City of Anderson voters will head to the polls April 7 to choose a mayor and multiple City Council members, with candidate filing opening at noon today, and closing at noon January 29.

The municipal election is set for April 7, with any necessary runoff scheduled for April 21.  Anyone wishing to vote in the election or a runoff must be registered no later than March 7.

Prospective candidates must begin the filing process at the Anderson County Registration and Elections Office, 301 N. Main St., then submit the required forms and a filing fee of $300 for mayor or $200 for council to the City Clerk and Treasurer at City Hall, 401 S. Main St.

If the plan holds, the Jenkins House will not return as a sealed-off museum but as the centerpiece of a park and gardens open to anyone who wanders up the hill.  The property, once the private realm of a 19th-century doctor and his descendants, are being reimagined as common ground, where the town’s past and present meet under those enormous white oaks.

It’s an election year, and the Anderson Observer sent questions to the leadership of the county's two major political parties asking for an outline of their goals, priorities and objectives for the year.

Answers are unedited, allowing the party leadership to tell their stories in their own words.

Here are the answers from the Anderson County Republican Party

It’s an election year, and the Anderson Observer sent questions to the leadership of the county's two major political parties asking for an outline of their goals, priorities and objectives for the year. Answers are unedited, allowing the party leadership to tell their stories in their own words.

Here are the answers from the Anderson County Democratic Party.

“We’ve just tried to do what’s right,” he said. “You know, you can’t please everybody, but at least if we can’t, we try to explain why.” His priorities, he hints, circle back to these roots—bolstering education, roads, and economic lifelines for upstate communities—while navigating Columbia’s evolving currents, where the House has grown more fractious than the Senate’s steady keel.

Though the current developer is suggesting housing on the property, the new designation would that allow mixed-use developments beyond traditional rules, encouraging integrated housing, while allowing retail, offices, and institutional uses, with a goal of promoting walkability and economic development, and requiring review for each project rather than rigid categories

Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts will host the city’s 18th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast on Friday, at the Civic Center of Anderson. The free, community-wide event invites residents to come together for a morning of reflection, unity, and celebration honoring Dr. King’s enduring legacy of justice, service, and equality. Doors open at 8 a.m., and breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m.

Council will also vote on awarding an engineering services contract to Bolton & Menk for a not-to-exceed amount of $384,000 for the Downtown Greenway Connection project. Design of the extension of the Whitner Creek Greenway from the south side of the Recreation Center at Bleckley Street south along Whitner Creek to its intersection with Tribble Street, then continuing to Downtown Anderson will also include intersection safety improvements at Tribble Street and Murray Avenue. Redesign sidewalks and right-of-way along Orr Street from Textile Point across Main Street to McDuffie Street, tying into downtown revitalization are also part of the proposal.

Under Larson’s stewardship, the arts division at Anderson University evolved into the South Carolina School of the Arts—accredited in theatre, art and design, and music simultaneously, a rare feat for a faith-based institution—encompassing 27 faculty, 340 students, and programs from musical theatre to graphic design.

These gatherings fill hotels and diners, their $116 million legacy shielding locals from taking the bounty for granted— (“a lot of interest nationwide, but locally, people are sort of gotten immune,” according to Paul.) Expansion looms in 2026 with new launches and parking, a brief hiatus yielding amplified capacity.

Chapman talks about the year ahead without flourish, in the clipped cadences of someone used to agendas and shop ledgers rather than stump speeches, and his priorities for 2026 sound less like slogans than like work orders.  He wants workforce centers that are safe enough for tense conversations about jobs, a DOT that spends less time chasing its own paperwork, and a tax code that acknowledges the electric cars already gliding past the state’s gas pumps.

Phillips said the combination of music, news, and real‑time weather alerts is meant to fill a void in local broadcasting and give Anderson County residents a station that reflects their own lives.  With 94.9 WALH now audible across more of the county and WSAC on the way, he hopes listeners will come to see Anderson’s only local FM station as both a daily habit and a vital part of the area’s safety network.

Owners Hamid and K.D. Mohsseni are retiring after more than 30 years as a community fixture which provided not only a blend of casual and upscale dining, but a familiar gathering place.

The Population Element of the Comprehensive Plan analyzes historic and current population and demographic trends and provides reasonable population projections to help formulate policy decisions through the lifespan of the Plan.

Anderson County Council kicked off the new year with an agenda focused squarely on growth and development Tuesday night, adopting an updated comprehensive plan and new communication measures designed to improve transparency between staff, council members, and the public.

Department of Motor Vehicles offices across the state began offering the commemorative plate last week as one of its two standard options, coinciding with this year’s 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.

The tag replaced the decade-old, blue-and-white plate with the state’s motto, “While I breathe, I hope,” printed above a Palmetto tree. Those license plates will remain valid until their expiration date, according to the DMV.

If approved by the state Public Service Commission, residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month — considered the industry standard — would see another $20 tacked on to their current monthly bill, Dominion’s regulatory manager John Raftery told the SC Daily Gazette. That would take average bills from about $157 a month to just shy of $177, starting in July 2026.

Revenue estimates updated in November provided the Legislature nearly $2.5 billion in additional money to spend in the fiscal year starting July 1. That breaks down to $1.7 billion in unspent reserves and above-expectation tax collections so far this year — meant for one-time expenses — and $734 million from continued economic growth available for ongoing expenses, according to the state Board of Economic Advisors.

The agenda’s most forward-looking item, though, sit at second reading: Part I of the 2026 Comprehensive Plan, timed to the county’s 2026 bicentennial and written in the wonkish cadences of planners who have spent a year counting rooftops and traffic counts. The plan, covering population, housing, land use, community facilities, and a priority investment element, is framed as both birthday toast and warning label—acknowledging that Anderson, now over 220,000 residents strong and pressed by spillover from Greenville, must decide, quickly, whether it wants to be a diffuse exurban blur or something more deliberately arranged.

This year will mark a remarkable milestone as Anderson County celebrates its 200th birthday, with the Anderson County Museum rightly at the helm of the commemorations. A downtown parade, a new book chronicling the county’s story, and special programs will unfold under its watchful eye, a fitting role for what has been called the finest museum in the state