WILSON — If you have ever tried to do some minor repairs around the house, you know that the process is not pretty, but it usually works out in the end. A section of downtown Wilson is a work in progress right now, but the rewards are already arriving.

Downtown Wilson is getting a facelift, and business owners are excited about the change.

"I think it's real important to give it that down home feeling and make people feel comfortable. [It's a] nice place to shop," says store manager Tecia Pittman.

East Nash Street will soon look like West Nash Street, which was completed a year ago. The changes include more attractive sidewalks, buried power lines and traditional cast-iron streetlights.

There is another reason the city is renovating the downtown area. Some of the lines under Nash Street are more than 100 years old.

"While we're in there, we're looking at the lines, rebuilding the lines and replacing the lines where necessary," says deputy city manager Charles Pittman.

Bowie Gray's hardware store is in the section that is already complete. He says customers are noticing.

"A lot of customers did come in and say how nice it looked, and especially customers from out of town who had not been to Wilson before," he says. "Just yesterday, two ladies came in from Rocky Mount, and they commented about how nice the downtown looked."

This phase of the renovation will cost Wilson taxpayers about $290,000. The city of Rocky Mount is also planning to bury its power lines along a four-block section of Church Street.