Phillip Shannon Carroll and Glenda Barnes Carroll of Black Creek announce the engagement of their daughter, Halie Joye Carroll, to Tanner Blake Braswell of the Rock Ridge community.
The bride is the granddaughter of James &ldquo;Jimmy&rdquo; Lee Barnes and Elaine Parrish Barnes of Black Creek and Jonathan Todd Lowery and Rose Price Lowery of Bailey and the late Phillip Moses Carroll.
The groom is the son of Shannon Ray Braswell and Marsha Fulford Braswell of the Rock Ridge. He is the grandson of Carolyn Winstead Davis of Wilson and Willard Grey Fulford Jr. and the late Kay Denton Fulford of Middlesex.
A July 17 wedding is planned at The Farm at 42 in Selma.

Braswell-Carroll

WT_LIFE_ENG_Braswell-Carroll_3-16-21.jpg

Christy Ruffin has pictures of her sister, Tammy Grady, throughout her home. It&rsquo;s a daily reminder of who she&rsquo;s fighting for.
&ldquo;It gives me strength to go on when I can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Ruffin said. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not her voice, who&rsquo;s going to be her voice?&rdquo;
Wednesday marked 500 days since her sister vanished. Grady&rsquo;s relatives reported her missing on Nov. 24, 2019, after she hadn&rsquo;t contacted them in a week.
Grady was last seen at the Heart of Wilson motel on Nash Street getting into a cab alone and proceeding toward downtown Wilson, according to police. While Grady lived a transient lifestyle, she and her family remained close, and Grady always checked in.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been 500 days since she&rsquo;s been gone,&rdquo; Ruffin said. &ldquo;She is still not home yet. I need her home. Tammy is a part of me. I have become her. I&rsquo;m her voice. It&rsquo;s up to me to remind people that someone has taken her from us.&rdquo;
The 35-year-old hasn&rsquo;t been active on social media since her disappearance. The last time she made a transaction was on Nov. 23, 2019, when she used her food benefits card in Wilson, according to police.
Police say her case is still open and under investigation.
<h5>&lsquo;WE ARE TAMMY&rsquo;S VOICE&rsquo;</h5>
Friends and family gathered for a second time and held a vigil Wednesday at a place Grady often visited for solitude &mdash; Toisnot Park.
Ruffin said she planned the vigil as a way for people to come together to remember her sister.
&ldquo;We are all Tammy&rsquo;s voice,&rdquo; Ruffin told attendees Wednesday evening.
Grady&rsquo;s sister and her brother, Horace Grady, stood in front of a large sign featuring their missing sister and thanked people for caring enough to come out and show their support.
The Center for Missing Persons, a nonprofit, sent Ruffin two large banners that show Grady and her missing person information.
&ldquo;I was so thankful,&rdquo; she said, expressing gratitude for the professionally made signs.
The group also sent large billboard signs. Ruffin said she plans to place them in areas where people will be reminded of her sister&rsquo;s disappearance. She hopes the signs encourage people with information on Grady to come forward.
<h5>LOYALTY AND &lsquo;JUSTICE FOR TAMMY&rsquo;</h5>
Beneath the Toisnot Park picnic shelter, Ruffin placed homemade posters and other signs that read &ldquo;Justice for Tammy.&rdquo; Pictures of Grady were also attached. Purple decorations surrounded everyone.
&ldquo;It represents loyalty,&rdquo; Ruffin said of the color purple. &ldquo;I will forever be loyal to Tammy.&rdquo;
Tracy Messer also spoke and said a prayer. She urged folks to keep showing up to support the search for Grady.
&ldquo;It matters,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Without us, she has no voice.&rdquo;
Messer said Grady was a human being who deserves to rest in peace.
&ldquo;She was God&rsquo;s child,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;All I want is justice and peace. Nobody deserves this.&rdquo;
Alicia Eastwood said she attended Wednesday&rsquo;s vigil to support Ruffin and her family.
&ldquo;I want justice for Tammy,&rdquo; Eastwood said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s heartbreaking.&rdquo;
<h5>TELLING HER STORY</h5>
While the pain is often unbearable for Ruffin, she said she knows she has to keep moving forward in the fight to find her sister and bring her home.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going anywhere,&rdquo; Ruffin said. &ldquo;We continue to keep her story out there. It&rsquo;s my way of keeping her alive. It&rsquo;s my duty as her sister to continue to fight for her and not give up. If I give up on her, then I&rsquo;ve given up on myself. I feel like she&rsquo;s worth it.&rdquo;
<h5>$15,000 REWARD</h5>
Grady was last seen wearing a burgundy hooded sweat coat with a white design across the chest that extended down the inside sleeve. She was also wearing yellow stretch pants and black shoes and was carrying a black duffel bag.
Ruffin is still pleading with the public. She said she knows people in the community have information in her sister&rsquo;s disappearance, and she hopes they will come forward.
Team Cold Case is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to Grady&rsquo;s location or the apprehension of those responsible for her presumed death. The tip line is 252-406-6736.
Anyone will information can also call the Wilson Police Department at 252-399-2323 or provide tips anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 252-243-2255.
&ldquo;I hope wherever she is, she can look down and see how hard I&rsquo;m working to find her,&rdquo; Ruffin said through tears. &ldquo;I do it because that&rsquo;s how much I love her. If my love could, it would breathe life back into her.&rdquo;

