Monthly Archives: February 2020
Under Water
City of Pickens hit hard by storm
By Ron Barnett
Staff Reporter
rbarnett@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — The past week or so has been a challenging time for the city of Pickens, to say the least.
A massive power outage, two snowstorms and a flood unlike any seen in recent years created havoc and inflicted significant damage, with another wave of rainstorms still coming in this week.
Floodwaters drenched the recreation department’s baseball and football fields, damaged its footbridge across Town Creek and covered much of Jaycee Park with a deep layer of silt and sand.
The city is planning a work day for
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A new life for former Gettys site?
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — The former Gettys Middle School site could be seeing new life as an apartment complex.
First reading of a zoning request for the site at 105 Stewart Drive was on the agenda of Easley City Council’s February meeting Monday night.
The request was to rezone 16.005 acres at the site from R-10 to GR2.
All schools in the city are zoned R-10, city administrator Stephen Steese said.
The rezoning would allow up to around 220 units to be built on site “should they decide to
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National chains coming to Easley shopping center
By Ron Barnett
Staff Reporter
rbarnett@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — Four new national chain stores will be coming to Easley to fill up the Town ‘N Country shopping center, with the demolition of the former JCPenney store and a row of smaller shops between it and the Hobby Lobby store “moving pretty swiftly,” according to an Easley city official.
HomeGoods, Five Below, Ross clothing and Ulta Beauty will be taking up occupancy with the departure of JCPenney, Radio Shack, Hallmark and Groucho’s Deli, Easley building official Tommy Holcombe said.
Matt Phillips, one of the partners in the new ownership group, said construction is expected to
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One recycling center to open on Wednesdays
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — One of the county’s recycling centers is now open again on Wednesdays.
Last week, county officials announced the Easley recycling center at the county landfill in Liberty will be open from 7:30 a.m.-7:20 p.m. on Wednesdays effective this week.
The center is located at 2053 Old Liberty Highway in Liberty. It was chosen to open on Wednesdays due to its central location. All the other county recycling centers will remain closed on Wednesdays.
During summer 2018, officials decided to close all the centers on Wednesdays as a money-
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County athletes sign with colleges
Pickens County had another huge signing day on Feb. 5, with local high school student-athletes signing with colleges all over the country. Signing at Daniel,
pictured above, from left, were De’Andre Bradley (football, Coffeyville Community College), Hack Hamilton (football, Coffeyville Community College), Jared Kirksey (football, South Carolina State University), Bubba McAtee (football, Clemson University), Jacob Peake (baseball, Anderson University) and Mismeh Balawi (cross-country and track, U.S. Naval Academy). Signing at Easley were, seated below from left, Ashley Gagnon (softball, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts), Joshua Hill (wrestling, Limestone College), Caleb Holcombe (wrestling, Limestone College), Dylan Lyda (football, The Citadel), and Jackson Wilson (football, Presbyterian College). At Liberty High School, senior football standouts Aaron Spruill and Duncan Owen, pictured inset with Red Devils football coach Kyle Stewart, both signed with Erskine College. Pickens High School also had two seniors sign to play football at North Greenville University — Lawson Maxey and Jacob Nagle — but pictures were unavailable at press time.
Liberty Middle boys clinch back-to-back championships
LIBERTY — From 0-13 to back-to-back championships, the Liberty Middle School Falcons boys’ basketball team has completed quite the turnaround over the past couple of seasons.
After going winless in the 2017-2018 season, the Falcons responded in a big way to win both the conference and tournament championships last year — the first season of its kind at
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Devils beat Pendleton
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — After falling behind early, the Liberty High School boys’ basketball team looked to be in big trouble on Friday night against the Pendleton Bulldogs.
However, the standout play of senior point guard Bradyn Moss and junior forward E.J. Stafford turned things around in a hurry, as the Red Devils fended off the Bulldogs in a 58-51 win.
“This is a great win for us,” Liberty coach Jonathan Dilworth said. “We got after it
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Despite hot start, Liberty girls fall against Bulldogs
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — In the midst of a five-game losing streak, the Liberty Red Devil girls’ basketball 
team seemed poised to turn things around on Friday night.
The Red Devils jumped out to a hot start and held a 23-22 halftime lead over Pendleton — which sits at second place in the region standings. Liberty just couldn’t hold on though, turning the ball over in droves as the Bulldogs pulled away for a 52-39 win.
“In the second half we really went back into some old habits,” Liberty head coach Gregg Thomas said. “We were throwing the ball away with some
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A river runs through the yard
A river runs through it.
That’s a good description of my front yard., as I write this. Well, my backyard, too.
I was lucky, though, during last Thursday’s deluge. After seeing photos of what other residents in Pickens County and across the Upstate endured, I really should be thankful.
We live on relatively high ground, but we still get a pretty good gully-washing when these big rains come along.
It actually used to be a lot worse than this. It used to gush right straight at my front steps, even with a normal rainfall of half an inch or so, and it washed away all my grass.
That was after the city of Easley, in its somewhat less than
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Courier Letters to the Editor 2-12-20
An alternate perspective
Dear Editor,
I read with much interest the letter from Olivia Fowler and was following her train of thought until she got to the part where she called President Trump a draft-dodger and then attacked Trump for his comments about McCain. My perspective on these two items are so much different than hers.
First, I don’t hold any ill feelings toward anyone who avoided going to Vietnam. This was a conflict and was never a declared war halfway around the globe in a country we knew nothing about, and most of us had no interest in their affairs. President Johnson (Democrat) turned “giving help to some insurgents” into a full-scale debacle that cost the lives of more than 50,000 brave Americans. This was the first war the USA ever lost! I have friends that are very proud of their service in Vietnam, and I am proud of them, but again, I hold no ill feelings toward others who could legally avoid going. Thank God President Nixon (Republican) ended our involvement.
Secondly, I will remember McCain as a very bitter, hateful senator who with his last words on
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