Author: Dick Mangrum

The experience of watching a number one-rated college football team is a joy to many, but a home Clemson football game can be quite a different kind of experience for police officers.  At times, they encounter behavior that is often fueled by too much of the spirits.  On the Clemson police Facebook page, there’s this advice:  Don’t yell “beer, beer” […]

Topping the agenda tonight for Walhalla planning commissioners is a builder’s request to change the zoning on four lots (2.5 acres) on Tyre B. Mauldin Street.  The five-member commission will entertain comment at 5:30 at City Hall and then is scheduled to vote on whether to change the zoning from residential-15 to general residential. About the builders’ revised request, zoning […]

Policymakers for Oconee’s wastewater treatment plant are pursuing a project to switch from a potentially dangerous gas to a safer method of dis-infecting chlorine. A committee of the Joint Regional Sewer Authority yesterday agreed to recommend to the full board a $20 thousand contract with the company W-K Dickson to engineer the switch. According to the company, the current method […]

A car believed to be attached to a trailer was pulled from Lake Keowee last evening near Seneca.  The scene was at the end of a boat ramp on Lakeshore Drive, about a quarter of a mile from SC 130.  Ronnie Williams of Oconee County “HAZMAT” said stories were not clear as to how it happened, or even exactly when […]

The South Carolina Drought Response Committee, meeting via conference call on Sept. 18, upgraded the drought status for 11 counties and downgraded the status for four counties in the state. Oconee, Pickens, Beaufort, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dorchester, and Florence counties were maintained in Incipient Drought. Marlboro and Dillon counties were downgraded from Moderate to Incipient. Anderson, Cherokee, Colleton, Greenville, Hampton, Jasper, […]

Day-use fees charged at boat launch ramps and swimming beaches maintained by the Corps of Engineers will be waived for one day Saturday, September 28–this year’s National Public Lands Day.  The waiver applies nationwide and in this region includes lakes Hartwell, Russell, and Thurmond on the Savannah River.  The waiver won’t apply to camping and camping-related services or fees for […]

Walhalla and surrounding area are steeped in German and Cherokee heritage. What’s so easy to forget, however, is the part played by Irish immigrants who escaped the famine of their European country and found work on a project that, if completed, would have changed Walhalla forever. And last night Irishman Marty Flynn addressed the mayor and council in hopes of […]

Oconee County has no intentions of ever condemning and relocating the Mt. Nebo Baptist Church and county officials will put that in writing. The County Council approved on Tuesday the drafting of a letter to church’s leaders to that effect. County officials intend the letter should put to rest any recent misunderstandings and rumors that arose recently in connection with […]

In a pair of votes, Walhalla leaders have established new fees and rules covering late payments for utility customers and at what point delinquent bill payers are subject to lose service. But lengthy discussion last night showed that the mayor and council approached their votes with trepidation—worried that they’ll achieve a balance between those customers who can’t or won’t pay […]

The typical Oconee resident owning a $100,000 home can expect to see a tax hike next year of $18.80. The increase will reflect an overall tax mill increase of 5.9 mills in the county tax rate unanimously approved Tuesday by Oconee County Council. For a homeowner with homestead exemption, the increase on the same property would be $9.40, and for […]