Oconee County News

The advantages of Athens- Clarke and Oconee counties combining forces to benefit economic development efforts for the area are obvious and have been pitched by local elected officials and business leaders for more than a year now.

The fact that a sharecropper's cabin like those that dotted the Oconee County landscape decades ago will be given a place in a historic "village" being reconstructed at the county's Heritage Park reflects well on the county officials and others who have steered, and will steer, the effort to keep the county's past alive.

Albert Ward, center, laughs alongside Oconee County Commission Chairman Melvin Davis, left, and Jack Norville after announcing Tuesday in Bogart they will move a historic tenant house from private property to Heritage Park.

The Oconee County Sheriff's Office released the following incidents: Arrest: On Nov.

Easing Some Debt The Oconee County Board of Commissioners met in a special called meeting at noon on Oct.22 to approve refinancing of a $12.3 million revenue bond the county issued in 1998 to provide funding for water and sewer construction projects.

Clifton Ward looks over cattle recently at son Albert Ward's farm. Kelly Lambert/Staff Clifton Ward, 95, still helps tend cattle for his son, Albert Ward, on his son's cattle farm in Commerce.

The Oconee County Sheriff's Office is seeking information on the identity of the two men seen here.

Oconee County commissioners still are split on whether to leap into a new economic development partnership with Clarke County.

The 14-member Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning is scheduled to take up the issue of mitigation for wetland and streambed destruction at its regular meeting that starts at 7 p.m. on Nov.10 at the Community Center in Veterans Park.

The Oconee County Sheriff's Office reported the following incidents: Fraud: On Oct.

Oconee County moved one step closer to restricting solicitation on its roadways when the Board of Commissioners tonight gave first reading to an ordinance that would require groups to have a permit and limit the locations of and times for fundraising.

Former Oconee County Commissioner Don Norris and daughter Tracey Kell laugh during a banquet celebrating Norris' 20 years of service in this photo from Sunday, January 11.

Oconee County is engaged in three strategies to manage the financial burden of its decision to enter into the agreement with Walton County to build the Hard Labor Creek Reservoir, citizens at the Town Hall meeting last Tuesday night were told.

Mark Melvin resigned Friday as Barrow County emergency services director to become assistant chief with the Oconee County Fire Department.

Oconee County resident James Morris addresses commission members during an informal town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Oconee County Civic Center in Watkinsville.

About 40 people turned out Tuesday night at the Civic Center for an hour-and-a-half-long exchange with the Oconee County Board of Commissioners in what was billed as a town hall style meeting.

The Oconee County Library will host "Scared Silly," a program of spooky stories for the entire family, at 7 p.m. Monday.

The Oconee County Sheriff's Office reported the following incidents: Fraud: On Oct.

It might be the equivalent in local politics of the "American Idol" tryouts, a screechy, screaming exercise in participatory democracy.

A fire heavily damaged a family's home near Watkinsville on Monday morning, but injured no one.