About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2016)
LOA middle school teams win a baseball title, two soccer titles juniafiMi ill! tli_ J Lake Oconee News J Your official newspaper serving Greene, Morgan and Putnam counties in Georgia's Lake Country \ www.LakeOconeeNews.us FRIDAY APRIL 1 2016 VOL. 18 NO. 13 75 CENTS EASTER AT GATEWOOD community » B1 STAY CONNECTED n facebook.com/ lakeoconeenews @lakeoconeenews -fo) @lakeoconeenews index Calendar B4-5 Churches B6 Classifieds D4 Community B1 Obituaries A6 Opinions A4 Recipes D1 Sports y C1 Showers Likely WEATHER »D7 0 94922 87855 7 Published by Smith Communications Inc. MORGAN COUNTY Grandmother jailed for renting out lake house Jeff Warren jeff@lakeoconeenews.us Out-of-state resident and grand mother of eight, Christine May, age 74, went to jail Wednesday, March 23, assigned a 30-day sentence by Superior Court Judge Alison Burleson at Madison. The sentence came at the end of a non-jury trial, where Burleson convicted May of renting her water-front Lake Oconee home for periods shorter than 30 days. Such short-term vacation rentals are banned by county ordinance for properties zoned as single-family dwellings. May’s troubles began in 2010 when a then new county zoning regulation outlawed short-term rentals. It is the position of county government that, while such vacation rentals were not specif ically banned before the regula tion, they were not allowed either, because short-term renting was not on a list of accepted uses for a sin gle-family dwelling under zoning SEE JAIL » A3 Tlie rental nf a bouse In this zoning distrut fut any period I Ess THAN "to DAVS is ,t violation of 7 20 „f tb t Morgan County Zoning Ordinance .mil is punishable by a fine up to S1000.00. iinprisonnment up to ftOdavv or both A county sign, posted near Christine May's lakehouse, warns would- be vacation renters of the crimes involved. Mark Smith Jr./ Staff Contributed A home at 1351 Blue Springs Road burns last Sunday. Fire destroys home on Easter Jeff Warren jeff@lakeoconeenews.us A midday lire Easter Sunday de stroyed most of a modular home near Buckhead while household ers were away on a camping trip, Morgan County Fire Chief Jeff Stone reported. Fire started from a short at the building’s main electrical panel at the back of the house near its middle and advanced forward and toward both house ends, he said. Contributed Fire tankers line Blue Springs Road to feed hauled water to the fire SEE FIRE » A5 engine at left, the unit pressurizing water for the fire fight. GREENE COUNTY Drowning reported in Lake Oconee A 58-year-old Senoia man fell out of his boat and drowned in Lake Oconee Tuesday evening in the Liberty Community of Greene County. John Anthony Kolar was with his life-long friend William Leslie Carlton when he fell out his boat. Carlton immediately jumped into the lake, retrieved his friend and took him to the nearest resi dence he could see, Coroner Jeff Smith said Wednesday morning. Smith was unsure if it was a medical scenario or accident that caused Kolar to fall over board. An autopsy was sched uled to help better determine the cause. If he had to guess, from the descriptions given to him, he would guess it was a medical scenario that caused Kolar to fall out of the boat. Smith said the incident took place in a remote cove of Lake Oconee directly across from the Indian Hill subdivision in the Liberty Community of White Plains. - Jackie Gutknecht GREENE COUNTY GREENE COUNTY Chicken ordinance fried at commission meeting The latest draft of a proposed ordinance restricting poultry farming in Greene County requires each application for a new chicken farm to be voted on by the county commission. “It’s the only fair way to do it,” Greene County District 1 Com missioner Angela Deering said. Tuesday night, commission ers held a second public hearing on another version of the ordi nance that was revised follow ing comments from a February 1 public hearing. Deering and fellow Commis sioner Jeffrey Smith, Dist. 2, have spent most of this year trying to draw up regulations that balance the need to encourage agricul tural development in the county while protecting the interests of existing farmers and non-farming property owners. It hass proven to be a difficult task. Greene, as do many surround ing counties, requires only a small setback from the property SEE CHICKENS » A9 New principals hired at GCHS, GES Newspaper waits on FOIA response Jackie Gutknecht jackie@lakeoconeenews.us Greene County High School and Greensboro Elementary School will see a change in administration next school year after the action taken in recent Greene County Board of Education meetings. According to recommendations from executive session March 21, Mr. James Peek has been hired as the GCHS principal, and Dr. Jac queline Jackson has been hired as the GES principal. The hiring of the new admin- Corey Stegall Corey Stephens istrators comes a week after res ignations from GES Principal Corey Stegall and Principal Corey Stephens were accepted. Stegall SEE PRINCIPALS » A8 1 st PLACE AGAIN! IN SEUING ENERGY EFFICIENT HEAT PUMPS ■HI IN OUR REGION FOR 2015! 866 Harmony Rd. Eatonton, GA | Phone: 706-485-5456 | www.bryant-air.com LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
