Western.

• Position: Regional Report - Wilkes Community College - Blue Ridge National Heritage Area - Column

PISGAH FOREST -- Lowe's, the Wilkesboro-based hardware-store chain, will build a $16.5 million store here that will employ about 175. It will open later this year.

WILKESBORO -- The Ashe County campus of Wilkes Community College will spend $1.2 million to expand. The project will include 12 classrooms and be ready for students by November.

ASHEVILLE -- Congress has approved $750,000 to establish a Blue Ridge National Heritage Area that will include 25 western North Carolina counties. A governing board will coordinate ventures such as the region's Handmade in America program, which encourages tourists to buy locally made items, but will have no regulatory or zoning authority.

ROSMAN -- UNC Asheville and the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute will team up to create the University of North Carolina Pisgah Astronomical Research, Science and Education Center. The center will serve all 16 campuses of the state university system and is the site of a once-secret Cold War space-surveillance post in which the government had invested more than $300 million in telescopes and other devices.

BRYSON CITY -- Swain County Hospital completed a $2.5 million expansion, which includes doctor offices and an upgraded operating room. Money came from trusts and endowments and about $10,000 in employee contributions.

ASHEVILLE -- Square D, a subsidiary of France's Schneider Electric, will close its factory here early this year, dismissing more than 300 workers...