A Wilson man was uninjured when the rental truck he was driving flipped over with 10,000 tortillas on board.
The refrigerated, two-axle International box truck flipped over on Downing Street about 500 yards from the Wilson city limits and near the road&rsquo;s interchange with U.S. 264 around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday.
Driver Hector Villalobos of Wilson had to climb through the passenger window to get out of the overturned truck. &ldquo;I felt the back tire getting locked up, and it jumped over and fell over,&rdquo; Villalobos said. &ldquo;I tried to turn the truck back, but when I did that, it kept going.&rdquo;
The truck ended up on its side of the road after crossing the center line and the oncoming lane.
No other vehicles were involved.
&ldquo;I was wearing a seat belt, and I held on tight to the steering column. I was a little shaky,&rdquo; Villalobos said. &ldquo;I stayed there for a minute after everything stopped moving. I turned the truck off and unbuckled myself.&rdquo;
Manager Giovanny Guerrero from Ol&eacute; Mexican Foods said the vehicle was a Ryder rental truck carrying 600 boxes of tortillas.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s easily 10,000 tortillas in there,&rdquo; Guerrero said.
Ol&eacute; Mexican Foods Inc. is a distribution company located at 612 Tarboro St. The tortillas were made in Atlanta.&nbsp;
Ol&eacute; also delivers cheeses, other Mexican food products, sausage and sour cream, Guerrero said.
Guerrero said the truck would be righted, taken back to the company and offloaded.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper J.M. Lamm investigated the wreck.
Lamm said Villalobos was cited for failure to maintain lane control.&nbsp;
&ldquo;He ran off to the right, overcorrected and then went off to the left and overturned. I don&rsquo;t think there was any mechanical failure,&rdquo; Lamm said. &ldquo;It just ran off the road and overturned.&rdquo;
Wilson County EMS and the Contentnea Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the crash.&nbsp;
Downing Street was briefly shut down while the truck was righted.&nbsp;

Driver ticketed in tortilla truck turnover 

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Gov. Roy Cooper extended the state&rsquo;s modified stay-at-home order Wednesday in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.&nbsp;
The order requiring people to be at home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. unless traveling to or from work is now in effect through Feb. 28. The statewide mask mandate remains in effect, along with mass gathering limits and capacity limits for retail stores and other businesses.&nbsp;
&ldquo;While it&rsquo;s good to see our numbers are decreasing and stabilizing, they remain too high,&rdquo; Cooper said during Wednesday&rsquo;s news conference. &ldquo;We need to keep up our efforts to slow the spread of the virus.&rdquo;&nbsp;
In addition, Cooper extended a moratorium on evictions to help people stay in their homes during the pandemic. He also extended the order to allow to-go and delivery sales for mixed beverages, which will be in effect through March 31.&nbsp;
STATE VACCINE UPDATE&nbsp;
Cooper said the state&rsquo;s top priority is getting vaccines to people as quickly and equitably as possible. The state has administered 99.8% of the COVID-19 vaccine first doses it received from the federal government.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The sticking point right now for our state and the nation is not enough vaccine,&rdquo; Cooper said. &ldquo;We do have thousands of shots, but there are millions of people who need two of them.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Cooper said federal officials notified him on Tuesday that the government will increase vaccine shipments to states by 16% over the next three weeks.&nbsp;
&ldquo;This will help, but we still need much more,&rdquo; Cooper said. &ldquo;I know this is a maddening and frustrating time for many of you. Hundreds of thousands of you have had success in getting vaccinated, but many more of you haven&rsquo;t been able to get appointments or have been put on waiting lists. It&rsquo;ll get better as North Carolina gets more vaccine and more providers giving it out.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Until then, Cooper said, North Carolinians need to keep practicing the three Ws: wear a mask, wait 6 feet apart and wash hands frequently.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I want every single person to be immunized to prevent this cruel disease,&rdquo; Cooper said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll make sure everyone has a spot to get their shot.&rdquo;&nbsp;
STATEWIDE FIGURES
The state added 5,587 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases Wednesday, up from 3,978 cases the day prior.&nbsp;
Hospitalizations decreased from Tuesday to Wednesday. There are currently 3,305 people hospitalized due to the virus.&nbsp;
North Carolina&rsquo;s pandemic death toll stood at 8,915 on Wednessday afternoon.&nbsp;
WILSON COUNTY FIGURES
Health care workers have administered 5,210 vaccine first doses in Wilson County, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services&rsquo; online dashboard. Data also shows that 389 second doses of the vaccine have been administered here.&nbsp;
Wilson County added 26 newly confirmed virus cases Tuesday and 43 on Wednesday, state data shows.&nbsp;

