Burke County Sheriff Steve Whisenant participated in a group of sheriff's and sheriff's personnel from across the state to develop training materials that will help places of worship create security plans to keep citizens safe during their worship services. The group's goal was to prepare materials to be used by sheriff's and their personnel to train places of worship to develop security plans designed to minimize harm done in the event of an active shooter. This week, the training materials were distributed to all 100 NC sheriff's for their use locally in their counties. Leaders of churches and places of worship in Burke County who wish to learn more about the training should contact Sheriff Whisenant at 764-7504.

Beginning today, McDowell along with11 other counties, now have the ability to bill directly to the state and state-run mental health facilities to get reimbursed for their transport services. For the past several years, some NC counties have experimented with allowing EMS personnel to transport patients with mental issues directly to an psychiatric facility-thereby bypassing hospital emergency rooms, where they end up sitting for days. Reports say the state budget allocated $225,000 for a yearlong pilot program to gather data on the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of direct transport.