Watkinsville City Council meeting approves three business licenses and gives Mayor discretion to choose Christian Lake paver

Approved three businesses this evening at Community Center. Art on the Side, Dressing Your Rooms, and a Fairytale Finds LLC were all approved by The Watkinsville City  Council meeting this evening. The address for these businesses includes Art on the Side with Arlene Phillips at 17 North Main Street, the Dressing Your Room business with Shirley Dean is located at 56 Dooley Street and the Fairytale Finds LLC will be located at 1021 Industrial Boulevard. Co-owners Lisa Masterson and Kaci Thurmond came to the meeting this evening to describe their children's boutique consignment sale place and their twice monthly sales, and council member Toby Smith joked that some of the members of the City Council would have to recuse their vote because of they would be shopping there all the time.

Doctor Robert Wyatt of the Oconee County Library Advisory Board  spoke for in favor of increasing the funding for the Oconee County Library in their budget request, while Johnny Lay waited until later on in the meeting to speak out against increasing the 11,000 dollar contribution by the municipal budget. Wyatt addressed why the Library sought the increase,  citing unfunded mandates from the State of Georgia and especially the Teachers Retirement System. 

This is for fiscal year 2014 so no action was taken. Watkinsville resident Nancy DeRemo spoke out in favor of the funding increase after Lay waited until Wyatt and Jackie Elsner had left the meeting to oppose their request for a $1,500.00 increase in funding.

The Watkinsville branch of the Oconee County Library has already had to significantly curtail their evening hours due to budget constraints and further cutbacks are envisioned if no increase in the annual contributions from the various governments are not met.

Mayor Charles Ivie was granted authority to choose between a pair of sealed bids for paving at the entrance of Christian Lake subdivision. There was a significant difference between the bids, but based on one adding fifty feet of paving around the drainage area impacted the price, according city engineer Mark Campbell. There is also the starting of geological test boring around the sewer line for the Industrial Park, where many of the businesses have already outgrown their septic footprint.  

An updated short term work program was also approved for the next five years for Watkinsville.

Extra Special People will be allowed to place an educational trailer (donated by the Oconee County Board of Education) in the back of the Harris Shoals Park property adjacent to the Community Center. The Mayor also advised that that ESP is looking for a new location with a capital improvement campaign. 

Connie Massey commented that several people in her neighborhood had asked about the crumbling in of the porch on the house at 2nd and Barnett Shoals Road, ostensibly owned by the small Church nearby but with no one living in it for quite some time.