COVID-19 Update

Positive cases of COVID-19 continue to mount locally as Burke County reports 14 new cases, bringing the county’s total to 341.

The state department of health and human services reports there are 24-thousand-628 individuals across NC who’ve tested positive for the virus.

Burke County’s public information line remains manned Monday through Friday from 8 am until 5 pm for those having questions; 764-9388.

You can also visit the Burke County COVID-19 webpage at burkenc-dot-org-slash COVID-19.

10 new cases of Covid-19 was reported in Catawba County yesterday bringing the

total to 181.  Of that number 29 have recovered and four are hospitalized.  In

Caldwell County, six new cases were reported yesterday bringing their total to

120.  61 have recovered and 6 are hospitalized.  McDowell County now has 46

positive Covid cases with 28 recovered.

New Jobs to Burke

Unix Packaging, with headquarters in Montebello, California has announced they

will open an East Coast facility in Morganton.  The company will locate in a facility

formerly operated by Ice River Springs at 100 Ceramic Tile Drive.  The company,

which manufactures branded and private label beverages, will create at least 151

new jobs by the end of 2022 and approximately 226 jobs over the next five years. 

Employees will be sought to work as operators, forklift drivers, shipping

specialists, mechanics and office workers.  The average annual salary will be

around thirty nine thousand dollars per year.  The current Burke County average

salary is $ 36 thousand, 8 hundred per year.

Boone Town Council Votes to Strike COVID-19 Amendment

Unix Packaging, with headquarters in Montebello, California has announced they

will open an East Coast facility in Morganton.  The company will locate in a facility

formerly operated by Ice River Springs at 100 Ceramic Tile Drive.  The company,

which manufactures branded and private label beverages, will create at least 151

new jobs by the end of 2022 and approximately 226 jobs over the next five years. 

Employees will be sought to work as operators, forklift drivers, shipping

specialists, mechanics and office workers.  The average annual salary will be

around thirty nine thousand dollars per year.  The current Burke County average

salary is $ 36 thousand, 8 hundred per year.

Lake Hickory Rotary Club Scholarships

The Rotary Club of Lake Hickory has awarded four scholarships, amounting to a

total of twenty thousand dollars towards higher education for graduating seniors

from high schools in Catawba County.  L’Asia Heard from Hickory High School,

who will be attending Lenoir-Rhyne University, Tamia Sloan from Hickory High

School, who will be attending Campbell University, Anna Kirby from Maiden High

School, who will be attending the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and

Bryan Fernandez from Newton-Conover High School, who will be attending

Catawba Valley Community College, will be honored at a lunch at the Lake Hickory

Country Club when the Covid-19 guidelines allow the club to meet.

Burke Mask Maker

What began as a project initiated by a former Burke County school’s student has taken off to form a partnership with school system staff to manufacture N-95 masks.

Aiman Hussein is a 2017 graduate of Patton High and is now a junior at NC State, majoring in technology design and education.

After returning home to Morganton as the university was closed because of the pandemic, Hussein wanted to use his skills to help his community.

He has started 3-D printing masks inside his home, with the assistance of his senior project mentor Paul Gantt.

A news release says Gantt sought approval to use some of the school’s 3-D printers in order to help Hussein.

Hussein’s masks have been shipped to multiple different countries as well as throughout the US.

McDowell Man Missing

Authorities in McDowell County are looking for a Marion man last seen at his residence on May 21^st.

50-year-old Brian Wesley Berry was reportedly seen around 5 pm that evening at his home on Dwight Berry Road.

He is described as a white male, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds and has brown hair and green eyes.

Anyone having information concerning Berry’s whereabouts should call the McDowell Sheriff’s Office at 652-2235.