Daily Archives: 01/13/2021
County mourns loss of employee to COVID-19
Emergency Management deputy director Womack in ICU
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — Pickens County administration lost its first employee to COVID-19 last week.
County risk manager Mike Hayes died Thursday after battling the virus for weeks. He was 57.
Hayes began working for the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office in 1989, according to a post on the Pickens County SC Facebook page announcing his death.
He was a detective at the time of his retirement from law enforcement.
Hayes was hired as the county’s risk manager in 2013.
Shortly after Hayes’ death, Facebook posts announced that
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COUNTY RECORDS 17 CONFIRMED VIRUS DEATHS IN 8 DAYS
COLUMBIA — Pickens County’s numbers continue to worsen in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, with 17 new confirmed virus-related deaths and three probable deaths in the eight-day 
period ending on Tuesday, when the latest South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control numbers available at press time had been
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Body found in car in Hartwell
CLEMSON — Authorities were investigating after a body was found in a car in Lake Hartwell on Tuesday.
Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said Tuesday afternoon that one body had been found in the car near the Twin Lakes Recreation Area.
The body was discovered after a person at the park saw the vehicle in the water.
Kelley said Pickens County Sheriff’s Office investigators were also at the scene.
No other information was available at press time Tuesday, but visit yourpickenscounty.com or the Courier’s Facebook page for updates as they become available this week.
US attorney launches letter campaign for officers
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COLUMBIA — The United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina is encouraging 
residents to write thank you notes to the law enforcement officers in their area.
Last week, U.S. Attorney Peter McCoy announced that his office was launching a “Thank a Law Enforcement Officer” campaign.
The campaign encourages the public to send thank you notes to the law enforcement offices in their area, he said
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District’s virus cases up slightly
COUNTY — Although the overall number of students and staff members quarantined as a precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was down a little in the School District of Pickens 
County’s first week back from Christmas break, the number of positive cases of the virus rose slightly.
In the final week before Christmas break, a combined 717 people across the district — 646 students and 71 staff members — were quarantined. In the first week back this month, according to figures released by the
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Hospital system restricts visitors
UPSTATE — Prisma Health is restricting patient visitation across its entire system in the wake of a growing surge of COVID-19 infections in South Carolina.
“We know that being with families is itself a healing therapy, and so we wrestled with this decision. But we believe this measure is needed in the wake of the growing post-holiday surge of
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Photos of maskless crowd draw ire of Clemson residents
By Riley Morningstar
Courtesy The Journal
rmorningstar@upstatetoday.com
CLEMSON — Clemson residents were outraged over the weekend after photos of a concert at a bar circulated on social media, showing patrons packed together indoors and violating social distancing 
guidelines.
Posts on the “Together for Clemson” Facebook group featured users chirping about the Study Hall Restaurant and Bar, located downtown, “flouting city rules” in hosting the concert on Friday. One person even left a one-star Google review of the venue, saying, “Continues to hold huge maskless events in a
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Filing opens Friday for council seats
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — Filing will open Friday for those wishing to run for vacant seats on the city councils of Pickens and Clemson.
The Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Pickens County will be conducting the special
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Pickens girls drop OT thriller at TR
PICKENS — In its first region game of the season, the Pickens Lady Blue Flame basketball team went toe-to-toe for four quarters with the Travelers Rest Lady Devildogs at their gym before falling in overtime, 75-67.
Lady Blue Flame coach Rikki Owens said the Pickens team is very young, yet they sometimes play
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