Georgia Secretary of State Sets May Qualifying Dates for Oconee County House Seat

Party Labels Up for Grabs

Secretary of State Brian Kemp today set May 16 to 18 as the qualifying dates for the special election for Georgia State House District 113, which includes all of Oconee County.

No primary will be held. Candidates who file and qualify can simply designate a party label to follow their name. Candidates also can decide to label themselves as Independent or run without any label.

Qualifying will begin at 9 a.m. on May 16 and run through noon on May 18. Candidates must live in the district, which, in addition to Oconee County, contains parts of Clarke, Morgan an Oglethorpe counties, and pay the $400 filing fee.

The election will be held on June 21, with a runoff on July 19 if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the June 21 election.

The General Assembly is expected to go back into session on Aug. 15, with the primary task of redistricting the state based on the 2010 Census.

The composition of the 113th will be up for consideration, and Oconee County could lose its status as the dominant county of the district. Oconee County has not been split into more than one House district since the election of 2002.

At present, the district consists of 25 precincts, with 13 of them coming from Oconee County. Based on the 2000 Census, 58.0 percent of the population of District 113 resides in Oconee County, with 23.6 percent in Clarke, 12.1 percent in Oglethorpe and 6.4 percent in Morgan.

One insider familiar with the districting process told me over the weekend in an informal conversation there is likely to be considerable pressure in August to create a more Republican district for Doug McKillip, who was elected to the 115th District in November of last year as a Democrat and then switched to the Republic Party.

The 115th, one of two districts entirely in Clarke County, abuts Oconee County, and the insider told me Oconee could easily be carved up to give McKillip more Republican voters.

Hank Huckaby, elected to the 113th as a Republican last November, resigned because he is line to become the chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

Huckaby, who lives in Oconee County, told me in an email exchange over the weekend he resigned on Friday to make it possible for the county to hold the election on June 21. Gov. Nathan Deal on Friday called the special election.

Also on Friday, Chuck Williams, former president of North Georgia Bank, told The Oconee Enterprise that he will run for the 113th seat in the special election.

And the following day Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, who had been considering running, told the Enterprise he had decided not to run. The paper updated the story accordingly.

Blake Giles, editor of the Enterprise and author of the story about these announcements on the paper’s web site, is active in the Oconee County Republic Party. And Jay Hanley, Oconee County Republican Party Chairman, also works for the paper.

Williams and Davis have been close politically and are serving together on the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority.

Williams’ announcement and Davis’ response means the county will not have to hold another special election to replace Davis this summer. Davis would have had to resign as BOC chairman to run for the House seat.

Williams will run with two liabilities.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance in early February closed North Georgia Bank and turned it over to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver.

The FDIC immediately sold North Georgia Bank to BankSouth of Greensboro in neighboring Greene County.

Williams was founder of the bank and president during its 11-year history.

In addition, Williams and his brother sold property in Watkinsville at above-appraised value to the Oconee County Board of Education for future use for an administrative facility. That decision has proven to be controversial in the county.

In a move that has generated little media attention locally, the FDIC on Friday closed another bank with a branch office in Oconee County. Another Voice from Oconee County reported the development over the weekend.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed the Park Avenue Bank, Valdosta, and appointed the FDIC as receiver.

Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, acquired the banking operations, including all the deposits, of the Valdosta bank plus a second Georgia bank, First Choice Community Bank, Dallas.

The Oconee County branch of Park Avenue Bank was on Epps Bridge Parkway, near IHOP. Over the weekend, its name was wrapped in the new signage for Bank of the Ozarks, bringing back memories of the quick disappearance of North Georgia Bank.

Huckaby also told me on Saturday that he intends to resign from the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board, on which he is serving as the Oconee County citizen representative. That Board is overseeing the construction of the reservoir in Walton County on behalf of the two partnering counties.

Selection of University System Chancellor Could Produce Summer of Elections in Oconee County

Four Or Six Possible

The expected May 6 appointment of Hank Huckaby as the chancellor of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia could set off a series of events that would result in a summer of elections for Oconee County voters.

Huckaby, who lives in Oconee County and represents the county and parts of Clarke, Morgan and Oglethorpe counties in the Georgia House of Representatives, will have to resign the legislative post when he becomes chancellor. He is the sole finalist for the position.

Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is discussing openly the possibility that he will run to replace Huckaby as representative of the 113th House District.

Davis at BOC, 4/26/2011

If Davis were to qualify for that office, he would have to resign his position as chairman.