Governor extends coronavirus orders, says more vaccines coming

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Two years after smothering the embers in the pig cookers, Bill Ellis Barbecue and nearly 100 acres surrounding the storied restaurant are going up for auction.
&ldquo;Bill Ellis made a legend out of that barbecue restaurant, and people came from a long way away to eat there,&rdquo; said Walter House, owner of House Auction Co. &ldquo;A smart entrepreneur in the food service business could do that again.&rdquo;
House is partnering with Stone Auction &amp; Realty to sell 82 acres of land that can be developed on Forest Hills Road and Downing Street. There also are online auction listings for an additional six commercial parcels including the restaurant, the convention center, Lujak&rsquo;s Auto Body &amp; Glass, Seltzers Services garden center, Leonard Buildings &amp; Truck Accessories and the former Merita bread store.
&ldquo;Anyone in Wilson knows that the intersection of Forest Hills Road and Downing Street has flooded in significant storms,&rdquo; House said. &ldquo;The bread store operated for many years, and the Leonard business is still operating there, plus it was never a game-stopper for the barbecue restaurant.&rdquo;
Before the decision was made to auction the property, real estate agent Chuck Williamson spent more than a year trying to sell some of the Ellis parcels.
&ldquo;None of the buyers really worried about the flooding,&rdquo; Williamson said. &ldquo;We would disclose the flood zone, but it is such a great location with so much traffic going through there that it would overcome that obstacle.&rdquo;
Williamson acknowledged the online auction will reach a national audience.
&ldquo;The real key to selling at auction is a very aggressive, far-reaching marketing campaign that alerts large numbers of people across the country that these properties will be sold at competitive bidding,&rdquo; House said. &ldquo;There is a strong sense of urgency because there is a deadline, so interested buyers know that they must act or they may never get a chance to buy this property again.&rdquo;
House said the recently installed signs advertising the auction have already spurred interest, with potential buyers visiting the vacant parcels and open houses in the works for tours of the commercial parcels.
&ldquo;These can be commercial developers, real estate investors, commercial investors and Realtors as well as end users,&rdquo; House said of prospective buyers. &ldquo;Because of the traffic volume, these properties lend themselves to be good locations for chain and big-box stores. The convention center is a first-class building with no other facility in Wilson that can host large events like this, so it is a great investment and a tremendous income-producing opportunity.&rdquo;
Listings for the properties are available online at www.houseauctioncompany.com with 14 days of bidding expected to open in mid- to late February. The website will show the current bid and the required amount for the next bid.
&ldquo;The bidding can get very spirited at the end,&rdquo; House said with a laugh. &ldquo;If there is bidding in the final five minutes &mdash; which there will be &mdash; then it will automatically extend the deadline in five-minute periods so no one will be shut out by the clock.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Auction planned for Bill Ellis Barbecue properties

