A report issued by Beck & Beck Missouri Car Accident Lawyers found that South Carolina experienced an average of 110 state highway crashes per million residents—139% higher than the national average of 46. The state, with a population of roughly 5.2 million, recorded an annual average of 575 crashes, and in 2021 suffered its worst year, with 629 collisions. Only in 2019 did numbers dip, reaching a five-year low of 537 crashes.

In Anderson County, the situation is little better. One-third of all bridges in the county cannot be traversed by a fire truck or school bus, while one-third of all the county’s 1,554 miles of roads are in failed or failing condition.

Library cards are free to anyone who lives, works, owns property, or goes to school in Anderson County. The library card brings not only access to books, but digital offerings, including: eBooks and digital magazines, audiobooks, movies, concerts, and lectures with (also free) Libby, Hoopla, and Flipster apps. The Anderson County Library System also offers passes to S.C. State Parks, the Children’s Museum of the Upstate, book club kits, fishing equipment, learning tablets for children, and even free seeds for gardeners.

Every year, as September tips toward October, the people of the Southern Appalachians and South Carolina’s Upstate wait for a kind of small miracle: the slow ignition of the forests into flame. It is never the same twice. Some years are muted—bronzes and browns washed flat by too much rain. Other years seem sharper, more alive: maple crowns burning with the unlikely clarity of a painter’s palette, sourwoods drenched in wine-colored reds.

Depot Days, the town’s signature celebration, will take place Oct. 10-11 and is expected to draw more than 1,000 visitors downtown. The two-day festival will feature concerts, a classic car show with roughly 100 entries, and more than 80 craft, food and art vendors.

“It’s the big event of the year,” said Tim Taylor, Iva’s town manager. “People keep it on their calendar. It started decades ago as a way to honor Iva’s railroad and textile heritage, and it has grown into one of our community’s proudest traditions.”

The museum is embarking on a rather modern experiment beginning Saturday with the debut of two new features that might, at first glance, seem like a break from its established narrative. The first is a hands-on room for children, dubbed “The SPARK Station” (an acronym for STEM, Play, Assemble, and Research for Kids), which aims to make problem-solving and scientific inquiry as engaging as any historical reenactment. The second is a colossal, thirty-inch plasma globe, which, according to Museum Director Beverly Childs, will introduce “blue lightning’” to the museum’s exhibit on turbines and textiles.

Belton Honea Path 49, Palmetto 0

Prince Avenue Christian 59, Westside 34

Crescent 59, Ninety Six 21

T.L. Hanna 22, Greenwood 21

Broome 43, Powdersville 45

Bye week: Pendleton, Wren

For West Pelzer Mayor James Riddle, autumn means more than football and cooler weather. It marks the busiest season of the year, with a lineup of festivals, community gatherings and small-town politics that reflect both the traditions and growing pains for his town.

“Fall is the season for most municipalities, and it definitely is for West Pelzer,” said Riddle in an interview with the Anderson Observer, rattling off a calendar of events that begins with a weekly senior gathering and stretches to Christmas lights and parades.

In a move to aimed at reviving a local cultural hub, the Honea Path Arts Center has officially reopened its doors, now under the direction of Amy Moore. The center, a long-standing feature of the community, aims to become a space for local artists and residents of all ages.

Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts is working with the city to continue work on a long list of civic projects moving into autumn. From the paving of Main Street downtown, to new housing, where the city is preparing for one of its most ambitious expansions in memory, things are on the move in Anderson.

The most visible priority for many downtown residents and business owners is the long-awaited repaving of Main Street. Roberts said most of the underground utility work — water, sewer, and fiber optic lines — is now complete, and the city is preparing for the final stage.

The state constitution protects an individual’s right to vote. But “there are no constitutional provisions or statutes that pertain to, prohibit, or limit partisan gerrymandering in the congressional redistricting process in South Carolina,” wrote Justice George James in the majority opinion signed on to by justices John Few and Letitia Verdin.

Honea Path’s Watkins Community Center will officially reopen its art space this week, marking a new chapter for a program that has been a cornerstone of the community for more than two decades. 

The Honea Path Arts Center, which will now be run by local volunteers and community leaders, will hold its grand opening on Thursday beginning at 6:15 p.m., at the Watkins Community Center. 