Chuck Horton, currently Post 4 commissioner, announced earlier this year that he plans to run for the BOC chairman in 2012.

If Horton follows up on that announcement and decides to run in a special election to replace Davis, he will have to resign as Post 4 commissioner once he qualifies, requiring another election to fill that slot.

Horton at BOC, 4/26/2011

As a result of this game of musical chairs, it is possible the county could have three special elections in coming months. But a candidate must get a majority of the votes cast in a special election or the top two candidates face off in a run-off election.

In such a case, between now and Nov. 8, Oconee County voters could be asked to go the polls six times.

The Board of Education has decided to hold an election on Nov. 8 so voters can decide whether to continue the 1-cent-on-a-dollar Education Local Option Sales Tax.

Pat Hayes, director of elections for Oconee County, told me today she has not received a formal request for an election from the BOE, but she said she is expecting one shortly.

County Attorney Daniel Haygood told me last night that he thinks it may be possible to merge the election for BOC chairman and for Post 4 commissioner, should these posts come open, cutting down on the number of elections.

But nothing will happen until Gov. Nathan Deal issues a writ of election, which would in the calling of a special election for Huckaby’s seat.

Hayes said that on the state’s election calendar the dates of June 21 and Sept. 20 are set aside for special elections.

If the governor calls a special election to fill the 113th House seat, however, the election does not need to fall on these dates. Such elections are non-partisan. Each candidate’s party affiliation, if any, is listed on the ballot.

The General Assembly is expected to begin a special session on Aug. 15 to discuss redistricting. Oconee County could suffer without representation in the Assembly.

If Davis decides not to run for the 113th House District seat, only the election for the House seat would be required this summer.

Hayes said she has not budgeted for any special elections, which, she said, cost an estimated $8,000 to $10,000 to run.

Haygood told me last night that he has talked with Davis about the election scenario. Davis doesn’t need to make a final decision about his interest in the House seat until the qualifying deadline, which cannot be set until the election itself is called.

The enabling legislation for Oconee County passed by the General Assembly in 1917 specifies only that when vacancies occur on the Board of Commissioners a special election shall be held to fill the vacancies. None of the subsequent changes in the enabling legislation provide additional detail on how the election would be held.

Sarah Bell, active in local politics, also has indicated she plans to run again for BOC chairmanship in 2012. She lost to Davis by only 100 votes in 2008, when Davis was elected to his third, four-year term. That term would end in 2012.

The BOC chairmanship and all commissioners are elected county-wide.

Yet one more wild card is in the deck.

If the governor signs the bill before him allowing alcohol package sales on Sunday, which he is expected to do, the BOC could vote to put that issue on the ballot at any of the required special elections or in November.

It seems unlikely a three-member BOC without Davis and Horton would be inclined to do that, but it is possible.

Construction To Begin Shortly on Busy Epps Bridge Parkway Intersection in Oconee County

Improving Line of Sight

Construction work will begin on the upgrade of the intersection of Epps Bridge Parkway and Jennings Mill Parkway within the next month, according to Oconee County Public Works Director Emil Beshara.

The upgrade will include a raising of Jennings Mill Parkway at Lowe’s as well as a raising of the same roadway as it drops away from the Epps Bridge Parkway intersection and approaches Home Depot.

Retaining walls for the elevated roadway already are in place on both sides of Epps Bridge Parkway.

Jennings Mill Parkway
at Epps Bridge Parkway

Epps Bridge Parkway itself will not be closed during the construction, Beshara said, though there will be “lane restrictions” at times.

Beshara said he learned of the timetable for the project at a meeting with Georgia Department of Transportation officials earlier this month.

“They indicated that paving crews would be moving in toward the middle of May, so I expect you might see some activity in that intersection in late May or early June,” Beshara wrote to me in an email message last week. “I look for them to be done at this intersection by early August, depending on weather of course.”

The intersection improvement is part of the larger construction of the retail loop road from the Oconee Connector back to Epps Bridge Parkway at Jennings Mill Parkway.

That $13.5 million project is expected to be completed by the end of the year and will provide an entranceway to a proposed $76 million shopping center to be built between Lowe’s and SR Loop 10.

To avoid closing Jennings Mill Parkway, GDOT will add layers of asphalt, each 2 inches high, on lanes one at a time until the roadway approaches the current height of Epps Bridge Parkway, according to Beshara. Epps Bridge Parkway itself will not be raised, he said.

