Jan. 24 - 30, 2019
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Just days before his death, 7-year-old boy spoke his first sentence Logan Spruill, a specialneeds student at Colfax Elementary School, drowned in a pond near his home Jan. 16
was five days old – playing outside their house on Happy Hill Road.
by STEVE MANN
Spruill said Logan – who was autistic and had turned 7 years old Jan. 6 – would sometimes wander down the hill toward woods behind the house. But he had never been to the top of the hill beyond the woods several hundred yards away where there’s a pond. Most of the time Logan was in plain sight from the house, Spruill said.
STOKESDALE – Logan Jayce Spruill “loved to explore,” his grandfather said. “He’d pick up rocks, get sticks, he was a normal little boy,” said Jaycee Spruill, flipping through photos in his cell phone showing Logan – who had lived with Spruill and his wife since he
IN THIS ISSUE News in brief.....................................2 ‘Active adult’ housing demand .....3 Your Questions .................................4 Calendar Events ..............................6 NWO Business & Real Estate ...........7 ORMA puts property up for sale ....8 Neighbors oppose connectivity .. 10 Slower housing sales projected ... 12 Real Estate Transactions ...............20 Crime/Incident Report ..................22 Student profile................................23 Grins & Gripes ................................24 Classifieds ......................................27 Index of Advertisers ...................... 31 NWO on the Go! ............................32
“He’d pick up snakes. One time he had two snakes in a wash tub that couldn’t get out. He thought they were big worms.”
But Logan was found unresponsive in the pond Wednesday, Jan. 16, after law enforcement and emergency personnel and family members searched about two hours for him. He was taken to Moses H. Cone Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The body was sent to the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, where it was determined that cause of death was drowning. “It’s a tough time right now,” said Spruill, whose mother died Jan. 4 in New York and was flown to Greensboro
...continued on p. 26
Photo courtesy of Jaycee Spruill
Logan Spruill, 7-year-old grandson of Stokesdale residents Jaycee and Dorothy Spruill, died Jan. 16. Illustration courtesy of WithersRavenel
WithersRavenel, the engineering firm hired by the Town of Summerfield to develop a master plan for intersection improvements at N.C. 150 and Summerfield Road, was also asked to present suggestions for how to best use a 13+-acre tract the town owns northeast of the intersection, bordering U.S. 220; the firm was told the plan must be congruent with the town’s comprehensive plan. At left is one of two illustrative concepts the firm presented Jan. 15 for the property, which shows a parklike setting that includes a walking trail, picnic shelter and a water tower complex. See more on p. 26.