Oconee County, GA Politics

The economic rebound continues to percolate in lovely downtown Watkinsville, with Delores Schofill of CIRCA returning to the Main Street strip at 13 1/2 Main Stgreet, and Mae Rivera returning to cut hair basically across the street from her original location where pine straw has been sold with Watkinsville Clipper Cuts at 52 N. Main Street, Suite B, in the same development as Sunshine Cycles. Delores Schofill of CIRCA comes back to Watkinsville Kristina Butler received the OK for Fresh Baked Home Just down the street from the return of CIRCA and their authentic antiques from the 1700s and 1800s is Fresh Baked Home run by Kristina Baker at 17 North Main Street. All these businesses received unanimous approval by the City Council in an otherwise brief meeting. Mayoral candidate Dan Matthews was in the audience, and his opponent Charles Ivie continued his absence from the regular meetings. The Sons of Confederate Veterans received non-unanimous approval for a solar powered lig...

The Watkinsville City Council decided to increase the annual salary of the Mayor in a special called meeting Tuesday evening at the Community Center. Council member Brian Brodrick made a motion and was seconded by Toby Smith to increase the pay $2,500.00 next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012. The salary will increase from $7,200.00 to $9,800.00. A special condition was added that any future pay increases be discussed by that particular council and not set in stone by this particular pay raise. After hearing many reservations voiced by council members Mike Link and Henry Norman, the measure passed unanimously.  Council member Samantha Purcell was unable to attend, as was city attorney Joe Reitman, Jr. absent. At one point city clerk Julie Sanders attempted to call Reitman at the behest of outgoing Mayor Joe Walter, only to receive voice mail. They were asking to make sure the qualifying fees would remain the same next week. Walter refereed the brief event with his same concerned...

Please come to our meeting 7:30 pm Thursday, even if you are a Republican, to hear Republicans talking about T-SPLOST including Mayor Joe Walter of Watkinsville and Oconee County Board of Commissioners chair Melvin Davis. This is proof that Republicans and members of the Democratic Party can peacefully co-exist and even make government better together. You may attend even if you do not live in Oconee County. From: oconee@yahoogroups.com Date: April 18, 2011 6:55:41 PM EDT To: oconee@yahoogroups.com Subject: [oconee] Oconee Democrats Regular Monthly Meeting (Please note @ Jittery Joes this Month), 4/21/2011, 7:00 pm Reply-To: oconee@yahoogroups.com Reminder from: oconee Yahoo! Group Title: Oconee Democrats Regular Monthly Meeting (Please note @ Jittery Joes this Month) Date: Thursday April 21, 2011 Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Repeats: This event repeats every month on the third Thursday. Location: Jittery Joe's Coffee House Street: Greensboro Highway City State Zip: Wat...

Mayor Joe Walter and the Municipal Government of the City of Watkinsville wants all the email addresses for residents of the county seat for emergency contact updates. You may respond to mayor@cityofwatkinsville,com Begin forwarded message: From: "Joe Walter" mayor@cityofwatkinsville.com Date: March 7, 2011 2:07:48 PM EST Good morning Dan, Hope you had a good weekend.  You may have already done so and I missed it, but if you haven't, could you please post on your Oconee County Politics page that the city is asking for email addresses from city residents to add to our notification list.  We have roughly 50 now, but the more we have, the more people can be notified of an  incident when one occurs. If already done, thank you.  If not, but you can, thank you again. Joe

Jimmy Marbut, owner of Sunshine Cycles in Watkinsville and Athens, received approval to finish his garage and build some backyard recreation area for his kids from the Watkinsville City Council after some questions by the Mayor Joe Walter and Brian Brodrick and clarification of city attorney Joe Reitman. Council members Toby Smith and Samantha Purcell are shown above voting in favor of the building permit for the Jeremy Drive home in Morgan Manor Estates subdivision in Watkinsville.

If you want to know about the potential expansion of Harris Shoals Park or other future growth of Watkinsville parks and services, I would suggest attending this meeting at 6:00 pm this evening at the Watkinsville Community Center. Woven brightly,  Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. FYI – feel free to share this blogs, websites or twitter if you have the time or inclination. From: Joe Walter [mailto:mayor@cityofwatkinsville.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 9:17 AM To: Brian Brodrick; smokelink127@gmail.com; Purcell, Samantha; henry norman; Toby Smith Subject: SPLOST Public Information Meeting All, Don't forget tonight, October 06, is the City's "Public SPLOST Information Session".  The program begins at 6:00 PM and will be held in the Community Center.  Carter Engineering will be the program's primary presenter.  Will be good information for all who attend. Joe

The Watkinsville City Council meeting Wednesday evening was brief but to the point: Paige Hudspeth received approval for her business license for her three-hour group painting class called Paint with Class, and it will possibly be located at 8 School Street if real estate negotiations are completed as expected. Hudspeth explained that she can teach a group to complete paintings within three hours to take home paintings after an outing. She plans to primarily market to women, but will of course accept men. She says she has a knack for teaching people how to finish their works to take home with them. Paige Hudspeth shows one of her paintings to the Council Another amended business license will aim to accept consignment of hunting gear from primarily men, but will accept deer stands from women such as City Council member Samantha Purcell. The people who have been giving loans at Oconee Lending Group have decided to also have ATVs and golf carts in the parking lot shared with Sunshine...

