Author: Dick Mangrum

An annual report by South Carolina DHEC shows overall improvements in outcomes for infants in the first year of life.  The state’s infant mortality rate in 2022 dropped nearly 7%, compared to the previous year.  In ’22, South Carolina counted 392 infant deaths during the first year of life — nine of those were Oconee infants.  For the year 2022, […]

Should Rep. Sandifer pick up a certain number of votes during an examination of challenged ballots tomorrow, 101.7/WGOG NEWS has been told, it’s possible that a number of added Sandifer votes will kick in a requirement for a mandatory recount of votes cast in his race with Adam Duncan.  The unofficial results last night gave challenger Duncan a 59-vote upset […]

A dispute that has been going for about two years has reached the Oconee County courtroom.  It’s an appeal of a decision that granted an engineering survey company a variance from right of-way to build a public road.  Testimony in Ratliff versus Oconee is being heard in the Common Pleas Court as a non-jury matter, to be decided by the […]

Last night in Westminster, a 4 to 3 vote decided that the mayor and the council may enroll in the state’s health insurance plan for employees – in spite of warnings about the high cost to the city’s budget and a cry that many Westminster senior citizens are struggling just to get by.  A vote cast by Councilwoman Audrey Reese […]

A former restaurant near Seneca is to be converted to an urgent care facility, according to an Oconee County permit.  It’s the former Fatz restaurant on the Sandifer Boulevard.  There’s a deed lease recorded in the Registry of Deeds’ office at Walhalla that details a 10-year lease for the building between Prisma Health Urgent Care and the building owner, Thrift […]

Indications are this morning that there’ll be a runoff election to decide the GOP nominee for 3rd District U-S representative – between frontrunner Mark Burns and the second-highest vote-getter, Sheri Biggs.  On the Democratic side, Byron Best pulled 62% to Frances Guldner’s 38%.  However, the numbers appear to show that for 10th Circuit Solicitor, Micah Black with 54.8% of the […]

It looks like Gena Acree is going to return to the office of Oconee Treasurer – this time as its top official.  The balloting gave Acree a 687-vote margin, or 53.41%, in her tussle with Chief Deputy Tonya Keller, who had the endorsement of retiring Treasurer Greg Nowell.  Keller’s numbers added up to 46.59% of the some 10 thousand votes […]

A political newcomer, Adam Duncan, achieved a major upset in Oconee when his totals showed that he won the Republican nomination, ousting Bill Sandifer, a senior member of the state legislature.  The results gave Duncan a 61-vote margin, or a little more than 50.5% of the votes cast inside State House District Two that encompasses the Seneca area and runs […]