Archive - Mar 2011 - News Article
March 22nd
Maiden residents, employees and officials are one step closer to having a new town hall.
Maiden Town Council voted Monday night to move forward with architectural plans for a new town hall and council chambers expected to cost more than $1 million.
Council members and town officials talked about funding options for the project, which has yet to be set in stone. Officials voted Monday to proceed with architectural drawings for the new building, but they didn't set a timeline for when, or if, the facility will be completed.
The smell of fresh paint lingers in the air at H.M. Arndt Middle School in Hickory. The floors shine; the walls are clean; and the bathrooms are pristine.
For officials from Catawba County Schools, the new classrooms at Arndt Middle don't just represent a fresh start for teachers and students.
The construction projects are a way to boost the county's economy through job creation.
Bob Etheridge, North Carolina Office of Economic Recovery and Investment director, toured construction projects at three Catawba County Schools on Tuesday to see the school bond funding put to work.
A cyclist was taken to the hospital Tuesday after a car struck him from behind.
The cyclist, whose name wasn't released on the scene, was traveling on Boundary Street in Newton about 3:15 p.m. with two other cyclists.
The cyclists started to cross the intersection at Northwest Boulevard near Kentucky Fried Chicken when the male cyclist was hit from behind by a Toyota Camry. Witnesses to the incident said the man fell off his bike and on the roadway from the impact.
March 21st
A loss-prevention employee at the Conover Kmart had to choose Sunday between stopping a theft or facing a knife-wielding man.
The Kmart employee tried to stop a couple from stealing electronics from the store, but he let the couple escape after one of the suspects pulled a box knife from his pocket, said Conover Police Sgt. R.L. Clark.
The suspects remain at large after what police are calling a "shoplifting gone bad."
A dismembered 10-year-old girl. A mutilated man with a log-splitter in his stomach. A drug-fueled home invasion that left three people dead.
These grisly, high-profile crimes produced state and national headlines, but they didn't occur in some unknown, far away town. They all happened in Catawba County.
The Catawba County Sheriff's Office responded to six murders in the first three months of 2011, which is double the number of murders and non-negligent manslaughter cases in 2010.
Charges against Elisa Baker are mounting after a Catawba County Grand Jury added two more indictments Monday against the woman charged in the death of her stepdaughter.
The grand jury indicted Baker on two charges of obtaining property by false pretenses. The two indictments allege Baker illegally pawned two items she didn't own at Hickory Pawn & Gun.
The incidents allegedly occurred on Aug. 18 and Sept. 7, just weeks before Baker's stepdaughter, 10-year-old Zahra, was reported missing.
March 18th
Advance Pierre Foods is about halfway to the job-creation requirements outlined in an incentives package provided to the company when it expanded its Claremont operations last year.
The company announced a year ago this month that it will add 500 jobs and bring a $16.8-million investment to the Claremont facility on East Main Street.
The company has until December to fulfill those requirements, which means 264 jobs must be added to the facility in nine months or Pierre Foods will risk losing its incentives.
The man accused of shooting three people to death in a Conover mobile home park was assigned a new court date Thursday — one day before he was slated for a first appearance in court.
Everette Hewitt, 32, of Claremont, had his case continued to April 6, according to the Catawba County Clerk of Court's Office. Hewitt is charged with murdering three people Tuesday when he allegedly walked into a Conover mobile home and started shooting.
A portion of McDonald Parkway was closed when a truck overturned from a mechanical malfunction during a Friday-morning commute.
No one was injured in the crash, but officers closed the roadway for several hours as the North Carolina Highway Patrol investigated the incident.
UPS truck driver Daniel Stidham, 52, of Tennessee, was turning left on McDonald Parkway in Hickory about 8 a.m. when his vehicle had a mechanical failure, said Hickory Police Sgt. C. Anderson. The malfunction caused the truck to flip during the left turn, sending the truck into a guard rail and a power pole.
The Employment Security Commission of North Carolina announced Friday that the latest unemployment rates increased in almost 100 percent of the state's counties.
But that percentage could leave out some of the county's jobless, masking a higher unemployment rate than was originally projected.
Unemployment rates are based on estimates of people seeking work in the state, said Larry Parker, an ESC spokesperson.
