LIBERTY — Three Central men face kidnapping and weapons charges after police say they held a Liberty man at gunpoint before trading shots with him.
According to a report from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, a Liberty man told them he heard a vehicle with a loud muffler drive slowly by his home on Teri Drive, then turn around and come back to stop in front of his house at about 2 a.m. last Friday morning.

PICKENS — According to city of Pickens officials, police chief Tommy Ellenburg has been suspended without pay for making “racially insensitive and derogatory remarks.”
“Such conduct is not acceptable to the city and will not be tolerated,” read a release from Pickens officials Thursday afternoon.
Ellenburg was given a “final warning” and placed on an unpaid 15-day suspension.
“Chief Ellenburg understands the seriousness of his actions and has apologized,” the release said.
Assistant Police Chief Rodney Gregory will be in charge of the department during Ellenburg’s absence.

COUNTY — Two have been arrested in a string of business burglaries last Wednesday night in Pickens, Liberty, Norris and Pendleton.
Investigators with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office have charged Jerry “Cotton” Raymond Gillespie, of 281 Dublin Lane in Pickens, with seven counts of second-degree burglary, nine counts of simple larceny and one count of malicious damage to property.

Bluegrass music echoed throughout the grounds of the historic Hagood Mill all day on Saturday as the fourth annual Papa John Foster Memorial Music Festival drew hundreds to the site, located off U.S. 178 north of Pickens. The festival is a benefit for the Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM) program, which teaches traditional southern Appalachian music to Pickens County students in the third through eighth grade. Above, a YAM student plays the fiddle while a group of fellow young musicians pluck their instruments in the background.

EASLEY — Recent 2010 Census data shows an increase in the population of Pickens County by nearly 10,000, from 110,757 in 2000 to 119,224 current residents.
In Easley, the population has grown from 17,754 in 2000 to 19,993 today. This 12.61 percent growth in population has given Easley city officials cause to consider redistricting voting wards.

COUNTY — After the recent deadly storms that ravaged the Southeast, the Pickens County YMCA is working to help a sister YMCA in need.

LIBERTY — Students, SDPC employees, parents and community members are on a mission — a mission to ensure that Chastain Elementary students have a well-stocked media center when the new school opens in September.

EASLEY — Easley High School teacher Daniel Graybeal was honored recently with a Horace Mann-Abraham Lincoln Fellowship to study our 16th president.