Category: News

At its January meeting tomorrow night, Seneca City Council is scheduled to receive a task force presentation on diversity, equity and inclusion.  Tomorrow’s 6 o’clock city hall meeting is also the time to swear-in the new police chief, Casey Bowling.  Bowling has finished his first week as the top law enforcement officer for Seneca.

An even 100 new, confirmed COVID-19 cases are reported in Oconee County.  Those cases appear on the latest DHEC report, issued Sunday, and they apparently represent a one-day high for the county, since the pandemic was declared.  The report shows an additional 3,667 cases statewide, along with 48 more deaths, including that of an elderly Oconeean.  That county resident’s death […]

Walhalla officials have learned Dennis Owens has died.  For weeks and months, the city councilman had fought COVID-19.  Mayor Danny Edwards was informed yesterday morning.  The mayor says, “It’s a sad day.”

Prisma Health will restrict patient visitation effective Saturday, Jan. 9, in the wake of a growing surge of COVID-19 infections across South Carolina.   “We know that being with families is itself a healing therapy and so we wrestled with this decision. But we believe this measure is needed in the wake of the growing post-holiday surge of COVID-19, especially […]

For the first time, South Carolina’s one-day total of additional COVID-19 has exceeded 5,000.  The exact number announced today by DHEC’s Dr. Traxler is 5,077.  There are 34 new deaths statewide, also, on the report.  These numbers, says Traxler, are a reminder that, in spite of the start of vaccinations, it’s still highly important for everyone to wear a mask […]

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced today that South Carolina Hospitals should begin to vaccinate their admitted patients, who are aged 65 years and older, as long as they do not currently have COVID-19 and a provider feels it is indicated for them. “It is within our state’s best interest to allow hospitals to begin […]

At their first 2021 meeting, the policymakers for Oconee’s Joint Regional Sewer Authority are to consider raising its member cities treatment charge by 20%.  If made part of the JRSA’s next budget, the 20% increase would make for a total of $3.4 million to be apportioned as the treatment charges for the three municipal members—Seneca, Walhalla, and Westminster.  The commissioners’ […]

Fourteen new COVID-19 cases were registered by Oconee public schools for yesterday–Thursday, January 7.  Of the 14, ten are students, including six students at West-0ak Middle School.  Four new cases of the virus are reported among employees at three different schools, including two employees at West-Oak Middle.

  A lawsuit filed this week in Oconee Common Pleas Court alleges that the death of a county resident last year was due to a dumb waiter—which is a small elevator used to transport items from one building floor to another.  The lawsuit, for the estate of Mary Susan Crerar, alleges the woman died June 27 “when the dumb waiter […]

Oconee County’s Chau Ram Park near Westminster will remain closed into next week.  Weather problems are delaying the work to replace two culverts near the main parking area.  Phil Shirley, director of Oconee PRT, says the repairs are a planned project to replace two failing culverts and widen the road leading to the campground.  Shirley said, “The park will remain […]