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Wilson This Week -- Jan 29, 2025 |
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Goings retiring after 20 years as City Manager
Grant Goings, Wilson's City Manager for the past 20 years, will head into retirement on Friday - and we will mark his accomplishments by celebrating Grant Goings Day on January 31. Assistant City Manager Rodger Lentz has been named interim city manager.
So what happens on Grant Goings Day? City Council can proclaim a day in honor of a person, adding an extra exclamation on their achievements. So while nothing official happens on that day, it's an opportunity for the Wilson community to express appreciation for his 20 years leading the city.
The City Council presented Goings with a proclamation at this month's meeting, noting these accomplishments:
- Grant W. Goings oversaw the deployment of Greenlight Community Broadband as one of his first projects, and worked to preserve the utility through numerous legislative and regulatory issues in the early years, leading it to the success it enjoys today, serving more than 13,000 customers; and
- Grant W. Goings is a dedicated champion of Historic Downtown Wilson, leading unprecedented growth during his tenure, when annual investment downtown was less than $1 million, to hundreds of millions in investment annually for the past several years; and
- Grant W. Goings’ leadership and pursuit of excellence led to many nationally accredited departments in the City of Wilson, arguably more than any other city our size; and
- Grant W. Goings was instrumental in the historic decisions related to Wilson Energy that brought electric rates down in 2015 and has continued to implement competitive rate strategy and long-range planning to position Wilson Energy as a key asset to attract economic development in Wilson; and
- Grant W. Goings has been an integral part of the City’s success in economic development, serving on the Wilson Economic Development Council for many years, as well as the driving force in parks expansion and many infrastructure projects to position Wilson for future growth; and
- Grant W. Goings has been an involved, passionate and valuable citizen of Wilson, serving on many local boards, including co-founding Wilson Forward and serving as the Board Chair of the United Way of Wilson County for several years.
Grant isn't completely done working with the city. He will continue to work on special projects and other assignments, such as one of our most recent major projects, bringing the Wilson Warbirds, the Single A team of the Milwaukee Brewers, to a brand new baseball park downtown starting play in 2026.
On behalf of the city employees, we wish Grant a happy retirement!
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 Council honors Walston for downtown leadership
Also this month, Wilson City Council named the pavilion at Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park (pictured above) for local businessman Henry H. Walston, IV.
Councilmember Donald Evans presented a proclamation to Henry Walston's wife and son while Walston watched via a live stream on the Internet. The pavilion will be dedicated this spring on a day that will be designated Henry Walston Day.
Walston has been involved for decades in downtown Wilson, most known as a champion of the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. Evans said Walston was the one to convince the city to donate the land for the park's construction and won their support with an artist's rendering of the park.
Council's proclamation reads, in part, "Downtown Wilson has never had a greater champion than Henry H. Walston, IV, who has been a visionary, cheerleader, standard-bearer and unifier for the heart of the city for several decades."
The proclamation noted he had served on the Wilson Downtown Development Corporation, Wilson Downtown Properties, Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park & Museum, Oliver Nestus Freeman Round House African-American Museum, Theatre of the American South Festival, Eyes on Main Street Photo Festival, Wilson Arts, NC Baseball Museum, N.C. Arts Council, and N.C. Arts Foundation board.
The proclamation concluded, "The City of Wilson is forever changed for the better by his vision, belief in the possible, commitment to being a unifier, hard work, dedication, volunteerism and his belief in people’s abilities to be their best selves."
The photo above shows Walston at the 2013 groundbreaking ceremony for the Whirligig Park. The date for the dedication ceremony has not yet been set.
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Get your nominations in by Friday Jan. 31
 Do you know ordinary people, doing extraordinary things?
Wilson weathers first snow in three years
Wilson had its first significant snow storm since 2022, receiving up to 3-4 inches of snow in some spots overnight on Jan. 22. The forecast changed quickly in the day before the storm - from an expected dusting to the potential for 1-3 inches by Tuesday morning. City crews got right to it and covered 320 center miles - every street in the city - and put out 30,000 gallons of salt brine and 65 tons of salt. We're proud of the quick work and the employees who worked to pretreat streets, clear slush and snow, and otherwise prepare for the storm. Luckily it wasn't a major ice event, but we'd like to believe we were ready for whatever Mother Nature threw at us.
We do want to thank residents for mostly staying off the roads until we could give the all-clear signal. Also we appreciate people's patience with trash and recycling pickups, given that we were already operating on a short week because of MLK Jr. Day and then were closed Wednesday. With luck, we are on a regular schedule through Easter.
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City honored for comprehensive plan update
City planners were recently recognized for two years worth of work that went into Wilson Growing Together, the 2043 comprehensive plan.
The North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association recently gave its 2024 Marvin Collins award to the City of Wilson for the plan, which replaced and updated the city's 2030 plan, first approved in 2010. That 2030 plan led directly to much of the redevelopment in Historic Downtown Wilson, including the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park; the introduction of Wilson RIDE and other developments.
City staff spent two years talking to stakeholders and the community about their goals and desires for the city's future and then creating the new plan. One unique feature of this new 2043 plan for which it was recognized was its interactive web-based story map format, which allowed planning staff to use maps tax photos and illustrations to capture and exemplify the community's growth desires and in a very user friendly and interactive way.
Accepting the award were, from left, Terry Worley, Planner; Catesby Denison, Projects Manager; John Morck, Planning & Community Development Manager; and Kimberly Van Dyk, Planning & Community Revitalization Director.
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Celebrate 176 with us today!
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It’s Wilson’s birthday! We were incorporated on Jan. 29, 1849, meaning we are a spry 176 today. Imagine the size of a cake we’d need for 50,000 folks. Think about all those candles. You’d risk third-degree burns!
We talk every year about the birthday, but we never explain what it means. If you are interested in knowing more about what local government is and how it operates, we have a short essay for you to read on our website. Shhh, keep this very quiet, just between us -- we are going to be doing a number of Wilson city government educational posts this year.
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