Author: Dick Mangrum

“Lot of angry business owners.”  That was the complaint last night by one of the regular customers of the Oconee County Rock Quarry in the Five Forks Community.  Chris Martin of Palmetto State Haulers says changes at the quarry are needed to keep the trucks of haulers filled with crushed stone for their customers.  Martin complained the busy quarry of […]

Lynn and Eddie Martin enjoy the rural life of Oconee County from Tamassee, but they see the creep of a Char-lanta scenario taking its grip on a county proud of its natural resources.  Of late, Oconee midway between Atlanta and Charlotte has become a pro-growth county, and outside developers sense dollar signs.  Speaking to county council, Eddie Martin urged the […]

At the recommendation of its planning commission, Oconee County’s elected leaders in a preliminary vote approved a commercial junkyard law.  But a couple of the councilmen indicate that, by final reading of the ordinance, they might dissent.  District Five’s Glenn Hart last night abstained at the first reading, saying he’s protesting an ordinance that originated as a residential junkyard law […]

Establishing limits to raising Oconee County’s budget was adopted last night in a 3-2 county council vote.  Once again, the divide was Durham, Hart, and Mize in favor and Davis and Elliott opposed.  The debate got started last night when public comment speaker Jim Mann criticized Council Chairman Durham’s moves which he likened to flipping monies from one part of […]

Generations of Tamassee-Salem, including Eagle Ridge, students returned last weekend for their school reunion.  A story in the “The Old Salem Post” depicts the good time that many of the alumni enjoyed.  They enjoyed food and tours of the building that holds memories of their youth.  Nine members of the 1972 Tamassee-Salem High graduating class attended.  Many of them this […]

A major TV network deployed cameras and personnel recently to the Oconee Courthouse for proceedings to follow developments in the state’s cases against multiple defendants arrested in methamphetamine trafficking investigation called “Las Senoritas.”   The videos shot February 1 in the fourth floor courtroom at Walhalla lead Oconee court officers to believe that, at some point, they’ll be part of an […]

A wholesale distributor of fluid power products is expanding in Oconee County.  According to announcement from the governor’s office, Dynamic Fluid Components at West Union will invest $4.8 million into the expansion and create 10 new jobs.  Dynamic Fluid offers products that include hydraulic motors, gear pumps and pressure gauges.  It counts two thousand customers in the U-S, Canada, and […]

A 43-year-old Seneca woman has been arrested and charged with exploitation of a vulnerable adult.  The arrest of Jennifer Helen Wilks was announced by the state attorney general, Alan Wilson.  Wilks was jailed at Anderson on Friday.  According to the announcement, an investigation by the Oconee Sheriff’s Office and the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit showed that between November 2022 […]