Eagle Tavern to come full circle as Welcome Center (once again)?

In my continuing attempts at living off part-time employment during the past decades,  I was employed at the Welcome Center for Oconee County as an assistant to the Tourism Director Bonnie Murphy.  This was during the last years of Wendell Dawson as the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners and while the current Oconee County Courthouse was under renovation and most County business was conducted in the Governmental Annex. The Eagle Tavern evolved by getting a computer from Al Cuming's children several years before it was hooked up to the internet  to the former stage coach stop.

It has since been maintained as a museum but no longer functions as the office for anyone in particular. The hours and availability of the facility has been a matter of some contention between various factions leading to lots of gnashing of teeth and even some employment actions involving former directors. This former rest stop for travelers from Milledgeville and elsewhere has become something of a symbol for the county, playing host to everything from the Olympic torch to the Watkinsville Bicentennial in not-so-recent years.

This was two tourism directors and Welcome Center locations ago. Now some Commissioners for the Oconee County Board of Commissioners are apparently advocating a return to the Eagle Tavern as the site for the Welcome Center and Tourism Director.  And the Governmental Annex is going to get some much needed remodeling. I think that besides voting and paying your water bill, the Annex is home to the former Clean and Beautiful Commission, the agricultural groups and some adult education, among other things.

Tax revenue applied to projects || OnlineAthens.com

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