Author: Dick Mangrum

A jail guard has lost his job in Pickens County, after his employer received word of a possible, inappropriate relationship involving a female inmate.  Pickens County Sheriff’s Office announces the dismissal of guard Chester Pierce Ouzts a few weeks after the sheriff’s office referred the investigation to the state police.  According to “SLED”, Ouzts is charged with misconduct in office […]

An Oconee developer is enthusiastic for the arrival of better local internet service.  And that’s apparently why the Blue Ridge Electric and WCFIBER partnership published a story that explains why Rush Thrift, a general contractor and leader of Oconee’s Economic Alliance, is anxious for a project that is seen as a boost for economic development.

The Georgia Board of Elections has released findings in an investigation of complaints involving the county elections’ office at Toccoa, Georgia.  According to Toccoa Radio WNEG, there were seven complaints.  In five of them, sufficient evidence is said to provide violations occurred – including the failure to have entered all 2020 early voter data into Election Net; and the local […]

Dive crews worked yesterday to retrieve a small airplane that crashed Saturday into Lake Hartwell.  But guesstimates are that it could take a couple of days to untangle from trees a Beechcraft B55.  The Hart County, Georgia sheriff says the only occupant of that small plane did not survive.  The crash scene described as near Elrod Ferry and the Long […]

A moment of silence is to be observed this afternoon at the start of a meeting of the Oconee Joint Regional Sewer Authority.  Before the commissioners take up regular business of the authority, their chairman will request a silent remembrance of Lowell Ross, Yousef Mefleh, and Jerry Opperman.  Mefleh’s death has left open a seat on Westminster City Council; Ross […]

Injuries to a bicycle rider today north of Salem are described to 101.7/WGOG NEWS as relatively minor considering what happened in an accident involving a bike and a golf cart, according to a responder from Salem Fire and Rescue.  Responder Casey Rochester said the highway patrol investigated the accident at a roundabout at Cliffs Falls Parkway and N. Cherry Laurel […]

There’s word of a potential new business considering Oconee’s Information and Technology Park on highway 11, and the county public schools are positioning to do what they can to help county government acquire the employer.  On the agenda for the September meeting of the county trustees, there’s a potential property switch.  By surrendering about six acres under control by the […]

Little time remains for Westminster residents to decide if they shall offer to fill a city council seat that opened with the sudden death this summer of a popular member.  By this morning, only Ruth May had qualified to run for the remaining term of the late Yousef Mefleh. City voters get to fill the seat during this year’s General […]