Author: Dick Mangrum

Today is March 1 and, in South Carolina, by the governor’s proclamation it is Prescribed Fire Awareness Month.  Prescribed, or controlled, burning is the skilled application of fire under planned weather and fuel conditions to achieve specific forest and land management objectives.  Controlled burning is an ancient practice, used by North Americans, among other purposes, for crop management, insect and […]

A tree-lined residential street in Clemson is under consideration for a traffic calming request.  It’s likely to be acted on during next week’s meeting of the city council.  On the agenda will be the consideration of a traffic calming.   According to Nathan Hinkle, city engineer, the residents of Poole Lane request, if possible, no speed humps.  Hinkle says, “The preferred […]

A Girl Scout from the Pickens County town of Central gets a chance next week to take part in South Carolina’s legislative process and see how government works.  Isabel Sexton will be one of 13 South Carolina Girl Scouts who’ve been selected to act as pages for House and Senate members Tuesday through Thursday, March 4-6.  The experience will qualify […]

The votes were tabulated last Saturday night.  Now the ballots cast by Oconeeans in the state’s presidential primary are official.  Action yesterday by the county board of canvassers re-affirmed that former President Trump received about six of every ten votes cast by Oconee voters, contrasted to the number received by former Governor Haley.  Attached to the ballot were three advisory […]

Other than a name change, Community First Bank customers likely will notice little change, predicted the top officer of Dogwood State Bank interviewed this afternoon by 101.7/WGOG NEWS.  Dogwood’s CEO Steve Jones spoke enthusiastically about his bank’s upcoming merger with Seneca-based Community First Bancorporation, first announced February 1.  According to Jones, free checking for seniors and the retention of all […]

An early morning capture near SC 183, the Walhalla-Westminster Highway.  At an address on Chris Court, the sheriff’s office reports, a 30-year-old Christopher Edward Burrell was taken into custody and booked into jail just after 1:30 this morning.  The sheriff’s office issued a tamper alert last week to find Burrell after, it said, there was a violation of bond requirements […]

Numerous trees fell and, at least one serious power outage resulted, during the mid-afternoon storm in Oconee and surrounding counties.  A recap, provided by Doug Outlaw of the National Weather Service at Greer, clocked the wind gust at the Greenville Downtown Airport at 59 miles an hour.  An estimated 10 thousand Blue Ridge Electric Co-Op customers went into the night […]

Seneca-based Community First Bancorporation and Raleigh, North Carolina’s Dogwood State Bank have signed a definitive merger agreement.  The announcement, in a news release by the two, says it is an agreement for Dogwood to acquire Community First and its subsidiary in an all-stock merger.  The announcement quotes Richard Burleson, Community First’s president/CEO, as saying that “to continue growing, to provide […]