The Wilson Planning and Design Review Board has granted preliminary approval for a developer&rsquo;s plan to include rental homes in a new western Wilson apartment complex.
Evolve at Heritage was rezoned under a conditional district in 2019 to build more than 500 apartments on 45 acres on the 3700 block of Raleigh Road Parkway. Construction on the first phase is nearly complete, but the developers submitted a change request to the city in hopes of changing the third phase from nine buildings with 216 apartments into 89 rental cottages.
&ldquo;It looks like a lot of density with this concept plan, but in reality, it is going from 216 units in three-story apartments that was approved for this phase to only 89,&rdquo; engineer Robert Bartlett told planning board members on the developers&rsquo; behalf during a Tuesday meeting. &ldquo;It is less and a different type of product we haven&rsquo;t seen in Wilson. It is almost like a townhome or patio home, but instead of being individually owned, they&rsquo;d be managed under one company and rented out.&rdquo;
Planning board members voted to approve the proposal, which will be the subject of a public hearing at the Wilson City Council&rsquo;s 7 p.m. March 18 meeting. Also on that agenda will be a request to rezone nearly 27 acres at 3944 Wiggins Mill Road from rural agricultural to open space.&nbsp;
Janet Holland, the city&rsquo;s land development manager, noted the land had two homes flooded during Hurricane Floyd that were part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency buyout program.&nbsp;
The homes were demolished and the land was turned over to Wilson County with development restrictions, but last fall, the city acquired the land from the county as part of a plan to develop Wiggins Mill into a recreational park.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Developer wants to add rental homes to apartment complex

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Wilson will receive $1.2 million in federal funds to extend its municipal broadband internet service to Black Creek, Lucama, Saratoga and Stantonsburg.
&ldquo;Since the conception of council&rsquo;s desires to build community broadband, a core pillar was to improve our community, and that extends beyond our city limits,&rdquo; City Manager Grant Goings said following a grant award announcement at Thursday&rsquo;s city council meeting. &ldquo;This is a great opportunity to bring additional infrastructure and options for people who have really been begging for it, so hats off to all those involved.&rdquo;
The U.S. Economic Development Administration grant to Greenlight Community Broadband is part of CARES Act recovery assistance funding and requires a $300,000 local match. 
&ldquo;Last year, Congress passed the historic CARES Act to address some of the nation&rsquo;s most pressing needs in the midst of the pandemic, including the need for reliable, high-speed internet for both rural and urban areas,&rdquo; U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said in a prepared statement. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m pleased that this funding has been awarded to the city of Wilson to strengthen the area&rsquo;s economy by enhancing its broadband capacity.&rdquo;
Greenlight hasn&rsquo;t announced specific expansion plans for the four Wilson County towns, but all construction must be complete within two years.
&ldquo;As has been made clear throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, broadband is essential infrastructure,&rdquo; said Will Aycock, Greenlight general manager. &ldquo;Broadband access facilitates remote work, distance learning and general participation in today&rsquo;s digital world. This grant will provide highly valued infrastructure to more areas of Wilson County, enabling more citizens and businesses to thrive in the post-pandemic economy.&rdquo;
CITY ELECTION POSTPONED 
Wilson City Council members approved a Thursday resolution to reschedule Wilson&rsquo;s municipal election from November to the March 2022 primary. 
&ldquo;It is anticipated that the 2020 census data will reveal that there have been population shifts resulting in population imbalances in the current electoral districts so significant that it would not be lawful to hold the next municipal election using the current districts and that redistricting will be necessary to comply with the constitutional requirement of &lsquo;one person, one vote,&rsquo;&rdquo; the resolution states.
City Attorney Jim Cauley said officials will need time to analyze the census data, redraw district boundaries and have the maps approved, which isn&rsquo;t feasible before the November election date. 
