The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, unable to find a consensus, took no action last night on the two project framework agreements with the Georgia Department of Transportation for the widening of Daniells Bridge Road and for the Daniells Bridge Road extension and flyover of SR Loop 10.
Commission Chairman Melvin Davis pushed the four voting commissioners to give tentative approval to the projects, but none of the commissioners supported that decision.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners ended its two-day planning session on Friday pretty much where it started the day before in terms of the future of the Courthouse, which it also acknowledged is one of the most pressing issues facing the Board and the county.
Commissioner Jim Luke said at the end of the day that he is very concerned about the county’s space issues but that he didn’t think the Board was close to finding any solutions.
Oconee County has issued a permit for a 39,000-square-foot building at Epps Bridge Centre to house both Bed Bath & Beyond and Party City.
The new building will be located to the west of Marshalls in the last open area in the central core of the strip mall that lies between the Oconee Connector, SR Loop 10 and Epps Bridge Parkway.
The project framework agreements with the state for the widening of Daniells Bridge Road and for construction of an extension of Daniells Bridge Road and flyover of SR Loop 10 are back on the agenda of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners for approval on Tuesday night.
The two projects would create a new traffic artery to move traffic from Watkinsville to the Epps Bridge Road commercial corridor and then Athens that would parallel Mars Hill Road, now being rebuilt at a cost of $30 million.
Given the costs of paying for the enticements to bring Caterpillar to the area, the need for new judicial facilities, and the plans to build new roads and maintain the existing ones, Oconee County commissioners should consider an increase in the county’s property tax rate.
That was the message of Wes Geddings, county finance director, in the opening session of a day-long planning meeting held by the Oconee Board of Commissioners at a conference venue in Athens-Clarke County today.
The Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning is asking the Board of Commissioners to increase significantly funding for road repairs, resurfacing and related improvements.
The Committee decided at its meeting on Jan. 13 to ask the commissioners to increase the funding following a discussion in which Pubic Works Director Emil Beshara outlined spending needs for transportation infrastructure in the county.
Crews will begin intermittent blocking of Mars Hill Road on Thursday, the first time such action has been taken on the roadway since construction work began on the widening project last November.
Weather permitting, dump trucks will begin hauling dirt across Mars Hill Road between Hodges Mill Road and Riverhaven Lane sometime after 9 a.m. Thursday, according to a news release sent out late this afternoon by the Northeast Georgia office of the state Department of Transportation.
