LEXINGTON, N.C. — Davidson Water Inc. is spending $26 million to improve and protect its water treatment plant.  

The first renovation includes building bigger mounds to prevent Yadkin River flood water from getting into the reservoirs. Flood water often has mud and debris, making it harder for staff to clean the water.  

One reservoir has also been enlarged to nearly 100 million gallons.  A bigger reservoir will give sediments a better chance to fall to the bottom of the pond. 

The second stage of improvements will expand the water treatment plant so it can produce 30 million gallons each day.  

The upgrades are expected to be complete by November 2012.

DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — West Davidson High School is currently the only high school in Davidson County that randomly drug tests it’s student athletes, but the principal at Central Davidson High School wants her school to be the second.

“Our student athletes are in formidable years where we want to teach them positive healthy habits, and we want to also teach them that it’s OK to say no,” Tabitha Broadway, principal of CDHS, said.

Broadway was also the principal at WDHS last year when she and the school’s athletic director, Charles Elmore, started the initiative with the booster club.

This past school year, WDHS tested 60 student athletes and had only one test positive.  That student later proved that they were prescribed the drug for which they had tested positive.

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina voting officials say turnout picked up in the final hours before the polls close in primaries across the state.

State elections director Gary Bartlett said Tuesday evening that turnout increased in the afternoon, especially in the mountains after the rain moved out of the eastern part of the state.

Bartlett says he thinks turnout could top the 37 percent that voted in the 2008 elections.

Bartlett says it has been a smooth day for voters overall and few problems have been reported.

A constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage is driving turnout, but North Carolina voters also are choosing nominees for governor, 13 congressional districts, nine of the 10 Council of State positions and dozens of General Assembly seats.

Polls closed at 7:30 p.m.
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This article was provided by The Associated Press Wire.  (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)