Oconee County, GA Politics

 The official Winter Storm Warning for Georgia was in effect for Athens-Clarke County last night, but not for the neighboring Oconee County, Georgia. By noon almost all of the ice was melted and any water was strictly residual Turns out this was carefully crafted as schools remained opened after a two hour delay in Oconee County and were closed at UGA. The University of Georgia was set to reopen as noon. The rain came in buckets, ice remained on trees, lots of limbs fell on the road, but by in large the most dangerous part of the morning commute from Watkinsville to Athens was watching out for fellow drivers getting out of their trucks and cars to pull limbs out of the road and on to the shoulder. Thank you very much for doing this, but make sure you do not become a hazard yourself. Pull plenty far enough off the shoulder and look both ways before yanking limbs out of the roadway. Aside from tons of trees glazed in ice, no black ice or other troubles were visible to me...

The rain Monday brought at least one tall tree closer to the very busy road called Simonton Bridge or sometimes Whitehall Road near the bridge to Athens-Clarke County. The dead tree split and made the absolute edge of the shoulder of the ridiculously narrow thoroughfare. Stay slow in this tornado watch weather we are having please and watch out for falling trees and other debris on the road, especially with kids getting off the buses right about now.

Simmonton Bridge Road near Brittain Estates is blocked due to down power lines across the roadway ... from Oconee County Georgia Sheriff's Office : Nixle

Thanks to the Oconee Patch for the update. I would suggest avoiding First Street and Main Street in Watkinsville Monday morning. I will have to slightly alter my route to take my son to school.

Please be considerate and give plenty of room to bicyclists commuting to and from work. I saw my friend and Watkinsville City Council member Brian Brodrick biking up dangerously narrow Simonton Bridge Road last night and I always give any bike rider plenty of room when I drive by and feel guilty burning diesel in my big red pick up truck. Also drivers please be extra wary of large turtles and armadillos not to mention bicyclists. I have heard tell or seen dead two of each recently in my repeated commute. I was very pleased to see my thoughtful mail carrier Bob Mason go well out of his way Tuesday to pick up and move a huge snapping turtle and move it across the road, only to see a bigger than football sized shell smashed somewhere between Morgan Manor Estates and Taylors Landing subdivisions soon thereafter on the other side of Simonton Bridge/Whitehall Road. Brian and Tony Glenn told me there was another large smashed turtle or tortoise shell up by the cemetery closer to downtown Watk...

The Oconee Veterans Park gymnasium basketball court appears to be in a whole lot better condition today despite the dozen or so dust bunny clumps I picked up by hand. Also my son has a better jump shot than me in the game of H-O-R-S-E, and I had to resort to the Troy Brewer two handed set shot to even stay close. He convinced himself he could not do a Dr. J reverse spin from one side of the hoop while your body is on the other side shot, but he made it. It is the basketball equivalent of magic, and you do feel truly like a wizard the first time you use it successfully on a drive. * * * Glad the Watkinsville Town Council unanimously approved the new beer and wine pouring license for Mirko Pasta, presenting a positive profile for any potential restaurant owner looking at the old and huge Maison Bleu space. I would think this would make a perfect location for a caterer/restauranteur needing to make tons of pastries, cakes, hors d'oeuvres,  et cetera for your special event at the n...

So this is the second time in a week I have heard mention that some ill advised comments from a citizen proposing the banning of bicycles on our roads in Oconee County, Georgia. While I do not think for a second that the current Board of Commissioners would ever pass such a stupid law, it would be the quickest way for the Democrats to come back in power in Oconee.  Not to mention a huge waste of sheriff deputy and municipal police time. Non-Watinsville resident Kate McDaniel dared dangle that out of her mouth at the end of Watkinsville City Council meeting the other evening, and evidently she was harkening back to this meeting that Lee Becker once again uncovered. Thank you Lee. Even Athens madman Jeff Snowden would oppose this, not to mention Watkinsville city council member Brian Brodrick, the dozens of local bicycle enthusiasts and triatheletes and every parent who bought their chid a bicycle at Sunshine cycle or Wal-Mart. From: Lee Becker < lbbecker@mindspring.com > Dat...

Perhaps we buried the four lane movement of Simonton Bridge Road last night a bit prematurely. Government never quite knows what the right hand is doing versus the left hand sometimes. Road group backs Simonton Bridge widening | News | OnlineAthens.com Shared via AddThis

We can pave paradise and put up a parking lot, to paraphrase the old Joni Mitchell ditty as redone by the Counting Crows more recently. But I would offer up a different point of view: we can pave small strips and preserve paradise here in Oconee County. My friend Brian Brodrick, Watkinsville City Council member, responded to my printing the GDOT list of road projects remaining on the approved schedule over the next quarter century. We both travel the scenic route of Simonton Bridge Road/Whitehall Road coming into Watkinsville from the east side of Athens the the south end of Milledge Avenue many times (which survived the cuts to remain on the list of those slated for widening). I have yet to work up the courage and stamina to try and bike up those large rolling hills from the various forks of the Oconee Rivers, but Lord knows it is something I want to do in the next several years. I see many bicyclists daily dallying up and down the shoulders of this access to Oconee County, and s...

The proposed location for this facility might as well be in Oconee County, as it will be a stone's throw away on the far too narrow streets of Milledge Avenue and Whitehall/Simonton Bridge. I still maintain the infrastructure is such that they - Dept. of Homeland Security - will choose one of the other sites, but here is your chance to chip in with your two cents worth of input: The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will hold a public scoping session on the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) this Thursday, Sept. 20 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education as part of the public involvement requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. According to the DHS Web site, the purposes of the meeting are to: • collect input on the scope and content of the NBAF Environmental Impact Statement, and • provide a better understanding of the proposed action and the federal agencies involved. Those interested in providing comments must pre-register, either ...