CULVER&rsquo;S ANNEXATION 
Council members plan to reconvene the remote meeting at 6 p.m. Monday to take action on two items &mdash; a public hearing to annex 0.216 acres of an outparcel in Heritage Corner for the planned Culver&rsquo;s restaurant and a proposed $10,000 sale of the city-owned Anderson Apartments property to a developer planning to invest $1 million by late 2022.
&ldquo;This property was vacant when I came to Wilson in 2007 with various owners through the years, but this is our first opportunity to present a buyer since the city acquired it,&rdquo; Wilson Chief Planning and Development Officer Rodger Lentz said. &ldquo;...Hopefully this will be a new start for a very unique project there on Vance Street.&rdquo;
Officials also approved raising the sale prices of homes in the Freeman Place neighborhood to reflect increases in building costs.
Wilson residents who wish to submit a comment about the Heritage Corner annexation request can email their remarks to City Clerk Tonya West at twest@wilsonnc.org by 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Commenters are asked to include their name, address and phone number along with where they can be reached during the reconvened meeting at 6 p.m. Monday. For questions on the public comment process, email West or call her at 252-399-2302.

Greenlight plans broadband expansion to 4 Wilson County towns

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LUCAMA &mdash; Commissioner Michael Best said he&rsquo;s &ldquo;tired&rdquo; of hearing complaints about the town&rsquo;s water service.
Best expressed frustration Monday after residents raised the issue during the Lucama Board of Commissioners&rsquo; monthly meeting.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of it,&rdquo; Best said. &ldquo;Every meeting, we come in here and listen about the water. We know we have got a water problem. We have grants to fix the water problem. It&rsquo;s being worked on.&rdquo;
Best said the problem can&rsquo;t be fixed &ldquo;overnight&rdquo; and said it&rsquo;s &ldquo;still the same ones that come here constantly complaining about the water.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of damage to these pipes over the last 50 years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s being worked on. It will be fixed.&rdquo;
Mayor Jeff Johnson echoed Best&rsquo;s comments.
&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t snap your fingers and (make) it happen overnight,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why people need patience.&rdquo;
Best was responding to Robert Johnson, the NAACP Wilson Branch&rsquo;s legal redress chair.
&ldquo;I am here just to ask you that when these people speak about this water, give them the necessary concerns that they deserve,&rdquo; Johnson said. 
Commissioner Judy Mason said Lucama is an old town. 
&ldquo;My house is 115 years old and my pipes under my house are that old. So I live on Main Street, and the pipes have not been fixed on Main Street,&rdquo; Mason said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a water problem. I don&rsquo;t know why. But here&rsquo;s the thing. If they change out the water lines, if you have really old pipes like I do &mdash; Ms. Gloria (Galloway) has this problem. Her pipes are extremely old. Until she gets new pipes under her house, she has brown water regular, and there is nothing she can do about it at this point.&rdquo;
Mason said she&rsquo;s experienced brown water &ldquo;maybe three times in seven or eight years&rdquo; that she&rsquo;s owned her house.
&ldquo;I understand that things do take time,&rdquo; Robert Johnson said. &ldquo;The issue is you are getting tired of hearing it. They are getting tired of using it.&rdquo;
Robert Johnson, who isn&rsquo;t a Lucama resident, asked commissioners to provide a timetable for water system repairs. 
&ldquo;Everyone should have proper drinking water,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s your right. It&rsquo;s everyone&rsquo;s right.&rdquo;
Commissioner David Johnson said the town&rsquo;s water is tested.
&ldquo;Every 30 days, we send water off to the state,&rdquo; David Johnson said. &ldquo;When they send the report back, they say it&rsquo;s drinkable.&rdquo;
Commissioner Patricia Uzzell said the town is working to improve its municipal drinking water.
&ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s not going to happen overnight and we are working on it, but the thing about it is we want to just represent to the people a pleasant attitude just to let (them) know that we are concerned,&rdquo; Uzzell said.
&ldquo;The frustrations come because I am tired of hearing about it,&rdquo; Best said. &ldquo;We are working on it.&rdquo; 
Best asked Robert Johnson if he had seen the water.
