Eastern.

• Position: Regional Report - Innovative Machine Technology buys plant in Clarkton, NC - Superior Essex to add jobs - Intracoastal Waterway dredging

ELIZABETHTOWN -- Farmville-based Spectratex II has moved into a building vacated by a garment dyer. It employs about 30 in textile dyeing.

CLARKTON -- Bladenboro-based Innovative Machine Technology, which rebuilds water-purification systems, has bought and will expand in a former Harriet & Henderson Yarns plant here. A division of Sparta, Tenn.-based Watec, it employs about 100 in Bladenboro. Officials are uncertain how many will be hired here.

TARBORO -- Atlanta-based Superior Essex will add about 130 jobs to its 235 here by the end of the summer. The company, which makes wire and cable for telephone companies and others, is spending about $9 million to upgrade its plant. The average salary of the new jobs will be $28,800 a year.

WILMINGTON -- A cut in Army Corps of Engineers' funding for dredging the Intracoastal Water-way is allowing it to fill in, endangering barges and boats. The corps' Wilmington District received $7.1 million for fiscal year 2004, down from $12.9 million in 2003. Most was spent dredging Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks. The corps says the Iraq war has left it strapped for funds.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Highsmith-Rainey Memorial Hospital has converted from an acute-care hospital to one for patients hospitalized 25 days or more. It has 133 beds.

SNOW HILL -- This Greene County town will pay $418,000 for a Paxar...