Category: News

Watch for Oconee’s new envirionmental services officer to use prison labor to help tackle the county’s litter problem. The appointment of Corp. Tim Rice, a deputy sheriff, is announced in this summer’s newsletter of the Keep Oconee Beautiful Association. “KOBA” quotes Sheriff Mike Crenshaw as saying, “The Sheriff’s Office is committed to having every deputy on alert for litter violations. […]

Overnight rainfall creating higher-than-normal water levels in the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River today has forced recovery workers to suspend on-water recovery efforts for Thomas Hill. Search crews have been focusing on the Sockem-Dog rapid area of the Chattooga since Mr. Hill fell from a raft there on June 19, 2013. Results of side-scan sonar used yesterday confirmed his location […]

What a difference a year makes. This time last year Oconee County baked in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees. So dry and hot that an island which caught fire in Lake Keowee was allowed to burn itself out. Unless you’ve been in a coma, you know that the first half of this year has been extraordinarily wet. 96.3/WGOG predicts […]

The Corps of Engineers next week conducts required tests of the spillway gates at its three dams on the upper Savannah River. The tests on Wednesday and Thursday, July 10 and 11 are to ensure the gates work properly and can be activated in the event of an emergency to protect the dam, along with people and property downstream. The […]

Road patrol deputies made four arrests at two locations over the weekend in Oconee County. A license checkpoint at 2:25 Saturday morning at south highway 11 and Critter Road resulted in the arrests of the driver and a passenger. Officers say the driver, 25-year old Seneca resident Jonathan Paul Craig was charged with possession of ice and issued a ticket […]

After 13 days, search crews have again located the body of Thomas Hill in the Wild and Scenic Chattooga River. Rainfall, however, has caused river flows to rise above safe levels. They hope to start this morning to recover the Tampa, Florida man’s body and return it to his family. “We have located Mr. Hill’s body deep in the Sockem-Dog […]

A two-hour court hearing has ended in Walhalla, with a promise by the judge to decide the fate of Palmetto Skills machines seized this year in Oconee County. Not only does Magistrate Blake Norton have direct testimony to review, but a lengthy written case file that includes briefs by the South Carolina Attorney General and an attorney, representing the owners […]

Everyone has reason to celebrate the preservation of one thousand acres near Walhalla. The third bi-ennial picnic to celebrate the preservation of 1,000 acres at Stumphouse Mountain takes place Saturday, August 3 at the park shed, next to the historical tunnel. Organizer J-Harold Thomas invites everyone to bring a picnic lunch. Lunch will be served at 1, but folks normally […]

The start of a new government year today for Seneca means a halt in one of the services by the city’s Public Works Department. Mark Krabbe, public works director, says a cost factor is behind the decision to stop curbside recyclable residential pick-ups. “All of our other residential services will stay the same,” Krabbe said. Customers may hold onto their […]

More rain in the area has officials keeping a close eye on the rising levels of the Chattooga River. The effort to find and retrieve the body of the missing kayaker resumed this morning, according to Michelle Burnett, public affairs officer for the U-S Forest Service.  With one-half year of the calendar year now complete, the Walhalla area has seen […]