Western Piedmont Community College broke ground Friday, for the new Mechatronics Building on the main campus of WPCC. The single story-story 7,000 square-foot building, is located near Breeden and Rostan Halls and includes two labs, two related classrooms, a support room and conference room. The new Mechatronics Building will house both a modernized, Industrial Systems Technology program and the new Mechatronics Engineering Technology program at WPCC. Both programs feature a mixture of different areas of study, focusing on robotics, authomation and programmable logic controllers which are used in a variety of industrial settings. The building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017.

About 10:45 Saturday night, Hickory firefighters were dispatched to a reported fire located at 713 Old Lenoir Road. Firefighters reported heavy amounts of smoke coming from eaves of the building. No injuries were reported and the building sustained heavy fire damage to the upper level and water damage to the basement section. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A Burke County man is charged with felony armed robbery. The Burke County Sheriff's Office Friday night, arrested 31-year-old Brandon Kelly Fox of Morganton. He was placed in the Burke Catawba District Confinement Facility under a secured bond of $200,000. A District Court appearance is scheduled for today.

The Caldwell County Veterans Service Office will be closed today through Friday, while the staff attends a training conference. Anyone needing assistance regarding claims during this time may contact the VA Regional Office at 1-800-827-1000. More general information can be found at the VA website at www.va.gov.