Oconee County Citizen Committee Recommending SPLOST Funding For Historic Projects

An Oconee County historic and scenic sites committee on Tuesday night is scheduled to make its recommendation that the county spend Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue on preservation of the historic Barnett Shoals area along the Oconee River and on renovation of the old jail behind the Courthouse in Watkinsville.

The Committee—actually a subcommittee of the Recreational Affairs Committee and of the Cultural Affairs and Tourism Committee—will make its report to those two full committees at 6 p.m. at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park.

At its meeting on June 18, the subcommittee voted to make its recommendations to the two committees with the goal of moving the projects forward to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners for approval.

The proposal is to fund purchase of easements on property surrounding the old Georgia Power Dam and the historic Barnette Shoals area as well as develop interpretive signs for that project and to fund renovation of the jail to make it a museum.

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

Pictured: Old Jail