500 days after woman's disappearance, family still searching 

WT_LOC_Missing_Woman_Vigil_04.09.21_3.JPG

WT_LOC_Missing_Woman_Vigil_04.09.21_1.JPG

WT_LOC_Missing_Woman_Vigil_04.09.21_2.JPG

While waiting to pay a utility bill is no one&#x2019;s cup of tea, the city is working to make it less cumbersome since the customer service center lobby has been closed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. &#x201C;The drive-thru is very busy the first and third day of each month. However, the rest of the month, customers are provided fast, efficient service,&#x201D; said Matt Nestor, Wilson customer service manager. &#x201C;We have made great strides over the last few years to alleviate the lines on those days and, prior to the pandemic, had largely solved this issue.&#x201D; Since mid-March 2020, the city opened a secondary location for drive-thru bill payment service at the Wilson Police Department&#x2019;s South District station at Fikewood Plaza. While the customer service center on Nash Street serves the majority of Wilson Energy and Greenlight Community Broadband customers via the drive-thru lanes, officials felt the second location would help alleviate some of the traffic. &#x201C;As far as visits, making a payment is the top service by volume,&#x201D; Nestor said. &#x201C;However, applying for new service has been very busy during the last year with the real estate market as hot as it is.&#x201D; Other than an occasional closure due to staffing issues, the Fikewood facility operates from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays with a closure from noon to 1 p.m. for lunch. A new self-service kiosk was recently installed in the Nash Street service center&#x2019;s first lane to allow customers to make cash, check or credit card payments 24 hours a day. Kiosk payments are instantly applied to customers&#x2019; Wilson Energy or Greenlight accounts. &#x201C;Our intention has always been to provide all the vital public services while protecting the public and our employees,&#x201D; said Matt Shaw, the city of Wilson&#x2019;s communications coordinator. &#x201C;The city has been constantly on the job during this whole COVID period, and we have tried to do so in a safe manner.&#x201D; Protective glass is being installed in all city facilities where there is customer contact in anticipation of reopening interior lobbies to the public on May 3. &#x201C;When we reopen, we will be following all guidelines recommended and/or required by the various health agencies. That includes social distancing as of now, which means no more than eight to nine customers in the lobby at any given time,&#x201D; Nestor said. &#x201C;Those limitations will mean visiting the customer service center will cause longer than usual wait times.&#x201D; Visit www.wilsonnc.org/ to set up online bill pay, including automatic payments, for Wilson Energy and Greenlight accounts.

