After much anticipation, Chipotle is set to open the doors on a new Wilson restaurant in early March. &#x201C;Chipotle is always looking for communities where we can serve our real food, as we know real food has the power to cultivate a better world and the Wilson community is a great fit,&#x201D; said Stefani Green, external communications manager for Chipotle Mexican Grill. Construction began in late 2020 at 2304 Forest Hills Road between the Applebee&#x2019;s restaurant and T-Mobile store. Green said each Chipotle usually employs about 25 people. &#x201C;In addition to serving our responsibly sourced, real ingredients, we are also excited to offer employment opportunities for residents,&#x201D; she said. Visit https://jobs.chipotle.com/ to apply for one of the positions, which Green noted include competitive benefits, health care and tuition reimbursement. <h5>EXTRA! EXTRA!</h5> Belk, a North Carolina-based department store, announced in late January its intention to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday after nearly 190 years of operation. According to a press release from the company, officials plan to complete a one-day reorganization. Details haven&#x2019;t yet been released, but company officials say Wilson&#x2019;s store isn&#x2019;t slated for closure. &#x201C;We have no plans to close our Belk store in Heritage Crossing,&#x201D; said Jenny Anderson, senior director of public relations, events and community for Belk. &#x201C;We have a strong connection with the local community and plan to continue serving our loyal customers in Wilson.&#x201D; Got an idea for news to include in next week&#x2019;s Main Street Minute? Don&#x2019;t hesitate to reach out to me at 252-265-7821 or bhandgraaf@wilsontimes.com.

Chipotle plans opening for Wilson location

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An effort to provide affordable housing for Wilson&rsquo;s older adults is taking shape with a four-pack of tiny homes at 906 Jordan St. S.
The Center on Maintaining Preferred Aging Services and Solutions has owned the lot for several years and is seeking a conditional district rezoning to allow the construction of four tiny homes, a maintenance building, a common area and parking lot. Wilson Land Development Manager Janet Holland said a structure on the property was demolished in 2014 and the lot has sat vacant since.
&ldquo;There are at least nine seniors waiting for every one occupied unit of affordable elderly housing nationwide. Furthermore, the waiting list for affordable senior housing is often three to five years,&rdquo; said Carolyn Brown, speaking on behalf of the Five Points Neighborhood Association. &ldquo;With the ever-growing need for affordable housing in the nation and over 10,000 people turning 65 years old each day, this project is vital to the survival of some of the most vulnerable citizens in Wilson, N.C., and we look forward to supporting this effort.&rdquo;
Steve Oliverio with Bartlett Engineering said the tiny homes would be built on foundations and provide a needed service on a long-vacant lot.
&ldquo;I think it is a great opportunity to help that aging community in an affordable-housing setting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In this neighborhood, it is a good transition from multi-family and commercial development to the west. I think it is a really good fit.&rdquo;
During the city&rsquo;s first in-person meeting in more than a year, the Planning and Design Review Board approved the request on Tuesday. The Wilson City Council will vote on the request during its 7 p.m. May 20 meeting. Also on that agenda is a request to rezone nearly 2 acres at 103 Canterbury Road NW to be consistent with the adjacent Thorpshire Square neighborhood.
&ldquo;It is a down-zoning in that it was business and a heavier residential district, but it is requested it be consistent with the overall Thorpshire development,&rdquo; said Richard Herring of Herring Sutton &amp; Associates.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Planning board OKs tiny homes for seniors 

