Spending, economic development issues before County Council

When Oconee’s elected leaders gather for their Tuesday evening meeting next week, they’ll deal with some spending and economic development issues. Tuesday’s agenda calls for action to appropriate $210 thousand from the economic development fund to allow town of Salem to extend a water line on the east side of highway 11 from Park Avenue south roughly one mile. The stated purpose: to allow for improvements and expansion of existing business and provide an impetus for growth along the route. In executive session Tuesday, the council will talk about a couple of economic development matters code-named projects “Natural” and “Frame.” In open session, the council will consider spending more than $500 thousand for a case excavator for its money-making rock quarry. The new piece of equipment would be used, among other purposes, in the quarry pit to feed the mobile jaw crusher and to load the haul trucks. The council will also wrestle with a higher than originally estimated engineering bill for groundwater monitoring at the Seneca and Five Forks landfills.