Daily Archives: 05/07/2014
$2.7M seized in drug bust
8 charged in multi-county investigation
EASLEY — A yearlong investigation into Upstate synthetic drug sales that began in Easley culminated with the seizure of approximately $2.7 million in cash and frozen bank accounts, guns, vehicles, more than 300 pounds of the drug and seven arrests last week.
A yearlong investigation into synthetic drug sales that began at Sky’s Tha Limit in Easley wrapped up with a multi-county bust that targeted several businesses and two homes and resulted in charges filed against eight people last week. Sky’s Tha Limit’s business license has been suspended, Easley Police Chief Danny Traber said.
At a Friday afternoon news conference at the Easley Law Enforcement Center, Easley Police Chief Danny Traber told reporters his department began receiving complaints just more than a year ago from parents that their children, some as young as 16 years old, were going to a store on U.S. Highway 123 to buy the synthetic drugs.
“People like to call it synthetic marijuana, (but) it’s a synthetic drug that sometimes mimics marijuana,” Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said. “Sometimes it’s a lot worse.”
Clark said some of the side effects of similar “designer” drugs include hallucinations, paranoia, anxiety, a sense of initial wellbeing that turns into terror, panic attacks, vomiting and
Ready For Business
Six Mile is back on the banking map after the town hosted a grand opening celebration for “Our Bank,” a division of Carolina Premier Bank, last Thursday. At right, mayor Roy Stoddard welcomes the large crowd that showed up for the celebration. Below, Sen. Larry Martin talks to Carolina Premier Bank president and CEO John Kreighbaum during the event.
SDPC names 7 new principals
COUNTY — School District of Pickens County officials this week named seven new principals for county elementary and middle schools for next school year.
Dr. Tim Mullis, who has 28 years of experience in the school district, will move from Easley High School to Liberty Middle School.
Meanwhile, Pickens Middle School principal Jeff Duncan, who has been employed with the school district since 2002, will transfer to R.C. Edwards Middle School.
In the elementary school ranks, five schools will be under new leadership when the new school year rolls
GOP hopefuls set for Liberty stump meeting
LIBERTY — The Pickens County Republican Party will sponsor a candidate stump meeting and pancake breakfast on Saturday.
The meeting, set to begin at 8 a.m., will be held at the Pickens County Career and Technology Center, at 990 Chastain Road in Liberty.
According to Pickens County Republican Party chairman Phillip Bowers, local and statewide candidates for offices including probate judge, state house, lieutenant governor, state treasurer, state superintendent of education, adjutant general, commissioner of agriculture and U.S. senate will have an opportunity to speak.
“Many races will be decided in June, not November, so this will be a great opportunity for voters to hear from all Republican candidates before we vote next month,” Bowers said.
Seniors join with seniors on Pickens garden project
From left, Master gardener Dale Harward, Senior Center member Doyle Dorsey and Gillian Black, horticulture teacher at the Pickens County Career and Technology Center, survey the garden plot.
PICKENS — A bare spot behind the Pickens Senior Center soon will bear vegetables and herbs for the center’s kitchen, thanks to a project that brought in a different set of seniors — students from the Pickens County Career and Technology Center.
Senior horticulture and animal science students helped to build raised beds and provided greenhouse plants for the garden. The result will please chief cook Debbie Galloway and quite a few Senior Center regulars.
“We’ll have fresh vegetables for our meals and we’ll also have classes on canning and preserving vegetables and drying herbs,” said Galloway, a member of the Senior Center board. “We’ll have peppers,
Community meets to learn about Doodle Trail plans
By Ben Robinson, Courier Staff
EASLEY — People from across the county showed up on the Easley campus of Tri-County Technical College last week to gain a better understanding of plans for the proposed Doodle Trail between Pickens and Easley.
Alta Planning and Design representative Blake Sandersdiscusses the plans for the proposed Doodle Trail between Pickens and Easley at a community meeting last week in Easley. Ben Robinson/Courier
The trail, roughly duplicating the path of the Pickens Doodle Railway — a rail service one used by workers in the pre-depression era — would create a clear connection between the two towns, celebrating a common bond in history.
The plan calls for the construction of the trail in six phases.
Phase one: Structural improvements and repair of bridges. Cost: $344,000.
Phase two: Pave 2.7 miles of trail from downtown Pickens to Wolf Creek. Cost: $873,000.
Phase three: Pave 2.7 mile of trail from Wolf Creek to Rices Creek. Cost: $804,000.
Phase four: Pave 2.1 miles of trail from Rices
Grand opening is this week
One of Pickens’ newest businesses, Hair Works, will hold its formal grand opening on Friday and Saturday, May 9 and 10. The business is owned and operated by longtime Pickens-area stylist Patty Raines Stephens. Stephens has been a cosmologist in Pickens for 24 years. Joining Stephens are Sharon Campbell and Tina Brown Gantt. The new salon, located at 494 Hampton Ave. in Pickens, offers a full service, including coloring, cuts for the entire family, perms and eyebrow waxing. Hair Works takes appointments or walk-ins and is open Monday-Saturday. Pictured are Campbell, Stephens and Gantt, along with Lou Deck, who was Stephens’ first customer. Stephens has done her hair for 24 years. Stephens did Deck’s hair in cosmetology school and has been doing it ever since. For more information, call (864) 878-6377.
Signups begin for summer Appalachian music lessons
COUNTY — If you’re looking for something fun to do this summer, learn how to play a banjo, fiddle, guitar or mandolin.
Enrollment is now under way for the summer session of Appalachian music lessons. The next session of the Evening Music Program will begin the week of Monday, May 26.
This program is open to all ages (third grade through adults) and is designed to teach students to play Appalachian music with acoustic instruments. Instruments include guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo.
The six-week sessions will be held at the following locations:
1. Easley First Baptist Church in Easley (Tuesday nights) 2. Pickens Senior Center (Monday and
Pickens Rescue Squad to host ‘Redneck Car Show’ Saturday
PICKENS — Local residents are invited to get their hot rods, boats, motorcycles and even mopeds ready for the first-ever “Redneck Car Show” hosted by Pickens Rescue 7 on Saturday at the Pickens Flea Market, located two miles west of Pickens on S.C. 183.
The event is looking for entries, and now is the time to start signing up.
“You can really enter anything to the show, and if it doesn’t have a motor, you can enter it free,” Rescue 7 Chief Tommy Smith said.
The car show is an event designed to raise funds to go toward special training and other community events for the squad, such as the Halloween family fun night held each year at the squad’s station.
The Pickens squad has offered a safe place for kids and their families to visit during the city of Pickens’ annual Trick or Treat On Main each year. Volunteers prepare decorations, funnel cakes, fried oreos,
City to review fire contracts
By Ben Robinson, Courier Staff
PICKENS — To clear up any confusion over any contracts the city may have with new county-operated fire stations, the city of Pickens is reviewing all agreements.
“(County officials’) misunderstanding was that things were going to go on as they were,” city administrator Katherine Hendricks said. “(The city’s latest contract with the county) was for $315,000. In my opinion, there’s no debate — either full contract, like we’ve had all these years, or we’re going to supplement. I just don’t understand where there’s any gray room, because that’s the way it’s been done for a very long time.”
The city did offer a six-month extension, so as the fire stations become ready to serve the public, the city