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The COVID-19 pandemic caused a dip in membership at the Islamic Center of Wilson.
Tawfick Aziz, a senior member who serves as the mosque&rsquo;s watchman, said the center opened in 2017 with 180 men, women and children. The mosque closed when the pandemic began in March 2020. 
&ldquo;We closed all of the rooms completely for almost four months,&rdquo; Aziz said. 
After four months, members were permitted to return to the masjid as long as they stayed 6 feet apart, wore masks, used hand sanitizer and washed their hands frequently to comply with public health guidelines. 
Aziz said gatherings were limited to 10-20 people, but most members were initially scared to attend.
Many members have now received vaccinations and are familiar with guidance on protecting themselves and others from the virus. 
Aziz said the mosque conducts temperature checks when people arrive.
&ldquo;Something else we do is you have to bring your own sejjadeh, the carpet,&rdquo; Aziz said. &ldquo;You put yourself on it. That&rsquo;s important. You are responsible for that part.&rdquo;
Before the pandemic, members would kneel and pray side by side.
&ldquo;You used to be close to each other,&rdquo; Aziz said. &ldquo;Now we are way apart.&rdquo;
With social distancing, the carpets are about 6 feet apart. 
&ldquo;We lost a lot of people coming because of COVID-19 at the time,&rdquo; Aziz said. &ldquo;This year, for 2021, things got better. We have started getting more people. Even new people come in here from the road when they hear about us.&rdquo;
MOON YEAR
According to the Pew Research Center, there are about 1.8 billion Muslims around the world.
This year, Muslims are observing Ramadan from April 12 to May 12.
Aziz said many people don&rsquo;t know what Ramadan is. 
&ldquo;It is a month of fasting for the year. It is the ninth month of the Islamic year,&rdquo; he said.
Aziz said the Islamic year is 355 days long.
Every year, Ramadan is observed 10 days ahead of the previous year&rsquo;s observance.
&ldquo;In my lifetime, it has turned twice,&rdquo; Aziz said. &ldquo;Each 35 years, it would turn the whole thing around. You go back 10 days each year. You are going back January, December, November, October.&rdquo;
The shifting dates mean Ramadan is ultimately observed in all four seasons.
&ldquo;Now you have long days in the summer. You can fast 18 hours from 5 o&rsquo;clock to 9 o&rsquo;clock,&rdquo; Aziz said. &ldquo;In the wintertime, when it&rsquo;s short, you can fast only from 7 o&rsquo;clock until 5, only 10 hours, so it&rsquo;s short. There is eight hours&rsquo; difference between the summer and the winter. This is the basic thing you have to know about the moon year.&rdquo;
HOLIEST MONTH
&ldquo;This is going on all over,&rdquo; said Najiyyah Aleem of Wilson. &ldquo;No matter what masjid you go to, if you are Muslim, you are doing Ramadan from every masjid all over.&rdquo;
Aleem, a Connecticut native, moved to Wilson in 2003 at a time when the city didn&rsquo;t have a mosque. She commutes to the As Salaam Islamic Center in Raleigh. 
&ldquo;Ramadan starts in the ninth lunar month of the Islamic calendar,&rdquo; Aleem said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the holiest month where the Muslims fast. We do not eat or drink anything during the daylight hours. We get up before sunrise and we have a small meal called Suhūr breakfast, and when the sun sets and the end is called for the Maghrib prayer, we break our fast with dates and water, and then we make our prayer and we have our meal. This goes on for 30 days, sometimes 29, but 30 days this month.&rdquo;
Aleem said that the Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad during this month.
&ldquo;Some of us give up things to abstain from during that month just to focus on the Quran,&rdquo; Aleem said. 
Historically, that would have meant the sacrifice of a goat, but today, it could mean abstinence from smoking cigarettes or having sex. For children, it could be abstinence from eating candy or playing electronic games.
Ramadan is a time of giving and a time of peace for Muslims.
&ldquo;We read one-thirtieth of the Quran every day during Ramadan,&rdquo; Aleem said. &ldquo;In the evening this year, we have a reading group on Zoom because of COVID, and we all take turns reading the Quran.&rdquo;
At the end of Ramadan, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Fitr, one of the Islamic faith&rsquo;s two biggest holidays. The other is Eid al-Adha, when Muslims show that they&rsquo;re prepared to sacrifice their lives for God. 
The Islamic Center of Wilson is inviting its members to celebrate Eid al-Fitr from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday, May 12. 
Aziz said the center has a new imam, Lutfi Hammed, who started leading the mosque in April.
The Islamic Center of Wilson is open from 5 a.m. to 10:15 p.m. daily.&nbsp;For more information, call Aziz at 252-281-5584.&nbsp;

