Category Archives: News
Organizers cancel Pumpkin Festival
PICKENS — Organizers of the annual Pumpkin Festival say the 2022 event has been canceled.
The announcement came in a post on the Oolenoy Community House Facebook page on May 24.
“With regret and great deliberation, we announce that the Pumpkin Festival will not take place this year,” the post began. “Due to recent changes in planning responsibilities, the level of effort in knowledge, skill and manpower is beyond what the current board can manage in successfully running the festival this
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Early voting now open for primaries
By Norm Cannada
Courtesy The Journal
ncannada@upstatetoday.com
PICKENS — Balloting for the June 14 primary election has already begun in Pickens County after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law earlier this month allowing early voting to replace in-person absentee voting.
“I have signed the election reform bill into law, marking a major victory for those who believe in free and fair elections,” McMaster said in a statement Friday
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Pickens K9, handler helps with Central theft arrests
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
CENTRAL — Two people are facing larceny and drug charges after an incident in Central last week.
According to a release from the Central Police Department, Officer Jason Casey was patrolling during the early-morning hours of Monday, May 23, in a high-traffic residential community area “due to several recent auto break-ins and motorcycle thefts.”
Casey saw the driver of a vehicle pulling an enclosed trailer acting in a
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Feed a Hungry Child holds golf tourney
COUNTY — The Feed A Hungry Child organization held a golf tournament at Smithfields Country Club on May 16 to raise funds for its work.
Feed A Hungry Child was conceived by a small group of community adults and an educator in Pickens County when they realized there were children in the local school system who had no food on the weekends.
The elementary principal secured funding for the 14 students in her school to provide a basic of life, food.
Once word spread, a committee was formed and students were identified at 12 of the 15
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Pickens Rotary Club Scholarship winners
Pickens Rotary Club recently presented three Pickens High School seniors each with a $1,000 scholarship to support their journey to college. Pictured, from left, are Rotary president Doug Finney, Anna Beth Duncan, Jesse Lee Gilstrap and Caleb Briley.
Pickens High honors Virgil
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Some names are synonymous with Pickens High School athletics.
Peggy Anthony won nine state volleyball championships and Bill Isaacs lead the Blue Flame football team to a 57-game regular-season winning streak, and the 
school paid tribute to the two by renaming the gymnasium and football field after them.
After a ceremony on Saturday, longtime Pickens coach Andy Virgil joins the ranks of those Pickens legends, with the weight room at the school now dedicated in his honor.
Virgil, who coached the Pickens JV boys’ basketball, boys’ track and field and tennis teams, is best
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Settlement ends coal ash battle
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — The settlement of a longstanding lawsuit between Pickens County and MRR will see the creation of a landfill in Liberty, but one that will not hold coal ash or hazardous waste.
County council approved the settlement May 16, and officials announced its details at a press conference held May 18.
“It is a bright day in Pickens County,” county administrator Ken Roper said. “A day that’s been long coming, lots of twists and turns. We’re here this morning to announce — happily, proudly, excitedly
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What was this fight all about?
At last, the long and winding road comes to an end. Pickens County’s fight to keep coal ash from being dumped here is over.
Actually, that fight was over a long time ago. The legal dispute with a North Carolina-based company called MRR Pickens LLC has dragged on quietly for more 
than six years after our legislative delegation succeeded in passing a law preventing the potentially hazardous material from being disposed of in the type of landfill Pickens County allows.
So what was the big fight that ended up costing the county several million dollars to settle about?
It was about lack of communication, or miscommunication, or — in the view of the county — intentional deceit. And about a
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Historic Green Wave season comes to an end against York
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — Falling behind 5-0 in the fourth inning against York on May 18, the Easley Green Wave softball team seemed to have lost all the momentum they had built on their historic playoff run.
However, the Green Wave proved to have much of the same fight that brought them to that point down the stretch, with senior Maggie Spence cutting the Cougar lead to just two runs as the teams entered the final frame.
Heading to bat in the bottom of the seventh with the game on the line, Easley went down in order to end its season in a 5-3 loss.
“I’m proud of them. They didn’t give up,” Easley head coach Trish Spence said after the game, fighting
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