Oconee County, GA Politics

The Democratic Party needs to enunciate the positive alternatives to the Republican culture of corruption and not just line up like sheep behind the latest Clinton brand of political washing machine soap to clean out the sleaze of GOP cronyism. Locally this could be best formulated with comprehensive smart growth planning for our rapidly growing county. The perception is that development drives our economy. We need to connect our communities, build more sidewalks, make it safe for Johnny to ride a bike to school. Right now Oconee County is nothing more than a gathering of semi-secluded neighborhood subdivisions which keeps up apart. Sewer systems are not available outisde of Watkinsville. The roads are entirely too narrow in most of our municipalities. Our schools are not the least bit connected for jogging, biking, skating or walking. We need to plan more and build less, unless it is bike paths or sidewalks. There are some good subdivisions and development that seem to come fro...

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 The gateway charm at the intersection of Barnett Shoals Road and Main Street in Watkinsville has been replaced by some out-of-scale ‘thing’ which comes close to a spaghetti western stage set. The wonderfully wide sidewalks in downtown Watkinsville have been replaced by parking spaces.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...

Citizens for Oconee's Future, Inc. P. O. Box 1301 Watkinsville, GA 30677 Just when you think you have heard all the bad news about the Walton County reservoir, comes this. Some will remember that Oconee's cost share for the first phase of the project was originally estimated to be $43,000,000. Sometime later the number being used was $48,000,000. The number used during the very short discussion of the bond issue last night was $49,800,000. Not only that, the Citigroup bond salesman who did part of the presentation recommended the Board approve a bond issue of $66,000,000 at up to 15% interest which the BOC approved with little discussion. The vote was 3-1 with Hale, Luke and Norris voting for the issue. (Hale voted against the original motion, go figure) It now appears that Oconee will have to validate the bonds and the stated reason for the $66,000,000 issue at up to 15% interest was to avoid going back to court to validate each issue of bonds plus a significant amount o...

Rush is a cowardly turd to compare our troops to suicide bombers and call them "phony soldiers"

We suffer the lunatic fringe bombastic buffoons on the radio spoon fed us by the near local monopoly Southern Broadcasting. I know, I used to be one. Advertisers should look elsewhere to spend their money these days. While Bill O'Reilly is not on our market thankfully, it is time to let Newstalk 1340 WGAU AM that Rush "Phony Soldiers" Limbaugh is a repugnant hate monger who cannot handle any dissent what so ever. I know this cigar chomping right wing talk radio comedian can draw big numbers with the easily persuaded, but it is time to find a different kind of entertainment for the airwaves in Athens, although Southern Broadcasting owner Paul Stone will never change his mind, even when the last local advertiser has flown the coop. This day too will come to pass. I would urge more diversity in programming, announcers, and content on local radio stations. We are blessed to have some serious talent extremely underpaid in our market. The only place that the Drive By Truckers ...

Certain parts of the rare sidewalks inside the city limits of Watkinsville were sorely needing upgrade and repair. My son and I used to coast over what we affectionately call the roller coaster between Third and Second on Barnett Shoals cement pedestrian paths. The Street Department has done an excellent job of smoothing out the jagged precipice to make it a nice safe ride. There are a couple of areas as sharp curbs at First and Third that should be next on the Street Department's list of things to improve by smoothing out to the street level with the nice gradual rise. The new sidewalk down by Stone Shoals is a welcome addition, but the blight that remains of SC Logging is an eyesore. Main Street Yarn is a welcome addition in the beautifully refurbished barn by Quinton Phillips and Cindy Jerrell. Residential, small business and industrial can co-exist well with a little bit of community input and planning, along with a healthy dose of smart growth. The Watkinsville City Coun...

We got a young'un who done good in the eyes of Georgia Trend . Does that make him a trendy? The Banner-Herald even put him on the front cover. I saw his wife pushing their new born through 5 Points the other day.

Where do you fall on this battle, intrepid reader? I tread the middle ground carefully. Miss Vinnie Williams is the publisher of the Oconee Enterprise newspaper, and Wendell Dawson is the former Board of Commissioners chairman in Oconee County. These two local icons can not stand one and other. The roots of their disagreement are arcane and obscure, compounded by ego and hubris, not to mention the lack of humility and apology on both sides. A friend called them the masters of half reporting. I have had my differences with both people and also worked well with them over the nearly two decades I have had some sort of Oconee connection. They have more in common then either would care to admit. I hope they can work out their differences and reconcile before they leave this mortal coil. But I do not think that is going to happen. Both are fiercely proud, perhaps to their detriment ultimately. Perhaps they could co-host a charity tiddlywinks tournament to determine who will prevail. Thi...

The following is a paid political announcement. I donated $12.73 to the Saxon campaign a couple hours late for last quarter's donation reporting. Wanna know why the 2.73 end to the donation? Here is another tidbit from an email plea I did not receive but had forwarded from friends is Morgan County. All I ask is that, whatever you contribute, you add an extra $2.73 to it, to represent the 273,000 Georgia children that my opponent wants to leave behind. If you are able to, please contribute on my website by Sunday to beat the fundraising deadline for this quarter. Have a great day, Bobby For Immediate Release September 26, 2007 Michael Cantone Campaign Manager 804-543-4976 (c), 706-757-2208 (o) mike@bobbysaxon.com What can Broun do for you? Not much if you’re a Georgia child in need of healthcare ATHENS, Ga. – Democratic Congressional candidate Bobby Saxon released the following statement on last night's vote in the House of Representatives to re-authorize the State Children'...

