Author: Dick Mangrum

New COVID-19 numbers reported today by the state health agency:  1,845 new cases and 93 deaths.  The death toll included three elderly Oconeeans who died January 2, 12, and 13.  Of the new cases statewide, 56 are Oconee residents.  Of 11,153 test results received statewide, the positivity was 16.5%.

Out into the community on Monday will be Seneca police officers.  The new chief of police, Casey Bowling, invites the community to join them for a cleanup, as a service to mark Martin Luther King Day.  They’ll assemble at 10 am at the Trinity Baptist Church and complete the cleanup project at the Blue Ridge Community Center.

A bus driver apparently traveling alone avoided major injury when the bus went off a country road near Salem and overturned.  The highway patrol was among the responders to this morning’s accident at 9:11 am on the N. Little River Road, three miles north of the town of Salem.  State patrol spokesman Joe Hovis says, for reasons unknown, the bus […]

Prisma Health will open dedicated high-volume community COVID-19 vaccine centers in Columbia and Greenville beginning Monday, Jan. 18.   The two large-scale COVID-19 appointment-only vaccination sites, which currently only administer Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, include the following:   Prisma Health Vaccination Site in Greenville, SC   ·        1 Kmart Plaza, Greenville, SC 29605 (near Greenville Memorial Hospital). o   The vaccination site, […]

A third grade class at the Ravenel Elementary School has been sent home temporarily, according to Oconee School District’s tracking page of positive COVID-19 tests.  Those Ravenel 3rd graders have been assigned a return-to-school date of Monday, January 25.  A district officials also confirms that on Wednesday two James Brown kindergarten classes were closed–one, a 4-K; the other, a 5-K.

Fire fighters north of Walhalla yesterday put a stop to a brush fire that threatened three homes on the Oconee Creek Road.  Walhalla fire fighters described the brush fire yesterday afternoon as small.

The retiring director of Oconee elections believes purposes of the office would be served better if it is able to re-locate closer to the middle of  the county.  Yesterday Joy Scharich led the board of registrations and elections in a discussion of how to acquire more room, with the outcome being that a dialogue is needed with the county council […]

  As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to increase at record levels in South Carolina, public health officials today announced the state will change its efforts from containment to community mitigation measures to slow the spread of the virus. South Carolinians are being called on to help by continuing to take actions we know work – wearing a mask […]

Prisma Health is setting up dedicated high-volume community vaccine centers in Greenville and Columbia starting as soon as next week and will further expand vaccine access as more vaccine supply becomes available to South Carolina. With the additional sites in place, Prisma Health expects to administer as many as 10,000 shots per day within the next few weeks.   “We […]