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Four Wilson City Council members on Monday quashed a plan to build new single-family homes on Wooten Boulevard.&nbsp;
&ldquo;This is the reverse of the way it usually goes,&rdquo; Councilman James Johnson said Tuesday. &ldquo;Usually, residential goes in first and they want to put businesses right beside them, but I&rsquo;m remaining consistent and voting to protect the development that was there first.&rdquo;&nbsp;
In September, the planning board approved a rezoning request for 12.34 acres along the 2800 block of Wooten Boulevard that would change the zoning designation from general commercial to residential mixed-use. The Wilson City Council was slated to consider the request later that month, but it was continued several times before being added to the January agenda.&nbsp;
Engineer Ron Sutton of Herring Sutton &amp; Associates and Tom Corbett of First Venture Properties spent the time meeting with adjacent business owners and finding compromises that would pave the way for the development. Sutton said the potential developers agreed to rule out rental and multi-family homes and pay to install a buffer around the property.
Sutton noted the land had been vacant for decades before the Wilson Family YMCA purchased it in 2010. However, plans for a new YMCA changed, and in 2019, the city and YMCA teamed up to announce the new facility would be built on the former BB&amp;T towers&rsquo; Nash Street site. The YMCA has had the Wooten Boulevard property on the market for more than 500 days.
&ldquo;We have been trying to sell this property unsuccessfully for a number of years,&rdquo; YMCA board member Jim Farmer wrote in a Friday email to the city clerk. &ldquo;The current zoning classification has caused us issues on selling this property.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The site is part of the Forest Hills Business Park, which has restrictive covenants barring non-commercial development. An amendment to those covenants was submitted to the city with the required number of stakeholder signatures to allow for residential development only on the proposed site.
&ldquo;I do understand the concerns some have, but today we find more mixed-use projects being done between commercial, residential and general business,&rdquo; Corbett told council members during a Thursday meeeting held via videoconference due to COVID-19. &ldquo;So for that purpose, I recommend (you) consider approval of rezoning for this project to move forward.&rdquo;
The request was the subject of a public hearing, and state law requires an additional 24 hours for public comment before officials can take action. During that period, Farmer, other YMCA board members and the owners of vacant lots adjacent to the land submitted comments to the city clerk in favor of the rezoning.
Councilman Michael Bell made a motion to approve the rezoning request, which was seconded by Councilman Derrick Creech. Councilwoman Gillettia Morgan joined Bell and Creech while Johnson and Councilmen Tom Fyle, Donald Evans and Logan Liles voted against the motion.&nbsp;
&ldquo;When I voted against the proposal to put a restaurant against Belle Meade, I was protecting the residents that were there first,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;Likewise, I voted for the businesses around the YMCA property. I think they would have to alter what they were doing to accommodate the residents, but we don&rsquo;t ask residents to do that when businesses go in by them.&rdquo;
Also during Monday&rsquo;s meeting, council members approved several text amendments to the unified development ordinance and rezoning requests for a portion of 2900 Wolf Trap Drive NW, the 1158 Place development near Heritage Corner and the 2100 block of Miller Road.

Wilson City Council rejects Wooten Boulevard rezoning

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Wilson County sheriff&rsquo;s deputies have arrested nine people in a rash of catalytic converter thefts.&nbsp;
Officials say the primary targets in Wilson County cases were vans at several churches, businesses, a day care center and stranded vehicles parked along roads.&nbsp;
While arrests have been made in some cases, officials say detectives are investigating further incidents.&nbsp;
Over the past several months, the sheriff&rsquo;s office has seen an increase in reports of catalytic converter thefts, according to Sheriff Calvin Woodard. So far, nine suspects have been charged with larceny of motor vehicle parts.&nbsp;
Those charged include:&nbsp;
&bull; Ronald Keith Farmer, 48, of Elm City.&nbsp;
&bull; Michael Shane Lollis, 44, of Stantonsburg.&nbsp;
&bull; Melinda Reeves, 35, of Wilson.&nbsp;
&bull; Bryant Collins Gay, 38, of Wilson.&nbsp;
&bull; Jordan Stanley, 32, of Elm City.&nbsp;
&bull; Ronald Wood, 57, of Fremont.&nbsp;
&bull; Andrew Euper, 41, of Dudley.&nbsp;
&bull; George Ashley Bell, 49, of Vanceboro.&nbsp;
&bull; Donald Paxson Jr., 44, of Vanceboro.&nbsp;
A MATTER OF MINUTES
Catalytic converters are a part of a vehicle&rsquo;s exhaust system that reduces burnt engine gases and pollutants. Woodard said thieves use battery-operated reciprocating saws to cut the ends and remove them from underneath the vehicle, which can be done within a matter of minutes.&nbsp;
Thieves often steal catalytic converters after business hours and on weekends. Any vehicle can be considered a target, Woodard said.&nbsp;
Perpetrators target these parts because they contain precious or rare metal that can be sold at metal recycling businesses. Woodard said victims won&rsquo;t be aware their converter was stolen until they turn on their ignition and hear a loud noise that sounds as if the car has a detached muffler.&nbsp;
&lsquo;EASY MONEY&rsquo;
State law requires metal recycling facilities to obtain a nonferrous metals purchase permit from the sheriff in the county where they operate, Woodard said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Also, the metal business must take a picture of the person and the item the person is attempting to sell,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This information is readily available upon request by an investigator, or the permit can be denied by the sheriff.&nbsp; The investigators did a tremendous job investigating these cases and apprehending the suspects.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Woodard said some alleged metal thieves came to Wilson County from other areas to steal catalytic converters for &ldquo;easy money.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Some suspects indicated they needed money and that it was an easy way to get it,&rdquo; Woodard said. &ldquo;People work hard for their items and during these trying times, they should have picked up a yard rake or a lawnmower&hellip; not steal from hardworking people, businesses and churches. What they received was an arrest warrant, and we are seeking additional suspects for additional thefts.&rdquo;
PREVENTION TIPS
The sheriff&rsquo;s office provided the following tips to prevent catalytic converter thefts:&nbsp;
&bull; Immediately recover your vehicle if it&rsquo;s broken down on the roadside.&nbsp;
&bull; Place lights and security systems around your business.&nbsp;
&bull; Check your exhaust system if your vehicle remains in an open parking lot &mdash; including churches, businesses and day care centers &mdash; for multiple days.&nbsp;
&bull; Park your vehicle in a well-lit area if it will be stationary for several days.&nbsp;
&bull; Report any suspicious behavior, such as a person hanging around a stranded vehicle. Residents can also send a tip anonymously through the Wilson County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office mobile app.&nbsp;
&bull; If your catalytic converter is stolen, contact law enforcement before approaching scrap yard businesses.&nbsp;

