Town Hall Meeting Moved From Middle School To Veterans Park

At the Board of Commissioners meeting last week, Chair John Daniell announced that the next Town Hall Meeting will be June 23, possibly at Malcom Bridge Middle School, where there will be a chance to discuss ongoing and proposed road improvements at the school complex.

At the end of the week, however, Daniell said in an email message that “We are still finalizing the details of the Town Hall scheduled for June 23rd. We hope to have everything nailed down next week.”

On Friday, Daniell had this to report via email: “Our Town Hall will be on June 23rd held at OVP (Oconee Veterans Park). The start time will be 7:00 p.m.”

Daniell did not offer any explanation for the breakdown in negotiations with the Board of Education over the meeting and its location.

He did say that “Tom (Odom, Board of Education chair) and I will be discussing a joint meeting of the two boards over the next few months. Any joint meeting of the two boards will likely occur early next year.”

The Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners have been in conflict over road changes–and roundabouts in particular--in front of Malcom Bridge Middle School for nearly two years, but the two Boards have never met in public to discuss the issue or a range of others dividing the two Boards.

State law requires the two Boards to hold any such meetings in public.

In other action at its regular meeting last week, the Board of Commissioners heard the county’s four mayors list projects they would like to have included on the 2021 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum being planned for the Nov. 3 ballot.

Watkinsville Mayor Bob Smith said he wants the city and county to consider building a parking garage and to work together to keep the library and county administrative offices downtown.

For more on the story, with a video of the Board of Commissioners meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.