Three pieces of legislation introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives could have impact on the District Attorney Office serving Oconee County.
House Bill 48, introduced on Jan. 23, would make the election of the District Attorney of the Western Judicial Circuit consisting of Oconee and Clarke counties, and all other circuits in the state, nonpartisan.
Attorney David Ellison, representing Deferred Tax LLC before the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, made it clear his client was not interested in any compromise over the rezone request for a shopping center with a Publix on the Oconee Connector at Mars Hill Road.
“You should approve the rezone as submitted,” he said several times.
Land Planner Ken Beall, also representing Deferred Tax, said the same.
The Board of Commissioners responded by voting unanimously to turn down Deferred Tax LLC, owned by Maxie Price, with no real discussion.
Both of Oconee county’s high schools currently are under capacity.
School administrators are projecting, however, that North Oconee High School will be over capacity by eight students next year, while Oconee County High School will be over capacity in 2032.
In eleven years, by 2034, North Oconee High School will be 94 students over its capacity of 1,500 students, and Oconee County High School will be 99 students over its capacity of that same number, the administrators project.
It is time to make decisions about how to accommodate the roughly 200 students the existing two high school currently are not designed to accommodate, Superintendent Jason Branch and Associate Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told the Board of Education at its retreat last month.
One of the issues that has divided the Oconee County Board of Education and the Oconee County Board of Commissioners–the joint use of athletic facilities–is about to surface again.
Oconee County Schools Associate Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told Board of Education members at their retreat last month of his plans to move ahead with charging the county’s Parks and Recreation Department the same user fee charged to nonprofits.
None of the Board members pushed back on that plan.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported four new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Northeast Health District in its report on Wednesday, including two in Clarke County.
The Department of Public Health reported eight confirmed deaths from the disease in the Northeast Health District on Wednesday of last week, and seven the week before that.
The Department of Public Health also reported that the Northeast Health District added 384 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on Feb. 1, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
Oconee County received just less than $1.1 million in Local Option Sales Tax in December, the first time the monthly collection has exceeded the $1 million mark.
The increase in collections, attributed to the November opening of Costco, played a role at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday night as the Board gave tentative approval to Fiscal Year 2023 Mid-Year Budget Amendments for $1.8 million.
Based on current guidelines from the Georgia Department of Transportation and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, a full access intersection from the Oconee Connector should not be allowed for the proposed shopping center at the Connector and Mars Hill Road.
The intersection of the Oconee Connector and SR 316 already has crash rates and injury crash rates significantly higher than the statewide average.
As a result, a full-access intersection would work against the county’s desire to maintain long-term safe and efficient traffic operation on the Oconee Connector.
A roundabout is needed at the proposed full-access entrance to the shopping center off Mars Hill Road.