&ldquo;Yes, I have,&rdquo; Robert Johnson said. &ldquo;I have seen the milky water and I have seen the water that looks like watered-down tea. That is the reason I am here. That is the reason why I started attending the meetings.&rdquo;
Jeff Johnson said the effort to fix Lucama&rsquo;s water precedes almost all current commissioners&rsquo; tenure. 
&ldquo;We have had the wells worked on,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have had the water lines worked on. Last week, all the other stuff. We&rsquo;ve got bids coming open at the end of the this month.&rdquo;
Later this month, the board will seek bids for replacement of some 7,700 feet of potable water lines in various sizes, valves, fittings, hydrants, services and other water-related work. A grant from the N.C. Division of Water Infrastructure&rsquo;s state drinking water reserve fund is paying for the repairs. 
Mason called the drinking water &ldquo;the No. 1 problem we have here.&rdquo;
Gloria Galloway said she&rsquo;ll mark 27 years as a Lucama resident in July. 
&ldquo;We had brown water when I first came here, and I came up here to the town hall and told them about everything being brown. They told me what to do. They gave me some Iron Out (rust stain remover), and I went home and washed them and they came out,&rdquo; Galloway said, referring to stains on her clothing from washing it with town water. 
&ldquo;Every once in a while, the water would clear up,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;At certain times of the day, you can get clear water. When a lot of people are using it, it stirs it, and that&rsquo;s why we get brown water. I wanted to come here and let you know that they have worked on it all these years.&rdquo;
Gladys Martinez said she&rsquo;s lived in Lucama for nine years and has experienced poor water quality the whole time. 
&ldquo;I am sick of my water coming out pink or like what, water-like milk?&rdquo; Martinez said. &ldquo;I can put my milk jug beside my water and it looks the same. I am going to keep complaining about it at every meeting until it gets resolved.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Lucama water quality complaints continue 

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Wilson&#x2019;s shopping center entrances have higher crash rates than intersections, according to N.C. Department of Transportation data. The most dangerous intersections are in rural Wilson County, where two-lane roads with high speed limits intersect. The North Carolina Highway Safety Improvement Program tracks the number of crashes and ranks junctions based on the frequency of wrecks for each 1 million cars that pass. Raleigh Road Parkway (U.S. 264 Alternate) at the Heritage Crossing Shopping Center entrance between Best Buy and Olive Garden tops the list with 120 crashes from 2015-19. Not far behind is another Raleigh Road Parkway location at the Westwood Village Shopping Center side entrance adjacent to the Shell station and across from Big Lots, where figures show 112 crashes occurred within the four-year period. The majority of crashes were minor and didn&#x2019;t result in serious injuries. Along Herring Avenue, from Ward Boulevard to two blocks on Canal Street in front of Wilson Community College and Sallie B. Howard School, the state logged 129 crashes, including one fatal crash, in that time frame. The majority, 84 crashes, resulted in property damage only. WCC President Tim Wright has an office overlooking that stretch of road. &#x201C;The primary traffic issue for Wilson Community College is that our Herring Avenue and Sallie B. Howard School entrances and exits are no longer ideally configured for the amount of traffic on Herring, especially weekdays around 7-8 a.m. and 3-4 p.m,&#x201D; Wright said. &#x201C;Those are the times when Herring can get extremely busy from the combined to-and-fro traffic for Sallie B. Howard School, including buses, Bridgestone, city of Wilson operations center, Gardners Elementary School and probably some other folks I&#x2019;m not even aware of. &#x201C;Naturally, the wait times tempt some drivers to do things they shouldn&#x2019;t, both on those roads and in our own parking lots.