The Top 10 Stories of 2023: Looking back at the events and issues that shaped Burke County

2023 saw the birth in Burke County of a brand new locally owned, locally managed newspaper that focuses exclusively on local news.

It’s been an exciting first year for us as we have covered a host of stories, written a plethora of people profiles, grown from two sections to four, and provided a depth of local news coverage for our county that had been missing for more than a decade.

Here’s a quick look back at the Top 10 stories for 2023 as chosen by our staff.

No. 1 — HOMELESSNESS

Before The Paper even went to press the first time on Feb. 4, the issue of homelessness in Burke County demanded our attention. 

Despite being relatively small in number — barely 1% of Morganton’s population — the unsheltered were the topic of seemingly endless conversations.

The severity of the problem seemed to spike post-COVID; in 2022, the city was stuck with cleaning up 17 abandoned encampments, far more than in previous years. The camps represented a serious public health hazard: at one clean-up, workers recovered more than 1,300 drug needles.

Morganton Public Safety Director Jason Whisnant has reported his officers now spend fully 50% of their time, sometimes much more than that, dealing with calls related to the unsheltered.

In March, a group of concerned, downtown Morganton residents invited members of The Paper’s senior staff to an informal and off-the-record meeting, asking if we would look into the issue in depth.  

So, in late March and early April, we took a deep dive into homelessness, and found the conundrum to be dizzyingly complex. We tried to approach the issue from every angle.

We talked to churches and missions about their tireless efforts to help the homeless and mitigate their suffering. 

We spoke with city officials trying to balance the needs of the unsheltered community with those of the general public. 

Local residents shared their fears — especially for their children – about the sometimes erratic, threatening, and illegal behavior of unsheltered folks.

Law enforcement told us about the dilemma officers face when dealing with those on the fringes of society who battle drug abuse, mental illness, or — as is often the case — a terrifying mixture of both.

Sociologists informed us the problem is not confined to Burke County: It is systemic and nationwide.

And the homeless themselves told us their personal stories and related their daily struggles just to survive on the streets.

In the end, we were left with a sad but inescapable conclusion: Homelessness — and the poverty that spawns it — are part of the permanent societal landscape of this country. 

The problem affects nearly everyone, and there are no readily apparent answers, but as we enter 2024, Burke County, like the rest of the U.S., continues its search for a solution. 

 NO. 2 — THE SINKHOLE

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For three years, the enormous sinkhole in the parking lot of the U.S. Post Office in Morganton was everybody’s problem and nobody’s, all at once.

The saga of the sinkhole — which culminated with the yawning chasm finally being repaired in October, is the No. 2 news story of 2023.

The hole opened up three years ago when a catch basin near the loading dock of the post office failed. Stormwater then ran downhill underneath the parking lot toward a car wash owned by Tim Biddix, who told us the runoff formed a sinkhole that grew larger with each subsequent heavy rain. Biddix was eventually forced to close the business. 

With a large portion of the parking lot closed off by concrete barriers and police tape, post office customers negotiated the hazard as best they could. 

All the while, City of Morganton officials worried a pressurized sewer line running alongside the site might be compromised by the widening pit, resulting in an ecological disaster for the nearby Catawba River.

Some insisted the city was responsible for the repairs. That wasn’t the case. City officials looked into the problem and concluded the sinkhole was the responsibility of the Postal Service.

But the USPS seemed to be taking its own sweet time fixing the hole.

The Paper followed up on the initial story, which ran July 15, in subsequent issues, with a ‘Sinkhole Watch’ feature, which appeared in the paper weekly and documented any progress at the site. 

For a month and a half, nothing happened.

Finally, ‘Sinkhole Watch — Week 7’ in early September carried the news that work crews were on the scene and repairs on the sinkhole were underway. 

By late October, the hole was a memory, disaster was averted, and the parking lot was back to normal.  

NO. 3 — THE LAUNCH OF THE PAPER

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Feb. 4, 2023 marked the launch of what today is Burke County’s largest and only all-local, locally owned and managed, home-delivered print and digital newspaper.

It was started to return to Burke County a platform for responsible, objective, balanced, and thorough local news to readers. It was launched to fill the void created by the sharp decline of local coverage and community commitment evident in the successive sale of The News Herald to one out-of-town owner after another. 

