Category: News

Senator Lindsey Graham is promoting new legislation to help fight the epidemic of opioids by ensuring that penalties for fentanyl distribution and trafficking better reflect the nature of the crime. According to Graham’s office, the senator and his Republican colleague from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, will unveil the legislation this week. Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine and has […]

A member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from the Central-Clemson area hopes to make a third term during this year’s elections. Gary Clary, a Republican, filed on Friday to seek a new term as District 3 representative. Education issues are important to him. Clary sponsored a bill to require the state to provide dyslexia training for literacy coaches […]

The Westminster mayor and council receive the city’s 2016-17 audit report during a 6 o’clock meeting tomorrow night at City Hall. There will also be discussion of the next budget and disbursements of hospitality tax money.

A trail user yesterday at the Issaqueena Falls north of Walhalla required rescue. Public safety workers combined to remove from the unofficial trail leading to the falls one person with a possible fractured ankle. The call came at 1:30 yesterday afternoon, and the rescue was accomplished in one hour’s time. Brandon Burton, the Walhalla fire chief, says what happened yesterday […]

A busy Sunday for rural fire fighters across Oconee County. An abandoned trailer home burned to the ground late last night on the W. Halfway Branch Road in the West Union fire service district. No one hurt. Earlier, fire fighters attended to a brush fire on the Bush Creek Road near Walhalla and a field fire on E. Capewood Avenue […]

Democratic Challenger Mary Geren and Republican incumbent Jeff Duncan qualified to run for U-S Representative, South Carolina 3rd District.  In Oconee County, early filers today were John Elliott for Oconee County Council #1; Kenny Johns for Probate Judge; and District One’s Bill Whitmire and District Two’s Bill Sandifer for the South Carolina House.

Law enforcement authorities say a 17-year old Hamilton Career Center student from Westminster was arrested this week and charged with carrying a weapon on school property. A school resource officer’s report identifies the weapon as a logging chain, 12 to 14 inches in length, kept in the backpack belonging to student Hope Ciara Stone. According to the Sheriff’s Office, a […]

In a special meeting, the Oconee Board of Zoning Appeals granted a variance that could lead to the construction of a new business in the eastern part of the county near the Pickens County line. The board last night took comment and received a staff report before voting to approve a variance request from Bountyland Enterprises from setback requirements to […]

Museum professionals from across South Carolina convene next week in Oconee County for their annual conference, and the Oconee Heritage Center’s Jennifer Moss says these museum workers will experience Oconee as never before. The theme of the conference is “Small Museums…Large Impact.” And Moss says, “For a small county, Oconee County has many quality museums and important historic sites that […]

A circuit judge agreed yesterday to lower the bond for a Seneca woman charged with reckless vehicular homicide in the death this winter of her husband in Seneca. Judge Scott Sprouse reduced from $100 thousand to $75 thousand the bail bond for Taylor Louise Bright. She was arrested by the Seneca police after the death of her husband, John Taylor […]