A road well traveled.

• Position: TRIANGLE REGION - Wilson County - Brief article

Two roads diverged in the woods--and Wilson County took both. On July 1, it paid $25,000 to join the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, the economic-development agency that now markets and recruits business for 16 counties. It will remain a member of the 13-county NCEast Alliance, following the lead of Nash and Edgecombe counties, which joined the Triangle-based group last year. "You can't have enough partners," says Jennifer Lantz, executive director of Wilson Economic Development Council. Historically, tobacco and manufacturing dominated Wilson's economy, but those industries have shrunk, and overall employment has flatlined over the past decade, at about 36,000. The county's population increased 42% between 1970 and 2012, less than a third the pace of nearby...