The Paper makes the roster of Top Ten for several reasons: The startup of a new print and digital newspaper, dedicated to only local news, is newsworthy in any community in an era that saw newspaper employment fall 70% in just 15 years; it has renewed community interest in local affairs and strengthened residents’ abilities to engage in the issues; The Paper’s reception within all corners of the community has been exceptional.

The statistics prove the points:

The Paper’s paid subscription base has grown within a year from zero to nearly 2,000. And it increases daily.

Hundreds of other readers purchase The Paper throughout the week at select retailers throughout central Burke County.

Since The Paper’s start, nearly 120 local businesses have advertised in its print pages; 91 have placed digital ads.

The format has systematically grown to four full sections from two. In addition to News and Sports, it now includes an Opinion, Business and an A&E section.

In its first 10 months of operation, The Paper received eight North Carolina Press Association Awards, two awards from the North Carolina Society of Historians, received national and state coverage in trade press, and its management fields repeated inquiries about its business model which blends for-profit with non-profit into a sustainable formula to preserve local news in both print and digital formats for years ahead.

Two funding mechanisms have been established to preserve The Paper and its local coverage: The Western North Carolina Journalism Foundation, and the Nelle and H. Allen Smith Endowment.

The Paper’s newsroom in downtown Morganton is open Monday through Saturday to visitors, with and without appointments. Rarely an hour goes by when a  subscriber, an advertiser, a friend or neighbor with a story idea, doesn’t come in to meet with a member of our news, sports or advertising staff.

All of this in an era when consolidation in the newspaper industry has been a significant driver of the loss of local newspapers and local news coverage; an era when large chains have severed most journalists and led to the rise of “ghost newspapers” which have either no local journalists on staff or so few that the paper’s ability to provide critical news and information is curtailed severely.

NO. 4 — SWEEPING CHANGES IN VALDESE

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Valdese elections proved the old saying, “every vote counts.”

In a stunningly tight race, the challengers, known as WHO, swept away the incumbents and became the majority on the Valdese Town Council.

Led by Glenn Harvey, the “H” in WHO, the group focused on two primary issues: lowering taxes to a revenue neutral rate and halting plans for a public safety station.

The two issues were definitively polarizing. 

Harvey narrowly defeated incumbent Tim Barus with 50.47% of the votes cast in the Ward 1 race. Harvey was elected by a margin of 17 votes. There were six write-in ballots cast. 

Heather Ward, the “W” in WHO took 603 of the 1,176 votes cast in the Ward 5 contest, narrowly edging out incumbent Tim Skidmore who earned 571 votes. 

While the Ward 1 and Ward 5 contests were exceedingly close, Gary Ogle, the “O” in WHO, soundly defeated long-serving incumbent and Mayor Pro-tem, Frances Hildebran. Ogle received 53.49% of the votes cast in Ward 4. 

The defeat of the incumbents and subsequent shift of the majority on the council roared through the town administration and led to the ousting of Seth Eckard as the Town Manager even before the newly-elected council members were sworn in. 

The incumbents and continuing council members terminated Eckard’s employment without cause at a called meeting on Nov. 20. The termination without cause decision allowed the council to honor Eckard’s contract which included six-month’s pay as severance. Eckard also received his earned vacation time. 

Once sworn, WHO immediately began exercising their majority status at the Dec. 4 regular meeting. 

WHO led the voting, resulting in the hiring of Eddie Perrou as an immediate (but temporary) Interim Town Manager, terminated the proposed public safety station project, named Gary Ogle as the new Mayor Pro-Tem, and set a Special Meeting date for Dec. 18, 2023.

At the Dec. 18 Called Meeting, WHO again led the voting and hired Bryan Steen as Interim Town Manager effective Jan. 2, 2024, and agreed to a strategic planning contract with Western Piedmont Council of Governments (WPCOG).

NO. 5 — THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AND FLAGS

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For five consecutive issues, beginning Saturday, Sept. 23, and concluding on Saturday, Oct. 21, The Paper devoted considerable space in both its news and opinion sections to the issue of whether the Confederate Monument, which has stood on the Historic Courthouse Square for more than a century, should be removed.

Why explore a controversial issue in which there were very strong opinions on both sides? Our goal was to enlighten our readers about the monument’s history, to give local elected officials the opportunity to take a stand on the issue, to give leaders on both sides a chance to state their opinions, and, in the end, to offer a compromise that would provide a historical perspective for the monument and also illustrate the evils of slavery.

Senior Reporter Marty Queen crafted most of the monument stories, but he was assisted by Allen VanNoppen, Bill Poteat, Sandra Queen, Angela Copeland, and Saydie Bean.

