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Your official newspaper serving Greene, Morgan and Putnam counties in Georgia’s Lake Country \ www.LakeOconeeNews.us
VOL. 19 NO. 33 FRIDAY AUGUST 18 2017 75 CENTS
T. Michael Stone/Staff
Greene County residents gather in front of the courthouse to deliver a message of unity in response
to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Greene group responds
to Charlottesville tragedy
T. Michael Stone
michael@lakeoconeenews.us
A small group of concerned citizens gathered in
front of the Greene County Courthouse Tuesday
evening in response to racial violence in Charlot
tesville, Virginia, over the previous weekend during
which a pair of state troopers and woman were killed.
SEE HOPE » All
ii All I want to do is
reach down and pull
up a child and say,
‘there’s hope and its not
through hate.’
-Annie Grant
Contributed
A Harley-Davidson motorcycle lies in the grass along Harmony
Road where it crashed.
Madison man dies in
single-vehicle wreck
Lynn Hobbs Randall George Rice, 68, was
lynn@lakeoconeenews.us found dead in the grass at the
edge of the woods on Harmony
A Madison man was killed in Road, presumably thrown from
a motorcycle wreck sometime the bike, Putnam County Sheriff
during the wee hours of Sunday,
according to authorities. SEE WRECK»A3
GREENE COUNTY
East Point man arrested with
more than half a pound of pot
Most of the time speeders get most of the at
tention from law enforcement, but sometimes a
slow poke is suspicious.
On Aug. 9, Greene County deputy Patrick
SEE ARREST » A3
Wright
T. Michael Stone
michael@lakeoconeenews.us
index
Calendar B4
Churches B8
Classifieds D3
Community B1
Opinions A4
Recipes D1
Sports C1
FRIDAY
92/75
Isolated T-storms
WEATHER »D6
0
94922 87855 7
Published by
Smith
Communications Inc.
GREENE COUNTY
Greene County squeezes short-term rentals
Mark Engel
engel@lakeoconeenews.us
The Greene County Commis
sion is considering a proposal
to dramatically control short
term home rentals in the
county.
The most challenging part of
the new ordinance for people
who want to rent their homes
is a provision that requires
owners to get written approval
from 80 percent of the other
property owners in their com
munity. That’s what is needed
to set up a “Short Term Rental
Overlay District” (STRO).
That may be relatively easy
for those who live in a small
community like Vintage
Club. It’s an ominous task for
residents of developments
like Harbor Club that have
hundreds and hundreds of
property owners.
“People don’t realize,” Com
missioner Ernie Filice (Dist.
4) said this month in a post
on the social media network
Nextdoor, “that the current
county zoning ordinanc
es, passed years ago, do not
provide for short term rentals.
SEE RENTALS » All
VRBO
Pan of the HomeAway Family
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Greensboro, GA, USA
08/29/2017 09/05/2017 4 guests
MORGAN COUNTY
Options for the future of Morgan County discussed at commission retreat
Katherine Klimt
katherine@lakeoconeenews.us
On Friday, Aug. 11, the Morgan County Board
of Commissioners held a planning retreat to
discuss future directions for the area, includ
ing the possibility of future expanded internet
access, water resources, SPLOST funds and
other matters.
County manager Adam Mestres led the retreat,
a relatively informal planning session where
no definitive decisions were made. Planning
retreats allow commissioners to explore options
for improving and sustaining the county.
Broadband Internet
The county is actively looking for ways to
improve access to the Internet, which remains
spotty in many parts of the county (a common
situation in rural areas). The most intractable
issue remains insufficiently high levels of usage.
For internet companies to invest in an area
there must be high enough numbers of poten
tial future users of high-speed internet; these
numbers don’t exist in Morgan County without
a partnership with a lucrative client like the
school district. Without proof that installation of
broadband services would be profitable, compa-
SEE RETREAT » A12
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