Author: Dick Mangrum

A man accused of stealing a wire mesh strainer from the Seneca Wal-Mart will allow an Oconee jury to decide his fate, without putting up any defense. Curtis J. Bearden today decided not to testify, and his attorney called no witnesses. Bearden’s was a brief one-day trial in which prosecution witnesses accused him of being the man who put the […]

A West Union man wanted by the Oconee Sheriff’s Office has been found in central Florida, and deputies went to Polk County between Orlando and Tampa to retrieve him. Among the charges against Charles Whitney Batts is escape. Fifty-seven year old Batts is accused of cutting off his ankle monitor on I-85 in Georgia. In December, the Burnt Tanyard Road […]

The mayor and city council in Westminster received their copies of the city’s audit covering 2018-2019, along with an explanation from David Phillips of the Green Finney firm. The word “unmodified” was used to sum up the opinion of how outside eyes see the city’s handing of its monies. “Unmodified opinion is kind of a strange term,” Phillips said last […]

The start for a new recreation complex in Westminster, at the least, has been delayed.  But another Oconee municipality is moving forward to expand its recreation opportunities.  After a closed-door meeting, Seneca City Council last night voted to buy 30 acres adjoining its Shaver Recreation Complex.  The city’s main recreation facility is bordered by an apartment project on one side […]

New Westminster councilmen may want to reclaim property on which the mayor’s cabin sits, but it’s apparently easier said than done. The city council last night re-visited the long-running controversy in which a cabin owned by the mayor sits on city property alongside the Chauga River although, at one point, the city gave the mayor one year to remove it. […]

Madison community resident Jack Collins is known as a beekeeper, but he also keeps an interest in the affairs of county government. And last night at a Westminster restaurant, Collins declared his intent to 101.7/WGOG NEWS that he will be a Republican candidate this spring for his party’s nomination for Seat Four, Oconee County Council. That office is now held […]

Westminster’s leaders rescinded a special meeting vote to authorize a company to draw plans for a Hall Street recreation complex. This after, a leading recreation proponent conceded he had a type of buyer’s remorse the morning following a recent vote for the city to contract with the firm Seamon and Whiteside. That deal is now on hold, although Councilman Rusty […]

Tri-County Technical College signed an articulation agreement with South University Monday, giving associate degree nursing graduates another avenue to earn a Bachelor of Science Nursing degree. Tri-County President Galen DeHay and Dr. Karl Sterner, president of South University’s Columbia Campus, signed an Associate’s to Bachelor’s Degree Program Agreement allowing graduates of Tri-County’s nursing program to transfer to South University, and, […]

Absentee voting continued this afternoon at Pine Street, in advance of this Saturday’s Democratic Presidential preference vote in South Carolina. But not long after Saturday night, there will come a new set of politics played across the state. That is, the last two weeks in March when the books open for candidates to file for either the Democratic or Republican […]