Wednesday, February 12, 2026
News
New Bookmobile to Hit the Road in March
For almost 90 years, the Anderson County Library, not content with providing a beacon of learning throughout the communities it serves, has taken their mission to the streets. Beginning in March, they will have a shiny new Bookmobile to make this goal even more complete.
S.C. Law Enforcement Leaders Ask Lawmakers to Ban THC Hemp Products
South Carolina law enforcement chiefs are urging legislators to reject a freshman lawmaker’s proposal to regulate, not ban, intoxicating hemp products for people like his son, who uses them to treat seizures.
It’s a bad idea, according to leaders of the State Law Enforcement Division and associations representing police chiefs and sheriffs across South Carolina, whose letters to House leaders were shared Monday with all 124 members.
Legislative Delegation Replaces ACTC Member, Oks Green Pond Funding
The Anderson County Transportation Committee is a seven-member, volunteer panel that decides how a share of the roughly $4 received from South Carolina’s gasoline-tax “C‑funds” is spent on local road and transportation work in Anderson County. It partners with the state Department of Transportation to select and prioritize projects such as paving, resurfacing, intersection and small bridge upgrades, drainage and sidewalk work, ensuring money goes to the most pressing needs on both state highways and local roads.
City Move Paves Way for Rural King on Old Sears Property at Anderson Mall
Rural King has added an Anderson location to its official website, a digital placeholder for a store that does not yet exist. Job postings have begun to appear—department leads in livestock and agriculture, among others—suggesting an interior less concerned with mannequins and more with mineral blocks, gate hardware, and fifty‑pound sacks of feed. Local commercial real‑estate notices have confirmed what the council’s vote implies: the mall’s western anchor is being drafted into a new life, with tractors where the Kenmore washing machines once rested.
Michael Mance: A Profile of Creative Energy
Recently the community has shined a brighter light on his efforts as a businessman and community leader. Last year was a busy year for Mance, who was selected to serve on the Anderson Capital Projects Sales Tax Commission where he worked to identify and refine what efforts where most needed and where relating to Anderson County roads and bridges. The Andersonian was recognized by the Greenville Chamber of as owner of the Minority Business of the Year, and, with his father, Small Business of the Year.
City to Look at Annexation for New Apartments, Rebirth of Sears Site
Anderson City Council will meet Monday at 6 p.m. to take up a slate of land-use and software-contract decisions that collectively point to how the city is managing growth at its edges while tightening up its internal operations. The agenda features final approval of a church-driven rezoning on McLees Road, two new annexation requests tied to commercial and residential projects on the city’s west side, a three‑year, six‑figure renewal of the city’s asset‑management software, and a resolution that would help unlock state tax credits for the redevelopment of a long‑abandoned North Main Street retail site.
Task Force Hopes for Additional Partners in Providing more Shelter, Services
Anderson is lagging behind Greenville and Spartanburg in the number of shelter beds available to people with nowhere else to go, a deficit that shows up in the small, human‑sized ways that are difficult to digest from a spreadsheet—where a person spends the night after a relapse, how far a woman fleeing violence has to travel to find a bed that isn’t already taken. The task force estimates that Anderson needs roughly 150 additional beds just to catch up, and has coalesced around the idea of recruiting a seasoned operator rather than improvising one from scratch.
Champions Center Heroic Efforts Help Children, Families
The Champions Center calls itself a therapeutic day center, but that phrase doesn’t quite capture the density of need concentrated in its classrooms. The facility is a therapeutic day center for children living with special needs, disabilities, or medically complex conditions
They not only get specialized care while they’re there, they also get their therapies, disciplines that, in other contexts, exist as separate appointments on different days in different offices—are folded into a single daily routine.
“Rock the Country” Cancels Summer Visit to Anderson, Other Towns
The country-music roadshow that billed itself as a small-town celebration of American grit will not be coming back to Anderson this summer.
