Monthly Archives: May 2019
Sheriff’s office warns of utility phone scam
PICKENS — Residents should beware of phone calls from scammers trying to pass themselves off as utility company representatives, according to police.
The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office issued a news release Monday that said local residents have received phone calls from unknown people claiming to be utility companies.
The callers tell homeowners their monthly bill is overdue and unless they provide funds over the phone using “Green Dot” cards or
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VA officer asks for assistant, more hours
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County Veterans Affairs officer Sherry Harris says the claims and paperwork her office deals with are becoming more complicated and time-consuming.
“It’s a constant, ever-changing environment,” Harris said. “We have over 8,000 (veterans) in our system.”
Harris asked county council at its meeting last week to fund a part-time administrative assistant, as well as increasing her work
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Officials debate value of Upstate Alliance
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County Council weighed the benefits of staying a member of Upstate Alliance against the annual cost of membership.
County staff has recommended council fund the more than $55,000 membership cost, according to county administrator Gerald Wilson.
“Being part of Upstate Alliance opens doors for us that we couldn’t open without being a member of Upstate Alliance,” he said. “It’s almost like membership in a country club to an extent. It’s a small fee for the services it brings to us.”
Wilson said the county has seen an increase in the number of state grants it has received, he said.
“Keep in mind, the economy’s booming,” Wilson said.
Pickens County was recently awarded a $500,000 Set Aside grant to help with costs associated with bringing IPSUM Technologies to
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Pickens prayer and praise event planned
PICKENS — An event designed to “answer the call to unity in our community in order to usher in the presence of God” is planned for 5-8 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Pickens amphitheater.
“The goal since its inception has been to unify the church,” according to a news release from event coordinator Joy Benoit. “It seems that our community’s foundation is its churches, but the denominations have built its walls.
“We want to knock down those walls, blur all the denominational lines and come together as one people intent on experiencing God
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The river from our childhood
The river in summer was a constant in our lives. The icy-cold black water of the Lumbee flowed through the farm, and the landing was conveniently located a short distance behind the house.
Uncle Walter built a river cabin with a tin roof. There was a propane gas stove and a table inside.
The pump was a hand pump with a wooden countertop.
We’d stand on it to rinse the sand off our feet before sliding on our flip-flops.
When we swam, Mama and Aunt Caroline would sit on the bank and watch us down below on the sand bar.
The bottom of the river was sandy, but could only be seen in the shallows.
The current flowed swiftly in places we weren’t supposed to venture in and slowly in places where we played.
The deeper parts of the river were black. You couldn’t see below four inches, and we knew to stay out of those areas. It would be over our heads, the current swift and cold.
It wasn’t known as Drowning Creek for nothing.
In spots where you could see the bottom, it looked golden. We thought maybe it was covered
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Daddy, dynamite and the donkey
My Daddy, George W. O’Shields, was a farmer, but he missed his calling. He should have been an explosives expert … read on.
Being raised on a farm, one often has to come up with, should I say, unique or unusual ways to solve a particular task or problem. As an example, my Daddy always kept a mule on the farm.
The mule was used mainly for plowing crops and was kept in the same pasture with our two milk cows. Wherever you found the cows, you could always find the mule. I think he may have considered himself a strangely built, hard-headed cow.
When the cows came to the barn each evening to get their sweet feed so they could be milked, the mule was always there and also would beg for a handful of sweet feed.
Well, one thing you learn when plowing with mules is that you must have one that walks the same pace as you. Otherwise you would tire out trying to match your pace to the mule’s pace. That’s one reason some farmers would sell or trade mules every year or so. When a farmer found the right mule, he would keep him for life. As was the case with this particular mule, who was getting old.
I was quite young at the time, but do recall brother Bobby telling this story. For some reason, the old mule quit showing up at the barn each evening with the cows. This caused no apparent concern until one day Daddy saw buzzards circling over the lower pasture. He knew that something had met its
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Double-dipping no answer to state’s teacher shortage
With pay raises that aren’t high enough to convince already-frustrated teachers to stay in the classroom, and the Senate’s failure to pass any other measures that might delay their retirement, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the Senate to go along with a House plan to entice retired teachers to return to work.
It’s a terribly unfair idea: It means that teachers who haven’t retired — even some who are eligible to retire — could suddenly find 
themselves making significantly less money than the teacher in the classroom next door. And it could end up making the situation even worse, by persuading even more teachers to go ahead and retire.
So if the Senate goes along with the plan — and we’re not at all convinced it should — it must extract some significant concessions to prevent people from retiring when they’re still young enough to continue working.
At issue is a very smart state law that limits double-dipping — that is, retiring from state employment and then returning to a new job (or even the same job) while collecting a pension. The 2012 law doesn’t prohibit people from coming back to work, but it cuts off any additional pension payments in any year in which they earn $10,000 in state salary. Note that they still can collect their full salary and part of their pension, just not all of it.
Besides the problems double-dipping creates with morale among people who haven’t retired and returned, the practice helped contribute to the unsustainable unfunded liability in the state government retirement system. That deficit has already forced the Legislature to raise pension payments from state employees and state and local governments to uncomfortably high levels, and more
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Plaque placed to honor Pickens legend Anthony
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens High School added the finishing touches to the Peggy Harden Anthony Gymnasium after placing a bronze 
plaque honoring the legendary coach outside the gym recently.
The plaque, which was made possible by a donation from Dillard Funeral Home, lists many of the coach’s incredible accomplishments over her career at Pickens.
“I’m so glad we could honor Mrs. Peggy,” Dillard employee C.B. Dunson said. “My wife won two state titles playing for her, and we’re just some of the many people she has impacted in this community.
“It is such an honor to share her legacy and show how much she means to Pickens.”
In her 26-year career at Pickens, Anthony brought home nine state volleyball championships, while coaching 28 All-State players, including
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County athletes sign to play at the next level
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — As the school year starts to come to a close, some of Pickens County’s top student-athletes are signing to continue their careers at the next level.
Easley High School had the largest group of students signing, as nine Green Wave athletes took the next step in their academic and athletic careers last week.
Southern Wesleyan University picked up a trio of Green Wave seniors, including All-State baseball pitcher Devyn Bond, softball star Aubrey Lewis and soccer standout Calista Turner. Erskine College also picked up four Easley athletes, as baseball pitcher Parker Casell, soccer standout Gabe Golden, volleyball team captain Kylie McKean and Class 5A state-qualifying
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Pickens Rec Report
By Cheri Anthony
Pickens Recreation Director
canthony@pickenscity.com
PICKEN — Our Diamond Day celebration was a great success, although the weather did end our day’s festivities a little earlier than planned. We want to thank all of our friends, relatives and visiting teams from Pendleton, Dacusville, Walhalla, Westminster and Central/Clemson who came to enjoy the day with us and supported this event.
During the noon festivities, our ninth annual PYAC Town Creek Speedy Ball Race was run. 524 colorful plastic balls raced down Town Creek in just less than eight minutes. We are immeasurably grateful to all the folks who sold and helped us with this fundraiser. The rec department was proud to award three sellers who went above and beyond. These participants were Nick Barone in first place, Ethan Mumma in second place and Anslie Abercrombie in third place. Winners of the Speedy Ball Race were as follows. First place and winner of the $150 cash prize was Ball No. 412, purchased by Ethan Mumma, second place and winner of a Ryobi portable electric pressure washer was Ball No. 24, purchased by Sadie Simmons, and third place and winner of a Ryobi cordless jet
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