Overcrowding has become an issue at Mountain Crest Elementary School and the Burke County Board of Education held a public town hall meeting Tuesday night at Walter Johnson Middle School to discuss possible options. Superintendent Larry Putnam presented ideas that staff at Mountain Crest and Walter Johnson had voiced, but wanted to give the community a chance to voice their opinions. Options for consideration include making WJMS a K-5 elementary school for the 2017 year, move 5th grade MCES to WJMS beginning in the fall(WJMS becomes a 4-8 school), move 4th and 5th grade MCES to WJMS 2017 school year, make WJMS a K-8 the 2017 year or reopen Mountain View Elementary possibly in 2017. The current student population at Mountain Crest is 565 students with a building capacity of 387. WJMS currently holds 454 students and has a building capacity of 800. Putnam said the overcrowding is a direct result of the workforce in the community and can be correlated with economic and population trends in the county.

A true bill of indictment was returned, Tuesday, by the Catawba County Grand Jury for a Caldwell County man accused of a double murder that occured last week in Hickory. 22 year old Eric Terril Yount of Granite Falls, was indicted on two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of 22 year old Richelle Scott Lail of Hudson and 28 year old Cody William Watts of Hickory. Victoria Jayne has been appointed to represent Yount, who had no prior criminal record. He remains incarcerated in the Catawba County Detention Center without bond.