The Oconee County Sheriff's complex is located conveniently just off of Main Street, centrally located between downtown and north Oconee. The County Jail is housed at this site. Oconee has eight brave uniformed Sheriff's officers, a team of investigators, a jail operations staff and an Emergency 911 staff as well as a full administrative staff.
The Oconee County Visitor Information Center is located in the heart of the county in Watkinsville. The center shares with visitors an array of helpful information, including historic and current events and offers opportunities to see the surrounding area with full- and half-day tours.
The county's Board of Commissioners holds its work sessions at 10 am on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, while regular board meetings are held at 2pm the second Tuesday and 7pm on the fourth Tuesday. Meetings are held in the commissioner's board room on the second floor of the Watson Government Complex at 240 Constitution Blvd. Meetings are open to the public. Members of the public wishing to address the board during a meeting must submit their name and topic of their comments to the board chairman by 5pm on the Friday preceding the board's next scheduled meeting; those who sign up will be given five minutes to make their comments, which must be limited to their chosen topic.
Barrow County Emergency Services is the banner under which three divisions of services fall: emergency management, enhanced 911 dispatch and fire and emergency medical services. The agency employs more than 100 full-time and part-time personnel, providing fire and emergency medical services to residents. The agency responded to more than 7,400 incidents in 2009.
Fire and emergency departments include 84 front-line personnel, 15 part-time employees, and three additional staff menbers, all serving the more than 60,000 residents of Barrow County through six emergency response facilities. The department houses six fire engines—three of which are certified as advanced life support units and three as basic life support units—as well as six advanced life support ambulances and one truck company.
Emergency 911 fields emergency and non-emergency calls from residents, dispatching for six different county agencie as well as organizations that provide non-emergency services.
In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, emergency management is responsible for managing county resources, working with state and federal officials to coordinate responses to such incidents.
