Oconee County School Superintendent Melissa Butler found both strengths and areas for improvement in her 90-day assessment of the school system she took responsibility for on Oct. 14.
In a report she released last week, Butler said community members and faculty and staff said Oconee County Schools has high quality educators and staff, a positive school culture, and academic rigor.
The owners of 8.1 acres on the north side of Daniells Bridge Road east of the curve at SR Loop 10 are scheduled to be before the Oconee County Planning Commission on Tuesday night seeking permission to radically alter the concept plan for that property approved by the county in 2008.
Krojo LLC is asking that it be allowed to put seven office and warehouse buildings on the property instead of the single large office building approved by the Board of Commissioners in 2008.
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) is considering spending $5 million from its reserve to put synthetic turf rather than natural grass on sports fields at the planned Dawson Park to support sports tourism in the county.
At its meeting on Tuesday, Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, who is a member of the IDA, said the county is prepared to spend $25 million it has in hand to launch Dawson Park.
The developer of a shopping center on U.S. 78 just west of Mars Hill Road says he has executed a lease with Publix and expects to break ground on the project this spring.
Fred Hand IV of Hand Properties Inc. of Atlanta said on Thursday that signage will go up on the property next week announcing the project.
The Oconee County Board of Education on Monday voted to spend $4.6 million from the current Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) for HVAC renovation at Oconee County Primary School and Oconee County Middle School and for a replacement of its Transportation Office.
The Board on Monday also received an update from Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services, on acquiring digital video scoreboards for the stadiums at North Oconee High School and at Oconee County High School.
The more than 100 people who turned out at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park on Saturday for newly elected State Rep. Eric Gisler’s Town Hall meeting engaged in a dialogue on topics ranging from affordable housing, school safety, the costs of medical care, and cell phones in classrooms.
Gisler began the two-hour session by talking about what he has done since his election on Dec. 9 to prepare himself for the legislative session that begins tomorrow (Monday), saying he has talked extensively with government and civic leaders in both Oconee and Clarke counties.
Attorney Jeffrey DeLoach, speaking to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, rejected the county initiated rezone plan for the 33.7 acres on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road.
DeLoach said his client, Deferred Tax LLC, was interested in a settlement of the lawsuit Deferred Tax had filed against the county, but not in the proposal the county was offering through its rezone.