&#x201D; The college is working on a 10-year master plan that will include a study of traffic and parking patterns. The HSIP lists potentially hazardous intersection locations in Wilson County with higher incidences of serious injury crashes or fatal crashes. Topping that list is the intersection of Old Raleigh Road at Rock Ridge-Sims Road with the highest severity index in the county at 11.93. Some 11 crashes have occurred at the two-lane roads&#x2019; intersection, along with at least one fatality through July 2020. A close second in intersections with the highest severity index is Airport Boulevard&#x2019;s junction with Chelsea Drive, with a severity index 11.48. Some 18 crashes and at least two fatal crashes have occurred there through July. Wilson County&#x2019;s busiest highway interchange is Interstate 95 and U.S. 264 where 39,000 vehicles head north and 32,000 vehicles head south each day, according to the NCDOT&#x2019;s annual average daily traffic mapping application. This is where U.S. 264 and I-795 share a short stretch of road and where 31,000 vehicles head south and 22,500 head north before splitting off. The second busiest interchange is I-95 and U.S. 264 Alternate, where 39,000 head north and south and where U.S. 264 contributes some 22,500 eastbound and 16,000 westbound vehicles. <h5>IN THE CITY</h5> A Times traffic analysis divided Wilson into two portions &#x2014; Ward Boulevard and outward and inside Ward&#x2019;s relative ring around the city. In the outermost portion, the busiest intersection is where Raleigh Road Parkway&#x2019;s 25,500 daily vehicles meet Forest Hills Road and its 23,500 southbound and 14,500 northbound vehicles. In the innermost portion, inside of but not including Ward, the busiest intersection is where Tarboro Street&#x2019;s 11,000 westbound and 7,000 eastbound vehicles meets Hines Street and its 12,000 northbound and 16,500 southbound vehicles. Two blocks south, Hines Street&#x2019;s 16,500 northbound and 15,500 southbound vehicles meet Goldsboro Street&#x2019;s 7,300 daily vehicle count as the second-busiest inner city intersection. <h5>DRIVER HABITS</h5> Wilson County averaged 13 fatal crashes per year over a five-year span, according to the state&#x2019;s NCDOT-maintained crash database. The average number of crashes per year is 2,321, with 1,135 resulting in injuries. Some 15.6% of Wilson County&#x2019;s fatal wrecks and 15.3% of injury crashes involved alcohol use. The county averages three fatal pedestrian crashes and one fatal motorcycle crash each year. From Jan. 1 to April 11 this year, the N.C. Highway Patrol has investigated 210 Wilson County collisions, which includes one fatal wreck, 34 injury crashes and 175 property damage crashes, according to Wanda Clark, administrative specialist. 1st Sgt. Steven Dail said the Highway Patrol sees the most wrecks on U.S. 264, followed by I-95, then U.S. 301, N.C. 42 and London Church Road. &#x201C;That&#x2019;s going to be your top five wreck roads in Wilson County,&#x201D; Dail said. &#x201C;That is in order from the greatest to the least.&#x201D; &#x201C;The No. 1 contributing factor to the most wrecks is the drivers overcorrected or oversteered,&#x201D; Dail said. &#x201C;Second to that would be drivers&#x2019; failing to reduce speed. The third contributing factor would be exceeding the safe speed for the conditions of the road, and the fourth would basically be reckless driving, which is operating a vehicle in an erratic or reckless manner.&#x201D; Dail said drivers should set aside enough time to reach their destinations. &#x201C;A lot of drivers are in a hurry and just simply, honestly get nowhere. That&#x2019;s a big part of the equation,&#x201D; Dail said. &#x201C;Speed is the No. 2 and No. 3, whether it&#x2019;s failure to reduce speed to avoid a collision or exceeding the safe speed for the conditions of the roadway. The biggest thing is for people to allow themselves ample enough time to get where they need to go and not be in a hurry to get there.