Oconee County, GA Politics

Here's a preview of my story: Vinnie Williams, celebrated writer and publisher of The Oconee Enterprise, observed her 93rd birthday Tuesday in the presence of loved ones. Many of them—if not all—have read their own names within the concise but clever anecdotes of her Main Street column, where she comes off as no less omniscient than an eye in the sky. Among the somebodies who indulged in Williams’ heavily and ornately frosted birthday cake—which, in good humor, reversed her age so to truly reflect her youthful heart—were District 119 Rep. Chuck Williams, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Melvin Davis and Watkinsville Mayor Charles Ivie.

Many Georgia restaurant fans will fondly recall Harry Bissett's in downtown Athens at 297 East Broad Street. This longtime New Orleans themed Cajun eatery has closed since the first of the year primarily due to lack of payment of taxes, but a host of other ills had tainted this recent convert to chain, and series of poor business decisions doomed the once grand dame of the Athens seafood restaurant. Along come Mike and Nona Thornton of Watkinsville with a plan to resurrect the style and substance of Bissett's with their new N ew O rleans ' N A thens restaurant called NONA in the same Broad Street location that was once a bank in Athens.  Contrary to recent reports in the Oconee Enterprise newspaper, Thornton in not in bankruptcy over the development  behind the Oconee County Campus of Gainesville State College on Bishop Farms Parkway South by Georgia Aquatics Center (although proceedings have begun against his partner in the project and the bank has refused to finance ...

Watkinsville and Oconee County historic sites [Vinnie Williams, Oconee Enterprise, 9/27/07, p. A3] are not drawing tourists because their destruction is being encouraged by those who should be fighting tooth and nail to save these special places. Word gets around quickly and the public wants no part of it. The guilty parties are developers who don’t care and their supporters in the city and county governments. Those folks seemly have no vision of what should be protected, how to do it, and what the public really wants. Are they deaf? The gateway charm at the intersection of Barnett Shoals Road and Main Street in Watkinsville has been replaced by some out-of-scale ‘thing’ which comes close to a spaghetti western stage set. The wonderfully wide sidewalks in downtown Watkinsville have been replaced by parking spaces. Now the sidewalks are so narrow that two people can’t pass each other without turning sideways. Who thought that improvement up? And then, there are those unfortunate t...