Author: Dick Mangrum

A plea of guilt to burglary brought a 15-year sentence today in the Oconee General Sessions Court. A court officer said the judge ordered the prison term for Tommy Joe Cooper, who pleaded guilty to five instances of burglary.

Just after opening statements, a young Seneca man changed his plead. The judge in Oconee General Sessions accepted Tyson Tyrone Watt’s plea to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and possession of a weapon during a violent crime and handed down a sentence, sending Watt to prison for 15 years. The office of Solicitor Chrissy Adams released […]

Special efforts are made being in the Oconee School District to open some of the new Walhalla High School to smaller, local contractors. According to assistant superintendent for operations, Dr. Michael Thorsland, few local contractors have the resources to undertake a high school building as large as 250 thousand square feet, but four smaller buildings on the new school campus […]

When you send your children to school, you expect they will get the best education possible. You never expect that your child one day will return home, having been molested by a teacher. Oconee school district officials said today that, for the past four years, they have taken pro-active steps to prevent pedophiles from taking advantage of young people. Earnestine […]

Common core education standards, now adopted by 45 states, arrive in two years at the Oconee School District. And Dianne England, assistant superintendent for instruction, says the district is preparing now to meet a states initiated set of standards that’ll place students on an even-playing field, with the end goal to prepare them for college and career. England says it’s […]

A 43-year old Oconeean has been arrested in a three-month investigation of stolen golf carts. Law enforcement records show that Steven Lamar Craig of Harbin Road, Westminster was arrested yesterday and charged with receiving stolen goods. Since July 19, the Sheriff’s Department has been investigating the disappearance of three golf carts from the clubhouse at Chickasaw Point Country Club.  

U-S Attorney Bill Nettles says members of his office and law enforcement partners are meeting tomorrow with South Carolina students, as part of of the state’s annual Student Pledge Against Gun Violence. Students at Seneca’s Blue Ridge Elementary, Fair-Oak Elementary, and Tamassee-Salem Elementary will sign pledge that if they see a gun they will not touch it, they will assume […]

The regular October meeting of Westminster City Council begins at 5:30 this evening at City Hall. Agenda items include a skateboard park, the 2013 Mayberry Festival, and purchase of a swimming pool lift to meet ADA requirements.

To celebrate its 50th year, Tri-County Technical College will bury a time capsule filled with items that will give future students and administrators a glimpse of the college and its important events of 2012. The capsule is a small cube containing symbolic items, ranging from graduation programs and college publications to presidential election bumper stickers to People magazine. It will […]

Preliminary approval was granted last night at Seneca City Hall for a 48-unit senior citizen housing project in the city’s Northside Community. To accommodate the builder, the city planning commission agreed to annex the property and assign an R-M 8 zoning classification. Builder Phil Ellen said senior housing apartments are his family’s business. The approvals, in the form of recommendations […]