In a move aimed at managing the county's rapid expansion, the Anderson County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved on second reading of a temporary ban on new housing developments. The measure, which takes effect immediately, places a 90-day moratorium on any residential project in unincorporated areas that includes more than four housing units.

At the Sept. 4 council meeting, members of council said the decision comes as county officials grapple with the strain that recent growth has placed on local infrastructure. The ordinance is a direct result of the county's ongoing effort to update its Comprehensive Plan and development codes. The moratorium will give county officials and a hired consultant, CodeWright Planners, time to review existing rules and recommend amendments that better manage future growth.

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." ― Harry S. Truman in Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950

New housing at Pendleton Lofts, future plans for the old Riverside School, paving needs, sewer updates and events leading into the fall and holidays are all propelling growth in the Town of Pendleton.

The town is working with Anderson School Dist. 4 and Tri-County Technical College on a plan for the future of the historic Riverside Middle School building which will be vacated with the middle school moves into the current high school building next year. Built in 1954 as part of a sweeping state plan to provide newer, higher-quality schools to Black students during the segregated era, Riverside occupies both a literal and figurative corner in Pendleton’s civic imagination.

“It’s a great facility,” said Pendleton Mayor Frank Crenshaw. “We want to see it become something really positive for the community, not just that side of town, but all of Pendleton.”

Veteran Sports Journalist Cobb Oxford put together a team of experts to discuss the history of the Clemson vs. South Carolina Football rivalry recently at the Anderson County Museum.

The Clemson-South Carolina football rivalry is memorable for its depth of tradition, wild stories, and impact on generations of South Carolinians. The annual contest is not simply a game — it’s a day when lines are drawn, allegiances are reaffirmed, and the entire state stops to watch history unfold.

The panel included Tim Bourret, former Clemson Sports Information Director and considered by many to be a walking encyclopedia of Clemson football, Filmmaker Chris White, writer and producer of the documentary “Bragging Rites: The Carolina-Clemson Rivalry,” and Veteran Sports Journalist Rudy Jones.

Moving into the last months of the year, Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess is presiding over something that looks like major steps toward growth in the town.

A new restaurant reopening, a housing subdivision rising up, the promise of a new national retailer on the horizon all are welcome. MVPizza, once a dependable mainstay for Friday nights and family dinners, has been resurrected with a new owner and a redesigned interior. The walls are lined with photographs of Palmetto High School athletes—Most Valuable Players memorialized in black-and-white and color, a nod both earnest and clever to hometown nostalgia.

These atmospheres matter. They matter because the town’s economic lifeblood, strangely enough, flows through its kitchens and dining tables. More than $15 million in food sales pass through Williamston each year, yielding over $300,000 in hospitality taxes—numbers Burgess cites with both amusement and conviction.

New businesses are signals of growth as the City of Belton moves into fall.

 "We have two exciting businesses that are very close to being here," said Belton Mayor Eleanor Dorn. One of them, a business already located in Anderson County, plans to relocate to Belton's city limits, bringing up to 100 jobs. The other is a Zaxby’s franchise, which has received corporate approval and is ready to break ground once a final logistical detail is resolved.

The new industrial facility, Eastern Engineered Wood Products, is now under construction, and the town is working to secure two other major projects.

T.L. Hanna 40, Wren 27        

BHP 42, Westside 6

Powdersville 35, Pendleton 7

MVP 41, Crescent 19

Liberty 42, Palmetto 19

In the small, historic town of Pelzer, a quiet battle is being waged over its identity. At the heart of it are three aging structures, remnants of the town's mill history, that Mayor Will Ragland is fighting to save and restore. Ragland views their preservation not just as an act of historical stewardship but as a key to securing the town’s financial future.

For years, the town has faced a familiar struggle for places built around a single industry: how to maintain a sense of history while charting a path forward. According to Ragland, Pelzer has found a compelling answer in its own past.

"One of the many things that makes Pelzer unique is its history," Ragland said in a recent interview. "It's important to save the last few original buildings we have."

South Carolina can begin giving voter information to the federal government, the state Supreme Court said in a Thursday opinion.

The six-page opinion overturned a circuit court judge’s decision last week that the state must hold onto its data on 3.3 million registered voters — including names, birthdays, addresses, drivers’ license numbers and final digits of Social Security numbers — while a lawsuit plays out over privacy concerns.