Residents of Watkinsville recognized the slowly encroaching appearance of blue recycling bins in subdivisions such as Morgan Manor Estates and Christian Lake on Tuesdays from the trash collectors Curbside Service for quite some time. Wednesday the Watkinsville City Council or morse specifically the Mayor of Watkinsville Joe Walter approved by decree the recycling companies' official activities inside the city limits. The fee will remain $10.00 a month for the blue container picked up on Tuesday in a "single stream" - that is where you can put your plastics 1 through 7 right in with your glass and paper and aluminum and tin and steel and cardboard and Curbside will take care of them. No separation needed.  You can get a wheel container for $15.00 which would be ideal for businesses inside the city limits. "Just another step in the City of Watkinsville going green," said Walter. Previous attempts with other councils has not gone very far in getting recycling c...

Many thanks to Watkinsville Mayor Joe Walter, Oconee County Chair G. Melvin Davis and Oconee County State Bank owner Amrey Hardin for voting to include Elder Mill Bridge and the neighboring Mill, the largely unused railroad line and the Apalachee River as regionally important sites by the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Commission Wednesday at the Holiday Inn in Athens. Oconee County Observation blogger and UGA Journalism Professor Lee Becker as always goes the extra mile in covering the event(s) that the local media largely ignored or ignores. Oconee County Observations: Four Resources in Oconee County Get Regionally Important Designation Posted using ShareThis

Two Saturdays from now the City of Watkinsville will be cleaning up its stream and wetlands associated with the lovely Harris Shoals Park. I urge you to participate, and this note from Mayor Joe Walter would suggest that he would love to see you there too.. Woven brightly,  Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. Subject: Harris Shoals Stream Cleanup Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 09:25:46 -0400 From: mayor@cityofwatkinsville.com Wanted to provide you a heads up that on Saturday, April 24 th , we'll be at Harris Shoals Park for our annual stream cleanup.  We are piggy-backing with the Keep Oconee Beautiful folks that day.  We are all meeting at the park between 9:00 AM and will work the stream and park until 11:00 AM.   Do hope you and Lowell can make it and please feel free to bring anyone else along you'd like to.  Hope you and Lowell had a nice Easter.  Any questions?---give me a call at 706-769-5161 (City Hall)   Thanks. Joe

The woman holding the paper was not pleased with the school. All manner of feathered fowl and birds shall be granted sanctuary inside the city limits of Watkinsville following the City Council approval of an amendment embracing the idea of not trapping, hunting, shooting or molesting in any manner any bird or wild fowl. Donated by Athens Seed The second reading of the amendment went smoothly save Council member Mike Link's suggestion of switching verbs from "may take" to "may approve" which was endorsed by City Attorney Joe Reitman, Jr. as a prudent shift.  Basically if a big enough flock of grackles or turkey buzzards congregates in your yard, you can still seek council approval to take care of them, except not with a shotgun anymore. City Attorney Joe Reitman, Jr. At least one member of the audience recalled a time when the city advertised a similar less official proclamation back in the day. Later she made sure the donated bird feeder from Athens...

Watkinsville welcomed new Mayor Joe Walter at the start of their city council meeting with little fanfare Wedensday evening with five approved business licenses a signal that the economy continues to improve in Oconee County. I am a big time supporter of Joe and was proud to have voted for him last time around he was contested. He ran unopposed for Mayor and was up to all the tasks in this first meeting, with a few pointers from Council member Brian Brodrick on various protocols. Pete Chamberlain commenced the cavalcade of new money makers describing his wife Genie's innovative Wed Ed, Inc. which is basically going to teach brides how to get married. This business should thrive in Watkinsville with Ashford Manor Bed and Breakfast wedding factory essentially across Main Street in the Dan Elder building at 10 N. Main Street. Robert Davis was approved for Davis Landscape & Design's home office at 58 Harden Hill Road with the codicil of no construction equipment being...

With the qualifying period now half over, no challengers have emerged (so far) for presumed Mayor Joe Walter, City Council member Brian Brodrick and newly appointed member (and Christian Lake subdivision resident) Henry Norman (who has yet to officially attend a meeting of the Watkinsville city council as a member but will do so in less than a fortnight Wednesday, September 14.) The special qualifying period for Walter's seat he gave up to become Mayor will be during the last week of September, according to City Clerk Julie Sanders. "Qualifying will be the end of September. An advertisement will be in the paper - probably next Thursday announcing qualifying," according to Julie.

