Oconee County on Friday morning (Feb. 14) reported a major spill of untreated sewage into an unnamed tributary just south of where it flows under Tanglebrook Drive at the entrance to Tanglebrook subdivision and then into McNutt Creek.
The spill resulted from a break in the 12 inch force main that follows the tributary, according to the notification from the county.
Oconee County’s three representatives in the Georgia General Assembly took in $86,040 in campaign contributions in the first days of the year leading up to the opening of the legislative session on Jan. 13, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.
Sen. Bill Cowsert received $42,775 from contributors. Rep. Houston Gaines received $27,065. Rep. Marcus Wiedower took in $16,200.
Oconee County Schools received $1.3 million in revenue from the Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) for December 2024 collections, the largest amount received in the two years the 1 percent tax has been in place.
The December 2024 collections were up just less than 9 percent from the $1.2 million intake for December of 2023 and represents the eighth month in a row that collections have been more than $1 million.
When former State Rep. Chuck Williams asked Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell at the Town Hall Meeting late last month to provide an overview of transportation projects in the county, Daniell was happy and ready to respond.
Daniell routinely gives road work updates at Town Hall meetings, and earlier that day at a planning session with other commissioners he had gone over the long list of projects funded fully by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), funded jointly with GDOT, and funded by the county alone.
The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, in a 3 to 2 vote on Thursday night, reduced the number of precincts in the county from eight to four, with the largest new precinct stretching from the Greene County line in the south to the Clarke County line in the north.
Ten citizens spoke at the consolidation hearing held before the vote, with all of them in opposition to the change.
Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services for Oconee County Schools, told the Board of Education on Monday that Sheriff James Hale currently is working to fill the positions created by an Agreement approved on Jan. 29 to place a deputy in each of the county’s 12 schools.
Yancey, in his update to the Board, gave no time line for staffing of the school resource officer program within the Sheriff’s Office created by the Agreement signed by Hale and the chairs of the School Board and the Board of Commissioners at the end of the joint meeting on the 29th.
The Oconee County Board of Education, in a 4 to 1 vote Monday evening, passed a resolution to opt out of the statewide homestead exemption approved by voters in November to rein in the impact of increases in assessments on property taxes.
The Board voted in its regular work session following the third of the required public hearings two hours earlier, with only Post 4 Board Member Adam Hammond voting against the decision.
