Oconee County came crashing to the ground in 2009
Many of the long standing myths surrounding Oconee County Georgia were dashed this year, including that of the never ending economic growth for the county and the supposed superiority of the School System were done in by a series of scandals and decisions which were seemingly not very popular with the majority of the local populace.
Oconee County can no longer count on continued expansion of subdivisions in every direction as we have countless "PVC farms" and ghost towns in considerable corners of the main arteries ranging from Hog Mountain Road to Whitehall/Simonton Bridge Road. One can only hope for the local economy to improve well enough in 2010 where there will once again have need to build houses and have people living in them out here next year.
The lack of some essential services in this county continues to come up perilously close to causing us some serious problems, but so far our government has done exactly what it needs to support our local police officers and other county offices. We need to start paying our fire department sometime in the next decade. We need to expand our sewers, sidewalks, bike paths, recycling and water situations to be more secure in an uncertain future. We need more cooperation between the municipal and county governments to ensure that the right roads are widened according to our needs and not what some Atlanta DOT bureaucrat tells us to do.
Whether you support an expansion of the economic cooperation with Clarke County or not, we need to adopt a more regionally guided planning strategy to attract new industry, which brings new jobs and continues to allow our wonderful county to remain the most employed county in the state. Will the Orkin tract be built before 2020? Right now I would have to bet not, but I remain optimistic for an industry to relocate to the great Athens-Oconee nexus in the next decade as long as we remain vigilant on keeping the infrastructure at pace with the rest of the area economy.
We need more diversity in our appointed and elected boards, and that means people who get selected for the Planning Commission to not just come from families who have lived here their whole lives. We need to give Oconee County voters a real choice between two viable parties with multiple candidates from all political persuasions. We need to think about how future generations are going to think about us if we no longer have turkey, cattle or cotton growing successfully in Oconee County. I certainly hope agribusiness remains a realistic choice for people in the next ten years. But we should make sure that kids can get from Oconee Veterans Park to Herman C. Michael Park without taking their lives in their own hands crossing State Route 53. We need to implement strict and reliable emergency response procedures so people will not have to rely on the Sheriff updating residents in the comments section of the Athens daily newspaper next time a truck overturns and block off a main thoroughfare from Atlanta or elsewhere.
We need to start building the brain train to connect the Unversity of Georgia with Hartsfield-Jackson airport as well as MARTA. This could be mandated tomorrow or at least next month with courageous leadership sadly lacking at the State level right now.
We must continue to build a better campus for the Gainsville State College's Oconee County campus. We need to protect the new Board of Education building from any possible problems from the nearby jail, and also secure a place for prisoners to be safely and securely escorted from the prison to the courthouse and more. Does the Board of Education's apparent land grab of at least some of the Williams family property on the old 441 preclude any expansion from the County government in that direction? I think it is premature to bury all aspirations for this construction, but I do think something could be built after 2014 in this area (assuming the new Board of Education office is finished in four years.
I could gaze further into my crystal ball to try and make dreams come true for me and you in the next several years, but instead I will do my best to continue to tell you of stories of note making headlines in Oconee County and beyond. Have a happy New Year and let me know what you would like to see locally in 2010.
Oconee County can no longer count on continued expansion of subdivisions in every direction as we have countless "PVC farms" and ghost towns in considerable corners of the main arteries ranging from Hog Mountain Road to Whitehall/Simonton Bridge Road. One can only hope for the local economy to improve well enough in 2010 where there will once again have need to build houses and have people living in them out here next year.
The lack of some essential services in this county continues to come up perilously close to causing us some serious problems, but so far our government has done exactly what it needs to support our local police officers and other county offices. We need to start paying our fire department sometime in the next decade. We need to expand our sewers, sidewalks, bike paths, recycling and water situations to be more secure in an uncertain future. We need more cooperation between the municipal and county governments to ensure that the right roads are widened according to our needs and not what some Atlanta DOT bureaucrat tells us to do.
Whether you support an expansion of the economic cooperation with Clarke County or not, we need to adopt a more regionally guided planning strategy to attract new industry, which brings new jobs and continues to allow our wonderful county to remain the most employed county in the state. Will the Orkin tract be built before 2020? Right now I would have to bet not, but I remain optimistic for an industry to relocate to the great Athens-Oconee nexus in the next decade as long as we remain vigilant on keeping the infrastructure at pace with the rest of the area economy.
We need more diversity in our appointed and elected boards, and that means people who get selected for the Planning Commission to not just come from families who have lived here their whole lives. We need to give Oconee County voters a real choice between two viable parties with multiple candidates from all political persuasions. We need to think about how future generations are going to think about us if we no longer have turkey, cattle or cotton growing successfully in Oconee County. I certainly hope agribusiness remains a realistic choice for people in the next ten years. But we should make sure that kids can get from Oconee Veterans Park to Herman C. Michael Park without taking their lives in their own hands crossing State Route 53. We need to implement strict and reliable emergency response procedures so people will not have to rely on the Sheriff updating residents in the comments section of the Athens daily newspaper next time a truck overturns and block off a main thoroughfare from Atlanta or elsewhere.
We need to start building the brain train to connect the Unversity of Georgia with Hartsfield-Jackson airport as well as MARTA. This could be mandated tomorrow or at least next month with courageous leadership sadly lacking at the State level right now.
We must continue to build a better campus for the Gainsville State College's Oconee County campus. We need to protect the new Board of Education building from any possible problems from the nearby jail, and also secure a place for prisoners to be safely and securely escorted from the prison to the courthouse and more. Does the Board of Education's apparent land grab of at least some of the Williams family property on the old 441 preclude any expansion from the County government in that direction? I think it is premature to bury all aspirations for this construction, but I do think something could be built after 2014 in this area (assuming the new Board of Education office is finished in four years.
I could gaze further into my crystal ball to try and make dreams come true for me and you in the next several years, but instead I will do my best to continue to tell you of stories of note making headlines in Oconee County and beyond. Have a happy New Year and let me know what you would like to see locally in 2010.
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