The Greene County Board of Commissioners met in regular session Monday, August 17, 2026, at the Greene County Operations Center, where the board heard from residents concerned about a possible data center on Burnette Road, proclaimed August as Child Support Awareness Month, approved a profit-distribution plan from the county’s ABC Board, and, after a closed session, voted to sell land in the Walstonburg Industrial Park for a new residential development and to approve a financing contract for the county’s new elementary school project.
Before approving the meeting agenda, the board amended item G.1 to change the written description of the proposed animal shelter sign from marble to granite.
The board also received the tax administrator’s monthly collection report and the county’s monthly financial report as public information items, neither of which required board action.
Tax Administrator Stephanie Wiggins’s collection report, dated August 11, 2026, showed the county had collected $257,078 in taxes for the month of July, all of it counted toward the 2026-2027 fiscal year’s collections to date. Across all tax years combined, the county reported roughly $11.9 million remaining uncollected, the large majority of it tied to the current 2026 tax year, which as of July 31 had a collection rate of about 1.96 percent, typical for a levy that had only recently been posted. Older tax years showed collection rates of 99.8 percent or higher. Year-to-date figures for the new fiscal year included $2,806.25 in releases, $3,920.87 in adjustments, $6,098.57 in refunds, and $1,609.03 in write-offs.
The July 2026 monthly financial report showed the general fund had collected $627,067 of its $27,195,273 annual revenue budget, about 2.3 percent, and had spent $2,713,879 of its expense budget, about 10 percent, one month into the fiscal year, leaving expenses ahead of revenue by roughly $2.09 million for the period, a shortfall typical of the early months of a fiscal year before the bulk of property tax collections come in. The utility fund, by contrast, showed revenue exceeding expenses by $214,134 for the month, while the landfill fund and transportation fund both showed expenses exceeding revenue, by $28,677 and $90,018, respectively.
Commissioner Derek Burress asked that the minutes of the board’s August 3 meeting be pulled from the consent agenda and voted on separately, rather than approved as part of the routine block of items.
Burress explained that his objection centered on how the board had used closed session at that prior meeting, telling the board he intended to raise the same concern he said he had raised once before: “I’m going to object the same as I did the last time when I raised concerns about the reason for going into closed session at the meeting. We spent the first 56 minutes talking about something that didn’t have anything to do with us, and I don’t see how in the world that was attorney-client privilege.”
Burress did not specify which part of that closed session he believed fell outside the bounds of the attorney-client privilege exception the board cited to justify entering it. Still, his comments indicated he believed the board had used the extended closed session to discuss matters beyond legal advice from the county attorney, rather than the narrower purpose the privilege is meant to cover under state law. He indicated this was not the first time he had voiced the concern, suggesting it reflected an ongoing disagreement with how the board handles closed sessions rather than an issue specific to the August 3 meeting alone.
Separately, Commissioner Robert “Bobby” Taylor Jr. raised his own question about the same August 3 minutes, focused on a sponsorship the board had approved that night for the Snow Hill/LCC Foundation Tennis and Golf Tournament. Taylor told the board he had since spoken directly with the foundation and learned that its silver sponsorship tier was priced at $300, not the $600 figure reflected in the board’s own records of what commissioners approved. He said he wanted the discrepancy noted for the record before the minutes were finalized, telling the board the foundation would be “tickled to death” to receive either amount, but that he felt it was important the minutes accurately reflect what tier the board had actually intended to fund.
Burress responded that the $600 figure had not been a mistake, explaining that Commissioners Jones and Johnson had gone back and forth on the sponsorship level during discussion at the August 3 meeting, with one of them initially favoring the lower tier before the board settled on the higher amount after further discussion. Taylor said he “just wanted to make a note of that” for the record, and the board did not make any changes to the minutes as a result of his comments.
