Oconee County Commissioner Luke Went Against Colleagues And Objected To Committee Appointments, Spending On Road Projects

Oconee County Commissioner Jim Luke broke ranks with his fellow commissioners three times Tuesday night in what is likely to be his fourth last meeting on the Commission.

He refused to go along with an attempt to remove former Commissioner Chuck Horton from the Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board, where Horton serves as a citizen member.

Luke also said he did not want to vote to spend $60,000 on a study of the SR 316 and Epps Bridge Corridor, suggesting that such a decision should be made after the new Board takes seat in January. Luke retires at the end of next month.

Luke also challenged authorizing the spending of $19,750 for design work by Moreland Altobelli Associates of Duluth, trying, unsuccessfully, to get Commission Chairman Melvin Davis to acknowledge that he authorized the spending without Commission approval.

The Commission delayed making the appointments to the reservoir board and postponed consideration of the $60,000 for the transportation study, but it agreed to pay Moreland Altobelli on the grounds the work already had been done.

For details of the story, and the complete video of the meeting, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: Commissioner Jim Luke.