One of the entrances to Lowe’s off Jennings Mill Parkway already has been closed and will not reopen, according to a construction schematic for the project provided me by Beshara.

The remaining entrance to Lowe’s will drop down from the new roadway to the current parking lot, Beshara said. He said that the entranceway to the Shell gas station and convenience story on the other side of Epps Bridge Road also will be modified.

Beshara said the raising of the road is “to improve sight distance” as the roadway approaches Epps Bridge Parkway, which is on a ridge.

“Elevating the roadway will cost them (GDOT) a lot of money now,” Beshara said. “But it will leave us with a safer intersection.”

Beshara said in excess of 45,000 vehicles travel along Epps Bridge Parkway every day.

“I don’t see any significant burden on the traveling public during construction,” he wrote.

Oconee Commissioners, Watkinsville Mayor Report Little Interest So Far in Sunday Package Sales

But Pressure Expected

None of the five Oconee County Commissioners is reporting hearing much interest in acting on Senate Bill 10, passed by the legislature last week to allow local governments to give voters a chance to approve or disapprove package sales by a licensed retailer on Sundays.

Watkinsville Mayor Joe Walter also told me that he has had no inquiries about the bill and “We don’t have any plans” at present to act on it.

The bill, approved by the Senate on March 16 and by the House on April 12, just two days before adjournment, is waiting on the desk of Gov. Nathan Deal, who has said he will sign it but only after further review.

“You are the first person to mention it,” Commissioner Jim Luke wrote me in response to an email message I sent him on Monday night. “I have not given the issue any consideration.”

I asked the commissioners if they had been approached by anyone wanting to get a vote in Oconee County on package sales on Sunday now that the bill has passed.

“At this point, no one has approached me to request a referendum on this matter,” Chairman Melvin Davis wrote back yesterday in response to my query.

Melvin Davis, 4/13/2011

“I would expect to get requests in the next few months if the governor signs the bill as he has indicated,” Davis added.

“I did hear several people bring the topic up at a meeting I attended last week,” Commissioner Chuck Horton wrote back to me on Tuesday. “But the comments were not directed to me and the comments were short.”

Horton said he did expect “there will be something asked of the BOC if the legislation becomes law.”

Horton wrote “I can't imagine putting this item on a ballot if it were the only item.” It costs $20,000 to pay for an election, he said. Local governments must absorb that cost.

“My guess is that there will be a request to place the Sunday sale and a mixed drink vote on the ballot at the same time,” he added.

Commissioner John Daniell also said in his email reply on Monday that he had not been approached about the issue.

He agreed with Horton and Davis that requests are likely.

“I would expect someone to approach the BOC,” He said. “Don't be surprised to see liquor by the drink mentioned during this time as well.”

Commissioner Margaret Hale responded today in much the same way.

“Have not had anyone approach me concerning this,” she wrote. “I am sure that once the bill is signed the phone will start ringing.”

When I called Mayor Walter at home tonight, he said I was the second person who asked him today if the city was discussing the possibility of a referendum on package sales, and the other was a reporter from the Athens Banner-Herald.

Licensed grocery and convenience stores in Oconee County and Watkinsville currently sell beer and wine Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, they can display but not sell these products.

SB 10 could make that space more productive from a sales point of view.

Licensed restaurants in Watkinsville and Oconee County also can sell beer and wine, but not on Sunday. SB 10 would not change that restriction, as the bill deals only with package sales.

Oconee County authorized beer and wine sale in restaurants only in April of 2008, several months after Watkinsville did so.

Georgia law allows municipal and county governing bodies to approve beer and wine sale, but voters must approve the sale of alcohol.

SB 10, if signed by the governor, also would allow voters to decide on Sunday sale of beer, wine and distilled spirits, but only in counties where these are now allowed.

Oconee County does not allow the sale of distilled spirits, so voters would have to approve that sale before it could approve Sunday sale of distilled spirits.

Oconee County Rep. Hank Huckaby voted for SB 10 when it passed the House, while Sen. Bill Cowsert, who represents Oconee County, voted against SB 10 when it passed the Senate.

Huckaby told WGAU’s Tim Bryant during Bryant's “Newsmakers” program on April 8 that he planned to vote for SB 10 when it came before the House because he felt his constituents were overwhelmingly in favor of it, but he personally opposes Sunday sales.

“If it ever gets on the ballot in Oconee County I will vote against it,” Huckaby said. He lives in Oconee County.

