Category: News

Children held fingers to their ears. Others applauded, as an old school bell rang loud and true apparently as ever. And Jerry Opperman said, “Sounds just right!” Those three words were important to a large crowd Saturday afternoon in front of the Keowee Elementary School. The former school bell, restored by the Keowee-Ebenezer Fire Department, would have been lost to […]

The Seneca mayor and council pay close attention tonight to their finance director, Joel Seavey. It’s budget time in Oconee’s largest municipality. All city budgets are scheduled for the first of two required public readings during a 6:30 meeting tonight at the Gignilliat Community Center. The meeting location is a change from the normal location of City Hall.

Thirty members of Oconee fire and rescue operations are graduates of a “Beyond Helmets & Hoses” leadership seminar. The 16-hour program took place over the weekend to help enhance the quality of leaders in emergency services’ work. Oconee Emergency Services partnered with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, Pierce Fire Apparatus and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.  

Part of South Carolina Highway 188 at the Bountyland traffic lights was blocked to traffic during the noon hour Saturday, while crews repaired a power pole. Bob Faires of Seneca Light and Water said a motorist’s vehicle hit the pole.

The old Keowee School bell rang clear and loud Saturday afternoon for the first time in 45 years. A ceremony marking the community’s 100 year-old school saw the bell dedicated to Jerry Opperman, the man who saved it.

Oconee County Councilman Reg Dexter, chairman of the budget committee, said Friday he and his colleagues were awaiting Administrator Scott Moulder’s response to the council’s offer of a pay increase for 2013-14. Apparently it’s the major aspect left unresolved in a new, three-year contract for Moulder, county administrator since 2010. According to Moulder, the council is happy with their administrator […]

A defense lawyer looks forward to his clients day in court next month to try to counteract a judge’s preliminary ruling that gaming machines seized last month are illegal. “Some of the machines print tickets showing there’s no cash value and say the machines comply with state law,” Gruber Sires of Seneca told reporters this afternoon. Sires takes the position […]

Among on-going attempts by the office of Oconee Economic Development to recruit new manufacturing jobs is a company with interest of moving to Oconee County. It’s a project the ED office refers to as “Project May.” Richard Blackwell, ED recruiter, said, “They will be closing facility outside the state and moving operations here, along with looking at making additional investments.” […]

On a day when the state reports jobless claims continue to drop, Oconee’s top economic development recruiter said local business is good and the addition of even one new job on Main Street is something to relish. The state Department of Employment and Workforce reports the adjusted unemployment rate statewide in April fell to 8%. In Oconee, it fell to […]

Senators from South Carolina and Georgia are warning the federal government that budget cuts affecting a Savannah River Site project portend a worsening relationship between the states and Washington. The Republican senators this week sent the Obama administration a letter calling for continued funding, and Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s senior senator, took to the Senate floor. Graham complained that the […]