The board then approved the remaining consent agenda items, which included consideration of late present use value and property tax relief applications and a set of tax releases and refunds. The minutes pulled from the consent agenda were taken up separately afterward and approved by a vote of four to one. Burress cast the lone dissenting vote, consistent with the objection over the board’s use of closed session that he had raised earlier in the meeting; no other commissioner responded to his concern on the record before the vote was taken.
The releases packet included two ad valorem tax releases totaling $227.29. One release, for $162.29, involved a mobile home the tax office determined was not livable as of January 1, 2026, due to storm damage to the roof, following a timely appeal by the property owner; the release also covered a related solid waste fee. The second release, for $65, was tied to the property owner’s use of a private waste hauler rather than county collection service.
The refunds packet included 10 vehicle tax refunds, processed through the North Carolina Vehicle Tax System, totaling approximately $491.50. Six of the refunds were issued after vehicles were sold and the tag surrendered to the state, three followed vehicles being declared a total loss, and one resulted from a taxpayer’s timely appeal of the vehicle’s assessed value.
Three residents addressed the board during the public comment period, all raising concerns about a proposed data center reportedly being considered for a site on Burnette Road.
Darrin Heath, who lives on Friendship Church Road near the proposed site, told the board, “I just wanted to first and foremost, to request a 12 to 24 month moratorium on any data or AI data center.” He also asked whether any commissioners had signed a nondisclosure agreement related to activity on Burnette Road. Heath said he had first learned of the project a few weeks earlier through the Town of Farmville’s own meeting, which he saw discussed on Facebook, where officials had mentioned a 12-month data center moratorium and indicated Greene County was involved. He said he had since been told by two people who attended that meeting that a company he identified as East Energy Renewables was looking at Burnette Road for a data center, and that a representative had said if Farmville would not take the project, Greene County would. He said, “I want to know why everything is so hush-hush. I want to know why everything’s so rushed. There are surveyors out there. We don’t have any idea what’s going on out there.” Heath said Pitt and Greene Electric Membership Corporation had already approached one of his close friends about purchasing land needed to supply power to the site, and he questioned why the county had used grant money to fund surveying on the property. He laid out who he believed stood to benefit: Greene County through added tax base, Pitt and Greene through additional energy supply from East Energy, which he said converts chicken waste to electricity for Pitt and Greene and Duke Energy, and landowner Bobby Ham, whom he said stood to be paid between $16,000 and $26,000 an acre, a price he called “way out of whack” for the area. He closed by telling commissioners he had lived in the area his whole life and wanted answers “for me, for my kids, for everybody here that’s represented around that area.”
Alice Herring told the board she does not live in the immediate area but wanted to share research on the topic. She said her father-in-law is Dewey Hart and that she spent 35 years working as a real estate paralegal doing title searches for the law firm White and Allen before moving to a private title insurance company.
Citing U.S. Department of Energy figures she said she looked up herself, she told the board that data centers consumed approximately 4.4 percent of U.S. electricity in 2023, a share she said could grow to between 6.7 and 12 percent by 2028. She said the growth in data centers could require new substations and transmission infrastructure, create longer interconnection queues, pose challenges to grid reliability during peak demand, and increase planning and capital costs that get passed on to customers through their electric bills. She also raised concerns about the strain on water supplies during droughts and the need for additional wastewater facilities. Herring said several states have adopted or are considering moratoriums on data center development, naming New York, Vermont, Virginia, Maine and Texas as among those with active or proposed moratoriums, and New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, Michigan and South Dakota as states that have imposed temporary or conditional restrictions of one to three years to study effects on infrastructure and the environment. She closed by telling commissioners, “Greene County is a farming community. It’s not a data center community.”
Linda Sewall, Greene County’s Senior Tar Heel Legislator and the county’s former public health director, told the board that because of her Farmville address, she follows that town’s public discussions as well, and that she was surprised to learn the proposed data center was actually located in Greene County rather than Farmville. She said she had driven down Burnette Road and found it to be entirely farmland, and she questioned how much of that farmland would go out of production. She said Pitt and Greene have told the county it currently has electrical capacity for the project, but she questioned whether that capacity would still be available as residential development in Greene County continues, potentially requiring new construction to pay more for power.