The bill before the governor would allow county or municipal authorities to call for an election once they had passed an ordinance or resolution specifying the hours of sales, which cannot be before 12:30 p.m. or after 11:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Voters then would get to vote either for or against the sale in a called referendum.

Oconee Farmers Market Launches Eighth Season Behind Eagle Tavern in Downtown Watkinsville

Lexi Has Birdhouses

Eleven vendors turned out yesterday for the first Oconee Farmers Market for the 2011 season to offer fresh greens, dried mushrooms, baked goods, soaps, lamb and beef, milk and eggs.

The Red Oak Southern String Band played what band leader Steve Pettis called “a mix of traditional bluegrass, folk and blues tunes as well more contemporary folk and blues music.”

The youngest vendor was Lexi, 6, who added birdhouses to her inventory from last year, which had included cut flowers and lemonade.

I heard Lexi talking about her new product and decided I had to have a recording of that. It is below, and I highly recommend you watch it.

The market opening was three weeks earlier this year than last, when the market opened on May 8. Nineteen vendors were on hand at that time.

The Red Oak Southern String Band has promised to return on May 7 of this year, in what the Market is calling the official Grand Opening of the season. More vendors are expected.

Pettis, who lives in Watkinsville, said his band has played together for more than 10 years. Left to right, in the video, are Brian Drake on mandolin, Jeff Buckley on banjo, Brian Foreman on guitar, Keith Weaver on base, and Pettis, also on guitar.

Singing duties yesterday were spread out among the various players.

Oconee Farmers Market began operation in 2004 in the front yard of the Eagle Tavern across from the courthouse but moved to the rear of the Tavern in 2009 to allow for more vendors and because the county sodded the grass in front of the historic tavern.

At one market last year 35 vendors had booths.

Watkinsville has agreed to close First Street behind Eagle Tavern to create additional space for vendors this year.

The markete opens at 8 a.m. and closes and 1 p.m.

Vendors pay 5 percent of their sales each week to sustain the market. The Market does not get any governmental support other than free use of the space behind Eagle Tavern.

Oconee Patch has begun a weekly Friday feature reporting on market offerings the following day, based on a survey the Market does of vendors each week.

The picture in the Patch story of one I took of Lexi’s stand on opening day last year.

I am the customer representative on the Market’s Board of Directors and have agreed to help with marketing and publicity.

I would have written this story even without that assignment. I couldn’t not write it once I heard the conversation Lexi had about her birdhouses.

Lexi does a better job of promoting the market than I could ever hope to do.

Congressional Vote on Budget Extends Operation of Oconee County Agricultural Research Center

Step Number 4?

Late on last Friday night, Dwight Fisher, research leader at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Research Center just outside Watkinsville, learned that the House, the Senate and President Barack Obama had reached a compromise on the current fiscal year budget.

That was step number 1, and it meant he and the other employees of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) center were not being furloughed at midnight.

On Wednesday afternoon, Fisher sent me an email saying he had learned that the compromise budget included funding for the Campbell Center.

That was step number 2, and it meant the Center had a chance to continue to operate until Sept. 30.

This afternoon the U.S. House of Representatives passed the compromise funding bill, and the Senate did the same several hours later.

That, Fisher told me before the vote, should keep the Campbell Center operating through the end of this fiscal year.

Step number 3.

What happens on Oct. 1 is quite another matter.

After Sept. 30?

President Obama has cut the funding for the ARS, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the 2012 budget. The ARS has targeted the Campbell Center for closing.

Congress could add more money to the USDA and ARS budget, but that seems very unlikely.

The Senate has pledged not to direct money at specific geographic sites, an act called earmarking.

“We’d really like that place to stay where it is,” Ben Mosely, a staff member for Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, told me in a telephone conversation on Friday as the budget negotiations were underway. He said the service and research of the Campbell Center are highly valued by the senator.

Chambliss is a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Georgia’s other senator, Johnny Isakson, is bound by the same Senate agreement on earmarks.

Rep. Paul Broun, whose 10th Congressional District includes Oconee County, also has said he will not use earmarks.

In fact, Brown voted against the budget compromise today.

According to his web site, he does not feel the cuts were sufficient.

Chambliss and Isakson supported the compromise budget bill.

All three are Republicans.

Mosely said all he could recommend to citizens who want to support the Campbell Center is that they write to the ARS and ask it to include the Center in next year’s funding.

