Burke County Commissioners held a special meeting Friday, in order to consider construction options and cost estimates surrounding the proposed Burke County Justice Center project. Lead architect and consultant for the project, Jack Hemphill, presented the Board with three variants for the proposed Justice Center, including an option to build only a jail facility on Government Drive in Morganton. Burke County Commissioners agreed to explore an option which would best suit the needs of both County tax payers and the local bureaucracy. Commissioner Jeffrey Brittain made a motion to look at the "single jail facility" construction plan close, at the next Board meeting tomorrow night. The motion passed 4 to 1.

A high-tech manufacturer will expand in Catawba County. GKN Sinter Metals,LLC announced Friday, that it plans to create 55 new manufacturing jobs in the next five years and invest $19.8 million in the city of Conover to expand its' state-of-the art aluminum manufacturing facility. Salaries for the new jobs vary by position, but the average annual salary of the new jobs will be $46,078. The average wage in Catawba County is $36,770. The project was made possible in part by a performance-based grant from the One North Carolina Fund of up to $109,500. In addition, the North Carolina Rural Infrastructure Awarded the City of Conover a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $600,000 to support the building of an industrial access road and extension of public water and sewerlines to support this project.

There was grand opening Saturday, for a $5 million high speed, detachable, six passenger chairlift from the base to the summit of Sugar Mountain. The Resort Summit Express is nearly a mile long. it will take just five minutes to reach Sugar Mountain's 5,300 foot peak. The chairlift will carry just over 2,500 people per hour.