Author: Dick Mangrum

An apparent, open-ended political question across Oconee County is who will serve as the next county coroner, for the term that starts in 2025 and finishes in 2028.  The current Oconee coroner Karl Addis, in office since the mid-1990s, publicly announced that his current term will be his last, although sources close to Addis say he is having second thoughts […]

Once in a while you can find a retired South Carolina judge passing the time inside a West Union store.  It’s not a stretch to find Alex Macaulay catching up with friends at Neville Hardware because it’s just around the block from where the Macaulay family made their home.  Yesterday afternoon was a chance for this reporter to chat with […]

Award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad will make a public appearance next month at Clemson University’s Brooks Center for the Performing Arts.  Although best known as Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”, Rashad will give a reading from her mother’s poem “Hawk.”  The poem is described as an allegory of freedom made analogous to space flight. The reading takes place at 7 […]

South Carolina’s health and sanitation watchdog, SC DHEC, says its newest account of how well the state’s drinking water meets safety standards produced the figure of “more than 99%” compliance by drinking water systems across the state with health-based standards.  According to DHEC, it means more than 99% of the state’s population served by public water systems received water that […]

Walhalla Methodists will include something extra in their commodity giveaway today.  Along with various packaged and frozen foods, apples will be part of the food distribution 4:30 to 5:30 this afternoon at the St. Luke Methodist Church on E. Main Street.  Church worker Bo Wilhite says the most recent food giveaway was the largest ever for his church.

A 37-year old woman was sent to prison today for a sentence amounting to 12 years, this after she pleaded guilty to distributing heroin and methamphetamine in Oconee County.  Lt. Anna Orr of the Oconee Sheriff’s Office said the amount of heroin and meth for which Sarah Francine Diehl was responsible was so great it had the potential to deliver […]

A woman admitted her guilt today in a case in which an elderly adult was the crime victim in an Oconee General Sessions Court case.  In the case prosecuted by the office of the state Attorney’s General, defendant Chanda Sargent was sentenced to five years in prison, suspended to five years’ probation, with the requirement that she be placed under […]

On floor #4 at the Oconee Courthouse, it’s a week for the prosecution to call cases of defendants who wish to resolve their charges — without the benefit of a jury.  To accept those pleas, and pass sentence, will be the Anderson-based jurist, Cordell Maddox.

“I think I am the voice in northern Oconee much like John the Baptist being the voice in the wilderness.”  That’s how Lynne Martin starts her newest post in her Salem area newsletter, calling attention to her fear that the Oconee school trustees might vote to consolidate the Tamassee-Salem Elementary with Keowee Elementary, as part of a new, long-range building […]