Author: Dick Mangrum

Five employees of the U-S Forest Service from Oconee County have pitched in during the fight against wildfires in the West.  The office of the Andrew Pickens District at Mountain Rest has also deployed a fire engine to the battle scenes.  Ranger Robbie Sitzlar says, “We are doing as much as we can to provide support….”

The Labor Department counted 898,000 additional Americans who filed jobless claims in the last week.  According to the South Carolina unemployment numbers, 84 of them were first-time claim filers from Oconee County.  There were 64 new filers in neighboring Pickens County.

The numbers of murders and aggravated assaults are increasing in South Carolina, according to the state police 2019 crime report.  The rate of South Carolina murders rose by 6.7%.  Aggravated assaults went up 4%.  Those increases prompt Chief Mark Keel of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to say, “I am extremely concerned by the increasing amount of violence in […]

An appeal to the Seneca zoning law will be made during a City Hall hearing at 6 tonight.  The board of appeals gathers to hear the request by Integrity Builders on behalf of property owners Clifton and Lisa Henry.

Five Seneca High student COVID cases are on the school district’s virus tracking page for yesterday, And the Seneca High principal, Felicia LeRoy, says, “We have been working to identify the ‘center’ of the cluster so we can move any student to virtual learning who may have been exposed.”  The current outbreak at the high school has interrupted instruction and […]

Across Upstate South Carolina there is a critical need for persons to donate blood, according to the Blood Connection.  All eligible donors are being asked to step up for their community.  The Blood Connection is the exclusive provider for all Upstate hospitals, include Prisma’s Oconee Memorial.  You are asked to remember that hundreds of people each day in our area […]

At least two items apparently will face Westminster’s elected leaders during an executive session planned at 5:30 this evening in the conference room at City Hall.  According to Mayor Brian Ramey, Councilman Danny Duncan has added the controversial Hall Street property purchase to the agenda and there could be a vote afterward. A second purpose for the meeting is a […]

Jack Collins roadside signs have shown up in a section of western Oconee.  The photograph of one depicts the message, “Vote Conservative Write In Jack Collins County Council District 4 sponsored by Conservative Choice Advocates of Oconee County.”  In this year’s primary, Collins lost a close challenge to incumbent Julian Davis, who enters the November election as the only ballot […]