Author: Dick Mangrum

At a meeting this week, the Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair elected new officers and board members for 2013. Stanley Gibson succeeds Tim Donald as president. Donald will serve on the board. Charlie Whiten will serve as vice president; Linda McAvoy, secretary; and Gwen McPhail, treasurer. Besides Donald, the board of directors takes in Rich Allen, Christina Alexander, Jeff Blackwell, Randi […]

The government says an indictment has been returned against a Pickens County man, accused of mailing a threatening communication to U-S Senator Lindsey Graham. The announcement of the indictment against Simon Peter Long, 31, does not detail the alleged threat. It says the maximum penalty in the case, should Long be found guilty, is 10 years in prison. The FBI […]

The failure of a new piece of equipment is traced to a sewage leak early last evening between Seneca and Clemson. According to Bob Winchester, executive director of the Joint Regional Sewer Authority, the failure of an air relief valve at a pump station on Wells Highway behind Blue Ridge Orthopedics caused a sewer spill of an estimated 10 thousand […]

An Oconee County civil lawsuit five years in the pre-trial stage got a form of rejuvenation today when a judge gave all parties 90 days to come to agreement on when the case will reach the courtroom. Circuit Judge Lawton McIntosh will allow a new attorney to become familiar with all that’s involved in the case titled McMahan versus Crescent […]

Look for the Oconee school board to kick around the issue of whether to build a new football stadium simultaneous with building the new Walhalla High School some time in the new year. Talk in the Walhalla community had the school board, at its meeting last night, would vote on whether to add the stadium to the project, but it […]

An attorney for Oconee County today alleged the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit over an accident at the county airport failed to follow proper procedures in serving notice of the suit. Attorney Dan Atkinson said the process server for a North Carolina pilot failed to serve notice to the proper county officials within a prescribed time limit. But the attorney […]

Meeting Monday, the Oconee Grand Jury returned six indictments charging a former school teacher and coach with sex crimes involving minors. Some of the indictments charging Richard Onley Gardner III contain multiple counts, alleging offenses involving a child under adult legal age. The indictments returned allow the prosecutor’s office to take the cases to the Oconee General Sessions Court. The […]

Oconee Sheriff-elect Mike Crenshaw recently graduated from the Newly-Elected Sheriffs’ School at the S.C. Sheriffs’ Association. Held in conjunction with the state’s Criminal Justice Academy, the week-long school covered subjects such as budget presentation, ethics compliance, employment law, civil liability and risk management. The school is held after every general election, to comply with state law mandating it. Besides the […]

An important vote involving the long-talked about Sanctuary Pointe project in Oconee County is now in the hands of state leaders in Columbia. Action on a state PRT sub-lease with Sanctuary Pointe, LLC is agenda item #10 during tomorrow morning’s meeting of the state Budget and Control Board in Columbia. Private developers seek to be able to get their hands […]

When it comes to public school calendars, Oconee County establishes them a couple of years ahead of time. But it’s likely to take a while longer before Oconee settles on the calendar for 2014-15. The reason is that calendar option #3 includes a three-week break, beginning with Christmas week, followed by New Year’s and, finally, the first week in January. […]