Category: News

At the end of a 45-minute private meeting last night, Westminster City Council had its new man. Jeff Lord, a former city manager in Walterboro, will succeed David Smith whose retirement begins at the end of the month. Lord gets a three-year contract as city administrator, at the rate of $95 thousand a year. He’ll start work Monday and, during […]

The third Tuesday night meeting of the Oconee County Council was a meeting where the council approved merit pay raises for the county’s employees. Those employees at the bottom end of the pay scale will see the biggest percentage gain. Excluded from the action are the county’s elected officials. The meeting was also the occasion where the council returned prayer […]

“Potential conflicts” that a federal agency found associated with a draft license application for the Keowee-Toxaway Hydroelectric Project are not viewed today as serious impediments to Duke Energy’s quest to get the project re-licensed. Nevertheless, a Duke spokeswoman, Lisa Hoffman, indicates her company is studying those concerns and intends to address them. Those concerns are raised this week in a […]

Ronzeal Domze Earle lives near Westminster. But the Oconee Sheriff’s Office says the 28-year old Earle is a wanted man in Cherokee County, Georgia. Earle was arrested yesterday as a fugitive from justice in Georgia where, authorities say, he’s charged with theft by receiving stolen goods.

High school girls are at Clemson University this week to attend a new summer camp aimed to boost their math skills and give them a better shot at landing some of the country’s fastest-growing jobs. The inaugural offering of “We Do Math!” targets girls who will be in the 9th and 10th grades when fall semester starts. The 25 campers […]

Six rising seniors at Walhalla High School completed Boys State last week on the campus of Anderson University. Walhalla American Legion Post 124 and the community express pride the six had the chance to learn about good government and ways to make themselves better citizens. Participating were Reese Matalik, Jack Willis, Ward Sprouse, Bennett Carpenter, David Medlin and Caleb Quattlebaum.

A meeting this week will take up AMTRAK concerns with the design of a temporary train depot at Clemson, and an official of the general contractor is hopeful the meeting will resolve issues. Marty McKee, vice president of Thrift Development, is hopeful that a good meeting Thursday will mean progress in what already has been a long-delayed project to replace […]

Walhalla Mayor Danny Edwards says there have been some emails back and forth between and among the city’s Streetscape engineer, Duke Energy, and A-T-and-T. All of this, Edwards says, is preparatory to a contract for Streetscape phase one. This morning the mayor hinted at a possible announcement of the contract as early as next week. The burying of electric lines […]

A national website that reports news about small cities and rural America says Oconee County residents who are nearing retirement can increase their lifetime income—-if they can wait to start drawing their Social Security benefits. According to the Daily Yonder, in Oconee County 11,154 residents—or nearly 15% of the population—are 55 to 64. Those are the years when folks start […]

Walhalla holds its annual public hearing this evening on its spending plan for the next 12 months.  The hearing begins at 5:25 this afternoon at City Hall–five minutes before the start of city council’s regular June meeting.