Author: Dick Mangrum

A Seneca man awaiting trial on the charge of murder will be allowed a new defense attorney.  Defendant William David Morgan received permission during an Oconee General Sessions Court appearance to replace Brann Fowler with a substitute lawyer.  Morgan is charged with the murder of Ronnie Lee Cobb February 22 at a Seneca apartment.  Court officers say a trial date has […]

Organizers for tomorrow’s Rotary Apple luncheon in Westminster received word this morning that U-S Senator Lindsey Graham will be part of the crowd for tomorrow’s 1 o’clock event at the Westminster Baptist Church.  The keynoter remains Clemson President James Clements, but Rotary President Darryl Broome says Graham will be invited to make some remarks to the crowd.  And Broome expects […]

An order entered this week by the sitting judge in the case of Prisma Health versus United Healthcare seals the affidavits of two Prisma Health officers.  The hospital corporation and the health insurer are at loggerheads over whether Prisma Health will continue to honor claims from patients insured by United Healthcare.  The affidavits are those of Matthew Elsey and Malcolm […]

A host of Walhalla and Oconee public safety responders came to the aid last evening of an elderly visitor to the scenic – at times treacherous – Yellow Branch Falls.  Rest and water were enough for the hiker to be able to walk out on her own.  The public safety responders found their patient about two-thirds down the trail to […]

The placement of billboards in a row, one after another, inside a major entrance to Oconee County is believed to have been a central irritant on the part of a then county council chairman.  He helped lead an effort to restrict where billboards may legally go.  Fast forward from all those years ago to the present time when an independent […]

Indications are as many as six to eight contractors showed interested in the first phase work for a new Westminster recreation complex.  The city’s recreation planning committee finds out the morning of September 28 how many companies offer bids to start work on the new Hall Road complex.  Westminster has been approved for a $5 million state grant, and the […]

A Seneca man and woman remain in jail today as a result of a burglary investigation conducted by the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office yesterday morning. 56 year old Richard J. Certain and 47 year old Tonya Denise Shook, both of Owens Road, were booked into the Oconee County Detention Center around 10:02am and 10:21am respectively Tuesday. Both Certain and Shook […]

A Rock Hill man has been jailed today in Oconee County after his arrest on charges related to the theft of two vehicles from an Oconee County car dealership in a crime that occurred in May. 22 year old Xavier Ja’Colby Grase, of Winding Branch Road, was booked into the Oconee County Detention Center around 3:52pm Tuesday after being transported […]

With no disrespect to anyone who had an idea to save Oconee’s old courthouse, the county fathers are moving forward to demo the 1956 building that sits crumbling at the Walhalla corner of W. Main and S. Church streets.  One proposal pursued over a period of years was to turn the building into a small hotel, but it never came […]

A driver from Westminster and his passenger have been charged in Georgia – the result of an August 25 STING K9 Unit operation conducted by Stephens County officers on the Big A Road.  And, according to a WNEG Toccoa report, because a swastika flag and pin found in the truck, FBI agents have told the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office they […]