&#x201D; Drivers age 30-39 are involved in the most wrecks, Dail said, with ages 20-29 ranked second, 40-49 third and motorists 15-19 years old rounding out the top four. &#x201C;Obviously, the first and foremost is to be paying attention,&#x201D; Dail said. &#x201C;That&#x2019;s a big factor on any wreck we go to, whether or not drivers are paying attention to the either the roadway or their own driving ability of the vehicle. If they run off the road, they overcorrect with the wheel thus causing them to lose control of the vehicle.&#x201D; Dail said he sees drivers using their cellphones &#x2014; whether speaking to someone, texting or looking at social media &#x2014; every day. &#x201C;The biggest thing is to drive safe and to concentrate on their driving,&#x201D; Dail said. &#x201C;That&#x2019;s the No.1 priority.&#x201D; <h5>CONTRIBUTING FACTORS</h5> Sgt. J.A. Cox of the Wilson Police Department&#x2019;s Strategic Traffic Enforcement Patrol said police investigated 2,627 collisions in 2020. Cox said typical causes, specifically in and near intersections, are rear-end crashes and left and right turns. &#x201C;Within the city, the speed of vehicles is not documented as often as other contributory factors that have led to collisions,&#x201D; Cox said. Witnesses often cite distracted driving as a cause or contributing factor. &#x201C;Often, the vehicle operator indicates that they took their eyes off the road and looked down,&#x201D; Cox said. &#x201C;Whether the driver happened to drop their phone, food or to look at the radio for a brief moment, in all cases, these can factor into the contributory reason that caused a collision.&#x201D; Cox said collisions are common at intersections with stop signs. &#x201C;Often, it results from one driver either failing to come to a complete stop at the stop sign or the driver failing to yield right of way once having made the stop,&#x201D; Cox said. &#x201C;These are commonly investigated at locations where an intersection is not a dedicated four-way stop, but rather allowing traffic on one roadway to continuously flow.&#x201D; Total Crash Frequency By Intersection, 2015-19 1. Raleigh Road Parkway at shopping center entrance between Best Buy and Olive Garden: 20 crashes. 2. Raleigh Road Parkway and service road to Walmart next to Shell station: 112 crashes. 3. Forest Hills Road just south of Westwood Avenue intersection at exits to Speedway: 90 crashes. 4. Nash Street and Beland Avenue in front of Pelican&#x2019;s SnoBalls: 88 crashes. 5. Herring Avenue and Williams Street Southeast at Wilson Community College entrance: 71 crashes. 6. Forest Hills Drive and Tarboro Street a few feet east of intersection at stacking lanes: 69 crashes. 7. Ward Boulevard and Scythia Street a few feet south on Ward: 68 crashes. 8. Ward Boulevard at 540 Ward: 57 crashes. 9. Raleigh Road Parkway and Interstate 95 on bridge: 56 crashes. 10. Raleigh Road Parkway between Glendale Avenue and Oak Forest Drive: 46 crashes. 11. Ward Boulevard east of Brentwood Drive: 46 crashes. 12. U.S. 264 Alternate at Interstate 95 South ramp: 44 crashes. 13. U.S. 264 Alternate at Hayes Street: 43 crashes. 14. Forest Hills Drive and Downing Street: 43 crashes. 15. Tarboro Street in front of Wilson Medical Center near Glendale Drive: 41 crashes. 16. Hines Street and Tarboro Street: 39 crashes. 17. Forest Hills Drive and Wooten Boulevard: 34 crashes. 18. Herring Avenue in front of Sallie B. Howard School: 34 crashes. 19. Hines Street south of Lodge Street near railroad overpass: 34 crashes. 20. Raleigh Road Parkway at Woodland Drive: 33 crashes. Source: N.C. Department of Transportation POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS INTERSECTIONS, 2015-20 1. Old Raleigh Road at Rock Ridge-Sims Road: 11 crashes, severity index 11.93, at least one fatality. 2. Airport Boulevard at Chelsea Drive: 18 crashes, severity index 11.48, at least two fatalities. 3. Upchurch Road at Elm City Road: 13 crashes, severity index 10.82, at least one fatality. 