Sewall also raised concerns about the source of cooling water for the facility, noting that the area’s water currently comes from Greenville through a pump station near her home and that residents have already been asked to voluntarily restrict their water use. She also cited wastewater disposal as an existing challenge for residential subdivisions in the county, one she said would be compounded by a large facility, and she raised concerns about the use of diesel backup generators to maintain continuous power during outages or before permanent transmission lines are complete, which she said could create noise and air pollution. Noting that Farmville has adopted its own moratorium, she urged commissioners “to form a moratorium, or set up a moratorium, so that the public has the ability to comment on actual facts about this facility before any decisions are made behind closed doors.” No commissioner responded during the public comment period.
Amanda Smith, director of the Greene County Department of Social Services, presented a proclamation recognizing August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month, telling the board that in the 2025-2026 state fiscal year, “nearly $649 million was collected, providing support for more than 288,000 North Carolina children” statewide.
Chairman Bennie Heath proclaimed the observance on behalf of the county. Smith was joined by several members of the county’s child support staff, and Vice-Chairman Jerry Jones separately commended the department for its work collecting donations for a recent back-to-school event, which Smith said included more than 400 book bags for the community.
Commissioner Bobby Taylor, who also chairs the Greene County ABC Board, presented a summary of the ABC Board’s profit distribution for the year ending June 30, 2026, ahead of the board’s required audit.
Taylor said the ABC Board had “just cut a deal with Greene County Sheriff’s Office that will be paying them going forward $1,800 a quarter to do law enforcement checks and reports every month,” a practice he said was recommended in the prior year’s audit. He told the board that after paying expenses, including the mortgage on the ABC Board’s building, “we came out with a net profit of $47,731 for the year.” The ABC Board requested that it be allowed to retain half of that amount, $23,866, to apply toward the note on its building, with the remaining $23,866 going to the county’s general fund.
Taylor recused himself from the vote, and the board approved the distribution.
County Manager Kyle DeHaven presented a request from the Mooring family to install a sign at the Greene County Animal Shelter in memory of Debbie Mooring, a longtime supporter of the shelter, describing it as “a request to place a granite sign at the animal shelter,” consistent with the board’s earlier amendment to the agenda item. That description still did not match the written agenda packet, which continued to describe the sign as marble.
Commissioner Burress asked DeHaven to clarify, saying, “I just want to make sure we clarify one thing. There’s going to be a granite sign instead of marble, right? Because it says marble in the agenda.” DeHaven did not resolve the discrepancy on the record, responding only that “one way or another, it’s going to be a nice” sign. DeHaven noted the sign would be designed so it could be relocated if the animal shelter moves to a new site in the future. The board approved the request.
County Attorney Kevin MacQueen thanked the county’s Department of Social Services staff for their work, telling the board, “It’s an honor and a privilege to be here as the county attorney of Greene County to work with such wonderful people. It truly, truly is. I mean that with all my heart.”
Chairman Heath next opened the floor for the commissioner reports and recommendations portion of the meeting. When it became clear none of the commissioners had anything to report, attention turned to Burress. “What y’all looking at me for?” Burress asked, drawing laughter from the board. Once the laughter settled, Burress said he wanted to address a question Darrin Heath had raised during public comment about whether any commissioners had signed an NDA related to the Burnette Road matter. Burress said he was not entirely sure what an NDA was, guessing that it stood for a non-disclosure agreement, but said whatever it was, he had not signed anything.
Commissioner Taylor reminded the public about an upcoming Snow Hill/LCC Foundation tennis, golf and pickleball tournament, a 10-day fundraiser that provides tuition assistance for Greene County students attending Lenoir Community College, noting the event would give away a $7,000 generator and a $2,000 grill as raffle prizes.
The board voted to enter closed session, citing attorney-client privilege under North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11(a)(3) and stating that the session would also address economic development matters.
