In the wake of the city of Westminster rejecting the golden parachute offered by Oconee County to take over its fire department, we learned in Thursday’s edition the city now plans to ask the county next year to help with some of the program costs for its recreation department that it was forced to cut in lieu of the offer.

From time to time, we like to use this space to remind readers how valuable they are to the dialogue that takes place every day in this newspaper and how exactly to go about joining the conversation.

On the day before he expected the United States to formally declare its independence, Founding Father John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that he expected the occasion to be “the most memorable epoch in the history of America.”

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there are plenty of ways to balance a budget, too.

Unlike many news outlets these days, we still focus first and foremost on our print product, with online offerings provided as a secondary service and courtesy to our subscribers. Thus, it’s not always readily apparent from online traffic and social media buzz which stories are generating the most public interest.

The decisions made by members of Westminster City Council on Monday night in order to balance their budget left us almost at a loss for words. Almost.

Clemson residents spent more than two hours this week sharing with their elected officials concerns about the city’s future, many of which you can read about on today’s front page.

We hope you have been reading our ongoing coverage of the bill passed in Columbia requiring a 7-percentage-point increase over six years in employer contributions to the state retirement plan.

There’s a saying that pride goes before a fall — an adaption from the biblical book of Proverbs — and we can’t help but think this adage applies to the budget quandary facing the city of Westminster.

There was a time when shopping locally wasn’t as much a choice as it was a necessity.

As the world continues to turn around the Pioneer Rural Water District fiasco, we learned a few more things this week about Pioneer and its management team.

On Monday, the Keowee Key community will host the Honoring Their Service program for the eighth year.

One of the many memorable adages Dabo Swinney has uttered over the years is, “It’s only unthinkable if you don’t think it.”

One of the criticisms of increasing the state’s gas tax is that a lack of oversight in the S.C. Department of Transportation makes it difficult to understand at times why certain projects get green-lighted when other roads are clearly more in need of repair.

Among the most common types of calls we get in our newsroom are those from people who believe they’ve been targeted by scammers.

When most people think of Memorial Day, they think of a three-day weekend and a chance to hit the lake or pool, relax with friends, maybe have a cookout or visit one of many local events to listen to live music.

In the spirit of the age-old question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

With the weather turning from warm to hot, and Oconee home to some of the most scenic and accessible lakes around, it’s that time of year when boat ramps around the county will be filling up with folks ready to hit the water.