Oconee County, GA Politics

The weather was near perfect Saturday morning for a large contingent of people to perform the back breaking work of picking up a sadly amazing amount of garbage both on the sides of Elder Mill Road and in both branches of Rose Creek in far southern Oconee County, thanks to organizer Melissa Steele.   The fine folks of Antioch Church allowed us to gather in their fellowship hall and hear from Steele as well as people from the Altamaha Riverkeeper and locals organizing a forum later in the month.  After signing a waiver and receiving instructions, we headed out to pick up garbage. It was astonishing the amount of crap people carelessly toss out the window of their passing vehicles. We found coolers, tires, bottles and cans of every kind, large pieces of metal and the requisite cigarette wrappers and coffee cups. We filled up two large black plastic garbage bags, one with recyclables and others with generic trash of the un-recyclable variety. Equally astonishing is the fact...

Rose Creek cleanup slated for March 6 (this was borrowed from the Oconee Living section of the Athens Banner-Herald's February 24, 2010 issue A cleanup organized by local artist Melissa Steele along Rose Creek and Little Rose Creek is planned for Saturday, March 6. Volunteers are asked to meet at 9 a.m. in the parking lot of Antioch Christian Church on Antioch Church Road for breakfast. Signs with balloons will be posted to help volunteers find the location. The church is located about 8 miles south of downtown Watkinsville along Georgia Highway 15. Volunteers will gather inside the church fellowship hall. “We will provide breakfast, parking and restrooms, and give a brief safety talk, select teams and ferry volunteers to dropoff locations, pick them up later, return them to the church and their vehicles,” Steele said. To help plan food, people who want to help with the cleanup of these two streams are asked to call Steele at (706) 255-8528 or send an e-mail to mechanted7...

Melissa Steele is an Oconee County artist seeking to clean up the waters around Rose Creek and Elder Mill Covered Bridge Saturday, March 6, 2010. To possibly sponsor the breakfast at Antioch Christian Church at 9:00 that morning, email or call Steele at mechanted757@gmail or on her cell phone at 706-255-8528.