The Oconee County Board of Commissioners last week took final action to borrow $4.285 million to build a new road to promote further commercial development in the busy Epps Bridge Road corridor.
In order to avoid asking the voters to approve the bond sales, the commissioners agreed to have the county’s Industrial Development Authority do the actual borrowing.
Oconee County’s two representatives in the Georgia House of Representatives were among the majority that voted in favor this week of a law to allow for handguns on the University of North Georgia campus as well as on other public university properties around the county and state.
The Georgia Board of Regents and Chancellor Hank Huckabee, who lives in Oconee County, have opposed allowing guns on colleges campuses.
The bill now goes to the Senate for action.
The proposed Mars Hill Road Overlay District survived one more week.
Oconee County seems likely to get a new web site, at a cost of just less than $40,000, and to spend $52,000 for a study of water and sewer rates.
Oconee County commissioners Tuesday night will confront a complex agenda that includes proposals for renovation of the Courthouse, the Mars Hill Overlay District, changes in the Animal Control Board and its bylaws, and bonds for construction of the entranceway to Epps Bridge Centre Phase II.
The Board of Commissioners also will give first reading to a change in the county’s Wastewater Treatment Policy, award a contract for study of water and wastewater rates, and set possible termination dates for the county’s lease on the two buildings across from the Courthouse.
Oconee County Administrative Officer Jeff Benko gave a simple answer last week at the Animal Control Advisory Board meeting to a question about the status of the feasibility study for renovation or replacement of the existing Animal Shelter.
Benko told Animal Control Department Director Catlyn Vickers that nothing has been done to date.
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has listed funding for a renovated and expanded Bogart Library as its fifth highest priority among library capital projects that the state should fund for Fiscal Year 2017.
The ranking for the Oconee County library project in 2017 is two rungs higher than the ranking the project was given by the Board of Regents last year. Funding for the Bogart Library was cut from the capital budget in the final days of the legislature last year.
The government of Athens-Clarke County has raised concerns about the proposed $55 million expansion of Epps Bridge Centre, saying the project will have impact on both the transportation infrastructure and natural resources of the county.
The Athens-Clarke County Planning Department outlined the concerns in a letter sent to the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, which is conducting a review of the project as a Development of Regional Impact.
