Newspaper Page Text
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
