A’ville looks back at year

The small town of Autryville achieved much in 2024, work they felt was worth recognizing.

Per tradition, the town board recently hosted its annual year-end Christmas party for its community. With that party always comes Mayor Grayson Spell’s ‘Autryville Christmas Party Accomplishments’ — his comprehensive end-of-year list shared with residents on all of the progress they’ve made this year.

While that report was full of what Spell referred to as, “big, slow-moving projects,” he said, personally, the accomplishment that he was most proud of this year was the cooperation of the town board. That unity is what he credited as the driving force behind how and why they were able to achieve so much.

“I’m most proud of how well the town board works together on all of our projects,” he said. “Everyone gets along so well and we are able to move forward so easily and quickly because of that. I am proud of the board — everyone is on the same page, no one fights or works against each other. I’m thankful for that and for them for all the hard work they and we have put in to grow Autryville this year.”

From massive infrastructure improvements, new business emergence and even feel-good projects such as simply beautifying the town, a standout from those projects was the town’s success in receiving grants for development. There were three in total, and among them was $580,000 for street improvements on E. Old Stage Road and throughout town, and two million dollars for water line extension down Minnie Hall Road, both of which they received earlier in the year.

“The $580,000, that was from the general assembly,” Lisa Jones, town clerk, explained. “We officially received the money in March, which they approved earlier this year. That is for street improvements and ultimately, to pave those streets. The two million for water line extensions was also approved at the same time as the $580,000. Those were in the same approved budget that the general assembly did, and I think that grant is actually from DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality).”

The town was also granted $1.3 million, with $900,000 from the state, and another $400,000 from the DOT (Department of Transportation). Those funds were added to the $555,000 the town received in 2022 from the state that was earmarked for stormwater improvements.

“That big project will be on N. Gray Street and W. Clinton Street and is expected to be completed by Dec. 2025,” Spell said.

Jones explained, “They added some funds because we’re in the stage now where they’re going to actually start construction, which is exciting.”

Keeping with infrastructure improvements, Spell again included their current town oriented project to fix stormwater issues on W. Old Stage Road. He eluded to the project during November’s board meeting, which was scheduled to go to bid this month. The goal remained to have the project contracted by the beginning of 2025, assisting them throughout the process was Barnhill Contracting Company.

While it wasn’t a new construction build by the town, Autryville added a new business to its ranks. TNT Automotive, a new used car lot located on W. Williams Street, was opened in January by Sampson County native Benny Faircloth.

Even the town’s public works crews received improvements for both manpower and workspace.

“We hired Connor Bullard as a full-time public works employee and we are working on a project to build a new public works facility at the water tower,” Spell said. “Mr. Hoyle Broome donated a half acre to the town, which we have cleared for the new building.”

The town’s limits grew in that area, as five properties were annexed into the town this year.

“The properties were mostly located around the water tower,” Jones said. “I don’t think anyone actually lives in the areas that were annexed, so they could be sites for future projects. Fun fact — the water tower itself, even though it’s owned by the town, it wasn’t in town limits, so we fixed that.”

Modern technology updates were also introduced this year, and more are coming through partnerships the city developed with local entities.

“We partnered with Star Communications and the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office to install security cameras downtown,” Spell said. “We’re also working with Star Communications to bring high speed internet, telephone and cable to Autryville.”

Also, added with those tech updates, was a complete overhaul of their old water meters, which were converted to an electronic and an antenna was installed that reads them every three hours. That particular upgrade was Jones’ personal favorite for the whole year.

“I think what I’m most proud of, is finishing up updating our water meters,” she said. “Not only is that going to help the town financially, because our water meters are now accurately telling us how much water the town is using. I’ve been able to, because of the new software, that wasn’t updated since the ‘80s. I can now actually call customers and tell them that they have a leak. So it’s not only saving our customers money, it’s helping the environment too.”

The remaining highlights were geared towards beautification and fun activities. Denise Tyndall, town commissioner, helped put up flags downtown that were designed by Jones’ son, Owen and Debbie Baxley, mayor Pro Tem, did floral landscaping at the corner of downtown and the pavilion.

When it came to events, none topped this year’s Easter egg hunt event, which had a huge turnout.

“I think that we had 200 people here. That’s what the estimate was based — on how many eggs we put out and the fact that they were all gone,” Jones said, with a laugh. “We kept stuffing more eggs and they keep disappearing, it was crazy.”

The final accomplish was towards an upcoming project that’s currently in the works for planned improvement to the town’s park, Pat and Bertie Williams Park.

“On the grounds of town hall, where the park’s located, they have some very limited playground equipment there,” Jones said. “It’s dated and not a whole lot of people use it — there’s even a trail there. To improve the park, the board’s in the stage right now where they’re talking to engineering firms to inquire about feasibility for what they could do with the area.

”They have’t applied for any grants yet,” she added. “They’re just at the ‘finding-out’ stage of that.”

With 2024 all but complete, Jones reiterated that they had a big year and her hope for success going into next year was showing town residents the fruits of their hard work.

”Well, since this year will be a big year for finishing up our stormwater projects, I’m looking forward to our citizens actually seeing the work that we’ve been doing behind the scenes to improve our town and our resilience toward stormwater improvement,” she said. “Sometimes people don’t think you’re doing anything until they see it with their eyes, and I don’t blame them, so I can’t wait until they see it.”