The administrator of ARS is Dr. Edward Knipling. His email address and mailing address are in this link.

The closing of the Campbell Center would be very hard on the six research scientists and 19 support staff employed there, Fisher told me at the end of last month.

Research projects are tied to specific plots, and it takes three or more years for a scientist to begin gathering data from a project, he said. When a scientist moves, she or he has to start over.

Employees will be offered jobs elsewhere in the country if the Campbell Center closes, Fisher said.

For Oconee County, the loss of the 1,100 farm acres, most of them in the heavily populated Northeastern part of the county, could radically change the county’s balance of greenspace and developed land.

The Campbell Center was begun as the Southern Piedmont Experiment Station on Jan. 1, 1937, according to a history of the Center’s first 50 years that Fisher gave me.

The Center from the beginning focused on soil erosion.

The history explained the reason:

“Nowhere has it (soil erosion) been more evident than in the Southeast, where intense rainfall and sloping fields have combined with continuous row-crow agriculture to rapidly transport fertile soil downhill to clog streams, bottomland flood plains and reservoirs leaving behind eroded and gullied farms, nonproductive lands and impoverished people.”

The Watkinsville location was selected, according to the document, “because it was representative in climate, soils, and topography” of the Southern Piedmont, which extends from eastern Alabama northeast through Georgia, the Carolinas and into Virginia.

The Center continues to focus on soil erosion problems, and recently has begun research to study how known techniques to prevent erosion can be applied best in organic farming, according to Fisher.

What is learned at the Center has application to farmers in Oconee County and the region, he said.

“If they defund us, people will realize the need for the research in the future and will have to refund it somewhere else,” Fisher said.

Oconee County Commissioners Asked to Increase Water and Sewer Rates on July 1

Base Rate Hike of 6.1 Percent

Oconee County water and sewer rates will increase on July 1 for the third year in a row if the Board of Commissioners accepts the budget proposal put before it tonight by Oconee County Utility Department Director Chris Thomas.

Thomas presented the Board with a fiscal year 2012 budget request of $7.1 million, up from the current approved budget of $6.4 million.

The budget would be balanced by rate increases for those using even the minimal amount of water and sewage.

That minimum water rate–for use of from 0 to 1,000 gallons of water per month–would go from $16.50 to $17.50, or an increase of 6.1 percent.

A household using 2,000 gallons per month would pay $22 rather than the present $20.75, or an increase of 6.0 percent.

Commercial rates also would increase.

Residential sewage rates would go from $18 for those at the base treatment level of 2,000 gallons per month to $19.50, or an increase of 8.3 percent. Commercial rates at the base level of 2,000 gallons per month would go from $30 to $32.55, or an increase of 8.5 percent.

Thomas also had proposed a rate increase for all water customers a year ago.

In the end, the Board reduced the amount of water covered by the base from 2,000 gallons per month to 1,000, left that rate unchanged, and increased the rate for those using less than 2,000 from $16.50 to $20.75, or by 25.8 percent.

Chuck Horton, 4/13/2011

Again tonight, Commissioner Chuck Horton raised concerns about increasing rates for those who use 1,000 gallons of water a month or less.

“Those folks who do use nominal amounts of water. I’m thinking about the single and elderly. I’m pretty compassionate about them,” he said.

“They had no increase whatsoever last year,” Thomas said.

“They are still single and old,” Horton responded.

Relatively few households in Oconee County are on sewers, so most of the focus was on water rates. Commissioner Jim Luke even said he thought a higher sewage rate increase than was proposed would be appropriate.

The budget Thomas proposed included $2.8 million in debt service, which is down from the $3 million in the current budget.

Tonight was the final night of hearings before the BOC on budget requests from the county’s departments. The Board met Monday evening and all day yesterday. The budget requests have not been released to the public.

On Monday, Finance Department Director Jeff Benko said requests submitted by the departments total just less than $21 million, while budget projections are about $19 million.

The meeting ended tonight with warnings from Benko about the difficult task of reconciling requests with revenue.

The county has balanced the budget both of the last two years by taking money out of the fund balance, that is, unspent monies from previous years.

Benko warned the Board tonight that it needs to be careful to protect that balance, which stands at $8.5 million, as it tries to find ways to balance county needs and resources.

“I thought (fiscal year) 11 was the toughest year,” Benko said. “Twelve will be.”

“I’m not looking forward to the next couple of three weeks,” Commissioner Jim Luke said.

The Board is scheduled to vote on the final budget on June 7.