Board Of Regents Recommends Funding For Oconee County's Bogart Library In 2017 State Budget

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has listed funding for a renovated and expanded Bogart Library as its fifth highest priority among library capital projects that the state should fund for Fiscal Year 2017.

The ranking for the Oconee County library project in 2017 is two rungs higher than the ranking the project was given by the Board of Regents last year. Funding for the Bogart Library was cut from the capital budget in the final days of the legislature last year.

Gov. Nathan Deal did not include the Bogart Library in his list of FY 2017 library priorities, as was true last year as well. Last year Gov. Deal selected only a library project in Carroll County for funding, and this year he recommended none of the 10 projects selected by the Board of Regents, leaving that decision to the General Assembly.

The Oconee County Library Friends, a group of volunteers and supporters of the Oconee County libraries, is asking citizens of the county to contact the three members of the General Assembly who represent Oconee County urging them to tell the leadership of the House and Senate of their support for the Bogart project.

In unrelated news, the Oconee County Planning Commission Monday night recommended in an 8-1 vote the approval of a rezone for an expansion of Epps Bridge Centre, voted 6 to 3 to recommend rejection of the proposed Mars Hill Road Overlay District, and voted 9-0 for a series of changes to the Unified Development Code.

For more on the Bogart Library story, go to Oconee County Observations.