Author: Dick Mangrum

A major Oconee agriculture fire.  Chris Smith, county fire chief, says three-quarters of one of the poultry houses on the Welcome Church Road in the Holly Springs Community was destroyed yesterday morning.  An untold number of chickens perished.  The fire damages was confined just one of the buildings on the agricultural property.    

Dollar figures, some of them into the millions, are on the agenda for tonight’s meeting of Oconee County Council.  The 6 o’clock meeting in their chambers will allow the county’s governing authority to wade through the agenda for the council’s first February meeting, along with backup material that, according to one council watcher, stretches beyond 140 pages.  In the days […]

The victim in Sunday night’s fatal car wreck near Westminster is identified. Coroner Addis’s announcement revealed the deceased was a 58-year-old Westminster man, Bobby Glenn Blackwell.  Addis said Blackwell died at the scene of the single-vehicle accident on the Old Hurricane Road, near the Welcome Church Road.

At SC 59 and Doctor’s Road in Fair Play — an accident scene this morning that involved one deer and a total of three motor vehicles.  No personal injuries resulted.  The deer was destroyed in the accident, but Fair Play Fire Department reports damage to all three vehicles.  A tow truck was required to remove one from the scene.

The smiling face on the cover of the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative’s “South Carolina Living” magazine is that of the 40-year public servant, Thomas Alexander, Oconee-Pickens state senator and president of the South Carolina Senate.  The accompanying article tracks the Alexander career in public service, starting with his service as a Walhalla city councilman.  The article shines light on a […]

The chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, Drew McKissick, has accepted an Oconee County speaking engagement.  At the invitation of the county Republican Party and its men and women’s clubs, McKissick will be the guest speaker Thursday night, February 22 at The Club at Keowee Key.  He’ll be talking about the 2024 elections and attempt to energize his party’s […]

Oconee Democratic voters were in tandem with those of similar persuasion across the state on Saturday when they overwhelmingly went heavily for the sitting president, Joe Biden.  In the Oconee County part of the preference vote, Oconeeans gave practically all of their votes to Biden:  892; as compared with 31 for Marianne Williamson and 18 for Dean Phillips.