Daily Archives: 04/06/2021
Easley names new police chief
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — Easley’s new police chief will be sworn in during the April 12 Easley City Council meeting.
Easley officials announced the hiring of Stan Whitten as the new chief of the Easley Police
Department in a news release last week.
A native of Easley, Whitten has more than 20 years of experience within public service, the release said.
Whitten served as a military police officer and investigator with the United States Army from 1987-1991, the release said. During that time, his duties included working as a member of the Dignitary Protection Team. He was also assigned to
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‘The hand of God’
Local residents recall day Liberty avoided military aircraft disaster
By Ron Barnett
Staff Reporter
rbarnett@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY —
It was a typical Saturday morning in downtown Liberty, and 12-year-old Jerry Nalley was at home watching TV with his younger sister.
“Probably some Western,” he recollected.
All at once they heard a great “commotion” — and it wasn’t coming from the cowboys and Indians on their black-and-white television set.
“It was just a tremendous noise,” he said. “We didn’t know what in the world it was.”
This Saturday morning — Feb. 27, 1960 — turned out to be anything but typical.
Jerry ran out the back door just in time to see one of the vertical stabilizers of a C-119 airplane — a
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New face for city council
A special Pickens City Council meeting held Monday evening recognized outgoing city councilwoman and mayor pro tem Donna Owen and newly elected Councilman Robert Nealy, who won Owen’s seat by pick up more than 71 percent of votes in a three-way special election March 23. Replacing Owen
as mayor pro tem will be Councilman Jimmy Davis, who was nominated Monday evening and elected unanimously by council. Above: Mayor Fletcher Perry, center, recognizes Owen for her service on council alongside Nealy, who will fill her seat. Inset: Davis is recognized by Perry as the newly elected mayor pro tem.
Central officials considering cluster zoning to save town’s greenspace
By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal
goliver@upstatetoday.com
CENTRAL — The town of Central has heard no news regarding plans to build 100 homes on 48 acres on Lawton Road, and town administrator Phillip Mishoe said he thinks he knows why.
“My thinking is that the developer wants to see how the cluster zones are going to play out, and he may be looking at the cluster zones 
because it saves a lot of greenspace — untouched greenspace — and that may be a better option than the standard R-12,
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Blood donor turnout hits historic low
Blood Connection extends hours in response to need
EASLEY — The Blood Connection, the community blood center, is seeing historically low blood donor turnout and has extended its center hours in response to the urgent need.
According to the latest TBC data, local hospitals have consumed twice as much blood as the community has donated. If the trend continues, it could cause a blood rationing event or blood shortage for hospitals in the community. Donation centers are now open earlier and later to accommodate more blood donors.
Unexpected traumas are “exacerbating the issue,” according to Allie Van Dyke, partnerships and media coordinator for the Blood Connection.
“The Blood Connection was recently alerted by one of its hospital partners that one patient
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SDPC updates COVID-19 numbers
COUNTY — In the final days before this week’s spring break, School District of Pickens County officials said Friday that 31 students and four 
staff members tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
The number of students who tested positive for the virus was up from 25 the previous week, while the number of staff members was down two from the week before.
The number of students quarantined was up to 216 last week from 157 the week before, while the
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Central ‘may need to slow down the bleeding’ on water funds
By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal
goliver@upstatetoday.com
CENTRAL — Central administrator Phillip Mishoe recently told town officials the water fund budget has been in the red for five of the seven months of the current fiscal year that ends June 30.
“We’ve still got five more months to go,” he told council last week. “It’s going to have peaks and valleys, we know that, and know when we hit May and June are going to be red months because the college kids are gone. We expect that, but
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Inspiration at sunrise
Dillard Funeral Home and Hillcrest Memorial Park in Pickens held their annual Easter sunrise service on Sunday. The event brought many out to hear a moving and inspirational message given by the Rev. Ken Lawson. In his message, Lawson asked those in attendance “Who will roll your stone back?”, referring to the scripture where the tombstone was rolled back to find that Jesus Christ had risen, leaving the tomb empty on the very first Easter. This was the first event held at Dillard since the beginning of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured here, Lawson delivers his message as the morning sun appears over the wall at Hillcrest on Easter Sunday.
Liberty unveils marketing plan
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — “Over the next three years, it will be a critical time to build on the momentum that this marketing plan creates, to start to move these big boulders forward,” Designlab’s Jessica Masse told Liberty officials at a meeting last week.
Masse unveiled the city’s three-year marketing plan March 30 at the Rosewood Center.
“What is unique and special about Liberty?” Masse said. “We’ve figured that out, we think.”
With the region experiencing strong economic growth and job creation, Liberty offers “a safe, high quality of life and living standard while
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It just wasn’t meant to be
She was a beautiful little brunette. Seven years old, with big brown eyes and a friendly expression. She probably weighed about 60 pounds. Her name was McKenzie, and she had a lot of energy.
And she was almost an exact copy of Boomer, our boxer bulldog.
She was in the backseat of a car parked at a rest stop in Tennessee between Knoxville and Nashville. Her owner was seated in the driver’s seat. His wife was approaching the car with a water bowl. The windows were cracked, as in rolled down a little bit to keep McKenzie from
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