Residents press Wilkes County for clearer outreach on Project Pressure and similar proposals

At the June 16 public hearing and the public-concerns portion of the Wilkes County commissioners meeting, several residents said the timeline and responsiveness from county offices and the Economic Development Commission (EDC) had left them feeling excluded.

Kirsten Martinson, who said she has worked in local government, recounted sending inquiries in April seeking confirmation about data centers or other high-density technical infrastructure; she said the County Manager’s Office initially referred her to the EDC and that messages went unanswered for several weeks. Martinson said the absence of a timely response led to distrust: "what are they hiding?" she asked, describing the delay between her April 14 request and receiving a reply in mid-May.

Beth Kilby echoed concerns about transparency and warned about national patterns in which communities feel pressured to accept large-scale technical projects without adequate public engagement. Several speakers connected mistrust to the difficulty in obtaining timely public records and press notices, and urged the county to hold public informational meetings and expand outreach beyond a single newspaper notice.

Commissioners responded by listing existing outreach channels (newspaper notices, county website, press releases, social media, and meeting video archives) and encouraging residents to propose additional communication channels. Chairman Hardin Kennedy and staff noted the county receives a high volume of records requests, that some information is governed by private negotiations prior to formal proposals, and that more individualized follow-up is available via commissioner meetings by appointment.