so successful at fund raising that they ended the year with just a little less than 100 percent of the unspent campaign funds.
Fred Ricketson, Director of Facilities for Oconee County Schools, didn’t sound the alarm at the first meeting of the year of the Oconee County Board of Education.
But he did tell the Board that the weather has caused delays in construction of the system’s new Dove Creek Middle School, planned to open for the next academic year, and that “dry warm weather will do us a lot of favors.”
Ricketson’s report was one of many to the Board on Monday, which merged the usual work and regular sessions of the Board into the single meeting for the month.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported seven new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, up from the four reported a week earlier.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 664 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Jan. 11, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
That number of added cases on Jan. 4 was 729, and on it Dec. 28 was 758. The decline is the first going back to Nov. 30.
Jamie Boswell, President and owner of the Boswell Group, which includes insurance, real estate and appraisal companies, has confirmed that he will ask area legislators to appoint him to a new five-year term on the State Transportation Board.
Boswell’s term expires on April 15, and state law requires that members of the Transportation Board be elected by a majority vote of the members of the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate “whose respective districts are embraced or partly embraced within” the Congressional District.
Oconee County commissioners are asking the county’s state legislative delegation to help it increase the homestead exemption as a way to decrease homeowner property taxes and freeze property tax assessments for persons once they turn 65 years of age.
The commissioners passed a resolution at their meeting on Tuesday calling on the legislators to introduce bills in the General Assembly this year that would allow for a referendum in 2024 on the homestead exemption and the freezing of assessments.
The changes in the property taxes would reduce county and school revenue, and Board of Education Chair Kim Argo said the School Board does not intend to pass a resolution making the request of the legislators but it supports the changes proposed by the county.
