Author: Dick Mangrum

A lengthy docket of cases is set for Oconee’s first 2022 term of the county General Sessions Court.  The term will be a four-day court session to start Tuesday, January 18, following the Martin Luther King holiday. A wide variety of cases is in place, including charges of drug violations, attempted murder, domestic violence, ill treatment of animals, and one […]

Nearly one-third (30%) of U-S home fires involving Christmas trees occur in January.  With that post-holiday fire hazard in mind, the National Fire Protection Association strongly urges everyone to keep their festive memories but remove the hazards by disposing of Christmas trees promptly.  A spokeswoman for the NFPA says fresh trees, which continue to dry out and become more flammable […]

Fresh crews from neighboring electric cooperatives arrived yesterday morning to bolster the restoration work by the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative across the retail power provider’s five-county Upstate territory.  Here’s how service restoration stood at 5:30 this morning, from the following account provided by Blue Ridge’s Terry Ballenger: 412 Pickens County customers still lacked service. 226 in Oconee County 223 in […]

Daniel High’s repeat state football champs are to receive honors next week from their own backyards.  Recognition of the Lions’ 2021 achievement will be accorded during a joint meeting of the Central and Clemson city councils.  That meeting is scheduled 6:30 Wednesday night, January 12 at the Central-Clemson Indoor Recreation Facility.

The following announcement was made yesterday on the eve of the re-opening of Oconee public schools:   “The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and SC DHEC have issued new guidance that reduces COVID-19 isolation and quarantine length. The School District of Oconee County has instituted these changes in our COVID-19 Guidelines available on our website. For students who test positive […]

The Oconee coroner identified West Union resident Amy Michelle Wilson, the fatal victim of yesterday’s SUV accident on the Ebenezer Road.  Wilson was 41 years old.

By late morning, Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative had reduced to 5,208 customers in its five-county territory still without power as the result of the stormy, windy night.  Oconee’s outages had been reduced to below 2,000–to 1,882.  Oconee, Pickens and Greenville were the counties that bore the blunt of the Blue Ridge outages.

The state health agency recommends that, as school classes return from the holidays, all students should wear masks and everyone, as much as possible, social distance in the school buildings.  Oconee County public school classes resume tomorrow.  Dr. Simmer, the DHEC executive director, says although Omicron has caused a proliferation of new COVID-19 cases, any decision whether to close a […]

The possibility that in the build of storm clouds this morning that a sudden downpour of rain, along with wind gusts, is responsible for the tree damage in northern Oconee, especially the Salem area.  Scott Krein, Oconee’s top emergency management official, says the possibility of a microburst is being studied by the National Weather Service.  Meantime, Krein urges all Oconeeans […]

The many trees that have fallen have produced their share of electric power outages across Upstate South Carolina.  The number of customers without power has been especially high in Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties where thousands of Blue Ridge customers are without service at this hour.  The Blue Ridge spokesman says, “Crews are at work at most all of the […]