Blog Topic: Oconee Observations

In the Loop: GOP State Rep: Athens Democrats Are 'Fired Up'

By Lee Becker | June 12, 2017 11:03am

Rep. Chuck Williams (R-Watkinsville).

Athens native Brian Kemp, seeking the Republican Party nomination in the 2018 gubernatorial election, told a gathering of Oconee County Republicans late last month that his experience as a small business owner sets him apart in the campaign.

“I have been a conservative, small business owner for over 30 years,” Kemp, who currently is secretary of state, said. He said he is seeking the governor's office to “take that small-business owner’s mentality and be the next CEO of the state.”

Kemp said he wants to reform state government, strengthen rural Georgia, do tax and regulatory reform and provide health care for those in Georgia who are here legally.

Read More...
In the Loop: New Progressive Group Emerges in Oconee County

By Lee Becker | May 30, 2017 1:25pm

Andrea Wellnitz met hundreds of sympathetic people in Oconee County when she shared concerns about President Trump's election emboldening discrimination against her adopted children from China.

An empathetic response by the North Oconee Rotary Club to a member’s statement of concern about possible discrimination against her Chinese-born, adopted daughters after the November election has had an unexpected outcome.

A group calling itself Oconee Progressives and claiming nearly 300 members has emerged.

The group is political but not necessarily partisan, according to four women who have been instrumental in its formation.

The goal is community building, the women say, and they’ve organized luncheon meetings and picnics for their families so people can get together and share their concerns.

Also planned is a workshop to help children learn how to deal with bullying and another workshop to teach participants how to write more effectively letters to advocate for their causes.

The story of the formation of Oconee Progressives is a complex and surprising one that begins with Andrea Wellnitz, 47, an artist and social worker who works with veterans who are at risk for being homeless.

Wellnitz lives in the far west of the county near Statham.

Wellnitz first shared her concerns about the implications of the elections on her two daughters, adopted from China, with the Rotary.

Then she shared the positive response of the Rotary with her friends on Facebook.

That second sharing led to the emergence of Oconee Progressives.

Read More...
In the Loop: Epps Bridge Centre Phase II Is Coming Along

By Lee Becker | May 1, 2017 12:34pm

In the foreground are the new $3.3 million road Parkway Boulevard and the site of Epps Bridge Centre's second phase across the Oconee Connector from Phase 1.

Oconee County expects to open Parkway Boulevard from the Oconee Connector to Kohl’s by the end of May, county Public Works Director Emil Beshara told a meeting of the regional metropolitan transportation planning organization on Wednesday.

Construction on the roadway is “winding down,” Beshara told the group, with work remaining only on such things as pedestrian islands, guardrails, and striping.

The roadway will allow traffic to flow from Epps Bridge Parkway just inside Oconee County at the bridge over McNutt Creek to one of the entrances to Epps Bridge Centre or onto the Loop and Highway 316, or the reverse.

The county decided to spend $3.35 million to build the roadway not as a means of relieving traffic but to open up the area for further commercial development.

Read More...
In the Loop: GDOT Ditches Plan for 441 Bypass Around Bishop

By Lee Becker | March 29, 2017 1:14pm

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

City and GDOT officials review plans for 441 through Bishop.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is proposing that U.S. 441 be widened to three lanes through the center of Bishop rather than build a bypass of the small Oconee County city.

GDOT also is proposing that the highway be widened to four lanes from Bishop north to Watkinsville and from Bishop south to Madison, following the alignment of the existing roadway.

GDOT released the proposed route Tuesday night at the first meeting of the Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee, where it met with strong opposition from Bishop Mayor Johnny Pritchett and Farmington resident Buddy Murrow, both members of the Citizen Advisory Committee.

Read More...
In the Loop: Cheers! Watkinsville Approves Sunday Sales

By Lee Becker | March 22, 2017 4:42pm

Photo Credit: Paul Joseph

Watkinsville voters overwhelmingly approved the Sunday sales of alcoholic drinks in the city’s restaurants and the Sunday sales of beer and wine in the city’s convenience stores in voting in the special election that ended Tuesday.

Vote rturnout was low, but the margins in favor of Sunday sales in the city were even higher than they were when county voters approved Sunday sales last November.

Read More...
In the Loop: Turnout Light for Watkinsville Alcohol Referendum

By Lee Becker | March 21, 2017 11:41am

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

Only 63 of Watkinsville’s 2,117 eligible voters participated in the three weeks of early voting leading up to todays ’s election on whether Sunday sales of alcohol should be allowed at the city’s restaurants and convenience stores.

The turnout of less than 3 percent of the city’s voters suggests that only a small number of the city’s voters will decide the issue.

In the Mar. 17, 2015 special election in the city on liquor by the drink, only 265 voters cast a ballot, representing just a little more than 15 percent of the 1,759 registered voters. Positive votes were cast by 216 of those voters.

Voting on Sunday sales will take place from 7 a.m.–7 p.m. today at the city’s two precincts, City Hall and Annex.

Read More...
In the Loop: Oconee Subdivisions Sue for Access to Sewer

By Lee Becker | March 13, 2017 11:42am

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

The Parkside entrance off of Hog Mountain Road.

The owners of the long-dormant Westland and Parkside subdivisions have filed suit again Oconee County, seeking to block the decision by the Board of Commissioners to refund sewer capacity fees for the massive master plan developments.

In three separate lawsuits filed in Oconee County Superior Court, the owners contend, among other things, that the Board of Commissioners violated state zoning laws when it voted on Jan. 31 to refund sewer capacity fees paid by the developers of Westland and Parkside as well as by two other residential project developers.

Read More...
In the Loop: Oconee Zoning Decisions Will Affect Athens Residents

By Lee Becker | March 6, 2017 3:10pm

The proposed convenience store and college campus are located near the point where Oconee, Athens-Clarke and Oglethorpe counties meet.

Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday night will be asked to decide whether to allow a convenience store, a ministry college campus and an expansion of a community-scale church, all on land zoned for agriculture.

Two of the rezones are in the only part of Oconee County east of the Oconee River—a triangle of land assigned to the county when it was split off from Clarke County in 1875.

The commission’s decision on the convenience store will have impact on Athens-Clarke County residents, who live across Bob Godfrey Road from the proposed old-fashioned general store.

Read More...
In the Loop: Oconee Solar Farm Isn't Dead, Developer Says

By Lee Becker | February 14, 2017 10:05am

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

Wild Indigo Crossing, looking toward the proposed solar farm.

When the developers of Wildflower Meadows, a 263- acre subdivision in northwestern Oconee County, wanted to launch the project in 2006, they assembled 10 different pieces of property to accommodate the proposed 170 lots.

The largest of the 10 assembled tracts was a 113-acre parcel owned by the Hammond family of Gainesville.

Another tract of 12 acres also was owned by the Hammond family, and today it provides one of the two Wildflower Meadows entrances off Dials Mill Road.

The decision of the family to sell the two tracts in 2006 came back to haunt it on Jan. 3, when the Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 against a rezone request for an adjoining 204.8 acres owned by the Hammond family.

Read More...
In the Loop: Oconee County Moves to Slow Growth, Revokes Sewer Permits for Unbuilt Subdivisions

By Lee Becker | February 1, 2017 4:08pm

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

Wayne Hanie speaks to, from left, commissioners John Daniell, Mark Thomas, Chuck Horton, Bubber Wilkes and Mark Saxon.

Oconee County Commissioners voted 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.

The decision provides some relief to the county school system, which has raised concerns about the increased residential growth on the county schools.

Read More...