Author: Dick Mangrum

Even before the Colonial Pipeline shutdown of last week, gas prices were expected to flirt with $3 dollars a gallon leading up to Memorial Day weekend.  The motor club AAA Carolinas predicts nearly nearly one-half million South Carolinians are expected to travel by car over the holiday weekend.  “Many Carolinians are so eager to travel, we don’t expect higher gas […]

The head of a small operation within the Oconee Business Center in Walhalla lost his life last week in a traffic accident on highway 11 in Greenville County.  His wife survived the accident. The death May 13 of Dana Todd, a Keowee Key resident, is being mourned locally—especially by Dave Eldridge of the Tri-County Entrepreneurial Development Corporation.  Eldridge counted the […]

According to South Carolina DHEC, new cases of COVID-19 on this afternoon’s report:  229.  Statewide, there was one new death.  Of 8,790 test results, the state positivity remained 3.5%.

A Clemson University researcher, James Morris, has received a four-year $1.77 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify compounds that interfere with or prevent a group of deadly parasites from getting the nutrients they need to survive.  The research could lead to better drugs to treat or even prevent three devastating diseases that sicken, disfigure and kill […]

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced today that it is partnering with South Carolina ETV (SCETV) and local community leaders to host a special live town hall event about COVID-19 vaccines Thursday, May 20 at 7 p.m.   Titled A Shot of Hope: COVID-19 Vaccine Community Town Hall, this televised conversation is an opportunity for South Carolinians […]

At this time of year, bears have emerged from hibernation and they are hungry, as a group of campers found over the weekend in Oconee County.  They called for help.  In this instance, however, there was no need to panic.  Bears usually want to avoid humans, as much as campers and other non-hunters want to avoid them.  Nevertheless, it pays […]

The calendar that Oconee public schools are following to conclude another year of public education is not the usual when it comes to the last days for classes.  This year’s calendar calls for students to remain in the classrooms for days after the May 29 graduation ceremonies for the three high schools.  Students in the rest of the high school […]

A medical helicopter flew a motorcyclist to an out of county hospital yesterday after an accident on SC 28/the Blue Ridge Boulevard near the Poplar Springs Bridge.  The accident involved a car and resulted in a traffic backup for motorists headed toward Seneca.  The accident occurred around 4 pm.

Oconee County agriculture leader Stanley Gibson gave an explanation last week as to the new roadwork that has been completed in front of the county Farm Center on the Sandifer Boulevard. Gibson told the county Agricultural Advisory Board that a contractor created a second entrance, along with a perimeter road.  The cutting of trees at the front of the property […]

Seneca fire fighters and mutual aid departments found themselves at the scene of a home fire early Saturday morning in Utica.  The fire department reported an aggressive interior attack to stop the fire on E. Lonsdale Street and success in containing the fire to the back of the home.  At first reports, no injuries.