Author: Dick Mangrum

The increase in Oconee County COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks has led Walhalla to implement stricter rules covering all city-sponsored meetings.  Going forward, until further notice, everyone attending a Walhalla meeting will have to wear facial coverings, hand sanitize, and allow their temperature to be taken at the door.  There will be reduced capacity allowed for meetings that […]

  A 25-year old man from Charleston sits in the Oconee jail having been ticketed four times by law enforcement as part of an investigation from an attempted traffic stop yesterday morning in the southern part of the county.  Tickets issued to Bradon Lee Ashley Potter allege driving under suspension, failure to stop for a blue light, operating an uninsured […]

An accidental stove fire late last night near Seneca inflicted grease burns to the hands and arms of a resident of the McPhail Apartments near the Carson Road.  Chief Richie Caudill of the Seneca Fire Department said the victim was conscious and showed no respiratory problems.  However, because of the burns the decision was made to evacuate him to the […]

A driver and a passenger were airlifted for medical treatment from a late night two-vehicle accident on S. Highway 11 not far from Parkway Campers.  Lance Corporal Joe Hovis of the highway patrol identified the two requiring treatment as Able Chavez-Bausita of Hartwell, Georgia, along with an 8-year old passenger.  Both vehicles were headed south on the two-lane highway.  Hovis […]

A head-on crash around one o’clock yesterday afternoon near Seneca left a motorcyclist dead and a second driver charged by the highway patrol.  The coroner said the crash reported on 59 two miles south of the city limit was fatal to 32-year old motorcyclist and Westminster resident William Andrew Cheek.  According to state trooper Joe Hovis, pickup truck driven by […]

Part of SC 11 between Seneca and Westminster was closed six hours during the night after two vehicles, believed to have been trucks, collided in the vicinity of Parkway Campers.  The accident scene required two separate medical helicopters and two people were flown to hospitals outside the county for medical treatment. The accident was reported shortly before 10 o’clock.  The […]

One person from a midnight home fire near Seneca was flown by medical helicopter to the regional burn center at Augusta, Georgia.  The fire occurred on Kelly Drive near the Carson Road, and the primary responders were Seneca fire fighters.

Oconee County Council likes the job done by the county attorney.  After a closed-door meeting last evening, the council approved a new contract for David Root, the attorney.  Root gets three years added to his work arrangement, along with expanded severance pay from three to nine months in the event the council ends his contract.

The Oconee deputy injured in this morning’s accident near highway 59 in the Crossroads Community was responding to a pursuit that started on highway 24.  Neither the deputy, nor the driver of the pursued vehicle, was identified by name. The deputy and the other driver were taken to the hospital.  And the sheriff’s office says it will not identify the […]

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today announced 1,106 new confirmed cases and 3 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, and 8 additional confirmed deaths and 2 probable deaths. There are currently 881 hospital beds occupied by patients who have either tested positive or are under investigation for COVID-19. This brings the total number […]