Oconee County, GA Politics

 I am grateful to be joining this august body otherwise known as the Watkinsville City Council in January 2017. You are welcome to come to the swearing in ceremony 7:00 pm Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at the Watkinsville Community Center on VFW Drive (off State Route 53/Experiment Station Road) in lovely downtown Watkinsville. This will be the next to last meeting where I am on this side of the rail. The Watkinsville City Council approved the agenda with due diligence and only one vote after an applicant left the lectern. Various beer and wine as well as distilled spirits applications were approved at the usual places with the retiring gentlemen I am replacing remaining steadfast in his opposition to vote in the affirmative for any of the applicants.  So no unanimity, but all passed after brief inquiries.  I am looking forward to working with Watkinsville City Council members Marci Campbell, Connie Massey, and the Brian Brodrick, along with fellow new council me...

 I am grateful to be joining this august body otherwise known as the Watkinsville City Council in January 2017. You are welcome to come to the swearing in ceremony 7:00 pm Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at the Watkinsville Community Center on VFW Drive (off State Route 53/Experiment Station Road) in lovely downtown Watkinsville. This will be the next to last meeting where I am on this side of the rail. The Watkinsville City Council approved the agenda with due diligence and only one vote after an applicant left the lectern. Various beer and wine as well as distilled spirits applications were approved at the usual places with the retiring gentlemen I am replacing remaining steadfast in his opposition to vote in the affirmative for any of the applicants.  So no unanimity, but all passed after brief inquiries.  I am looking forward to working with Watkinsville City Council members Marci Campbell, Connie Massey, and the Brian Brodrick, along with fellow new council me...

Challenger Dan Matthews was first to qualifying for the Watkinsville City Council on the second day where City Clerk Julie Sanders was receiving the $72.00 fee for such a contest. Matthews chose Post 5 again, potentially taking on Mike Link once more should he decide to run again (and all indications are that the Oconee County volunteer fire fighter who always votes no on restaurant and stores' alcohol applications, will run again for his umpteenth term on the town council). Matthews plans to give all municipal applicants an honest consideration instead of merely opting to impose his moral viewpoint like the incumbent currently and repeatedly does to the residents and business license holders in the City of Watkinsville. Link has never voted in the affirmative for any applicants ever for beer, wine, or liquor by the drink in the dozen-plus times he has had the opportunity to do so since former Mayor Jim Luken helped usher in the spirits era in Oconee County several years ago....

In a largely uneventful regular meeting for the month of September, it was announced that Gary Crider, who has pretty much been in on everything with Watkinsville Woods from day one, will be paid $16.00 an hour for 20 hours a week to officially get paid as a 1099 Contractor (not a city employee). Gary Crider using his trail saw. Pardon me if I editorialize much earlier than usual in these newsy reports, but this may be the best possible hire for the ambitious Watkinsville Woods with photographer and weed warrior Gary Crider, living adjacent to the property to begin with, been pulling long hours for months yanking invasive shrubbery and keeping the rare plants,  and has an army of volunteers of all ages at his rarely needed assistance. He has worked on many areas in Athens and surrounding areas as a volunteer.  Among others who have worked long hours on the Watkinsville Woods project that I have been profoundly grateful to meet is Walt Cook, who has the trail named afte...

The City of Watkinsville worked wonders to make sure that developmentally disabled children will continue to have every opportunity to enjoy life at the Extra Special People expansion incorporating property from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #9147 as well as a sliver of city property from the back end of Harris Shoals Park thanks to donations of planning and construction among many other amazing facets of this truly wonderful story. Jon Williams of Williams and Associates drew up many architectural renderings of what awaits the intersection of VFW Drive, Mimosa intersectioned  into a reworked road out of the back end of Harris Shoals Park. There will also be a cul-de-sac like turn-around for buses and the like. Also the pre-existing dance studio of Joan Mann shall remain in the VFW property as well, just moved a bit. That building will be brought up to code.  The Martha Wylie vision of what would become more popularly known as ESP will continue to provide ...

