Author: Dick Mangrum

Oconee County Council’s newest member, Matthew Durham, jump-started the council’s first meeting of 2021 with a declaration that, in his four-year term, he is going to try to safeguard individual rights that pertain to guns, property rights, and freedom of speech. The District Two member also vowed that the county should accept no financial help from the federal government if […]

A 16-year old girl, last seen walking on a Walhalla street, remains missing after two and a half weeks.  The police appeal to the public for help in finding Brenna Elliott.  She was last seen Friday, December 18 on foot on S. Chestnut Street.  Brenna is a white female, brown hair, blue eyes, about 5’.  She has a nose piercing […]

Oconee public schools registered five new cases of COVID-19 on Monday–the first day back from the Christmas and New Year’s Day break.  Four of the cases are students at the following schools:  Walhalla High, Keowee Elementary, Northside Elementary, and Blue Ridge Elementary.  The fifth case is that of an employee at Seneca Middle School.

Walhalla’s utilities superintendent is optimistic the city can comply with a consent order to satisfy state regulators concerned about the city’s sewer problems.  The city council complied with Scott Parris’s request last night to commit up to $16 thousand dollars to pay for a consultant’s study of the problems and recommend how they are met.  Parris also announced that the […]

A Walhalla woman appealed to the city’s elected leaders last night to be allowed to keep two pot belly pigs as pets.  Rachel Pace pleaded for exemption from the city’s law against keeping livestock inside the corporate limits.  Pace lives on Morningside Drive, and the city received a complaint from a neighbor. Pace says her Vietnamese two pot belly pigs […]

For the next 30 days, and starting today, the general public is not allowed inside the small Walhalla City Hall lobby.  The closing of the lobby space is deemed a public safety necessity as cases of COVID-19 continue to escalate.  Bill-paying customers are requested to temporarily satisfy their obligations by mail, in the drop box, by telephone, or by online.  […]

Walhalla Councilman Dennis Owens remains in hospital with COVID-19, and Mayor Danny Edwards requests prayer for Owens.  At the start of a meeting last night, the mayor said that although Owens has been transferred to a Greenville hospital, he is improving and it’s hoped that with continued recovery, it won’t be too many weeks before the city can celebrate his […]

The police in Seneca are busy late this afternoon responding to a pair of car accidents–one at 315 ES 6th Street; the other on the 123 By-Pass at or near 466 Bypass 123.

Members of Oconee’s board of zoning appeals are to deliberate the night of January 27 on a request for as many as four variances on property for use as a gas station and convenience store near exit 4, I-85.  The property address is 132 Grubbs Road.  The application centers on sign height, sign-face, and the number of permitted signs.  One […]