Oconee County Code Enforcement Office Logged Complaints In April And May Against Oconee Waste Transport

Oconee County Code Enforcement has logged five complaints against Oconee Waste Transport following acknowledgment by the county in early April that it had agreed to allow the company to operate in violation of a county zoning ordinance in part because neighbors had stopped complaining.

Five different residents of the small subdivision off Greene Ferry Road south of Watkinsville complained to the county on three different dates in late April and early May that OWT was operating before 6 a.m.

Oconee County Magistrate Court Judge Eric W. Norris in early October of last year found OWT to be in violation of the county rezone ordinance passed in September of 2010 when the company asked to be allowed to put its offices and trucking operation at 1750 Greensboro Highway, or SR 15.

That ordinance specified that hours of operation of the OWT facility should be only from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

County Attorney Daniel Haygood asked Judge Norris at the end of October to vacate his order, at least temporarily, and Judge Norris did so. Haygood said later the lack of complaints was one of the reasons he asked the judge to set aside his order.

For more on this story, go to Oconee County Observations.