State Will Not Seek Access to Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Water For Atlanta, Oconee County and Other Officials Predict

Loan Documents To Be Scrutinized

Although nothing can be certain until the state provides the loan contracts, Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Project Manager Jimmy Parker said he does not expect the state to require that Oconee and Walton counties share water from the reservoir with Atlanta as a condition for the $32 million in loans the state is offering.

“I don’t anticipate any language in there to that effect,” Parker told me by telephone last Tuesday. He said he expects the state to issue a standard Georgia Environmental Finance Authority loan that will not include any state involvement in the project.

Regina Quick Moving Forward With Plans to Revisit Split of Oconee County in 2011 Redistricting

Meeting Set for Tuesday

Regina Quick, the unopposed Republican candidate in Georgia House District 117, has taken initial steps to fulfill one of her primary campaign promises: to introduce legislation that would overturn the redistricting passed by the General Assembly in its special session in 2011 splitting Oconee County between two House Districts.

Quick is scheduled to meet with Chuck Williams, the unopposed Republican candidate in Georgia House District 119, and with Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis on Tuesday and to discuss her campaign promise at that session

Oconee County Code Enforcement Cites Oconee Waste Transport for Violation of Zoning Ordinance

Court Date Set for Sept. 14

The Oconee County Code Enforcement Office has cited Matt Elder for violation of the ordinance that rezoned 6.2 acres south of Watkinsville from Agricultural to Office Business Park in 2010 so Elder could locate his Oconee Waste Transport business there.

The county claims in the citation that Elder operated his business before 6 a.m. despite the specification in the ordinance that the hours of operation should only be from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Hard Labor Creek Board Accepts Schedule for Oconee County, Walton County Approval of State Loans

Loan Execution Can Be Delayed

The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board today accepted without comment a schedule that calls for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners to approve on Nov. 6 two loans for $32 million from the state of Georgia for construction of the dam that will create the reservoir in the very south of Walton County.

The issue will be approved by the Management Board itself on Oct. 16, according to the schedule, and come to the Oconee County BOC on Oct. 30 for first reading. The Walton County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to approve the loan on Nov.6, when the Oconee County BOC also takes final action.

Hard Labor Creek Board on Tuesday To Consider State Loans for Joint Oconee and Walton County Project

Water Available to Metro Atlanta

The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board on Tuesday is scheduled to take up the $32 million in loans that the state is offering Oconee and Walton counties to help them build the 1,400-acre lake in the very south of Walton County.

The counties promised to give metro-Atlanta access to the water as part of the application for the loans.

Justification for Farm Pond Exemption for Lake on Aycock Road Remains Hidden to Public

Farm Act of 2008 Cited

The justification for the farm pond exemption to the federal Clean Water Act that Oconee County farmer Tony Townley received for a lake he built this spring on property he owns on Aycock Road remains hidden from the public because of an interpretation of a section of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.

Chalmer Rennie from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Washington used that justification for denying an appeal I had made of an earlier decision by Sharon Gipson from the Athens office of NRCS.

Analysis of Oconee County July 31 Election Suggests Voters Treated Races as Separate Matters

But Tough on Women

Oconee County voters on Tuesday said an overwhelming no to the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax but reelected Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis, who was one of its strongest local supporters.

In reelecting Davis, the voters rejected challenger and current commissioner Chuck Horton, one of Davis’ strongest critics, but voters gave strong support to incumbent commissioner Jim Luke, who has been even more outspoken of late in his criticism of Davis.