Daily Archives: 05/04/2021
Liberty hopes for big crowd at BBQ & Jeep Festival
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — Kelley Norwine believes Liberty is “a well-kept secret.”
Norwine and other organizers of the Liberty BBQ & Jeep Festival hope many people will discover the city while attending the event Saturday.
“We’re excited about it,” she said. “We’ve been working hard on it.”
The festival will be held from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. this Saturday, May 8.
The festival is listed as a SC BBQ Association event.
Commerce Street, West Front Street and some smaller streets downtown will be
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Deal to preserve iconic Table Rock vista
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — Table Rock is the most photographed natural wonder in South Carolina, and for years, images of the mountain have been captured by visitors from Grant Meadow, the hay meadow at its base.
A collaboration between landowner Hoyt Grant and several conservation groups will ensure that no development will ever mar future photographs.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday morning at the meadow to celebrate the addition of 21 acres of the property to a conservation agreement established in 2013.
“I think you can all see why this is one of the most iconic views in South Carolina
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Broadband work set to start soon in Cateechee
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative is about to begin working to improve internet service in the Cateechee area.
In March, Pickens County Council passed an ordinance that would create a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement between Pickens County and the cooperative in order to bring better broadband access to the county by incentivizing Blue Ridge to invest in broadband.
The cooperative’s plan is to start in the Central-Norris-Cateechee area, vice president of
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Body found in Easley
EASLEY — The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that it was investigating after a body was found near the entrance to the South 
Carolina Upper State Fairgrounds in Easley.
According to a news release sent out by Chief Deputy Chad Brooks, EMS workers dispatched to a report of an unresponsive person at 3800 Calhoun Memorial Highway in the early-morning hours
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$40K starting pay for teachers in SDPC budget
LIBERTY — The School District of Pickens County’s board of trustees has approved the first reading of a proposed budget that includes starting teacher pay at $40,000 a year.
The proposed $135.5 million general fund budget passed the first of three readings based on the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee’s information, which is expected to increase the amount of funding to school districts.
“We’re early in the budget process and expect these numbers to change after this first reading,” district chief financial officer Clark Webb
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Group seeking donations for health care workers, seniors
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — A local nonprofit is collecting items this month to help brighten the days of local health care workers and the elderly.
Members of Warmth and Comfort for the Elderly, Upstate, SC use their crochet skills to provide warm items for nursing home patients,
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‘The Outsiders’ to open Thursday at PCPAC
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — The director of the play opening Thursday at the Pickens County Performing Arts Center said the theater program there will be a draw for the community.
“The Outsiders” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets are $10.
The play is an adaptation of the classic novel by S.E. Hinton about “The Greasers” and “The Socs,” two rival gangs.
Directing the play at the center is a return to Breann Griffin-Nicholson’s theatrical roots.
“I actually student directed ‘The Outsiders’ my senior year of high school,” she said. “It was the first play I directed. So when I
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County still battling COVID-19
COLUMBIA — With four confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the past week and some of the highest transmission and incidence rates in the state, 
Pickens County continues to struggle in the battle against the deadly virus.
According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, three of the four people who died of COVID-19-related causes in the one week period from last Tuesday to Monday were middle-aged. Pickens County also had one confirmed and one
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Will the cicadas be arriving soon?
The month of May will be the month when billions of eastern cicadas emerge from beneath the Earth’s surface to mate.
They won’t come out quietly. After all, they’ve been underground for 17 years and won’t come out again for 17 more.
They aren’t dangerous, and they are not like the dreaded locusts we used to see in western movies that swarmed through and stripped crops and foliage, leaving nothing behind.
The soil has to warm up to 64 degrees before the cicadas will emerge. This usually happens during the first two weeks of May, but there may be a few who arrive a bit early.
These are known to scientists as the Lonesome Bobs, because although the males are eager to
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Being happy never grows old
I remember as a kid how the days seemed so long.
I recall in the summertime after breakfast, I would shoot basketball until the sun became too hot, and then I would ride my bike to cool off.
Our neighbors had five children, and we would play kickball until it was too dark to see.
Life was fun, and I was always excited to do it all over again the next day.
I can still recall the simple joys of running through clover as fast as I could for no reason except to feel the wind on my face. I made sure to wear shoes, because being stung by a honeybee was
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