Oconee County, GA Politics

The Fourth Annual Empty Bowl dinner, themed “Empty Bowls, Full Hearts” for 2015, is set for 5-7 p.m. Friday at the Oconee Civic Center in Watkinsville. The event is a fundraiser to benefit Oconne Food for Kids, and each ticket includes dinner, entertainment and a student-made clay bowl. A silent auction will have work from local ceramic artists, tickets to events at The Classic Center, gift certificates and other items. Tickets are $10 and reservations can be made by calling High Shoals Elementary at (706) 310-1985 or Colham Ferry Elementary School at (706) 769-7764.

The gathering at High Shoals Elementary School was largely a dog and pony show for the Charter "to move forward" according to State Representative Bob Smith who was requested by oddly absent Mayor Jeff Thoomas and misquoted the vote tally (3-1 vs. 3-2). But otherwise you had an entertaining collection of concerned residents of every stripe, mostly divided into the "I've lived here all my life and the rest of you are just carpetbaggers" in the distinct minority and the more sober and numerous people supporting the Charter including a Vietnam Veteran sporting some fashionable white uniform from the Coast Guard and a couple of the towns council. Mayor Johnny Pritchett of nearby Bishop was in attendance, as was the Mayor of Watkinsville Jim Luken and Oconee County Board of Commissioners chair G. Melvin Davis along with five dozen or so residents of the High Shoals area. The discussions of the audience ranged from fringe zealots screaming about Nazis to most people p...

Somebody forgot to send an invitation to North High Shoals Mayor Jeff Thomas, but otherwise everyone in the community turned out to watch City Council member Violet Dawe snip the red ribbon with help from outgoing Board of Education chair Chris Franklin Sunday at the new school in High Shoals. The following are some photos from the event. The wooden gym floor passes my inspection except there is no three-point line painted on the non-regulation court.