Wilson working to improve utility payment options 

WT_LOC_Utility_payments_4-9-21_DW.jpeg

Months of wet weather has proved problematic for crews applying the finishing touches on Wilson&rsquo;s newest shell building.
&ldquo;It has been the wettest 18 months I can remember, but I think the building turned out beautifully,&rdquo; Wilson Economic Development Director Jennifer Lantz said of the building at 4918 Lamm Road in the Wilson Corporate Park.&nbsp;
The 105,000-square-foot precast building is a joint project by the city and county with a roughly $3.2 million price tag. 
&ldquo;It is essentially a square building. We normally build rectangles, but because the expansion wall is to the south and we know that ultimately this building could be 300,000 square feet one day, we wanted to make sure that we squared it up,&rdquo; Lantz said. &ldquo;So if someone added onto it, you wouldn&rsquo;t end up with an extremely long and narrow building, which is difficult for manufacturers to use.&rdquo;
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1aZkA7WXFDQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The building essentially is four walls and a roof, providing a base that can be customized when a company buys it, bringing private investment and jobs to Wilson. 
&ldquo;There are very few buildings on the market, so pre-COVID, we were selling and leasing quite a bit,&rdquo; Lantz said. &ldquo;That has continued. There are a number of clients still looking, and our inventory has remained low.&rdquo;
The new building is down the road from a roughly 50,000-square-foot shell building being built by private investors who also are in the planning stage for a 25,000-square-foot shell building across town at the Hackney Industrial Park. 
Lantz said having the range of sizes is critical to recruiting companies.
&ldquo;It means we can reach out to that many more clients. You have clients who want sites and clients who want buildings and some clients who will look at both, but the more inventory you have, the more clients you can appeal to,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We had a request for a building in the 25,000-square-foot range last week, and if that Hackney building had been there, that company would have come in this week, but they were looking for something they could occupy faster than we could get it built.&rdquo;
Despite reduced travel across the globe, economic development efforts have not slowed in Wilson.
&ldquo;Announcements don&rsquo;t always happen in the time frame you would like them to,&rdquo; Lantz explained. &ldquo;Because we haven&rsquo;t been announcing projects doesn&rsquo;t mean we&rsquo;re not having visits or not getting projects. It simply means they haven&rsquo;t announced.&rdquo;
She said the new industrial park, the Campus at 587, on the eastern side of Wilson will soon have its first tenant, with the purchase contract slated to be signed in the coming days.
&ldquo;That company will begin their due diligence and it may be six months to a year before they announce,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That is the thing you have to understand about our announcements. Oftentimes, the due diligence period is equally as long as the courting period, so they don&rsquo;t always happen quickly.&rdquo;
Planning for the Campus at 587 began almost two decades ago with Lantz emphasizing the importance of spreading industrial development throughout the community to grow all of Wilson.
&ldquo;The Campus at 587 was planned in the location it is in because there is a tremendous amount of opportunity on the eastern side of Wilson, and it is adjacent to what will become Interstate 587, so it is something that is going to help tax values rise in the area,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It is something that will help. Once you begin to see companies in there, you&rsquo;ll see retail and service companies follow. It will help housing grow in that part of the county. it is going to be great for the whole community.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Largest Wilson shell building nears completion 

