Oconee County Commission To Select Members Of Stakeholder Committee For Comprehensive Plan

33 Applicants

UPDATE 9:10 p.m. on Feb. 7: The Board selected 24 persons to serve on the Stakeholder Committee. That list is HERE. The highlighted names are those selected.

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners tonight will select from–or accept all on–a list of 33 applicants for the Stakeholder Committee that will help develop a new Comprehensive Plan for the county.

The list includes five people currently holding a position on a citizen committee in the county, a county employee, and an unsuccessful candidate in the most recent election for the Board of Commissioners.

Oconee County Issues Public Notice Of Spill At Calls Creek Plant

Friday Morning Break

Oconee County posted a public notice on its Utility Department home page late Friday afternoon announcing a sanitary sewer force main break at its Calls Creek wastewater plant located at 1100 Durhams Mill Way on the north side of Watkinsville.

According to the announcement, the break was discovered at approximately 9:15 a.m. on Friday at the pump station at the base of the plant.

Oconee County Commissioners Being Asked To Spend Money On Calls Creek Expansion Beyond 1.5 Million Gallons Per Day

At Least $900,000 Added

Oconee County Utility Department Director Wayne Haynie will ask the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night to spend $13.5 million for an upgrade to its Calls Creek wastewater treatment plant, including at least $900,000 for expansion of the plant beyond the initial 1.5 million gallons per day of capacity.

The $900,000 is part of just less than $2 million the Utility Department asked Crowder Construction Company in March of last year to add to its estimated costs for the wastewater plant expansion.

Oconee County Commissioners Vote To Refund Sewer Capacity Fees For Dormant Subdivisions

Parkside And Westland On List

Oconee County Commissioners voted last (Tuesday) night to refund sewer capacity for four undeveloped subdivisions in the county, significantly reducing the need for increased sewage treatment capacity in the county.

The decision will make those four housing projects, including the massive Parkside and Westland subdivisions, unbuildable as zoned, since they require sewage capacity for the intensive development proposed.

Oconee County Utility Department Director Says He Will Not Ask Commissioners To Build A Pipeline Down Calls Creek

1.5 MGD Plant Upgrade

Oconee County Utility Department Director Wayne Haynie is scheduled to ask the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night to approve his upgrade plans for the Calls Creek wastewater treatment plant, but he says those plans do not include an effluent pipeline down the creek.

In fact, Haynie told Jim McGarvey of Friends of Calls Creek in an email message on Friday that the county is no longer planning a sewer line down Calls Creek.

Oconee County Held Two-Day Staff Retreat For Department Heads At Stone Mountain

”Team Building”

Oconee County department heads, at the invitation of Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, met for two days last week at Stone Mountain in what Daniell said was an effort at “team building.”

In the first day of the session on Thursday, former County Administrative Officer Alan Theriault led the group through a discussion about the budget process, communications, morale “or any other item important to the group,” Daniell said. Neither he nor current Administrative Officer Jeff Benko attended that session.

Architectural Firm Recommending That Oconee County Replace Its Animal Shelter

Cost: $2.9 Million

Tevis Architects, hired to do an assessment of the Oconee County Animal Shelter, is recommending that the county replace the entire facility, located at 1171 Branch Road in the far south of the county.

In a report dated Jan. 9, 2017, Tevis said that the while renovation of the existing facility was possible, “it would be far less costly to build a new facility.”