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March 5, 2023

Friends,

I hope you’re doing well and that you’ve been enjoying this warmer weather as much as we have. We spent all weekend doing some yard work and practicing softball.

Please keep sharing the newsletters and encouraging family, friends, and neighbors to sign up at OconeeToday.com

Hello Spring! My daughter practicing in the yard for the upcoming softball season.

Economic Development

Sewer South— The Sewer South project received an additional $2.1 million grant from the Rural Infrastructure Authority. This grant covers up the budget shortfall the project was facing.

High Density Student Housing

On Tuesday’s county council meeting agenda, is an item to approve a $3 million dollar incentive and a fee in lieu of a tax agreement for a high density residential/student housing project near Paw’s Diner on HWY 123. We need to end residential/student housing developer giveaways.

I oppose giving incentives and property tax breaks to high density residential developments that bring in hundreds to thousands of new residents/students that will consume county services and resources while not paying near their fair share due to the tax cuts and incentives they receive.

Due to the large demand for student housing, the developers are going to build this project with or without the taxpayers of Oconee County helping to foot the bill.

If approved, this will be an excessive and unnecessary giveaway. This project will include 400 housing units and will add hundreds of cars to an already stressed HWY 123. All these residents/students will use county services, and the developers should pay full taxes like everyone else in order to pay for the services they will demand.

Rather than continuing high density residential developer giveaways, we need to explore the possibility of charging these developers impact fees for the stress they put on our roads, infrastructure, and other services.

See the agenda and backup material for Tuesday night’s meeting here. https://oconeesc.com/council-home/agendas-and-minutes

High Speed Internet

Late last year I requested an update from Blue Ridge Electric/Upcountry fiber on the progress that has been made over the last year, and what the plan was for the coming year in building out the high speed internet network in the county. Per Upcountry Fiber’s request, I waited to share the announcement until the state announced that Upcountry Fiber was awarded a $23 million grant. This grant will allow Upcountry to connect a significant portion of the western part of the county this year.

Last year Blue Ridge/Upcountry Fiber installed 450 miles of fiber in Oconee county and connected roughly 4,000 customers in Oconee. This is roughly half of the total customers they’ve connected in the 5 counties they serve.

Projects that were completed in Oconee last year:

* Portions of hwy 107 in Mountain Rest

* Seed Farm Rd area outside of Westminster

* Picket Post area outside Walhalla

* Burns Mill rd. area outside of West Union

* Corinth Area outside of Seneca

* Conneross area outside of Seneca

* Utica area

* Portbass area and poritons of

* Portion of Fair Play

* Small portion of the Oakway area.

* Friendship area

Current Projects with active crews working:

* Tamasee/Salem north of Hwy 11

* All of Toccoa Hwy/ Madison west of Westminster

2023 projects to be completed:

* All of Mountain Rest

* All of Longcreek

* All of Doctor Johns/ Retreat communities

* All of Oakway

* All of Fair Play

This represents approximately 900 miles fiber..

Ordinances Up For A Vote In March

There will be a 3rd Reading and public hearing of the following ordinance in March. All Ordinances require 3 readings and a public hearing.

ORDINANCE 2022-32 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF A PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE REIMBURSEMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA (“COUNTY”) AND [PROJECT GREENPAW], WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN PROPERTY IN THE COUNTY, WHEREBY SUCH PROPERTY WILL BE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN PAYMENTS IN LIEU OF TAXES, INCLUDING THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN SPECIAL SOURCE REVENUE CREDITS TO REIMBURSE [PROJECT GREENPAW] FOR CERTAIN INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS INCURRED; AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY THEREOF; AUTHORIZING THE PLACEMENT OF CERTAIN PROPERTY WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF A MULTICOUNTY INDUSTRIAL OR BUSINESS PARK OR THE CREATION OF A NEW MULTICOUNTY INDUSTRIAL OR BUSINESS PARK; AND OTHER MATTERS RELATING THERETO.

ORDINANCE 2023-04 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF A REAL PROPERTY LEASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN OCONEE COUNTY AS LESSOR AND THE ROSA CLARK MEDICAL CLINIC ASSOCIATION, INC. AS LESSEE, IN RELATION TO CERTAIN COUNTY-OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED ADJACENT TO THE OCONEE COUNTY MAGISTRATE’S OFFICE LOCATED AT 1600 E. MAIN STREET, WESTMINSTER, SOUTH CAROLINA; AND OTHER MATTERS RELATED THERETO.

You can view detailed information on the above ordinances HERE.

Road Maintenance

If you have an issue with a county road, whether it be a pothole, clogged culvert, etc, please go HERE to fill out a work request.

Meeting Schedule

The county council will meet on the first, and third Tuesday of the month in March.

All regular council Meetings are held at 6pm in the county office complex on Pine Street in Walhalla.

You can view the livestream of the meetings as well as view previous meetings on the county YouTube channel by clicking HERE.

You can download meeting agendas and all associated backup material HERE

Thank you for taking the time to read this update. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if I can ever be of assistance.

If you missed my previous newsletter and would like to read it now, you can do so by clicking HERE

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-Matt