My best guess was wrong. Watkinsville Mayor Jim Luken will not be seeking re-election (to a fourth term?) and instead supporting the candidacy of current council member and one time Code Enforcement Officer Joe Walter to be the next Mayor of Watkinsville. It will be interesting to see if any of the announced candidates draw any opposition this time, and I would guess they would not, but look what happened last time I tried to predict something. --- On Fri, 8/21/09, Jim Luken <mayor@cityofwatkinsville.com> wrote: From: Jim Luken <mayor@cityofwatkinsville.com> Subject: RE: Re-election plans? To: danjmatt@bellsouth.net Date: Friday, August 21, 2009, 3:33 PM Dan,                 We have a very strong council and excellent momentum. I will not be a candidate this year but will support Joe Walter for Mayor.  Thanks for your concern.   Jim Luken     Fr...

Lowell and I had the supreme honor to sit in on the entire hand court of six tired souls to herald the magnificent efforts of City Clerk Julie Sanders in the contested race with Luke Bishop and Joe Walter in the Watkinsville City Council race. They counted, counted again and counted two more times to make sure they had the exact numbers. The tally was close in the first precinct I listened to as Johnny Pritchett kept tally along with a couple of women whose names I did not get. Johnny's wife Carolyn was on the other side of the room getting the government annex totals with two other ladies. Lowell did get caught up in the back and forth nature of the totals as the names were read off of each ballot. Absentees were tallied and totaled and Julie made darn sure the totals were correct. Expectant candidates perched outside the door and congratulatory hugs were made. Joe Walter, currently a co-owner of a car wash and a former code enforcement officer and police officer will return to t...

Call up everybody you know and make sure they have voted as well. Text your entire cell phone directory and ask them if they have voted or need a ride. Blast an email to your entire address book in all your email accounts and remind them to get out their and cast their vote. Today is the day to do it if you have not already. Parties are everywhere this evening in downtown Athens. Clarke County Democratic Committee thanks to Mike Hamby at the Melting Point, Bobby Saxon at the VFW hall and UGA Law Dawgs are at the Georgia Theater. The GOP is meeting at the Masters Hall of the Georgia Center of Continuing Education. I will predict that voters shall return incumbent city council member Joe Walter narrowly over Luke Bishop locally 51-49% in the lone contested Municipal Election in Watkinsville. The turnout of voters will be very high but somewhat hampered by the incongruity of having to vote in advance in two separate locations at two times might shave off a couple of dozen votes in an impo...

I was about the 20th person to vote yesterday at the Watkinsville Community Center in the lone contested municipal election in the race between incumbent local car wash co-owner and former police officer/code enforcement officer Joe Walter and challenger Luke Bishop. Once again I voted for Joe Walter without hesitation, and I would suggest Mr. Bishop best set his sights on the Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners in his next attempt at political office, if he is so moved. Current city council members Samantha Purcell and Mike Link are also on the ballot unopposed. You can get in and out of there in about five minutes top. This is the second time I had to advance vote in two different places in one election (in separate races obviously) but it went smoothly and quickly and I give high marks to the wonderful people at the Watkinsville City Hall and Community Center for effectively making it easier to vote in advance of the November 4th general election.

Advance and Absentee voting for the City of Watkinsville will be held at Watkinsville City Hall between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday starting Tuesday, October 14, 2008 through Friday, October 31, 2008. Voting for the City of Watkinsville on Election Day (November 4, 2008) will be held at the Watkinsivlle Community Center for Watkinsville West voters and held at the Oconee County Government Annex building for Watkinsville East voters. Voting for the City Election is held separately from the County/National Election. If you have any questions regarding the City of Watkinsville election, please contact Julie Sanders @ 706-769-5161. Thank you.

Maybe two dozen people turned out late Sunday afternoon to support the re-election of Watkinsville City Council member Joe Walter, including Police Chief Lee O'Dillon, Mayor Jim Luken and his wife Marlene, Kathy and Jerry Chappelle, Peggy Holcomb, Council members Samantha Purcell and John Walsh, Jr. among many others. The following are a few photos of the event and surrounding area.

If you are one of those people like me who likes to vote in advance and as early as possible, you should know one thing: the municipal election for the Watkinsville City Council race between Joe Walter and Luke Bishop is not on the ballot yet at the either the advance voting spots in Oconee County (next to the Courthouse or at the Civic Center). In a few more days this municipal election will be included on the ballot and those who voted earlier may return to do so. Joe Walter is still having a gathering 5 pm Sunday at the Yarn Shop on Barnett Shoals Road across the street from LAD Trucking.