Author: Dick Mangrum

Governor Henry McMaster recommends South Carolina allocate $360 million dollars of American Rescue Plan money to complete the widening of  Interstate-26 between Columbia and Charleston.  In the governor’s words, this investment would accelerate a high priority project on one of the state’s most-traveled interstates by at least six years.  The governor’s new spending recommendations say nothing about I-85, in particular […]

A letter to students and families (circulating on social media) of the NEXT School Eagle Ridge in Salem starts this way, “We are writing to you today with news that no community wants to hear.”  It is signed by the school’s board of directors. The contents of the letter lay out the decision to close Salem’s charter school, after the […]

For a variety of reasons, it’s easy to be down on Westminster.  But, the mayor says, Oconee’s third largest municipality will move ahead, even though one-half of the council is quitting at the mid-term point of their offices.  Mayor Ramey encourages Westminster residents who care about their city—and have something to add—consider running in a special election to fill the […]

A 26-year old Seneca area woman was confined yesterday to the Oconee jail, after she allegedly led police on a chase that started on Greenville’s White Horse Road, thru Pickens County, and finishing in her home county of Oconee.  According to authorities, Steve Nix Road resident Rachel Nichole Parsons was charged with eight offenses:  reckless driving; fail to stop for […]

A rural part of Oconee County north of Salem became the scene yesterday morning of emergency power service repairs.  Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative officials say an oak tree collapsed onto a power line on the Knox Creek Road near Cherokee Lake.

Notwithstanding the Supreme Court ruling yesterday that dealt a setback to the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement on large private businesses, Prisma Health doctors in South Carolina again stress the basic precautions that everyone should follow to help eradicate the spread of COVID-19.  A Prisma Health physician in the Midlands, Dr. Ahuja is especially worried if the virus, spurred by the […]

Confidence grows on the part of forecasters that the storm headed east from Pacific Northwest and western Canada will affect much of South Carolina, especially Oconee County and the mountains; however, they are now less confident that it will be the big snowstorm speculated earlier.  Frank Straight at the South Carolina Climate Office in Columbia says Upstate snow lovers will […]

Large numbers in today’s COVID-19 report from South Carolina DHEC.  New cases of the virus approached 10 and one-half thousand for the 24-hour ending Tuesday night.  Of the newly confirmed 10,412 virus cases statewide, 201 were Oconee County people.  DHEC recorded one additional probable Oconee death case.  There were two new confirmed deaths of Pickens County residents; three new confirmed […]

Across Prisma Health’s Upstate and Midlands service area (including the Oconee Memorial Hospital at Seneca) there are new COVID-19 hospital numbers.  They were released today in tandem with a lengthy zoom conference that included multiple Prisma Health doctors.  By today, 628 people remained in the hospital.  Of that number, 22% are vaccinated; 78% are not.  Some of those patients, though […]