Nearby Balloon Hill is home to this year’s weekend of free events and fund raising. Starting today, this year features three days of hot-air balloons, fireworks, drones, music, food, vendors, livestock, a Scottish Highland cow, a color run, a motorcycle ride by U.S. Combat Veterans and, possibly, a pie-eating contest.

“The partnership between Anderson County and TTI/Ryobi has been constantly growing and beneficial to the citizens of Anderson County,” said Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns. “This is another wonderful addition and we welcome Milwaukee to our community.

The Cancer Association of Anderson’s “Hot Air Affair: Rising Above Cancer” returns Friday through Sunday to the Anderson Civic Center Balloon Launch Field, for a free event which combines the pleasures of a balloon festival — flights, glows, tethered rides, food, music, vendors and spectacle — with the less visible but more consequential work of supporting local people living with cancer.

Piedmont is divided by the river in more than the cartographic sense. It made the community possible, powering the textile mills that turned a rural crossing into an influential industrial town. But the river also split Piedmont in two counties, leaving the community subject to two sets of governments, two tax bases, two sets of priorities and, often, two versions of what should happen next.

Last year, Anderson County’s turkey distributions sometimes unfolded as competing acts of kindness as churches, nonprofits and other charitable organizations gave away holiday food on the same days and at the same hours only to witness some families in need drove from one site to another collecting multiple food supplies, leaving others without.

Council will also consider, on first reading, an ordinance which would bring zoning to the Broadview Voting Precinct. Anderson County’s precinct-based zoning system requires residents in a voting precinct to approve a zoning map before it becomes effective there. The Broadview item will be the council’s first formal step toward adopting that map. If approved, the measure would go to voters of the precinct in November.

Burns also said Anderson County continues to see substantial economic-development activity, including interest from foreign companies. Recent and potential investments include companies from Hungary and Germany, he said, particularly in the “sweet spot” of operations with roughly 50 to 250 employees.

At the Anderson Christmas Lights Village, where winter is announced illuminated trees, glowing displays and holiday music, the 2026 Anderson Jeep Extravaganza transformed the grounds into a temporary republic of off-road vehicles and people who admire them. There were Jeep owners who had come to show their vehicles, Jeep owners who had come to compete for trophies, Jeep clubs, independent enthusiasts, families and supporters. There was also a larger purpose beneath the chrome and the duck collections: raising money for Anderson County Special Olympics athletes.

Pendleton 45, Easley 42

Crescent 37, Palmetto 20

T.L. Hanna 30, Powdersville 7

Daniel 45, Belton Honea Path 7

Jefferson 55, Westside 21

Bear Woods, Westside: Offensive Player Of The Week

Myles Cowart, Powdersville: Offensive Lineman Of The Week

Isiah Stowers, Pendleton: Defensive Player Of The Week

Zy West, T.L. Hanna: Defensive Lineman Of The Week

Corban Lack, T.L.Hanna : Special Teams Player Of The Week

Coach Grayson Howell, Pendleton, Coach of the Week

Anderson Area Touchdown Club Award Winners for games from August 21:

Bear Woods, Westside: Offensive Player Of The Week

Myles Cowart, Powdersville: Offensive Lineman Of The Week

Isiah Stowers, Pendleton: Defensive Player Of The Week

Zy West, T.L. Hanna: Defensive Lineman Of The Week

Corban Lack, T.L.Hanna : Special Teams Player Of The Week

Coach Grayson Howell, Pendleton, Coach of the Week

With the passage of directed funding, or earmark, legislation by the South Carolina General Assembly, Anderson County has secured $8,008,422 in approved legislative community-investment projects for the coming appropriations cycle, spread across 10 jurisdictions. The funding will touch roads, parks, fire departments, municipal buildings, water lines, public safety equipment and veterans’ services.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District announced Wednesday it is imposing long-term restrictions on how high Hartwell Lake may rise because of a structural concern at the Clemson Lower Diversion Dam Saddle Dike, an earthen barrier associated with the lake’s flood-control system. The Corps maintains there is no immediate danger to the public, but its most recent Dam Safety Program evaluation found that the dike’s condition does not meet the agency’s acceptable risk standards.

“Our goal is to make sure no one forgets,” said Anderson County Councilman Greg Elgin, who also serves as chief of the Rock Springs Fire Department. “We want them to remember. We especially want to make sure the younger generation remembers.”

The city has characterized the project as an improvement to the existing street and Heritage Plaza rather than an expansion of the park. What people walking downtown will notice is the removal of a lingering in-between space — part roadway, part event venue, part unfinished edge — and its replacement with a permanent gathering place.

Its next free virtual training class begins Sept. 15, and applications are due Sept. 1. The program is seeking adults from the Upstate and across South Carolina to serve as Guardians ad Litem — court-appointed advocates for children navigating Family Court after allegations of abuse or neglect.

In Anderson County, Norman received 11,362 votes, or 57.27 percent of the vote to Graham’s 8,479 42.73 percent. Turnout in the county was just over 16 percent.

That water still rises in the town’s Mineral Springs Park, beneath a gazebo in the shade of large trees. People still come down for a drink as children pass through the park. At Christmas, visitors drive or walk among it to visit the holiday lights and decorations. The spring is so familiar that it is more than a relic at the center of an old municipal landscape. It’s the reason the town exists at all.

The consultant, who has built fire stations across the Upstate as well as in Georgia and Utah, is tasked with creating a scope for a final budget with maximum price guarantees for the new station which will serve the growing population of the area.

At its heart, the new ordinance is an attempt to turn a growing city’s ambitions into enforceable rules. Across 279 pages, it combines zoning, subdivision, land-use, parking, signs, landscaping, tree preservation, historic preservation and approval procedures into one code, a single operating manual for how the Electric City may grow. The draft, prepared by Houseal Lavigne and dated July 10, 2026, would be effective immediately if approved by council.

The Spring Water Festival may be Williamston’s signature gathering, but the park’s calendar does not linger in one season for long. Halloween’s Boo in the Park is next, followed by the town’s Christmas celebrations, which Burgess said grow “bigger, bigger, bigger” each year.