Author: Dick Mangrum

The Walhalla police chased a black Ford 150 from a WN Broad Street intersection, along the Highlands Highway, to a gravel road off the Playground Road and found the driver hiding in a creek.  The police say they were pursued the driver during the 8 o’clock hour last night after a police officer observed the pickup truck crossing double center […]

St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland.  It’s also the anniversary of the founding of Westminster in the year 1874, making today Oconee’s third largest municipality 146 years old.  Like Seneca, Westminster is one of those places that formed around railroad tracks–in this instance the tracks that linked Atlanta and Charlotte.

It’s likely many people in the Seneca area will try to sleep tonight feeling anxiety because of what happened last April 13.  Forecasters are holding out the possibility for isolated tornadoes some time tomorrow, perhaps, as early as 5 am in the view of Seneca Fire Department.  The fire department urges everyone to watch the weather over the next 24 […]

As an individual John Elliott, an Oconee County Republican, doesn’t approve of $1.7 trillion dollars of COVID relief money advocated by the Biden Democratic administration.  But, as the chairman of the county council, Elliott proposes how Oconee County’s share is to be used.  At the start of last night’s meeting, Chairman Elliott suggested that some of Oconee’s large share should […]

  Westminster’s elected leaders met and heard from the new general manager at the PMPA—the upstate consortium of cities through which Westminster buys its electric power.  And Mayor Brian Ramey says the new man, Andy Butcher, brings “a breath of fresh air” into his city’s unsettling relationship with its long-time wholesale power supplier.  Ramey likes what Butcher has been saying […]

In this morning of heavy fog, 101.7/WGOG has received a plea from a motorist who is trying to safely make his way through the hard-to-see-conditions.  It’s especially important, he says, to have your lights on for the benefit of drivers who are trying to enter a roadway, but are having trouble making out the oncoming vehicles that are not displaying […]

Westminster has offered Kevin Bronson a contract to work as city administrator for $97 thousand, and awaits his answer.  Mayor Brian Ramey this morning said the deal would cover three years.  For the last few months, Bronson has served as administrator during a period in which he is to decide whether he’d be comfortable moving forward on a permanent basis.  […]

It is now official.  City of Walhalla has pulled the welcome mat for any new discount store within the corporate limits for at least six months, while a review of the zoning law is undertaken.  On a unanimous vote and only one question from the audience at last night’s meeting, the city council gave final reading to a six-month moratorium […]

By resolution, Walhalla will contract with an engineering firm to develop plans for the city’s first greenway—a strip of undeveloped land for recreation use.  And Mayor Edwards did not hide his enthusiasm for a recreation activity that would parallel the mountain biker course at the Stumphouse Tunnel Park.  The greenway is to run from the Coffee Road to the community […]

The people behind two downtown Walhalla businesses are expanding, with the help of city government.  The city council last night gave first reading to a $7 thousand economic incentive grant to help the new owners at 112 W. Main renovate and occupy the address with new tenants.  112 W. Main is the large building most recently occupied by the Christ […]