We examined whether the erection of the monument was done to honor Confederate soldiers or rather to perpetuate the evil myth of white supremacy?

We examined the state statute which prohibits the removal of any Confederate monuments and questioned whether that statute might have “loopholes” that Morganton and Burke County might employ if they so choose.

We recounted the story of Broadus Miller, a Black man who was lynched and whose body was dumped at the base of the monument.

We talked to downtown merchants about the impact which the presence of the controversial monument has on businesses.

We examined how other cities – Chapel Hill, Salisbury, Pittsboro, and Gastonia – have dealt with their Confederate monuments.

And, we received and printed literally dozens of letters to the editor, guest opinions, and online messages, giving our county’s residents a chance to share their feelings in an intelligent and respectful way.

Although our series ended in late October, our interest – and the community’s interest –  in the monument continues and this is an issue we’ll be following up on in 2024.

NO. 6 — THE FENTANYL EPIDEMIC

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There are roughly 87,000 people residing in Burke County. Before calendar year 2023 was even halfway over, the Burke County Sheriff’s Department had already seized enough fentanyl to kill every single one of them.

Abuse of the powerful synthetic opioid has become a national epidemic, and fentanyl’s effect on Burke County was The Paper’s No. 6 story of the year.

Fentanyl is commonly used by doctors to treat severe or chronic pain. It’s a hundred times more potent than morphine, but is almost always completely safe if administered by medical personnel. 

But abusing the drug is playing with fire. For someone with little or no opioid tolerance, a tiny amount of fentanyl – equivalent to a couple of grains of sugar – can prove fatal.

Since 2019 — the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic — overdose deaths in North Carolina have risen 72%. Of those deaths, 77% were due to fentanyl, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. 

Consider those numbers along with the fact Burke ranked 90th among the state’s 100 counties in per capita overdose deaths last year, and you’re left with a startling implication: the drug is killing Burke County people at an alarming rate.

The most insidious aspect of fentanyl abuse is its presence in other drugs. The supplies of substances like heroin and methamphetamine – even marijuana – are frequently contaminated with fentanyl. Dealers often lace their products with the opioid to increase the potency. If users are new to fentanyl and ingest it accidentally, they can quickly overdose. 

Fentanyl’s effects can be reversed almost immediately with Naloxone (Narcan) if someone is close by to administer the remedy, but that isn’t always the case. Those instances often result in fatalities.

In response to the growing problem, deputies and public safety officers now carry extra doses of Narcan with them. Meanwhile, recovery programs that rely on intensive peer support are making inroads into the problem.

Still, fentanyl abuse looms as a frightening menace in 2024.

NO. 7 — EPLEY’S PERFORMANCE

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When Burke County hired former college basketball standout Brian Epley to replace retiring County Manager Bryan Steen, it may have been the equivalent of nailing a long, 3-pointer at the buzzer for a dramatic win.

Epley’s subsequent job performance is The Paper’s No. 7 story of 2023.

Burke swiped Epley, 39, from Cleveland County, which he had managed for five years. Epley started his new job at the beginning of February and his efforts since then have been routinely lauded by the county’s Board of Commissioners.

The new manager wasn’t a stranger to the county, having lived here from 2009-14 when he worked for an accounting firm in Hickory. The R-S Central and UNC-Greensboro graduate was excited about returning to Burke, leaping into the new role with his trademark enthusiasm.

It didn’t take long for Epley to have an impact. 

In April, the county’s Board of Commissioners approved a capital improvement plan formulated largely by Epley that included, among other things, plans for new buildings to replace the aged-out Health and Human Services and Animal Services facilities, completion of construction on several solid-waste collection sites, and upgrades to the Emergency Medical Services base and rolling stock. 

More than half the funding for the plan will come from local taxpayers; the rest will come in the form of various grants.

Epley’s 2023-24 budget faced some pushback from a few in the community because property taxes went up due to an abnormally high property tax re-evaluation in January which affected everyone in the state. But Epley’s plan actually lowered the tax rate substantially – even though taxes did indeed go up – and Burke is in exactly the same position as it was before, with the 83rd highest per capita tax levy among North Carolina’s 100 counties.

Meanwhile, the budget included substantially increased funding for education, public safety, and health and human services, and kept the capital improvement plan in place.

Epley made perhaps his most significant impact when he helped end a decades-long tension that had existed between the board of commissioners and the board of education over funding.