After returning to open session, the board took two votes related to matters discussed in closed session.
First, Commissioner Bobby Taylor moved “that we accept the offer from First Flight Development... out of Pitt County to purchase... what I call the Walstonburg Industrial Park, for his offer of $890,000 to build approximately 74 lots on 12,000 square foot minimum lots, which will include 1,600 square foot minimum houses with garages, with attached garages.” The board approved the motion.
The vote updates an agreement the board first approved on July 20, 2026, when commissioners awarded the same county-owned property, off U.S. 264, to First Flight Development for $790,000 covering 68 lots, after the company raised its bid from an original $690,000 offer during a competitive process that also drew a proposal from Axiom and Associates, represented by Tom White. First Flight’s representative, Barton Horne, told the board at that meeting that his company is based in Pitt County and works with partners in Florida who have funded or developed more than 800 residential deals across the Southeast over the past decade, and that First Flight had identified the Walstonburg property roughly a year earlier before proposing residential redevelopment to the county. Horne said the company planned to self-fund and perform the site’s horizontal infrastructure work through an affiliated contractor, with a separate homebuilding partner constructing the houses, and estimated a roughly 24-month timeline to complete lots after engineering and permitting.
At the July 20 meeting, Horne had also disclosed, separate from First Flight’s formal bid, a second concept that would have increased the lot count to roughly 119 at a smaller average lot size of about 15,000 square feet in exchange for a higher total offer for the property. Board members said at the time that the additional density concept would not factor into that night’s award decision and would instead be subject to further negotiation with county staff. The $890,000 offer for approximately 74 lots approved August 17 appears to reflect a revised version of that density discussion, though the county has not yet published any documentation detailing the terms of the updated agreement.
Second, Vice-Chairman Jerry Jones moved to approve a contract with Davenport Lawrence Finance Company related to financing for the county’s new elementary school project. The board approved the motion.
That vote follows a longer financing history for the school project. In November 2025, Greene County Schools was awarded approximately $42 million through the state’s Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, a lottery-funded grant program, to relocate and rebuild West Greene Elementary School. At a June 22, 2026, Board of Education meeting, the school system’s operations director outlined a design-build project of roughly 130,000 square feet to serve about 950 to 1,000 students, with a total estimated cost of approximately $49 million, leaving a funding gap of roughly $7 million beyond the state grant. On June 29, 2026, the Board of Commissioners voted to authorize a resolution applying to the USDA Rural Development Program for financing to help close that gap, along with related administrative office relocation and a new bus garage; the financing request, publicly noticed at up to $15 million, was approved at a reduced amount of up to $14 million after the board returned from closed session that evening. A budget ordinance establishing the county’s authority to pay invoices on the elementary school project was subsequently approved August 3, 2026, tied to the $42 million state grant.
The August 17 vote for Davenport Lawrence Finance Company represents a shift away from that USDA-backed financing path.
The board then adjourned the meeting. The Greene County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to meet next on Monday, September 7, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the Greene County Operations Center.
Disclosure and Disclaimer: The author is a sitting member of the Greene County Board of Commissioners. This article is written and published in a personal capacity and is separate from the author’s official duties as a county commissioner. It does not represent the position, opinion, findings, or official actions of the Greene County Board of Commissioners or Greene County government. Statements, claims, allegations, opinions, and information attributed to individuals in this article are reported as they were presented or stated during the public meeting or in public records. The author is not representing that those statements, claims, allegations, or information have been independently verified, investigated, or determined to be true or accurate.
The inclusion of any statement, characterization, claim, allegation, or opinion in this article does not mean the author agrees or disagrees with it, endorses it, or considers it established fact. The article is intended to accurately report what was said and what occurred during the meeting, while allowing readers to distinguish between reported statements and independently established facts. Nothing in this article should be construed as an official statement or position of the author in his capacity as a county commissioner, the Greene County Board of Commissioners, Greene County government, or any other governmental entity.
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