Area briefs: Commission candidate settles suit, OCAF names interim director

Her attorney says an Athens-Clarke County Commission candidate has settled with the County: Stephanie Johnson was looking at a wrongful termination lawsuit stemming from her 2021 firing as Athens-Clarke County Auditor. Johnson is running for the District 6 seat on the Athens-Clarke County Commission, facing Rashe Malcom in an election that will be decided next month.

City Hall is making another push for input on plans to update the Athens-Clarke County Future Land Use map. Public hearings are scheduled for next week, and there’s a feedback form on the Athens-Clarke County government website. Athens-Clarke County Commissioners are hoping to vote on an updated plan by the end of the year.

OCAF, the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, names an interim director: Paul Clark runs a business consulting firm in Athens. The search for a full-time director continues in Watkinsville.

Three drug suspects are arrested and booked into the Franklin County, accused of trafficking methamphetamine in Gum Log. Denna Saxon and Matthew Johnson are from Kentucky; Donnie Pace is from Elbert County. The Sheriff’s Office in Carnesville says they were caught with $75 hundred worth of meth, drugs discovered after a traffic stop in Franklin County. 

A Gainesville man is in the Hall County jail, held without bond and accused in an attack on an 8 year-old girl: there is a long list of charges for suspect Elias Marcos.

A Gainesville woman is charged with threatening first responders on the scene of an auto accident. 27 year-old Melani Stein allegedly threatened Hall County firefighters after she wrecked her car on a highway near Gainesville. They say she pointed a gun at them. She was checked out in a hospital, then taken to the Hall County jail on charges that include aggravated assault and DUI.

We are still waiting to learn the name of the driver killed in a Wednesday crash in Hall County: the driver of a second vehicle involved in the two-vehicle accident on Georgia Highway 347 in Hall County was hospitalized with what were said to have been minor injuries.

©2024 Cox Media Group