Monthly Archives: June 2020
Schools plan Aug. 10 reopening
EASLEY — The School District of Pickens County announced in a letter to parents Thursday that it plans to reopen schools for in-person instruction on Aug. 10 as scheduled as long as COVID-19 cases 
decline significantly.
District spokesman John Eby said while the goal is to provide face-to-face instruction as much as possible, the district plans to resume school under three scenarios. Those scenarios are: low risk, with a return to face-to-face instruction with safety precautions; medium risk, with face-to-face instruction as possible and intermittent virtual instruction on a week-by-week, school-by-school basis as needed; and high risk, with all virtual instruction for all students.
“Based on the definition of high risk, released by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control today, Pickens County currently falls in the high-risk category,” Eby said. “Social distancing, mask wearing and frequent hand washing are among the responsible actions
Family redeveloping historic Easley silos
I hate to admit it now, but I’ve never had much appreciation for the old grain silos on the west end of downtown Easley.
But then, I’m not a visionary like Stacey Desrosiers and her family, who own and operate Inky’s Authentic Philadelphia Cheesesteaks and Hoagies in the Easley Village Shopping Center.
Along with some other visionaries at the city of Easley, who also saw the potential for re-purposing the old Dixie Milling Company site, the Desrosiers family are developing a complex of neighborhood-oriented food and beverage venues to be called, appropriately, The Silos.
Think affordable craft beer, scratch-made ice cream, Neapolitan pizza and homemade pasta, authentic Mexican fare and, of course, authentic Philadelphia cheesesteaks.
This is just the latest iteration of an evolving family vision that goes
County COVID cases balloon to more than 800
COLUMBIA — Pickens County’s confirmed COVID-19 cases have been skyrocketing alongside the 
numbers across the state, as the county’s caseload grew by nearly 300 over the past week.
The county has had double-digit case increases every day over the past week, including a single-day record of 66 reported cases on June 24. According to the latest numbers released Monday by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the county was up to 805 confirmed cases, an increase of 276 confirmed cases over the 529 reported on the same day a week ago.
After hovering near the bottom among the state’s 46 counties in rate of infection for much of the spring, the county has also climbed those rankings and now sits at
SC 183 bridge set to be closed for two months
PICKENS — Drivers traveling between Six Mile and Pickens will have a disruption over the next two months after the South Carolina Department of Transportation was forced to shut down S.C. Highway 183 for an emergency bridge repair this week.
According to an SCDOT news release, Highway 183 — also known as Walhalla Highway — was shut down Tuesday and will be closed until the end of the day on Aug. 31 for an emergency repair to a bridge over Twelve Mile Creek.
The bridge is located near the Bargain Exchange Flea Market and S.C. Dunn and Sons Lumber.
Traffic will be detoured from Walhalla Highway to Wolf Creek School Road to Allgood Bridge Road and back to Walhalla Highway, according to the SCDOT.
Call (864) 859-0039 with any questions.
AG, SLED weigh in on mask laws
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
STATE — With COVID-19 cases rising in South Carolina, several cities, including Clemson, Greenville and Columbia have passed ordinances requiring masks to be worn in public.
Central officials were set to consider an ordinance requiring masks on Tuesday.
Following the passage of mask ordinances around the state, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and the State Law Enforcement Division issued clarifications regarding the requirements.
Wilson issued a statement on June 24, saying his office received a number of calls about the ordinances passed by Greenville and Columbia “that concern the wearing of masks within those cities’ jurisdictions and under certain conditions.”
Wilson said he was providing “a general answer” and that his office “is not endorsing, defending or even attacking these ordinances.”
“The only question before my office is whether a city can lawfully pass this type of ordinance,” he said. “The short answer to that question is — yes, a city can
Carter, Collins win SC House runoffs
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — After months of campaigning for a chance to be on the ballot for November’s general 
election, primary season is finally over in Pickens County 
following a runoff contest last Tuesday for two State House of Representatives seats.
The big winner of the day was retired businessman Jerry Carter, as he pulled away from current school board trustee Phillip Bowers for the Republican nomination for State House District 3. Carter managed to get nearly 62 percent of the vote and outgained Bowers 1,192 votes to 731 votes.
With the win, Carter will now face off with Democrat and local
Letters to the Editor
That grand old flag
Dear Editor,
It’s a grand old flag with 50 stars of white in a field of blue. With red and white stripes, too.
It’s a grand old flag that proudly waved with holes from the battle blown through there at Fort McHenry when the British tried to our young country to take. A grand old flag waving as our troops faced the Bertha Gun in World War I. Proudly waved over Iwo Jima and at Normandy on D-Day. In Korea, she flew proudly as we held the ground. It was there in ‘Nam when Uncle Sam kicked ol’ Papa Ho’s hiney around. Flying over the land proudly while back home some were marching in the
Parents’ most important responsibility is serious
I was thinking the other day about how life has changed since I was a little boy. I’m sure that many of you can agree that we never imagined some of the things we are seeing.
I remember when I was young, life was fairly simple, and when I would listen to my mom and dad talk to each other, it was mostly about paying bills and all the little things that kept everything going.
We would watch the Huntley-Brinkley report, but I don’t recall my parents discussing politics that much. In those days, the Beatles having hair below their ears was a sign the world was coming to an end. When it came to the news, I cannot recall my parents or grandparents being
Our routines are out of sync
The new ways we shop for groceries is only the tip of the iceberg this year. Thanks to the 
coronavirus, there are a number of other things we will likely end up doing in a different way.
Many of us have put aside one item on our annual to-do list: filing our taxes. The tax due date was pushed back to July 15, and that date is coming up quickly.
If you’ll owe taxes and generally send in a cashier’s check with your return, you’ll need to get that in advance if you don’t want to stand in line in your bank. Many banks are providing services through the drive-up
SC restaurant program could make it less dangerous to dine out again
South Carolina’s hospitality industry got overtaken by events this past week — in a good way — when three of the state’s largest cities adopted ordinances to require people to wear masks in public, 
including in restaurants.
We can’t very well keep our masks on while we’re eating, and wait staff have to get pretty close to serve our meals and even to take our orders, so restaurants will always be one of our biggest challenges in the age of COVID-19. Compound that with many restaurants’ refusal to require their staff to wear masks, and we have a recipe for infection — and an invitation for a large swath of customers to keep eating at home, dealing a potentially fatal blow to individual