Luke Bishop asking for permission to expand The Watkinsville City Council met Wednesday evening at the Community Center with a few blossoming items on the agenda including a home Bud and Blooms flower arrangements business at 36 Harris Lane and the expansion of the Fastenal building owned by the Bishops down on Highway 15, but everyone's mind seemed to be on the overwhelmingly favorable vote to enact the distilled spirits referendum from the night before. Now how to go about enacting that bit of seismic shift in local restaurants being able to pour mixed drinks. As of the time of the meeting after the landslide election mandate, the restaurant Chops & Hops had yet to apply and pay the $1,000.00 application fee. Whether or not there will be a 75-to-25 ratio of food to drinks as in the county, or whether the fee will remain a $1,000.00 for the fee will be decided during the second reading of the proposed language for the ordinance. So far those are the Mayor's prefe...

Longtime Oconee County resident and political observer Dan Matthews qualified today to take on incumbent Mike Link for the Post 5 seat of the Watkinsville City Council nonpartisan municipal election Tuesday, November 4, 2014. Matthews ran three elections in 2011, emerging from a field of four to make a run-off against Chuck Williams for the State Representative District 113 race in special election to fill the seat vacated by Hank Huckaby becoming Chancellor of the Board of Regents, and then ran against Charles Ivie to become Mayor of the City of Watkinsville a few months later. "I running for the residents and businesses of the city of Watkinsville, not against Mr. Link," said Matthews. "I think my opponent has done some great volunteer work with the Fire Department and the City Council, but I intend to come to this job with an open mind and a steady hand." Link has summarily dismissed every vote for beer and wine permits in the city permitting process, never...

The process of municipal government approval of expenditures varies greatly given the gamut of getting done what needs to be accomplished. The agenda is what controls the course of the evening's activities, and it has been done flawlessly and expertly by Julie Sanders at the City of Watkinsville for as long as I can remember. Tonight was no exception to her consistency and rule I have always enjoy attending the Watkinsville City Council meetings and finding out what happens in our county seat. This evening they added white plastic chains to keep the adoring media throng from taking photos behind the city council members' backs during the meetings. I would hope that council continues to do so well without the annoying media snooping around behind them at their meetings. The meeting seemed to flow well regarding of any artificially constructed barriers to prevent any unnecessary media intrusions. Some smart aleck in the audience actually dared to tell Clerk Sanders of an ap...

LAD Trucking let the City of Watkinsville officially know Wednesday evening at the meeting at the Community Center of the urgent need to expand after an ultra-successful partnership with Carrier truck lines had made every inch of the expansive property on Barnett Shoals Road used as far as storage for the refrigerator front end of the cooler big rigs you see carrying frozen goods down the road.  Mack Guest IV of LAD Trucking With Caterpillar keeping the economic boom going locally, the need for trucking will continue to expand for a while, and Watkinsville will remain a hub in transit, metal, pottery, and glass for the foreseeable future. Watkinsville City Council September 11, 2013 The City Council listened to engineer Mark Campbell before approving the less than one acre disturbance on the back end of the old Southwire property. Some discussion was exchanged about storm water run off and the tributaries of the the nearby Oconee River, and the motion contained languag...

The city of Watkinsville is no longer a perfect one mile circle from the Courthouse. The giant five acre tracts are few and far between these days. Now it is about narrow lots, non-conforming driveways and garage doors, and building where they can or what they can. The city council did their level best to try to take everyone's concerns into account Wednesday evening at the Community Center during their regular April meeting. City Council memher Brian Brodrick was not in attendance at this month's meeting. New member Mike Huff (below) finally began to come out his shell a bit in describing one of the properties in question. Connie Massey did not say a thing that I remember. Toby Smith listens to Mike Huff discuss the best way out of this zoning mess. The Watkinsville City Council faced the daunting task of trying to redo the zoning code in one fell swoop or take each zoning variance individually.  The council tabled the motion for changing the zoning about garages and p...