WT LOC Public shell building2 4-13-21 BH.JPG

WT LOC Public shell building1 4-13-21 BH.JPG

City officials on Tuesday got the first glimpse of the new Wilson Family YMCA planned for downtown Wilson.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re probably aware, but the Healthcare Foundation of Wilson has granted the funds to the Wilson Family YMCA to create a middle school after-school program, so this facility is a multi-functional facility,&rdquo; said Tim Carr, the YMCA of the Triangle&rsquo;s senior vice president for real estate development and facility management. He is serving as a project manager for the Wilson building. 
Carr and Anne Lebo of Little Diversified Architectural Consulting spoke with Wilson Planning and Design Review Board members Tuesday to present the facility&rsquo;s architectural renderings. Lebo said she and Carr have met with stakeholders for more than a year to design the new YMCA planned for the 200 block of Nash Street where the BB&amp;T towers were demolished in December.
&ldquo;It has an indoor pool, gymnasium and wellness area, but also an after-school space,&rdquo; Carr said. &ldquo;It is essentially a small school that will house the program.&rdquo;
The building will include an eight-lane competition pool as well as a warm-water swimming pool. The third floor is set to house the Healthcare Foundation of Wilson&rsquo;s offices.
Carr said the plan is to collaborate with the city Parks and Recreation Department for the competition pool.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve provided many opportunities for future renovations should that be necessary,&rdquo; Lebo said. &ldquo;You can also see the glazing by the pool that is created with translucent fiber glass paneling to allow the warm daylight, but minimize the glare.&rdquo;
Construction currently is underway with the completion slated for fall of 2022.&nbsp;Construction crews will use a combination of brick, steel and glass for the exterior to blend in with the architecture of the adjacent parking garage and planned mixed-use development as well as the new Truist, formerly BB&amp;T, office building.
&ldquo;To the west, we have the lawn space that is shared where the foundation is providing some infrastructure for the site, and there will be some amenities that can be placed here as well,&rdquo; Lebo said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see showcase plantings, walkways and lit pathways between our building, the new parking deck and the Truist building across the street.&rdquo;
The board approved the plans before electing a new chair and vice chair.&nbsp;

YMCA plans 2 pools for new facility 

WT LOC Planning Board 4-7-21 BH.jpeg

Spaghetti is one of my favorite foods. I loved Mama&#x2019;s spaghetti sauce when I was a child, and I love my version now. I often order spaghetti at restaurants and try new versions of baked spaghetti at home. A few weeks ago, I tried a bite of baked spaghetti pie at my daughter&#x2019;s house. Anna recently had a baby, and her best friend, Emily Sloop, prepared and froze a number of meals for Anna and her husband to enjoy after the baby was born. I warmed a slice of the baked spaghetti pie for Anna when I was helping out at her house one day and took a bite myself. I found it delicious and asked Emily for her recipe. Emily said she found the recipe for friendship spaghetti pie on the website The Country Cook. The simple recipe comes with a bonus: It makes two pies. You can eat one and freeze one. Emily made a pie for her and husband John and froze one for Anna and husband Daniel as well. The recipe comes together quickly. While the spaghetti cooks, you can brown the ground beef and make the sauce. Once those two components are ready, it&#x2019;s just a matter of assembling your two pies, layering spaghetti, cheeses and sauce. Emily used a disposable pie pan for the pie she sent to Anna&#x2019;s house. Anna and Daniel enjoyed their pie, and my husband and I enjoyed the pie I made for us. The flavor is delicious. I enjoyed the texture of the spaghetti noodle &#x201C;crust&#x201D; and the creaminess of the ricotta cheese. I gave our second pie to my son, who thawed and baked it a few weeks later. I need to make this recipe again soon. I love having meals stored away in the freezer for a busy day. Lisa Boykin Batts has been writing a weekly food column since 2001. Her column includes recipes she and her family enjoy.

Spaghetti pie for you and a friend

WT_LIFE_FOOD_COL_food_column_4-6-21.jpg

Lisa Batts.JPG

Andrea Best of Wilson and Leroy Scott of Wilson announce the engagement of their daughter, D&#xE9; Ja K. Scott to Ash-Shaheed Jackson of Wilson, formerly of Newark, New Jersey. She is the granddaughter of the late Lottie M. Best and Jean Scott of Wilson. Parents of the groom are Wade and Jackie Jackson of Wilson, formerly of Newark, New Jersey, and Georgia. He is the grandson of Wyomia Tucker and the late William Tucker of Nashville and the late Rosco Jackson of Sandersville, Georgia, and the late Dorothy Cummings of Sandersville. A July 10 wedding is planned in Nashville.

Braswell-Carroll

Related content

Jackson-Scott

Thomas-Evans

Wells-Allegood

Top news