Author: Dick Mangrum

  A meeting today between the Walhalla Police Chief and the Oconee County Sheriff settled jurisdiction questions about the potential that crimes were committed last week during the Razorback soccer team’s return bus trip from a game at Pickens. Sheriff Mike Crenshaw says the result of his meeting with Police Chief Ronald Wilbanks is that the city police will remain […]

An Oconee jury today convicted a 39-year old man of three traffic offenses. Defendant Russell Alan Tupper left the courtroom this afternoon with a sentence that sends him to prison for 10 years. According to a court officer, the sentence announced by Judge McIntosh amounted to a total of five years for driving under the influence, driving under suspension, and […]

An Oconee County man elected to not testify in his own defense, but his side insists that he could not have been driving under the influence near Westminster because he was not driving his mother’s car. Defendant Russell Alan Tupper was interviewed at the scene of the accident in 2014 and later charged with driving under the influence, driving under […]

A private contractor, hired by the city of Seneca, is getting ready to add amenities to the city’s Clemson Area Transit bus stop downtown. Seneca’s Ed Halbig says those amenities will include restrooms and an awning to provide a cover to protect the bus-riding public from outdoor elements. A meeting was held this morning, and he work could start in […]

Developments today in that touchy topic of the state diverting to the counties some of its roads for future maintenance. At 3 o’clock in Columbia the Senate Finance Committee holds a meeting on S.523. The bill as now written, according to the South Carolina Association of Counties, would transfer any road within a county to that county. Counties would assume […]

A gravel section of an Oconee County-maintained road near Seneca is on the schedule to be improved. Mack Kelley, director of county public works, said the plan is to improve and pave the gravel road section of the Brown Farm Road in the Return Community. Kelley said, “Plans and permitting are still being finalized but work could start as early […]

A Chickasaw Point man went on trial today in the Oconee General Sessions Court, charged with traffic offenses that arose from an accident 14 months ago near Westminster. Russell Alan Tupper is charged with driving under the influence, driving under suspension, and habitual traffic offender. According to assistant solicitor Beth Blundy, Tupper was charged by the highway patrol after his […]

Keowee Key resident Harry Wertheimer has been recognized by the American Association of Retired Persons for teaching safe driver classes that attracted the highest, average number of participants in South Carolina. Wertheimer recently instructed two classes at Keowee Key and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Clemson that attracted more than 30 students. The new AARP Smart Driver course is […]

 Two new deputy sheriffs have joined the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. Rashad Crooks and Geraldo Chavez recently completed department training and look forward to serving the citizens of Oconee County. Crooks is a graduate of Seneca High School and Tri-County Technical College, where he majored in Criminal Justice. He began his career as an animal control officer and later as […]

A chase by the Walhalla police ended in the driveway of a S. Katherine Street home and the arrest of the driver they were pursuing. The police say the arrest of Tamassee resident Joshua Paul Price took place around 2 o’clock Saturday morning after Price’s vehicle hit a parked car in the driveway. The chase had begun a few minutes […]