Sheriff's office arrests 9 in catalytic converter thefts

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When Christmastime rolls around, I start making lists of goodies I want to make. Alas, the list gets too long, and I never get around the making everything.
This year, it was a loaf of bishop&rsquo;s bread that I intended to bake in time for Dec. 25. It never happened. But that&rsquo;s OK because there is no rule for when I can bake this delicious quick bread that&rsquo;s packed with so much goodness &mdash; from maraschino cherries to almonds. When I first saw a slice of bishop&rsquo;s bread on Pinterest, I thought it was fruit cake. And, in many respects, it is like a fruit cake &mdash; but it&rsquo;s not a traditional fruit cake you&rsquo;d find around here.
The bread apparently has a long history and is sometimes called broken glass bread. Once you cut a slice and reveal the goodness hidden inside, you&rsquo;ll understand the reason for this name.
The recipes I looked at before making my bread included a variety of nuts and fruits. I chose pecans and slivered almonds for the nuts; some recipes use walnuts. I used red maraschino cherries, instead of red and green; I&rsquo;ve also seen recipes that use candied cherries. I chose a cup of golden raisins for my dried fruit; many recipes use dates. I used milk chocolate chips because I love the combination of cherries and milk chocolate; the recipe I saw first called for a chocolate and almond candy bar broken in bite size pieces.
When I made this recipe, I was confused at first because there&rsquo;s no oil. Other bishop&rsquo;s bread recipes I saw didn&rsquo;t include oil either, but a few had a small amount.
This is a very easy recipe to make, and it comes together in just a few minutes. The baking time is another matter. The original recipe from Taste of Home that I adapted has a two-hour bake time at 300 degrees. I hadn&rsquo;t planned on that and needed mine to cook quicker. I saw other recipes cooked at a higher temp, so I baked mine for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Keep a watch on it after about 45 minutes in case you need to tent the edges with foil to prevent them from over baking.
The bread smells heavenly as it bakes, as you can imagine with all of those yummy ingredients. Bishop&rsquo;s bread recipes indicate the bread is best the next day, but it&rsquo;s also good warm from the oven.
It was such a good feeling to cut into this bread and see all of the ingredients displayed &mdash; like broken glass.
One note, this is a dense bread packed with so many ingredients, so start with a thin slice. My husband and I really loved the bread, but it fills you quickly.
My daughter loved this bread as well, so I cut several slice and froze them for her to enjoy later.
I&rsquo;m so glad I found this recipe, and I&rsquo;m so glad I waited to bake it.
It turns out that January is a very good time to make this treat.
Lisa Boykin Batts has been writing a weekly food column since 2001. Her column includes recipes she and her family enjoy.

Quick bread packed with goodness

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Trung and Denise Nguyen of the Rock Ridge community announce the engagement of their daughter, Aimee Blair Nguyen, also of Rock Ridge, to Andrew Mark Guess of Pineville, Louisiana. The bride is the granddaughter of Carolyn Davis of Wilson and the late Ralph Davis and Tony and Rose Nguyen of Wilson. Parents of the groom are Jonathan and Mary Guess of Pineville. He is the grandson of Peggy Guess of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and the late Thomas John Guess and the late Dr. and Mrs. Milton O. Peacock of West Monroe, Louisiana. An April 24 wedding is planned at Stork&#x2019;s Rest Farm in Sims.

Driver ticketed in tortilla truck turnover

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Quick bread packed with goodness

Guess-Nguyen