4. U.S. 264 Alternate at Rock Ridge-Sims Road: 11 crashes, severity index 9.91, at least one fatal crash. 5. U.S. 301 at Beauvue Road: 21 crashes, severity index 8.84, no fatal wrecks. 6. U.S. 301 at N.C. 581: 25 crashes, severity index 7.29, no fatal wrecks. 7. Bloomery Road at Packhouse Road: 17 crashes, severity index 4.92, no fatal wrecks. 8. Heritage Drive at Wolf Trap Drive: 34 wrecks, severity index 4.54. 9. U.S. 301 at Singletary Street: 21 crashes, severity index 4.52. 10. Interstate 795 at N.C. 42: 21 crashes, severity index 4.52, no fatal crashes. Source: N.C. Highway Safety Improvement Program BUSIEST HIGHWAY INTERCHANGES, 2019 1. I-95 (39,000 motor vehicles north and 32,000 south) and U.S. 264 (31,000 south and 22,500 north after interchange). 2. I-95 (39,000) and U.S. 264 Alternate (22,500 east and 16,000 west). 3. U.S. 264 (23,500 west and 22,500 east) and U.S.301 (22,500 north and 21,000 south). 4. I-795./U.S.264 (34,500) and N.C. 42 (10,000 east and 11,000 west). 5. U.S. 264 (22,500) and U.S. 264 Alternate (16,000 east and 5,500 west). 6. I-795/U.S. 264 (34,500 north and 35,500 south) and Downing Street (2,100). 7. I-95 (12,500) and U.S. 301 (17,000 north and 11,500 south). Source: N.C. Department of Transportation Traffic Survey Group BUSIEST INTERSECTIONS OUTside WARD BOULEVARD, 2019 1. Raleigh Road Parkway (25,500 motor vehicles) and Forest Hills (14,500 north and 23,500 south). 2. Raleigh Road Parkway (23,000) and Airport Boulevard (23,000). 3. Nash Street (21,500 south and 3,900 north) and Airport Boulevard (23,000 south and 12,000 north). 4. Forest Hills Road (25,000 north and 19,000 south) and Tarboro Street Southwest (14,500). 5. U.S. 301 (19,500) and Wilco Boulevard (17,000). 6. Ward Boulevard (9,800 south and 16,000 north) and Nash Street (20,500 north and 10,500 south). 7. Forest Hills Road (12,000) and U.S. 301 (23,500 south and 17,500 north). 8. Ward Boulevard (15,500) and Tilghman Road (6,200 north and 4,600 south). 9. U.S. 301 (11,500 west and 21,000 east) and Ward Boulevard (10,500). 10. Ward Boulevard/U.S. 301 (18,000 north and 17,000 south) and Nash Street East (11,000). 11. Ward Boulevard (13,000 south and 11,500 north) and Raleigh Road Parkway (14,000 east and 16,000 west). 12. Ward Boulevard (13,500) and Tarboro Street Southwest (14,000). 13. Ward Boulevard (17,000 north and 9,000 south) and Herring Avenue East (9,300). 14. U.S. 301 (1,400 south and 14,500 north) and N.C. 42 (10,500 west and 6,300 east). 15. Ward Boulevard/U.S. 301 (21,000 north and 19,500 south) and Black Creek Road Southeast (3,800). 16. Ward Boulevard (9,700) and U.S. 301 North (15,000) at Lipscomb Road East. 17. Ward Boulevard (12,500 north and 17,000 south) and Raleigh Road Parkway North (6,300). 18. Ward Boulevard (12,500) and Downing Street (10,000). 19. Ward Boulevard (11,500) and Forest Hills Drive (9,800). 20. Ward Boulevard (12,000) and Corbett Avenue (4,600). Source: N.C. Department of Transportation Traffic Survey Group BUSIEST INTERSECTIONS Inside WARD BOULEVARD, 2019 1. Tarboro Street (11,000 motor vehicles west and 7,000 east) and Hines Street (12,000 north and 16,500 south). 2. Goldsboro Street (7,300) at Hines Street (16,500 north and 15,500 south). 3. Hines Street (11,500) and Pender Street (7,000). 4. Hines Street (11,000) at Raleigh Road (5,600). 5. Raleigh Road (5,600 west and 5,100 east) and Nash Street (8,400). 6. Goldsboro Street (7,700) and Downing Street (4,000) at Five Points. 7. Nash Street (8,400) and Atlantic Christian College Drive (3,800). 8. Goldsboro Street (4,600) and Nash Street (4,400). 9. Atlantic Christian College Drive (3,900), Raleigh Road (5,100) and Corbett Avenue (5,800) at the roundabout. 10. Tilghman Road (4,700) and Corbett Avenue (2,100). Source: N.C. Highway Safety Improvement Program

Traffic trouble: Data ranks Wilson's most dangerous roads

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A felon on trial for attempted murder in a 2019 shooting left the Wilson County Courthouse during a lunch break Tuesday and never returned. 
