Category: News

Unemployment in Oconee County for August, the last full month of summer, dropped to 5.1%–after having registered at 7.5% of the county’s workforce in July.  According to figures from the state Department of Employment and Workforce, August saw 1,816 members of the county’s workforce out of work but actively looking to land back on the workforce.  In August, the county’s […]

  Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital has reserved Tuesday mornings for their hospital-based, drive-up clinic to get a flu shot.  And the first chance to get that shot will be 7 to 11 tomorrow morning.  Getting a flu shot this year is considered especially important, as the world pandemic continues with still no vaccine available to protect against COVID-19.  Throughout […]

Last night long drive-thru lines wrapped around the parking lots of several 123 Clemson restaurants–a sign that today is the start for blended instruction at the university.

Here’s a two-day report on the latest published COVID case numbers in South Carolina.  On Saturday, the state recorded 706 new cases and nine deaths.  Adding to the case count were eight cases from Oconee County.  The positivity percentage on test results was 11.2%.  For Sunday, South Carolina counted 420 new cases and 13 more deaths. There were seven new […]

A South Carolina Attorney’s General opinion written 34 years ago may apply to the heart of a legal dispute among Westminster city leaders.  At least, that’s the reading by some of what an assistant attorney general opined back then to a Newberry County attorney.  The assistant attorney general, Patrica Petway, responded to the question of whether a mayor or a […]

Walhalla Water Department has lifted a boil water advisory that applied to customers in  and around parts of highway 11.  It means that customers in that area no longer need to boil water before drinking or cooking.  A water main break was discovered early Saturday morning, but an announcement from the utilities director states:  “Following an intense flushing of the […]

The chairwoman of Oconee Democrats sees some movement in the impasse between her party and the Republicans over a new stimulus bill.  Jody Gaulin sees common ground between the moderate leaders of both parties and the possibility that a bill could be reported out of the legislative chambers by the October recess, in advance of the November election.  Julian Davis, […]

A Hamilton Career student from West-Oak High has been added to the list of Oconee students confirmed to have COVID-19.  This afternoon the school district is staying the course.  Superintendent Thorsland said, “Our current plan is to continue with what we have done for the first four weeks.”  That is giving students the option of in-class academics or at home […]

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is sharing updated data that shows communities with mask requirement ordinances in place continue to see a slower rate of disease spread compared to communities without mask requirements. On August 12, DHEC released the initial findings of its data analysis of the counties and municipalities that have implemented mask requirements for individuals when […]

DHEC announced 766 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, along with 21 additional confirmed deaths, including a new death of an elderly Oconeean from September 11. This brings the total number of South Carolina confirmed cases to 133,310 and confirmed deaths to 3,010. The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC yesterday statewide was 6,324 (not […]