Daily Archives: 03/19/2019
Former inmates sue county, PCSO
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Lawsuits from two former Pickens County inmates accuse the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office and the county of negligence after they were attacked in separate incidents.
The lawsuits claim that longstanding overcrowding conditions, acknowledged by the sheriff’s office, led to assaults of the inmates.
Anderson attorney Kyle White is representing former inmates Adam Brodsky and Brett Ferguson and filed two separate lawsuits on Jan. 11 in the Pickens County Court of Common Pleas.
Brodsky was a pretrial detainee when he was “viciously
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Reader Respond
After two weeks of balloting for the Pickens County Courier’s first-ever Readers’ Choice Awards, the votes are in! Now comes the hard part — counting more than 2,500 handwritten reader ballots with more than 100 possible categories on each. Because of the overwhelming response from Courier readers who are passionate about their community and the companies doing business in the county, judges will take a little longer than expected to tabulate final results. Winners will begin to be notified by the end of this week, and a special section announcing the full list of this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards will be published in early April. In addition, one lucky reader will be awarded a $50 cash prize, and 10 others will receive a free one-year subscription to the Courier. Those winners will also be notified soon.
County prison escapee caught
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — An inmate who escaped from the Pickens County Prison earlier this month was recaptured Thursday evening.
Steven Leroy Aiken, 45, was arrested without incident at a Liberty home around 7 p.m. March 14, Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said.
Aiken escaped from the prison at 4:05 p.m. Sunday, March 10, when a perimeter door was opened to bring laundry into the facility, Hashe said.
Incarcerated at the prison since January, Aiken was serving a 128-day Family Court sentence for failure to pay child support when he escaped.
On Jan. 7, he was charged with domestic violence and malicious
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District gets positive feedback for digital learning days project
By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal
goliver@upstatetoday.com
COLUMBIA — A report prepared for the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee contains overwhelmingly positive feedback for pilot school districts — including Pickens — that allowed instruction for students at home when schools were closed due to inclement weather.
The report was prepared by former School District of Pickens County superintendent Lee D’Andrea, who deferred comments to EOC executive director Melanie Barton. Barton said the state “couldn’t have asked for five better districts to pilot this program.” In addition to Pickens, the other school districts involved in the pilot program were Anderson District 5, Kershaw and Spartanburg 1 and 7.
“The key takeaway I’m getting is that these five districts worked
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Emergency ops center moving
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County’s emergency operations center is moving from its current location on S.C. Highway 183 to the 
county administration building.
County council approved a $45,000 funding request for the alternate emergency operations center last week.
“I think it’s a wise decision if council would consider this request,” county administrator Gerald Wilson said. “It’s a move in the right direction.”
The current emergency operations center is within the 10-mile Duke Energy emergency planning zone, Wilson said.
“Should we have an emergency, we’re one of the first … to be evacuated,” he said.
The county has an alternate operations center underground at
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New docks, gate system coming to Mile Creek
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County Council signed off on a number of improvements to Mile Creek Park in Six Mile Monday night.
Council approved a $45,000 request to pay for new docks, a gate system, security fencing and a traffic study at the park.
County administrator Gerald Wilson asked Park Director Tyler Merck to give an update on the park, as well as requesting the funding from accommodations tax revenue.
“I have good news to share,” Merck said. “We’re proud to
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Spring’s arrival and promise of new life
It must have been around this time of year, some 400 years ago, that a fellow we know today as “Brother Lawrence” discovered the key to happiness.
In the spiritual classic, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” 
his biographer describes it like this: “In the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time, the leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the Providence and Power of God, which has never since been effaced from his soul.
“This view had perfectly set him loose from the world, and kindled in him such a love for God, that he could not tell
Koster running for Easley mayor
EASLEY — Another candidate has thrown his name into the hat to replace longtime public servant Larry Bagwell as Easley’s 
mayor in the November election.
David W. Koster, a mechanical engineer who recently retired after a 30-plus-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va., and moved to Easley in 2016, has announced his candidacy.
“I served as a senior program manager and was responsible for managing multi-million-dollar programs,” Koster said. “I was especially noted for establishing new programs in response to intelligence collection initiatives and
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County council lends support to nonprofit
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County Council is throwing its support behind a local nonprofit in applying for grant funds that will allow it to continue to help homeless families.
During its March 11 meeting, council discussed a resolution in support of Family Promise of Pickens County.
Family Promise aims to “help families get back on their feet,” executive director Armilla Moore said.
The organization, in conjunction with local church congregations, provides “sheltering services to families who
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Start working on those taxes
Every year that rolls around brings with it the uneasy foreboding of February, when the financial records for the 
previous year are in file folders stacked on the dining room table calling for action.
The file folders are in plain sight on one end of the table, and at every meal I can see them and hear them demanding to be dealt with.
The W-2s and receipts and records are all there, and everything is ready to go.
Everything, that is, except for me. The only thing lacking is the
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