Mosque welcomes faithful with virus precautions 

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Wilson County Schools and Wilson Community College presented their annual budget proposals to county commissioners Tuesday.
School officials also gave commissioners updates on current capital projects the county funded during last year&rsquo;s budget cycle as well as future capital projects. 
County Manager Denise Stinagle will present her formal budget to commissioners at 7 p.m. Monday. 
After that, commissioners will work through the budget and hold discussions and work sessions, followed by a public hearing. County departments detailed their 2021-22 budget requests last week.
WILSON COUNTY SCHOOLS
Superintendent Lane Mills presented a proposed budget of roughly $24.8 million, up about $2.4 million from last year with a capital outlay of $1 million.
The requested $1 million capital outlay would be used for schools in need of significant repairs. The budget increase is due to charter school payments and benefit rate increases, Mills said.
Ongoing capital projects include:
&bull; Upgrading heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls at Barnes and Gardners elementary schools. 
&bull; Replacing the 1987 chiller at Lee Woodard Elementary. 
&bull; Replacing sewer pumps at Rock Ridge Elementary. 
&bull; Purchasing a new backhoe for maintenance. 
&bull; Purchasing two new activity buses.
Capital projects completed or underway include:
&bull; Parking lot paving is completed at Beddingfield High School.
&bull; A track renovation project at Beddingfield will begin this summer, but most work will begin after football season. 
&bull; Tennis court renovations at Hunt High will begin late this summer.
&bull; Student parking lot paving at Hunt will begin this summer. 
WILSON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
WCC President Tim Wright presented the community college&rsquo;s budget request, which came in at a little more than $3 million, up by roughly $1,200 from last year with a capital outlay of $416,000.
Wright said the requested budget and capital outlay figures are about the same as last year. This year&rsquo;s proposed budget allows for maintenance and custodial raises and insurance and utility increases. 
Wright said the college hopes its state employees receive a raise this year. He said when college state employees get raises, the college tries to provide matching increases to county-employed college workers. 
Capital outlay requests include the following:
&bull; Fiber infrastructure replacement. 
&bull; Security camera additions.
&bull; Auditorium sound and light restructuring. 
&bull; Parking lot lights. 
&bull; Classroom, lab, parking lot and ground renovations.&nbsp;

Wilson schools, community college outline budget requests

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Authorities say a Wilson man has been arrested on sex offense charges involving a 10-year-old. 
Police charged 60-year-old Albert Lee Newsome with two counts each of taking indecent liberties with a child and second-degree forcible sexual offense, according to Capt. Steve Stroud. 
Police were dispatched to a 4:01 p.m. call on April 29. Officers arrived to find Newsome lying down and in an incoherent state, Stroud said. Officers spoke to a woman who said she assaulted Newsome after she found him sexually assaulting her daughter. 
Newsome was taken to Wilson Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, Stroud said. He said police charged Newsome as result of the investigation. 
Newsome was also served on an unrelated order for arrest, police said. Newsome was jailed under a combined $251,000 secured bond.&nbsp;