Authorities are searching for 31-year-old Deonta Earl Bridgers, who jurors convicted in absentia Wednesday after he fled his trial, officials said. 
Prior to his court proceedings, Bridgers was on house arrest without any additional restrictions, according to the Wilson County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office. 
A house arrest deputy received a tampering alert from Bridgers&rsquo; electronic monitoring device at 1:52 p.m. Tuesday when he failed to return to court from lunch, said Wanda Samuel, sheriff&rsquo;s office chief of staff. 
Deputies began searching for Bridgers and found his monitoring device at a dilapidated house in the 500 block of Oak Street, Samuel said. 
&ldquo;The strap on the monitoring device had been cut off and left at this location,&rdquo; she said. 
Samuel said a judge issued a bench warrant for Bridgers&rsquo; arrest, and his name was entered into the National Crime Information Center database as a fugitive subject to extradition. 
GUILTY VERDICT
A Wilson County jury on Wednesday convicted Bridgers on charges including two counts of attempted first-degree murder stemming from a February 2019 shooting on Candlewood Drive that left two people injured. 
Antonio A. Harris of Wilson was treated for life-threatening injuries at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, police previously said. The other victim, Jetta B. Diggins, suffered a gunshot wound to her arm and was also treated at the Greenville hospital.
BOND AND HOUSE ARREST
Wilson police arrested Bridgers in March 2019 on two counts of attempted murder and one count each of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injuries and discharging a weapon into an occupied dwelling or motor vehicle. Bridgers was jailed under a $1 million secured bond. 
About six months later, Bridgers was placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring, Samuel said.
Bridgers lived at 506 Pickett St. at the time and was subject to a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfeew.
&ldquo;During the time he was placed on electronic monitoring, he did not receive any curfew violations,&rdquo; Samuel said. 
Once Bridgers is found, Samuel said he&rsquo;ll be sentenced on the Wednesday convictions. 
Anyone with information on Bridgers&rsquo; whereabouts is asked to call the Wilson County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office at 252-237-2118, the Wilson Police Department at 252-399-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 252-243-2255. 
Bridgers spent more than five years in prison for a 2010 armed robbery conviction in Edgecombe County, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety website. Records show he also was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. 
GUILTY BUT GONE
A similar escape happened in November 2015 when Wilson gang leader Devon Shamark Crooms vanished during a lunch break near the end of his high-profile trial. 
Released on a $50,000 secured bond, Crooms was on house arrest and wore an electronic ankle bracelet. The jury had recessed for lunch and Crooms was slated to be back in court for closing arguments. 
Authorities received a notification that Crooms tampered with the monitoring device. Officials later found Crooms&rsquo; ankle bracelet, which had been cut off, in the area of Woodard Street and Whitehead Avenue. 
Crooms&rsquo; trial continued im his absence, and a jury convicted him on several charges in connection to the 2011 shooting deaths of 20-year-old Shikia Hall and 19-year-old Sha&rsquo;Diamond Littleton. 
He was eventually captured in Florida after 7 months on the lam. 
Crooms was initially jailed under a $1 million secured bond. A judge reduced the bond amount to $150,000 in October 2013. In March 2014, he received another modification that reduced his bond to $50,000.
