The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration on Tuesday adopted policies for citizen comment at its meetings and for when it goes into executive session.
The Board agreed to set aside 15 minutes at the beginning of its regular monthly meetings for citizens to speak. Citizens will be required to use a sign-up sheet at the meeting and will be called up in order of sign-up.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is asking MACORTS, the metropolitan transportation planning organization for Oconee County, to bundle funding in its planning documents for the Jimmy Daniell Road, Virgil Langford Road, and Oconee Connector intersections with SR 316.
The request is to facilitate moving forward with construction of the three projects, Kimberly Grayson from GDOT Planning told members of the Technical Coordinating Committee of MACORTS at its meeting last month.
Oconee County’s three incumbent Republican state legislators entered the campaign season with huge financial resources, having raised $367,629 in the seven months leading up to the just completed legislative session and reporting a net balance among them at that time of $1.2 million.
House District 120 Rep. Houston Gaines, who represents Bogart and Marswood Hall precincts in Oconee County, led the three legislators with $184,099 received from July 1 of last year to Jan. 31 of this year, and with a net balance on hand of $613,558, according to his report to the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission.
The Athens Regional Library System has made two changes in response to community concerns about children’s use of library materials, Valerie Bell, Director of the Library System, said at the agenda-setting meeting of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners last week.
Existing policy is that children 10 and under are not allowed in the library unaccompanied by an adult or older sibling at least 16 years of age, Bell told the commissioners.
The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that the Northeast Health District added 108 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending on March 27, based on the Department’s electronic tracking system.
The Department of Public Health reported the Northeast Health District had added 87 cases in the week ending on March 20, 132 cases in the week ending on March 13, and 229 cases in the week ending on March 6.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell had a long list of accomplishments and updates he offered to those gathered to hear the 2024 State of the County address earlier this month.
The Board of Commissioners rolled back the property tax millage rate for each of the last three years, he said, and at the same time put five new deputy sheriffs on the payroll this year.
The Oconee County Republican Party assembled 17 candidates on the stage at The Barn at Hadden Estate on Monday with the assignment that each spend five minutes answering questions from WGAU News Director Tim Bryant.
All of the candidates except incumbent Probate Court Judge Mike Hunsinger are running in the Republic Party Primary on May 21. Hunsinger is running unopposed on the nonpartisan judicial ballot.