Wilson man accused of child sex offenses

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All months have their charm, but May has the most charm in my book.
My father built a white trellis against the house; my mother planted a red climbing rose at its base. We called it a &ldquo;tea rose&rdquo; because it smelled like tea, but it probably went by some other name. Our climbing vine was laden with roses in May, and we enjoyed its scent so much as long as it was blooming.
The memories of smelling that rose are still precious. Scenes of the farm, the last days of the school year and special events in May return whenever I smell a similar rose.
We have a rose of the same variety that climbs in our backyard in spring. That rose has the power to make me temporarily forget myself and the pressing issues of the world to make room for precious May memories.
When I smell our rose, I remember spring gardens that were coming right along; I remember biddies that had turned into pullets and cockerels; I remember spring farm colors of green and brown and the blue and white sky that completed the picture. I remember the sweet wind and the thrill of adventures around the farm on afternoons after school. I remember the unmistakable fragrance of the soil after a May rain. 
I recall feeling the exhilaration of the end of the school year. Although I loved school, I remember that the anticipation of a long, long, long summer, three whole months back then, from the end of May until after Labor Day, was delicious and that May pumped up the idea of freedom,&nbsp; going &ldquo;barefooted&rdquo; as we called it, starting on May 1. This was as good as it could get.
Edwin Way Teale wrote, &ldquo;All things are possible in May.&rdquo; We children believed that was true.
Smelling our climbing rose brings back memories of a more relaxed May, since there were no state tests for children to worry about back then. Most of us were confident that we would be promoted to the next grade based on our progress. Maybe some children had anxiety in May if they had fallen behind.
Mother&rsquo;s Day was a big deal at our house. Some of us ritually scouted around the farm until we found enough wildflowers for a special gift for Mother. She wore some of our gift flowers pinned to her dress to make a fine corsage and put others into a vase to use as a centerpiece. We seldom went to town and shopped in a department store for a Mother&rsquo;s Day gift. Smelling our backyard roses brings all these memories back.
Special occasions at school are revived when I smell our roses. Field Day was great fun. So was the class picnic a few days before school was out. Our class would walk from Margaret Hearne Elementary School to what was then called Gold Park. After we got there, we played on the swings, seesaws and monkey bars until it was time to have our picnic lunch, which consisted of sandwiches and lemonade prepared by the &ldquo;grade mothers&rdquo; who served as chaperones for our outing. 
More play followed the lunch, and then we walked back to school in time for dismissal at 3 p.m. Only May could provide us with so much fun.
As we grew older, we became aware of high school graduations, always held in May back then. Some of us had older siblings and friends who brought home those heavy wool, rented graduation gowns and funny mortarboards and pranced around the house practicing for graduation, looking at themselves in the mirror and posing for pictures in front of those big, old black-box cameras, trying to look grown up.
We truly believed that all things were possible in May, which was merrier, kinder and more magical than the other 11 months.
All I have to do is to go to the backyard, smell of our &ldquo;tea rose&rdquo; and let the precious May memories take me away to a kinder, gentler time.
May is still the most charming of months in my book.
Sanda Baucom Hight is retired from Wilson County Schools after serving as an English teacher. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Climbing May rose rekindles precious memories 

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I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever tried fried ice cream, but I was intrigued by the idea of making &ldquo;fried&rdquo; ice cream without actually frying it.
If you were to make fried ice cream the traditional way, you&rsquo;d make individual scoops of ice cream and hard freeze them before coating the scoops with a batter or breading (often corn flakes and cinnamon) and quickly deep frying them.
But, there&rsquo;s a way to cheat and make a delicious dessert without heating up a pan full of oil.
I read many recipes and basically came up with how I wanted to make this dessert. First, I doctored some softened ice cream. Using my stand mixer on low, I mixed softened vanilla ice cream (I always buy the low-fat option or use frozen yogurt) with whipped topping and cinnamon. I sampled the ice cream and loved the flavor and the texture.
Next I made generous scoops of ice cream and put them in cupcake holders in a muffin pan. Then they went in the freezer. I had every intention of eating the dessert either that night or within a few days, but it ended up being more than a week before I took the next step.
Most recipes use corn flakes and cinnamon for the coating, just like some of the fried recipes I saw, but I decided to use cinnamon graham crackers to top my ice cream. I placed about a tablespoon of butter in a pan and added some graham crackers I had crushed in a bowl. I stirred the crumbs into the butter to coat them and cooked them for a few minutes.
Next I took the ice cream from the freezer and let it sit for a few minutes so it wasn&rsquo;t too hard to eat. When it came time to eat, I asked my husband and granddaughter to pick their toppings. Reggie and I chose chocolate syrup, graham cracker crumbs and a cherry. Sora chose the same, minus the cherry. We were are so happy with the results. The ice cream had a delicious flavor with a hint of cinnamon, and the texture was still creamy, even after spending a week in the deep freeze. The graham cracker crumb topping had just the crunch and taste I wanted.
The first scoops were so good that we had seconds. Next time, I had lightly seasoned fresh strawberries, left over from strawberry shortcake, topped with the graham cracker crumbs. It was so good &mdash; sort of like eating strawberry cheesecake.
We really enjoyed our &ldquo;fried&rdquo; ice cream dessert. It would be fun to individualize it, adding caramel sauce or even honey to the top. And if you make your ice cream scoops in advance, you can put the dessert together in just a few minutes.
Lisa Boykin Batts has been writing a weekly food column since 2001. Her column includes recipes she and her family enjoy.

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Climbing May rose rekindles precious memories

Individualize this ice cream dessert