Wilson City Manager Grant Goings announces retirement in early 2025
During this evening’s City Council meeting, Wilson City Manager Grant Goings announced his retirement in early 2025, following two decades of the city’s unprecedented growth and more than 33 years of municipal leadership.
The City Council voted unanimously to appoint Assistant City Manager Rodger Lentz as Interim City Manager upon his retirement. The exact date of the transition has not been set.
Goings was hired as Wilson City Manager in January 2005. Prior to that, he had led municipal governments in Shelby, Elkin and Bethel, N.C.
Under Goings’ leadership, Wilson has experienced solid growth including several recent large economic development announcements, downtown revitalization, and a new downtown stadium project.
“When I arrived as a young city manager over 20 years ago, I was excited for the career opportunity,” said Goings. “Little did I know that I had found such a wonderful community to raise my family, that I would work with some of the best people I have met on this earth, that we would have opportunities for transformational change, and that we would have the courage, skill, and commitment to turn those opportunities into successes. Serving Wilson has been the highlight of my career. The future is bright, and I look forward to watching Wilson continue to grow and prosper.”
Goings started his tenure following the retirement of former City Manager Ed Wyatt. The early years of his career included the launch of Greenlight, Wilson’s community broadband system that had served as a model across the country for municipal broadband. Greenlight continues to be one of Wilson’s greatest assets, bolstering Wilson’s business climate and improving quality of life for Wilson residents.
Goings served a crucial role in the NCEMPA asset sale that led to a nearly 20 percent decrease in Wilson Energy electric rates. Throughout his tenure Wilson Energy has achieved steady customer growth and high customer satisfaction while achieving industry-leading reliability measures and a strong safety record.
One of Goings’ landmark initiatives has been the redevelopment of downtown Wilson, starting with the Pine-Nash project that includes the Foundation YMCA, Centro, Truist, and the city’s first parking deck. The $100 million project catalyzed the recent wave of redevelopment in downtown Wilson, which was followed by the 2023 announcement of a new downtown baseball stadium and related development. This $280 million project will be completed in several phases, with the baseball stadium welcoming the Milwaukee Brewers A affiliate currently based in Zebulon in 2026.
Throughout his tenure, Goings has been a dedicated proponent of Wilson to economic development prospects, serving on the Wilson Economic Development Council for many years. Wilson County has seen extraordinary economic development success in 2024, with five projects announced, totaling $1.7 trillion in investment and 1,400 new jobs in Wilson County.
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