Author: Dick Mangrum

Just shy of 100 new teachers are ready to begin work at the start of a new Oconee public school year, August 21. If there’s a common thread running among the 97 new hires, it’s that most are female, Caucasian, and young.

In the night skies above Janet Neville’s Calyx Farms on north highway 11, professional photographers Mark McInnis and Carl Ackerman captured meteor showers.

Walhalla conducts two important meetings tonight at the Depot. Everyone is invited to the first one at 6 o’clock when Friends of the Pool will display plans for reopening the municipal swimming pool. One hour later, at 7, the city council has scheduled a private meeting for a contract matter, not specified by the meeting announcement.

For life-sustaining reasons, there are those who foresee the advantages of an EMS post at Keowee Key, serving the Key and other lakefront communities. But, for now, the fire chief there says the call volumes don’t justify the cost. At yesterday’s meeting of the Keowee Fire Commission, Chief Richie Caudle said his community has had discussions with Oconee Medical Center, […]

What Keowee Fire Department leaders see as “triple taxation” is likely to continue, in spite of pleas to county and state officials. In a summary of the government year ended June 30, the Keowee Fire Commission said, “The property owners of the District continue to pay into the General Fund of the County for fire services plus a fire assessment […]

A police chase in Seneca that started on Perkins Creek Road and ended across town at a home on Allen Street covered at least eight other streets and some in the county. In the end a Seneca policeman drew his gun to capture the suspect who abandoned the pickup truck and ran into the home at 306 Allen Street and […]

Incumbents face no ballot opposition. The deadline to be a ballot candidate in this fall’s election for three seats on Oconee School Board passed today with no challenges to the three incumbents. It means, barring a successful as yet publicly unannounced write-in campaign, that Rosemary Bailes of District Two, Denise McCormick of District Four, and Buddy Herring of District Five, […]

An Oconee General Sessions Court jury is to begin hearing testimony this afternoon in the trial of an Anderson man. Charles Harris is charged with solicitation of a minor. The S.C. Attorney’s General Office is handing the prosecution, while defendant Harris is represented by Public Defender Danny Day.

A young Westminster man has been hospitalized in Greenville with injuries suffered in a weekend accident on S.C. 24. According to information received by 96.3/WGOG NEWS, Will Sandifer was injured in the accident early yesterday morning near West-Oak High School. Sandifer, a student at Greenville Technical College, was transported by medical aircraft to the hospital.

The first day of classes for a new academic year at Clemson University will be Wednesday, August 22. So, between now and then, expect a steady drift of students back on campus. The university will start the the 2012-13 year with the annual Welcome Back Festival Monday, August 20, 5:30 to 8 p.m. on College Avenue in downtown Clemson.