Author: Dick Mangrum

Oconee County deputies conducted bus safety drills with county school district drivers.  The goal of the training was to help prepare the drivers to deal with potential incidents on their bus.  The April 1 drills involved three scenarios.  But, for security and tactical reasons, specific info about the scenarios is not being released by the sheriff’s office.

The U-S Forest Service of the Agriculture Department announces a prescribed burn today inside the Andrew Pickens District of the Sumter National Forest.  It’s to be a prescribed burn of 110 acres in the Drummond Creek unit.

The 3rd Congressional District has a new voice in the nursing business in South Carolina.  The name of John Whitcomb is to be presented for state senate approval in the coming weeks.  The director and chief academic nursing officer at the Clemson University School of Nursing, Whitcomb appeared April 4 before the Senate Medical Affairs Committee for a confirmation hearing.

Walhalla area resident Jim Mann admits he lives in a remote area, but he is frustrated by incurring 30 power interruptions in nearly about the last four and a half years.  A Lake Jemiki Road resident, Mann is not in favor of Duke Energy being granted an increase in its base residential rates.  His predicament appeared to perk the interest […]

According to the office of Senator Graham, the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed to the South Carolina Republican that the individual charged with murder of Georgia student Laken Riley was paroled into the U-S illegally.  And it prompts Graham to conclude, “There is no effective detention when it comes to illegal immigrants coming to our border.”  Venezuelan national Jose […]

Duke Energy customers Dale Wilde and Sharon DeRidder worry for those trying to make financial ends meet in a time of high inflation and the prospects that their home energy bills will jump as early as August 1.  Wilde and DeRidder were among nine customers who brought issues to the attention of the state Public Service Commission during the hearing […]

The roadshow of the South Carolina Public Service Commission arrived last night in Seneca for the purpose of taking the temperature of Duke Energy customers when it comes to the utility company’s bid to win a rate increase impacting customers in Duke’s 18-county service territory across the state.  Last night’s approximate 90-minute hearing in the Harry Hamilton Auditorium at Seneca […]

A lifelong Oconeean approaching his 40th birthday was sent to prison today for 17 years, credited with jail time awaiting trial.  This, after a jury convicted William David Gunn in a burglary that occurred one year ago.  Defense lawyer Catherine Wyse appealed for leniency for her client, but prosecutor Beth Blundy called Gunn “a menace” to Oconee County considering his […]

You can help make the town of Salem a tidier place.  Everyone is invited to be part of a town-wide cleanup day in Salem Saturday, April 27.  They’ll get organized at 8 o’clock that Saturday morning in the parking lot of the Calvary Baptist Church.  Trash bags and pick up sticks will be provided.  Volunteers will form groups to start […]

Pizza is the lunch time menu for the Oconee jury now deliberating the case of a man in his late 30s.  The State went to trial yesterday against William David Gunn, charged burglary and other offenses — the result of his arrest by the sheriff’s office a year ago.