I agree with the U.S. Army decision to give the late soldier from Watkinsville a raise after his death and funeral . That will provide his family and new born son a little more financial security in the forthcoming years. We saw the supporters and those kooks from the church in Kansas near the burial grounds on Atlanta Highway early Saturday afternoon. There were lots of flags near Barnes and Noble and motorcycles and police escorts, etc. Military funerals are an interesting ritual that everyone should see at least once no matter what you views about the war. I hope his death is not in vain.

Two doors down from the house in the neighboring subdivision that was struck with lightning last month another bolt struck late this afternoon. Oddly I had come home early from work with a migraine headache which seemed to go away once the flash of lightning landed in Taylor's Landing. The Oconee County Volunteer Fire Department responded with their usual lightning last response to the same scene where I took photos of them last month. I was on my way to my son's flag football game, which was canceled tonight along with the Oconee County High School Homecoming parade on Main Street. Just another night in the small town.....

The Under-8 Volcanoes soccer team of the Oconee County Recreation Department played two extra games outside of their usual micro-field venue beside Oconee County Middle School. The Volcanoes played two brief "friendlies" - soccer scrimmage games - at the halftime of the University of Georgia Lady Bulldogs soccer games on Sundays on Milledge Avenue's Turner Sports Complex. The first nine-minute cross-field scramble will be during Sunday's 2:00 pm match against South Carolina, and the second exhibition will be at halftime of the 2pm Sunday, October 21st battle when the Lady Dogs take on Ole Miss in what is being billed as "Oconee County Youth Soccer Day." The Volcanoes' team roster include Matthew Archer, Paige Alpaugh, Ryan Cherry, Anthony Jones, Tara Jones, Lowell Matthews, Allye Rogers and Madeline Sprayberry. The Volcanoes received extra help from guest player Owen Hallauer in their first halftime match. The team is coached by Dan Matthews of Watkinsv...

Here is the text of a letter sent by Charles Baugh: Citizens for Oconee's Future, Inc. P. O. Box 1301 Watkinsville, GA 30677 Following is the text of a letter to the editor which I just sent to the Oconee Enterprise. Dear Editor The attitude toward and disdain for citizens who speak out on issues important to Oconee County exhibited in the 9/20 opinion column by the former Oconee County Utility Department Director is the same arrogant attitude displayed when he was the utility director. It is good that he is now the former utility director. Perhaps if he had a more positive attitude about citizen suggestions and input his advice on the Walton water contract would have been different and Board members Davis, Luke and Norris would not have voted to enter into such an expensive open ended contract which will yield only 3.5 million gallons of water in 5 or 6 years. The former utility director has resorted to the method of defending a decision by attacking the messenger rather tha...

Some day Oconee County will have a real public swimming facility in the County Community Complex across the street from Herman C. Michael Park. This day Watkinsville needs a public skating park since my neighbor Jimmy Marbut is moving out of the subdivision. Jimmy owns Sunshine Bikes in Watkinsville and Athens, and kids flock to him for all things wheeled. I've bought two nice bikes from him. He set his son up with a half pipe in the backyard. Kids set up jumps and ramps and leave their garbage in my front yard. I hope they enjoy the remaining days of the Marbut clan in this subdivision because who knows how long it will outlast them being here. We need tunnels, bridges or some kind of safe pedestrian access from the Community Center to Herman C. across busy Highway 53 Hog Mountain Road. We need to develop a river walk. We need to help out the Vaughans and Al Cuming for the Elder Mill Covered Bridge Park as much as possible. We need bike paths from Prince Avenue Christian School...

I will say a prayer for this soldier's family tonight. I hope his death will not be in vain or one of the thousand more the GOP have been foolishly clamoring for in Iraq.

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 ...

Dr. Steve Stice will be addressing the Oconee Democratic Committee's Fourth Sunday series soon. More here

Here in Oconee County we have cooperative but often competing forms of local governments with the municipalities exerting their own influence to the sometimes contrary conflicts with the county government on issues such as beer and wine. Potential business owners appear before the towns asking permission to open their doors, and very seldom does a council question the existence of any legitimate enterprise. But just such a rare turn occurred in Watkinsville recently over a small piece of property way down on Highway 15 at the south end of the city limits tucked in a trash filled lot owned by Cokey Elder. Council member Brian Brodrick led the charge in asking absolutely essential questions about how much the Colbert Storage, LLC would clean up of the considerable amount of eyesore garbage accmulated in piles. Brodrick and members of the council were polite but persistent in wanting to clean up this gaping wound of an industrial area in question at 1427 Greensboro Highway. The father an...

State Representative and newly announced 10th district congressional candidate Barry Fleming belched forth all the typical platitudes short on specifics on the conservative gab-fest on 1340 WGAU AM right now. I wish I could come up with something insightful, but instead I am reaching for the trash can. Barry Fleming wants to do away with local control over our government, i.e. the Glenn Tax, and I hate paying property taxes as much as the next homeowner, but I do not want some bozo in Atlanta or Washington dictating how the city of Watkinsville and Oconee County can use our tax money. PS Barry Fleming just went third person in reference to himself.

The self proclaimed "troll under the Elder Mill Covered bridge" Al Cuming was injured the other day by truck. We have served many years together on various committees and worked for the Eagle Tavern and covered bridge near his house. He recently lost his wife after a long bout with Alzheimer's. I will repaste Angela Helwig's email here on it: In case you have not heard, Al Cuming was injured yesterday – struck by a car – breaking his hip. He underwent surgery this morning. Chairman Davis spoke to him this afternoon and according to Al, the surgery went well and he’s feeling much better. He will be leaving the hospital in a couple of days and will enter rehab for a while. His daughter Lynn is here with him for now. Once Al is finished with rehab he expects to be as good as new. Angela Helwig Oconee County Board of Commissioners P.O. Box 145 Watkinsville, GA 30677 (706)769-5120 www.oconeecounty.net Word has it that the BOC decided not to pursue the purchase of the p...