Category: News

In recent weeks, according to the Westminster police chief, his city’s problems with juvenile delinquency have lessened. Still the curfew that Chief Rory Jones requested became law last night, on a unanimous vote by the city council. Jones has complained that a group of teenagers have roamed the city streets causing trouble and suggested that their behavior resembled gang wannabees. […]

Members of Seneca’s Facilities Corporation are balking at a proposal to place an overhead transmission line at the entrance to property which both the city and the county market for industrial development. On behalf of the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Central Electric has asked for an easement in the vicinity of Shiloh Road and the properties that the city and […]

Westminster has a new budget for the next 12 months, and it’s one city leaders hope will start to pull the city from its financial difficulties. The mayor and the council last night faced a standing room audience, many of whom were rate payers who blistered the elected leaders about projected water rate increases that could total about 50%. Mayor […]

An early morning house fire in Westminster.  No one has been hurt, according to report.  Fire fighters were called to the home fire on N. Pew Street at 1:40 this morning.  They were there for about two hours.  A noon hour car accident on highway 28 near Halfway Branch injured two people who were sent to the Oconee hospital.  Both […]

A report of a suspicious person operating a child’s vehicle in Walhalla led the police yesterday to issue a citation for violating the city’s public drunkenness ordinance. The police identified a 25-year old woman as the one cited for drunkeness while operating her child’s power wheel truck. The police responded to the call of a suspicious person on N. Church […]

Schools are out for another summer, but the business of public education rolls right along in Oconee County. The county trustees will sit down next week for their June meeting and take on matters left pending after the close of the academic year. One, According to Chairman Jerry Lee, is the annual review of how well Dr. Michael Thorsland is […]

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and the School District of Oconee County recently concluded their 5th annual Leadership Camp with a graduation ceremony June 7 at the Law Enforcement Center in Walhalla. Thirty-three students from the 5th thru the 11th grade participated in the camp which began on Monday, June 3. The age group for the students, all male, was […]

If you become a suspect, no one can force you to take a polygraph. And if you choose to take one, the results can’t be used against you in court. Still the investigation technique that a California policeman came up with in 1935 remains a useful technique in today’s law enforcement circles. And Mike Crenshaw, the Oconee County Sheriff, defends […]

The state of South Carolina announces the award of a contract for a new statewide voting system. After a lengthy evaluation of numerous proposals, an evaluation panel unanimously selected the Election Systems and Software (ES&S) ExpressVote voting system. The new paper-based system will replace the state’s aging paperless system that has been in place since 2004. “This is an exciting […]

Word from Columbia is that a candidate for Oconee sheriff seven years ago has won a pardon. During a hearing last week, the board of the state Probation, Parole and Pardons granted the pardon to James Bartee, who was arrested during the 2012 campaign for Oconee sheriff and sent to prison after being convicted of solicitation to commit a felony. […]