Georgia House Bill 92, on the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp, would give the Oconee County Board of Education until the end of April to decide to reverse its decision to opt out of the floating homestead exemption approved by voters last November.
If the Board decides to stay the course and not participate in the inflation-adjusted property tax exemption for homeowners, it will have to renew that decision again in 2027, after holding three public hearings, if the governor signs the bill.
Meredith Dean, Director of Community Works, an initiative to build relationships and trust across political differences, asked Oconee County Democrats last week to “think differently” about people living in rural America.
Speaking to the Democrats via Zoom from her base in rural Virginia, Dean said “both major parties have actually failed rural communities,” and this is part of the reason Democrats “are in the situation” they are in.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has sent letters to property owners between SR 15 and U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville telling them that survey work will begin soon for the design of a truck bypass of Watkinsville for SR 15.
Property owners are told they must allow access to the surveyors and are asked to complete a sketch showing where their septic tanks are located.
Representatives of Jones Petroleum Company and Hand Properties were before the Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday with the most specific plans to date for a grocery store in the U.S. 78 corridor in the northwest part of the county.
The request was to rezone a very narrow strip of land north of and opposite Clotfelter Road on U.S. 78 that will allow for a signalized entrance to a planned shopping center to the west of the JP convenience store and fuel station and Burger King at Mars Hill Road.
Organizers of the Tuesday evening Town Hall Meeting With Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins were not able to get Collins to attend, but they did turn out a very large crowd that produced a stack of 163 comment forms to deliver to Collins’s Monroe Office this week.
Selected individuals in the auditorium of the Athens Library read aloud a number of those questions, and the crowd remained engaged and orderly for the more than 90 minutes set aside for the meeting.
The group in Bishop that submitted a rejected application to begin the recall process for that city’s mayor and three member of its Council can restart the process at any time, according to a new interpretation of the state laws covering recalls.
Despite that option, Jacob Spaulding, who picked up the application forms and returned them to the Oconee County Office of Elections and Registration on March 3, said that he and his colleagues have decided to end their recall efforts.
Members of the Georgia House of Representative, led in part by Oconee County Rep. Houston Gaines, are working hard to make life difficult for members of governmental bodies that voted to opt out of the state’s new floating homestead exemption.
In Oconee County, those are the members of the Oconee County Board of Education, who voted 4 to 1 on Feb. 3 to approve a resolution not to participate in the inflation-adjusted homestead exemption.
