Special Called BOE Meeting  

The Burke County Board of Education will have a Special Called Meeting

tonight at 6 o’clock, to act on the appointment of the next Superintendent

of Burke County Public Schools. The meeting will held in the Olive Hill Room

at the Olive Hill Resource Center on West Concord Street in Morganton.

April Unemployment Figures  

The April unemployment rate for the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metro

area was 4.2 percent. Area county rates include Burke at 4%, Avery 3.5%,

Caldwell 4.5%, Catawba 4.3% and McDowell at 3.9%, according to last

week’s news release from the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Caldwell Office Manager Pleads Guilty in Federal Court  

A Caldwell Office Manager pleads guilty in federal court to embezzling

more than $1 million dollars from his former employer. 55-year-old

Richard Allen Clark of Lenoir, pleaded guilty last week in the Western

District of North Carolina. From 2013 to 2019, Clark, as an office manager

for two family owned businesses in Lenoir, was responsible for bookkeeping

and financial records, making payments to vendors and the IRS and

reconciling the companies’ financial records, and used his position to

embezzle the money. 

Statutory Rape Charge  

An Eastern Burke County man is charged with Felony Statutory Rape of a

Person Under the Age of 15 or Younger. Last week Burke Detectives began

an investigation that resulted in the arrest of 21-year-old Branden Lee McCall

of Connelly Springs. He was held at the Burke County Jail under a secured

bond of $200,000. The Department of Social Services assisted the Burke

County Sheriff’s Office in the case.