Author: Dick Mangrum

Adventurers may be getting the wrong message on their apps as they set out to hike to Yellow Branch Falls north of Walhalla.  A female hiker broke a leg in a fall yesterday, as she approached one of the more popular scenes of Oconee County waterfalls.  About 25 public safety responders, including the Walhalla Fire Department, came to her aid.  […]

In what has been a surge in cases and deaths, Walhalla leaders are “strongly” encouraging face coverings throughout the city’s business district.  The idea is to protect everyone from the further spread of COVID-19.  After last night’s meeting of the city council committees, City Administrator Brent Taylor says masks downtown are not yet a city ordinance, but such a law […]

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today announced 1,168 new confirmed cases and 7 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, 52 additional confirmed deaths and 2 new probable deaths.  Six additional cases are reported in Oconee, but no new deaths. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 93,604 probable cases to 586, […]

A Columbia area school district has given up its hope to delay the fall athletic season for South Carolina high schools to the spring.  And the word in Oconee County today is that the SCHL will push back the official start of fall practice until August 31.  “That would mean,” in the estimation of Oconee’s Steve Hanvey, “that the first […]

In an informal conference today, Walhalla’s utilities director impressed on DHEC officials the pro-active approach the city is taking to address sewer difficulties, and that Scott Parris approach may defuse the potential for a civil fine.  The tele-meeting centered on the potential for a consent order between the city and the Department of Health and Environmental Control to assure that […]

A “small, smoldering” fire is extinguished in a home southwest of Walhalla.  After that fire was discovered this morning on Ledbetter Lane, fire fighters put a stop to it.  No one was hurt.  Chief Brandon Burton of the Walhalla Fire Department said the house was unoccupied, although it may have been the scene recently of a squatter.

At length, Oconee County planning commissioners last night batted around the idea that it’s time to regulate the storage of junk—even though what might be junk in the eye of one might not be junk in the eye of another.  Still one commissioner, Mike Smith, brought to the meeting photographic evidence of what he called accumulation of junk outside businesses […]

High school football workouts are taking place, but it’s an open-ended question of whether fall sports will be permitted in South Carolina.  And for that decision school districts, such as Oconee’s, will defer to the state’s High School League.  However, a decision on how many fans, if any, will be allowed to attend sporting events such as football games is […]

A Tri-County Technical College commissioner from Oconee County is line to receive national recognition for his commitment to advancing the community college movement.  John Powell has been notified by the Association of Community College Trustees that he’s the recipient of the 2020 Southern Regional Trustee Leadership Award.  The award is to be presented virtually in October during a Leadership Congress […]