Oconee County Observations: Six Qualify For Special Election On Nov. 7 For Hou...

Oconee County Observations: Six Qualify For Special Election On Nov. 7 For Hou...: **2 Democrats, 4 Republicans** Georgia House District 117, made up of parts of Barrow, Clarke, Jackson and Oconee counties, will continue ...

Damage assessment

Athens-Clarke County is seeking information about storm damage to property from Tropical Storm Irma. Homeowners and other property owners are requested to fill out a damage assessment form. Reports will be followed up by visits from damage assessors.

Power outages in Athens

Five Points is dark. The traffic lights and all business lights (including Waffle House, Golden Pantry, and Earth Fare) are dark. The only lights are at the fire station and from all the headlights of cars. There is a lot of traffic going through here. I can only suppose people are trying to go to other places that have power because where else would you be going when the governor advised everybody to stay off the roads? Anyway, I'm glad I had extra batteries for my radio so I can sit in the dark and listen to commercials.

I hope you're right, Princeton UMC

County information on Irma

The Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County will be posting information about the coming storm from Hurricane Irma at the following link:

www.athensclarkecounty.com/irma

Irma coming to Athens

Accuweather.com is reporting that on Monday Athens will have winds of 40 mph with gusts up to 83 mph. It also looks like we will get a couple inches of rain or more. Based on all our recent storm experience, I'm guessing we will have a lot of power outages and roads blocked with fallen trees. How rare is it to have tropical storms this far inland?

Magnolia tree gone

A couple days ago I saw a crew cutting down a magnolia tree at the Varsity at Broad and Milledge (the tree closest to the corner). It appeared that some of the branches had brown leaves, so I assume that this tree was in bad health. It is always sad to lose one of the large trees that makes up the familiar landscape around us. (North Campus has lost a lot of trees in the past few years.) I remember reading that these magnolia trees were preserved when the Varsity was built -- does anyone remember the history of this location?