Daily Archives: 10/05/2021
Water problems at Pickens football stadium lead to homecoming move
PICKENS — Potentially costly water issues at Pickens High School’s Bill Isaacs Field at Blue Flame Stadium have forced the Blue Flame’s homecoming game this Friday against Hendersonville (N.C.) to be moved to the historic 
Bruce Field downtown.
Homecoming festivities will be held at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Pickens High School gym, according to a statement from school district communications director Darian Byrd.
“We’re looking for answers,” Byrd said Tuesday morning. “It looks like it might be an
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Ex-paramedic warns county of staffing woes
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — A former Pickens County paramedic warns that pay issues in the county’s EMS department could put residents in danger.
Tommy M. Page recently resigned his position as paramedic and field training officer with Pickens County EMS.
Page spoke during the public forum portion of Monday’s county council meeting.
Knowing his time was limited, Page provided officials with a copy of an open letter
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County reports 20 more deaths from COVID-19
COLUMBIA — After reporting a record-high 31 confirmed or probable COVID-19 deaths last week, Pickens County 
continued to struggle with the deadly virus, with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) reporting 20 more COVID-19 deaths over the past seven days.
According to DHEC, there were 20 confirmed deaths and no probable deaths in the one-week period from last Tuesday to Monday, when the latest
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Central RR Fest set for later this month
CENTRAL — The Central Railroad Festival will pull into historic downtown Central on Saturday, Oct. 16, with music, food and festivities for all ages.
The festival is set to begin at 10 a.m. and run until 3 p.m., featuring entertainment, food, music and arts and crafts vendors.
There will be free entertainment for all ages, including oldies, rock, jazz and bluegrass. In
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Clemson extends Clements’ contract
By Riley Morningstar
Courtesy The Journal
rmorningstar@upstatetoday.com
CLEMSON — Clemson University has done everything in its power to ensure president Jim Clements will be with the school until his retirement.
At the quarterly meeting of the school’s board of trustees on Friday, officials unanimously agreed to extend Clements’ contract through 2026, along with pay
upgrades. Clements and his wife, Beth, have seen their family grow since he joined the university as the school’s 15th president on Dec. 31, 2013.
Their son, Tyler, is heavily involved with Clemson football recruiting, and their daughter, Grace, is now a freshman at the ClemsonLIFE program for disabled young adults.
“The years since Beth and I arrived at Clemson in
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State officials encourage shots with flu season now underway
COUNTY — September heralded the beginning of fall — but it also marked the start of flu season.
Pharmacies, doctors’ offices and vaccine providers are already administering flu shots, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) said recently.
“The quadrivalent flu vaccine that’s currently available this year protects against the four most common different flu viruses that are expected to circulate this flu
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Lady Blue Flame continue march through region
PICKENS — The Pickens High School Lady Blue Flame volleyball team defeated region opponents Westside and 
Walhalla last week, remaining undefeated in Region I-4A play.
“The Lady Blue Flame looked clean, precise and focused during our matches against Westside and Walhalla,” Pickens coach Rikki Owens said. “We were able to switch the rotations up with different lineups and play through possible scenarios that we could face during playoffs. We handled the situations and
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possible adjustments with confidence and poise and finished the task as a team.”
Against Westside Sept. 28 in the friendly confines of Coach Peggy Harden Anthony Gymnasium on the Pickens High campus, the Lady Blue Flame defeated the Westside Lady Rams in three straight sets. Playing against the Walhalla Lady Razorbacks Sept. 30, also at home, the result was the same, with the Lady Blue Flame prevailing in straight sets.
The Pickens team’s record stands at 24-3 on the season, with all three losses against Class 5A schools. They are 5-0 in region play.
The Lady Blue Flame are scheduled to play a region match this week against cross-county rival Easley High School. The match will be played Thursday at Easley, with the junior varsity match scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
On Saturday, the Lady Blue Flame are scheduled to take part in the Woodmont Pink Is Power Tournament at Woodmont High School in Piedmont.
Hagood Mill rocks
Located in the town of Pickens, Hagood Mill knows how to rock. It has rocks that are useful, remarkable and 
mysterious.
Useful rocks have been shaped into huge millstones used to grind grits and cornmeal. Remarkable rocks, like a medicine wheel and a mortar and pestle, have been gathered to form a trail of rock history. There are rocks everywhere. It is the rock that is covered with extraordinary drawings called petroglyphs that is both puzzling and mysterious.
Recently deceased archeologist Tommy Charles, one of the discoverers
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Addressing money matters
Here’s a subject I think all of us can relate to:
Money.
What, exactly, is it?
I hardly ever see any of my money. It exists only as numbers on a computer. When I buy something, the number gets smaller. When some money comes in, the number gets bigger.
Does money — hard cash — ever really move from one place to another?
It would keep a fleet of couriers bigger than the combined forces of Amazon, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service busy to tote money from here to there to account for every transaction, just in Pickens County, I imagine.
So in reality, money doesn’t exist. It’s imaginary.
What got me to thinking about this lately is the wrangling that has been going on in Congress over its idiotic practice of directing the government to spend money it doesn’t have and can’t even borrow without raising the “debt ceiling.”
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Courier Letters to the Editor 10-6-21
Much ado about nothing
Dear Editor,
Here’s something to think about.
According to some, nothing created everything. Makes no sense, since nothing made the seasons to change. Nothing made the sun to rise and set daily. Nothing made love. Nothing made life. Nothing made thought itself. Nothing made nothing, too? Nothing made you. Nothing made me. Nothing wrote this. Nothing is reading it. Nothing pays your bills. Nothing would be owed if bills did not exist. Nothing itself is something, as in it would never be, as in nonexistence, if it didn’t exist. Nothing must not exist then. Which makes no sense. Confused? Me too.
So that’s a lot of nothing for nothing not to have created it, isn’t it? Whew!
Eddie Boggs
Westminster
