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PICKENS COUNTY—S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley toured areas of Pickens County on Tuesday to give the latest news from Columbia and address some questions from local residents.

Haley made stops at Liberty Elementary and the Easley Rotary Club during her time in Pickens County.

Rotary Club President Vicky Fletcher said it was an exciting day.

“It is a red letter day for Easley Rotary,” Fletcher said. “We are a service club, and we look at how we can serve others in the community. It was great to have the Governor here talking about the issues that affect all of us.”

Former Rotary President Chris Robinson said State Sen. Larry Martin had a hand in bringing Haley to Easley.

“Senator (Larry) Martin was a huge help in working this out,” said Robinson. “About a month ago, I had contacted him about trying to get someone from the department of revenue to talk about the recent security breech. I told him that I was hoping to get a top ranking official in the department of revenue. He really worked hard to work this out.”

While speaking with the Rotary, Haley addressed issues such as hacking, the fiscal cliff, budgets and health care. The Governor took questions from local residents as well.

“One of the things that impresses me about Governor Haley is her unwavering commitment to the taxpayers bottom line,” Robinson said. “She has fought spending at every turn and has pushed for a smaller, more efficient state government. She treats our hard earned money as if it were her own.”

Haley said her day started at Liberty Elementary.

“We started in Liberty at Liberty Elementary, which is a really sweet school, and we talked about bullying and how they need to get away from it,” Haley said.

Haley then made a surprise stop at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Pickens.

“On our way to (the Easley Rotary) we did a surprise visit at the Pickens DMV. It was pretty funny actually,” Haley said. “I stopped in there because you can go on the DMV website and now you can see what the wait times are. The wait time was one minute, so we stopped to tell them thank you.”

Fletcher said it was a successful and important day.

“It was such an important day and, as you saw from the turnout, everyone was excited for her to be here,” Fletcher said. “We even had some students from Easley High School who were here and were able to ask questions. For them, this may be the experience of a lifetime.”