Author: Dick Mangrum

For months, Walhalla has been kicking the tires on just how to generate the millions that’ll be needed to build its Lake Keowee water plant. Tonight the city council will be asked to consider first reading of an ordinance to issue revenue bonds to cover the project. Tjay Bagwell, who chairs the council’s finance and general government committee, says, “It’s […]

This year’s First Friday Parade at Clemson will follow an alternate route to avoid the construction work on SC 93. The parade that marks the start of the school year and kickoff to the football season will take place 6 o’clock Friday evening, August 31. Recent work on highway 93 will force this year’s parade to follow a route that […]

A two-car accident late Saturday night in Pickens County took the lives of two Walhallans. The deceased have been identified by Gary Duncan, the deputy Pickens County coroner, as 39-year old Deborah Lynn Baynard and 58-year old Randall Joey Luker. Baynard and Luker were identified as friends and, according to state troopers, were passengers in a 1994 Ford Explorer driven […]

Oconee Sheriff’s Office has issued a reminder that telephone scammers resort to what’s called “spoofing” to make it appear that they are calling from a local number when in many cases they are not. An Oconee County plumber on the job got a call yesterday which appeared to carry a local prefix but, in this case, he became suspicious and […]

After finishing its work last night at City Hall, Seneca Planning Commission had laid the groundwork for the city limits to grow by about 29 acres. That’s the estimate given by Ed Halbig, the planning and community development director, after the planning commissioners voted to annex two sets of properties and assign zoning classifications to them. On Radonshire Road in […]

Lots of things change in Oconee County, but public school enrollment numbers appear to remain steady. Yesterday’s first day of school enrollment countywide finished at 10,258. And Steve Hanvey, associate superintendent of education, projects by week’s end total enrollment will jump by 270, to a number of 10,528. The county’s newest high school, Walhalla High, maintains top enrollment at 1,123. […]

A researcher at Clemson University, Don Hagan, says frequent prescribed fires in southeastern forests can help prevent raging wildfires like those that have engulfed much of northern California. The Mendocino Complex fire, the largest wildfire northern California has even seen, is being fueled by dead leaves, tree branches, and other debris that have accumulated on forest floors. Hagan, an ecology […]

Brian Lusk has returned to the Oconee County town where he grew up and graduated from high school. The former state trooper took the oath on Friday as police chief in Salem, succeeding Dave Poulson, who resigned for a job in nearby Pickens. Lusk becomes the only fill-time police officer in Salem, but is being assisted by two part-time officers. […]