S.C. Tightens DUI Laws
Namely, the bipartisan legislation adds a layer of penalties when the intoxicated driver injures, rather than kills, someone to the point they lose consciousness or have to undergo anesthesia to be treated. It also toughens punishments, removes tripwires where charges get dismissed over videotaping issues and prods people to submit to breathalyzer and blood testing.
Some Railroad Crossings in County to Close During March Repairs
To help residents, businesses, and local governments track the work, CSX and its contractor are using a fully interactive Google map that provides daily, real-time updates on each impacted crossing. As the project progresses, users can zoom in on Anderson or Greenville County, click any map icon, and see the latest information for that specific crossing at any time of day.
County Council Moves Ahead on ATAX Bond, Solar Farm Restrictions
Anderson County Council on Tuesday moved forward with several measures aimed at better planning for accommodation tax funds (ATAX), protecting land development, regulating solar farms, new ethics restrictions and parental leave policies.
S.C. House Bill Would Allow Parents More Control Over Teen Education/Health Care
The bill “affirms and protects the fundamental rights of parents” by increasing the age when teens can start bypassing their supervision, Rep. Heath Sessions, who leads the panel that first voted on the proposal, said in explanation.
Existing state law sets 16 as the age when teenagers can make decisions about their health care, unless it involves a non-lifesaving surgery.
PSC Commission Hears from Critics, Proponents of Proposed Anderson Gas Power Plant
More than 200 citizens gathered Monday night at the Anderson Civic Center for a South Carolina Public Service Commission hearing on Duke Energy’s proposal to build a 1,365-megawatt natural gas power plant in Southern Anderson County. The $3.2 billion facility, sited on nearly 200 acres near Highway 81 South and True Temper Road, would be Duke’s first new generation project in South Carolina in a decade. If approved, construction would begin in summer 2027, with operations commencing by early 2031.
City of Anderson Elections Include Challenges for Mayor, Dist. 5 Seat
On April 7, two of the city’s races will be contested, and a third will be settled without a fight. A single candidate has also stepped forward to claim the council seat left vacant by Luis Gonzalez, who resigned in December, leaving District 2 temporarily without a representative and City Hall with one more empty nameplate in its chamber.
Council to Consider Bond to Overhaul Civic Center
Anderson County Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday at the Historic Courthouse with a crowded agenda that includes a bond to overhaul the civic center amphitheater, development regulations, solar farm restrictions, and with decisions likely to shape growth, employee benefits and tourism spending for years to come.
County Looks Ahead in Preparing for Storm, Growth
Burns said the choice is not between growth and stasis but between managed growth and decline.
“You could be in a county in South Carolina where there’s nothing to do, there’s no development, and either you move or you are too poor to move, and it’s just not a good situation,” said Burns. Council’s task, he said, is to walk that line in full public view, wrestling with the same pressures that confront “every council in South Carolina in the growing areas.”
S.C. Legislators Restore $1K Monthly Allowance
The allowance is meant to cover expenses of the job outside the Statehouse. Legislators tried to approve their first pay increase in 30 years as part of the state budget. An amendment inserted during floor debate in the Senate raised that monthly pay from $1,000 to $2,500 — in other words, from $12,000 to $30,000 yearly.
McMaster’s Says “Think Big” in Final State of the State
Gov. Henry McMaster in his final State of the State address Wednesday urged legislators to build on past efforts with more money for roads, deeper cuts to income taxes and universal full-day kindergarten for 4-year-olds, saying an excellent education for all children is essential to keep South Carolina thriving.
South Carolina’s longest-serving governor used his ninth speech to the General Assembly to celebrate the initiatives he successfully advocated for during his tenure. Those triumphs include pay raises for teachers and law enforcement, funding for police officers in every school, 400,000 acres of land conserved across the state and scholarships offering free tuition to some 120,000 South Carolinians attending the state’s technical colleges.
Weekend Snow Looking Likely
For Anderson and the adjoining foothills, more than two inches appears not just possible but likely, while heavier, localized bands may carve narrow corridors of deeper accumulation, in the sort of arbitrary favoritism that winter storms are known to show.