The library provides in-house access to Ancestry Library, an extensive database of digitized records, and offers Heritage Quest for remote research—crucial for patrons who prefer to work from home. These tools are complemented by broader sources like FamilySearch.org and digitized collections from various state archives and historical museums, enabling research on both a local and global scale.

The airport’s secondary runway—originally paved in 1966—has become the centerpiece of current revitalization efforts. Airport Manager Brett Garrison announced that this project marks a total reconstruction, a rarity among peer facilities in the region such as Spartanburg, Greenwood, and Aiken, which have lost their secondary runways in recent years. The restoration was made possible by a grant from the state Aeronautics agency. Completion is expected by the end of December.

The last days of summer brought record crowds and new debates about growth, infrastructure, and community priorities in Anderson County, where local leaders are preparing for major shifts that could define the region’s next decade.

Westside 26, Abbeville 20

BHP 45, Chapman 0

Crescent 34, Liberty 27

T.L. Hanna 28, Mauldin 21

Pendleton 41, Carolina Academy 6

Wren 35, Woodruff 7

Bye week: Palmetto, Powdersville

Residents have until Oct. 3 at 5 p.m. to register in person at the Anderson County Board of Voter Registration and Elections. Those choosing to register online at www.scvotes.gov—requiring a South Carolina driver’s license or DMV-issued ID—must do so by midnight on Oct, 5. The same Oct. 5 midnight deadline applies to forms submitted by email or fax, while mailed registration forms must be postmarked by Oct. 6.

Belton-Honea Path (5-0) at Chapman (0-5) 

Carolina Academy (2-2) at Pendleton (1-3) 

Liberty (4-1) at Crescent (2-2) 

Mauldin (2-2) at T.L. Hanna (3-1) 

Woodruff (5-0) at Wren (2-2) 

Carolina Academy (2-2) at Pendleton (1-3) 

Off week: Palmetto, Powdersville

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.”