Epley proposed a change in the state statutes that would overturn an antiquated piece of legislation that kept Burke from utilizing sales and use taxes the way it wants. The county was the only one in the state with such a limitation. 

The General Assembly indeed overturned the statute, and the two boards announced the agreement at a celebratory joint meeting in September. 

NO. 8 — THE INDUSTRIAL COMMONS NEW CAMPUS

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The Industrial Commons has been planning for years to transform a former furniture factory site in Morganton into a 28-acre Innovation Campus.

As the year neared its end, TIC had passed the halfway point in its goal of raising $45.6 million for the construction of the campus, which will provide not only new offices but also incubation space for emerging manufacturing businesses, creative art space, and working, training, and educational facilities.

All of this will happen at the site of the old Drexel Furniture Plant 3&5 on the Fleming Drive bypass in Morganton.

In early autumn, TIC received a $10 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, which pushed its fundraising efforts past the halfway point.

The ARC grant was conditional on matching contributions and to meet that  requirement the TCI team secured another $10 million in blended donations.

The matching funds included:

The Kendeda Fund — $8  million

Cannon Foundation — $250,000

An in-kind match from TIC through donation of real estate

N.C. General Assembly — $5 million.

“We started looking at the Drexel property as far back as 2015,” said Sara Chester, The Industrial Commons Co-Executive Director. “It was on a list of properties that Burke Development Inc. was targeting for clean-up and redevelopment.

“We were struck with how close the property is to downtown, walking distance,” Chester continued. “We also recognized that in order for a property of that size and scale to be redeveloped, with the environmental and debris considerations, there was going to have to be a unique collaboration of public/private organizations as well as inspiring vision.”

Future plans also call for a community housing site to be developed adjacent to the campus.

NO. 9 — UNC HEALTH BLUE RIDGE OPENS $38 MILLION CANCER CENTER

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On Aug. 8, 2023, under a blazing summer sun, a state-of-the-art, $38 million, cancer center opened on the Valdese campus of the UNC Health-Blue Ridge hospital system.

The new World Class 34,272-square-foot facility brings to Burke County infusion therapy and treatment area; medical and radiation oncology exam, consultation, and treatment rooms; two new linear accelerators, a CT simulator, and superficial X-ray. 

There is also a dedicated space for education, support, and group therapy to better serve the community through high-quality cancer care.

Greg Jones, MD, only the second radiation oncologist in the Valdese Cancer Center’s 56-year history, said at the opening: “This Cancer Center is extraordinarily well-equipped, allowing radiation oncology and medical oncology to share an outstanding space with multiple support services.” 

In early December, UNC Health Blue Ridge’s Cancer Center won a top award for healthcare construction at the ABC Carolinas Chapter 2023 Excellence in Construction Awards gala, where over 70 awards were presented to members.

The Cancer Center won the first-place Eagle Award for Healthcare Construction Project ($25 million to $50 million) on Nov. 9 in Charlotte. The project also was a finalist in Project of the Year.

NO. 10 — SCHOOL OF SCIENCE CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY

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Students, faculty, administration and staff at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Morganton (NCSSM) had a lot to celebrate in 2023. The school marked its first anniversary in June and welcomed its second class of juniors in August, bringing the student population to full capacity for the first time. 

NCSSM Morganton, which serves as the western branch of the original anchor school in Durham, teaches, houses, and feeds 300 students, 150 juniors and 150 seniors. It is located on a shared campus with the North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD) and Western Piedmont Community College (WPCC).

Durham’s campus began serving students in 1980, and planning for the school’s second campus originally took shape in 2006 when the North Carolina General Assembly decided to expand the institution, in order to allow for greater enrollment and new curriculum opportunities. 

In 2013, the state began looking at locations for a western campus, and after a study, officials chose Morganton as the site for the second facility. In 2016, North Carolina voters passed the Connect NC bond that included $58 million to add a second campus. The campus includes new construction as well as revived and repurposed buildings that were at one time used by NCSD.

Because student enrollment at NCSD had been declining, the campus contained unused property and buildings, many of which would need to undergo renovations, but through government funding and generous donations from companies, organizations and individuals, NCSSM Morganton became a reality and opened its doors to summer students on June 12, 2022.

The campus operated its first classes of residential students on August 10, 2022 and in May 2024, the school will graduate its first class of students who completed the entire NCSSM curriculum (junior and senior years) on the Morganton campus.