Category: News

A teacher at Seneca’s Blue Ridge Elementary School decided to do something to remedy a situation in which some pre-kindergarten students came from homes without any books.  To help develop literacy skills in them, Jessica McGaha (left) started a project to buy books, provide a bookshelf and work with parents on simple reading lessons. McGaha calls the project “Raising Readers” […]

County staff offered assurance last night to the Walhalla Planning Commission that design guidelines that are in the offing to better the appearance of the downtown will not be so stringent that they will dictate the paint color of a building.  And Janet Hartman, who heads the Destination Oconee effort underway by the county, said the guidelines would apply to […]

  A vote at City Hall last night is a recommendation to expand the Walhalla city limits and remove confusion at the James Brown Elementary School.  Chairwoman Martha Murtiashaw of the city planning commission said only about one-half of the school building on the Coffee Road is currently inside the city boundaries.  With approval by the city council, the annexation […]

    Third District Rep. Jeff Duncan and the rest of his House colleagues voted yesterday to repeal Obamacare—the Affordable Health Care Act.  The vote was 217-213. In a statement, Duncan said, “The dismantling of Obamacare took a major step forward today with the passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA). This is a rising sun moment for the […]

Officials of Pioneer Rural Water District have set 6 o’clock Friday evening, May 12 at South Union Baptist Church as the date, time and location for their next “Town Hall” meeting.  This meeting is designed for District Three customers, those represented by Jerry Barlow, but any Pioneer customer may attend.  The retail supplier has scheduled meetings across its district as […]

  A trial will apparently settle the controversy over whether Pioneer Rural Water has the right to go forward with its treatment plant project.  A judge in Anderson today ordered the attorneys on all sides to come up with a satisfactory date.  Among three dates, they agreed on the week of August 28 in Oconee County.  The judge is likely […]

State Senator Thomas Alexander has sent word from Columbia that Erin Moon and Dan Pollock have been officially confirmed as part-time Oconee County magistrates.  Moon and Pollock are expected to be slotted by Chief Magistrate Todd Simmons into the county’s system of three full-time magistrate courts.  They are expected to see duty in the Oconee Law Enforcement Center, in part, […]

A water project on West Union’s Schroder Street and Burns Mill Road is an example of how a government service agency still benefits Oconee County.  The South Carolina Appalachian Council of Governments in Greenville has been around since the years of the President Lyndon Johnson administration.  Steve Pellisier, A-COG Director, delivered his agency’s annual report this week to the Oconee […]

  Flood damage to the Westminster Masonic Hall has forced the Masons to re-locate their annual sale of tomato and flower plants.  The sale is now underway at the front of the Oconee Habitat for Humanity store in the Bountyland Community.  There, you can buy ready-for-the-ground tomato and flower plants.  What you pay goes to the Habitat’s mission to put […]

A 40-year old Oconee man has been jailed in the investigation of his wife’s homicide.  The Sheriff’s Office late last night identified the accused as Lee Mikeal Cawthon of the Welcome Church Road near Westminster, jailed after investigators interviewed him about his missing wife, Rebecca A. Murray Cawthon.  She had been missing since the middle of last month.  Coroner Karl […]