Author: Dick Mangrum

Thankful and a feeling of bless are some of the thoughts that Wayne Garland experienced when the 74-year old Walhallan finished his immense hike early this afternoon on the Appalachian Trail.  We spoke by phone moments ago with Garland, not long after he reached Georgia’s Springer Mountain.  Garland required about six months of actual hiking to finish his north-south route—from […]

The brand new executive of the Oconee Chamber of Commerce says the chamber is engaged with education officials to try to find a way to lessen the worker shortage facing chamber business members, as well as business in general.  The chamber’s Crystal Romanyszyn is not optimistic that the problem will be completely eliminated, but hopeful that talks with high school […]

An Oconee sheriff’s officer says an arrest was made today in the investigation of an assault in Picket Post community vicinity.  According to authorities, the investigation centered at a home on the White Cut Road.

Oconee County has eclipsed 200 deaths from COVID-19 since the counting started shortly after the world pandemic was declared.  South Carolina DHEC’s numbers show a total of 202 Oconeeans have died from the virus, including one Oconeean who was included in the latest count.  At mid-week, South Carolina saw 987 new, confirmed cases, an additional 106 deaths for the 24-hour […]

Oconee County appears close to welcoming a new major employer.  On the agenda of next week’s county council meeting is preliminary approval of a fee-in-place-of tax agreement with an unidentified company that promises to invest $15,400,000 in “economic development property” and create 215 new, full-time jobs.  As part of an inducement agreement, the county determines to sell about 27 acres […]

A West Union man has been arrested for allegedly threatening the life of an Oconee County animal control officer.  The sheriff’s office arrested Keith Stanley Haynes on the charge of threatening the life of a public employee.  The arrest warrant alleges Haynes threatened to inflict bodily harm on animal control officer Jessica Venneri while Venneri yesterday was in the process […]

A 39-year Anderson man is dead after, authorities say, he and county deputies late last night exchanged gunfire.  Deputy Coroner Brent Simpson said Robert Allen Maness died in the hospital after he pulled a gun and began to shoot at deputies.  The deputies returned the gunfire, hitting Maness and causing him to wreck the motorcycle.  It’s the second officer-involved shooting […]

The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office will be coming to Oconee County next week.  They won’t be bringing money or collecting taxes.  Based on last year’s population count, it’s re-districting time.  Tuesday night’s presentation at the Oconee County Council is to center on how population changes from one census to the next will change the constituent numbers and […]