Caldwell County News

TOPIC Victoria Rieffel uses a mixer to blend ingredients while making goat milk soap during Thursday's DIY day with the 4-H club at the N.C. Cooperative Extension office in Lenoir.

Unlike most communities, there are no mailboxes dotting the landscape. There is no door-to-door mail delivery in the town that straddles the Burke and Caldwell County line.

On weekends for about the past six months, volunteers have been making their way to Zacks Fork Road in Lenoir, hauling shovels and picks and rakes in the woods, working to create a first for Caldwell County - a trail built specifically for mountain-biking.

TOPIC Mary Laws lifts a spoonful of gloop out of a bowl as her grandson Xander Law holds his hand out to catch it during the "Make a Mess" craft program held Wednesday afternoon at the Lenoir library.

A Patterson man took home the top prize in the Golden 7's scratch-off lottery game with a $150,000 winning ticket.

TOPIC Gracie Goble, a competitor in the youth division blackberry eating contest, digs into a bowl during last year's North Carolina Blackberry Festival.

TOPIC Brian Phelps gave the upstairs to his grandchildren so they could have a place to play and sleep when they come to visit.

Dottie Lloyd said, "It means celebrating the men who served our country. My husband was one of them.

The N.C. Health and Human Services says that the state is "on its way to having one of the most efficient Medicaid processing systems in the nation," but social services workers in Caldwell County are still working overtime and fighting computer issues that continue to plague processing of Medicaid applications.

Willard Blevins with a toy monkey and gun. At one time, a live monkey made the rounds with him in Caldwell County.

Caldwell County's high schools set a new record graduation rate this year as 90.9 percent of the students who entered as freshmen four years ago graduated in May, according to unofficial figures the Caldwell County Schools reported to the state.

Blevins was the person everyone had seen walking local streets dressed as Superman, Batman, a gorilla, Elvis Presley, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Spiderman, an Indian, Johnny Cash or Cher, to name several.

You weren't suffering from blurred vision Wednesday, and there wasn't a forest fire anywhere filling Caldwell County's air with smoke.

At Monday's Board of Education work session, the board unanimously approved the appointment of Chris Ackerman as the new principal of Oak Hill School.

Steven Wayne Patton, 22, of Lenoir, was arrested on drug and firearms charges this week, according to the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office.

Liquid oozed. Soda exploded. Balloons floated around the room. On Tuesday afternoon, the Lenoir branch of the Caldwell County Public Library became a laboratory for young mad scientists.

Nearly two years ago Lee Laney, 79, suffered a heart attack and now struggles to walk due to poor blood circulation, so he was in dire need of a wheelchair ramp to get in and out of his house.

The number of Caldwell County residents looking for work surged in May by about 300, so the local unemployment rate rose even though the number of people with jobs went up by more than 100, according to figures released Tuesday by the N.C. Department of Commerce.

UPDATE 9:05: According to Washington County Sheriff's Office, Smith crashed the 1998 brown Toyota runner a little after 8:00 p.m. during a police chase in Washington County, VA.

Lenoir-based pharmaceutical company Exela Pharma Sciences recently bought two adjoining properties on Morganton Boulevard, a total of 9.48 acres, for just over $1 million.