Author: Dick Mangrum

Three weeks after the start of the school year, the first-year charter school and the town of Salem have agreed to a lease that will cover the use of the former middle and high school building and campus for the next ten years.  The town council approved the lease last night, after town attorney Brad Norton highlighted the provisions.  For […]

Two Walhalla neighbors saw their city court case resolve itself when Municipal Judge Jim Williams instructed a police officer there shall be no further prosecution of a citation issued to Dogwood Drive resident Scott Smith.  The police issued a citation charging Smith May 16 with failing to prevent his German Shepard from running at large.  Smith later surrendered the dog […]

The U-S Department of Health and Human Services will send a one million dollar grant to a South Carolina group, the Palmetto Project, to be used to help state residents enroll for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.   The money is to go for free appointments with experts who can explain coverage options to help state residents make the […]

  The board governing Oconee’s Conservation Bank, according to its chairman, is stymied by the lack of funds with which to pay landowners willing to place their properties into conservation protection.  Shea Airey, the chairman, proposed last night that County Council designate a portion of the revenues the county earns from re-cycling.  Airey says he believes the county’s conservationists would […]

Four of six public speakers at last night’s meeting of Oconee County Council registered their support last night for the re-zoning of about 7,200 acres in the Fair Play area.  And the council responded by giving first reading to an ordinance to designate an agriculture district zone for 177 parcels, known as the Tokeena-Dairy Farm properties.  The issue is now […]

The first-year charter school in Salem apparently has cost the Oconee public schools approximately 100 students.  Steve Hanvey, assistant superintendent of operations, last night gave the figure of 103 students as the district’s calculation of how many students chose the NEXT School at Eagle Ridge in place of staying with one of the public schools.  At last report, the NEXT […]

Fire early today in one unit of a Walhalla duplex spread to a second unit and one person went to the hospital to be treated.  The police, first on the scene of this morning’s 3 o’clock hour fire at the Wagener Circle apartments, rendered aid until the fire fighters and their trucks arrived.  Brandon Burton of the Walhalla Fire Department […]

Oconee County’s tax rate for 2016 will remain the same as it was last year.  The council last night considered its options, as outlined by acting auditor Christy Hubbard.  Those options included dropping the tax rate by one mill.  The school district will benefit in the amount of an extra $735 thousand dollars from a new Duke Energy assessment.  In […]