Daily Archives: 06/26/2018
Collins retains SC House District 5, as incumbents reign supreme
The Pickens County Republican runoffs have come and gone with incumbents taking the day once again.
In the SC State House District 5 race, incumbent Neil Collins retained his seat by defeating challenger Allan Quinn. Collins out gained Quinn in votes 2821 to 2070. Collins faces no democratic opposition in November.
In the gubernatorial race, John Warren once again took the county defeating incumbent Henry McMaster 7606 votes to 4909 votes. However, McMaster won the runoff statewide race with 53 percent of the vote. McMaster will now face democratic candidate James Smith in the general election in November.
For SC Attorney General, Alan Wilson defeated Todd Atwater both in Pickens County and statewide to get his party’s nomination. Wilson got 8162 votes compared to Atwater’s 3942. Wilson took 65 percent of the statewide vote. Wilson faces no democratic opposition in November’s general election.
A little over 18 percent of Pickens County voters voted in the runoff down from over 22 percent at the primary election.
Summer storms cause trouble across Upstate
By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal
goliver@upstatetoday.com
PICKENS — Just when utility workers thought they had addressed a series of power outages resulting from Sunday’s 
severe thunderstorms around the Upstate, another round hit the area Monday evening, causing even more problems.
“Crews were on the verge of whittling down the number of members out of power from last evening’s storm to just a handful,” Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative spokesman Terry Ballenger said Monday. “But a second storm making its way across the westernmost portion of the cooperative’s service area has already produced some major problems.”
Ballenger said 3,683 Blue Ridge customers were without power as of 5:40 p.m.
Of that total, 2,182 members were without service in Oconee
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Pickens hires new city admin
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens’ new city administrator is now on the job.
Mayor David Owens said David Poulson started his new job Tuesday morning.
Poulson is the former chief of the Salem Police Department in Oconee County.
“He has all the schooling and credentials,” Owens said. “He came across as very knowledgeable of the position and very eager to learn.”
Owens said Poulson has a masters of public administration degree from Clemson University.
Owens said officials interviewed three candidates for the
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Man facing child porn charge
EASLEY — An Easley man was arrested last week on child pornography charges.
Gordon Napier Muldrow, 37, is charged with one count of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to a news release from S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson’s office.
Muldrow was arrested on June 19 and released later the same day on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond.
Investigators with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force joined the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office to make the arrest. Investigators with the attorney general’s office and Easley Police Department, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.
Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that led them to Muldrow. Investigators allege Muldrow distributed child pornography.
Muldrow’s charge is a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
The case will be prosecuted by the attorney general’s office.
Escaped inmate arrested quickly
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office quickly apprehended a minimum-security inmate who escaped from 
the Pickens County Detention Center on Thursday morning.
Jonathon Ray Jefferson Neal, 24, was booked into the facility on June 12 for a probation violation, according to a news release. He was being held on a $5,000 surety bond.
The inmate was in a fenced recreation yard when he managed to scale a brick-faced wall, the release said, adding he jumped from the roof of the facility and fled on foot after escaping through multiple rolls of razor wire.
A deputy found Neal a short time later at a home on S.C. Highway 8 and took him into custody following a brief foot
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Police chase leads to man’s death
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — A 49-year-old Easley man who was fleeing from police died after a wreck Thursday in Pickens County, authorities said.
Pickens County coroner Kandy Kelley said Kenneth David Reynolds Jr., of Colonial Drive, was pronounced dead in the operating room of Greenville Memorial Hospital after the collision.
Kelley said Reynolds was involved in a chase with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office at the time of the wreck.
The wreck occurred at 1:15 p.m. on Anderson Highway at Flat
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Easley plans trailside housing development
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — The city of Easley has taken the first steps toward the creation of an affordable housing development near the Doodle Trail.
During its June meeting, Easley City Council passed an ordinance regarding the transfer of 18 lots to Quinn Satterfield Inc. “for the purpose of constructing affordable home occupied single-family housing units.”
The development, known as Trailside Active Affordable
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Going back in time
This week, I traveled across the state to visit my Aunt Carolyn 
in the sandhills of North Carolina. She will be 97 in September, but doesn’t want a birthday party. She wants to wait until she turns 100 in 2021.
I drove through the Upstate heading east. Kings Mountain is the last mountain I pass on my trip, and the landscape begins flattening out as I go further east.
Red clay gradually turns sandy, and thick forests of long-leaf
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Ask — He is listening
We know that people pray for all types of things, and many 
times I wonder if God takes every request seriously or if He considers some of them unreasonable.
For example, I’m sure that at sporting events both sides are praying for victory over the opposing team, but I’ve always thought these types of prayers generally fall into the category of the non-spiritual variety. The Bible actually mentions unsuitable attitudes behind our prayers and uses the word
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Letters to the Editor
Making America great again?
Dear Editor,
On behalf of the 4th, I want to make this statement.
Anyone who would say “make America great again” doesn’t realize how awful that sounds.
It’s as if they’re saying America lost her greatness somewhere along the way.
I have news for them — America is, always has been and always will be great! The greatest nation to ever exist. Being born in
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