Conditions of Crooms&rsquo; pretrial release included house arrest with electronic monitoring. He was only allowed to visit his attorney&rsquo;s office and the courthouse by the most direct route.&nbsp;

Defendant flees attempted murder trial during lunch break

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Elizabeth and I are spending our weekends in the dirt and briars of our many rose plants. And those weeds seem to be growing bigger and more plentiful than last year. 
We have so many roses that have died over the winter. It&rsquo;s not just the weather, though, it is our knowledge of the care and feeding of each individual rose bush. Each one is as temperamental as the humans we have encountered over our lifetime, there in Wilson and around the world; and, yes, raising our kids and helping advise on raising grandkids.
So much thinking goes into our roses and learning to grow stuff. That&rsquo;s what I am interested in &mdash; how to keep from killing my rose plants. Many are surviving, however, even with my attempt to have a green thumb.
So, I am reaching out to our experts here in Wilson to try to see what and when to talk to someone about what we are doing right and wrong with our roses.&nbsp; And, yes, I have books, old ones, and new ones, on growing roses and other plants. But I believe a real person is needed. So, I am looking to the Wilson Rose Garden and the Wilson Botanical Gardens.
To me, the Wilson Rose Garden and the Wilson Botanical Gardens are &ldquo;meshed.&rdquo; I never thought about how our botanical gardens are under the county&rsquo;s jurisdiction while the Wilson Rose Garden is under the city of Wilson. They both seemed the same to me.
Sunday, May 16, in the rose garden will be a special day for my family, with kids in tow, and some older Fike graduates from long ago. The garden will to have music for our entertainment as well as local artists, hopefully painting roses. Bill Myers is going to play his music on his keyboard, something that we will all enjoy. And something called the ProMusic Conservatory is planning to present a concert. Wow!&nbsp; This is going to be a super Sunday from 2-5 p.m. in the rose garden. Organizers will explain deadheading, too.
I&rsquo;m looking forward to learning what the heck deadheading roses is. Oh, yes, you can look it up. I have tried and failed. 
Deadheading is all about cutting out the rose that is already gone. The experts write about what happens if you do not deadhead. The most important reaction from that rose bush is that flowering will stop. 
We have a rose garden here with more than 30 roses. This spring, we counted 15 that seem to have survived my looking, thinking, dirt-digging and fertilizing. I am doing something wrong. So, I am looking forward to listening to an expert.
This year in 2021, with so many lives lost and family disruptions, the Wilson art community is presenting numerous events from artists painting fire hydrants to kids creating paper mache (papier-m&acirc;ch&eacute;) works of imagination and creativity. So, this spring is a great time to celebrate our various artists, with paint and with dirt, in Wilson. We should all give everyone a virtual group hug.
This May 16 event is a banquet for Wilson&rsquo;s life and spirit crowned with roses. Our family will be there. Afterwards, we&rsquo;ll enjoy a great dinner at Parker&rsquo;s, since I have been going there from about 2 years old.
Oh, I have to thank Becky Rose, chair of the Wilson Rose Garden board, for keeping me informed and up to date on who&rsquo;s who in Wilson&rsquo;s garden world. Aren&rsquo;t we fortunate to be from Wilson? And Wilson is fortunate to have a rose garden with a &ldquo;Rose&rdquo; at its head.
Oliver Hedgepeth, a native Wilsonian, is a professor of logistics, teaching online at the American Military University. Email him at blh4835@gmail.com.

Deadheading's not a rock group 

Oliver_Hedgepeth.jpg

Terry and Carolyn Etheridge of Wilson celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday with a cookout at their home given by their son, Terry A. Etheridge Jr. They also plan a trip to Kentucky to celebrate. The Etheridges have one child and one grandchild. They were married April 10, 1971, at Peace Free Will Baptist Church. Mrs. Etheridge is the former Carolyn Ann Strickland of Wilson.

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Deadheading's not a rock group

Mr. and Mrs. Etheridge celebrate 50th anniversary