What a difference a year makes

Last year in a packed Westminster meeting room, Oconee’s Democratic Party chairwoman clashed with the county’s all-Republican state delegation to Columbia.  Compared to that, the 2024 delegation meeting with constituents was free of any political barbs.  And the crowd last night was small compared to last year’s, as there were empty seats inside the Walhalla Depot.  The state lawmakers and audience members discussed issues such as the loss of Medicaid benefits, tougher laws against fentanyl distributers, and a need to reform the way the state selects judges.  Many of those topics were issues that hang from one year to another.  Something new last night:  an Oconee resident’s concern that, unless repairs are made, a Mountain Rest dam on Chattooga Lake  could burst and flood the community, including the Mountain Rest Post Office.  Lynda Aria, project manager, appealed for the state lawmakers’ support for government grants for funds to rebuild the impoundment – a dam, she says, dates back to the early 1950s.