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Executive Director Heather Deck headed to the state capital last week to sit in on discussions about infrastructure — specifically, water infrastructure.

“I attended on behalf of sound Rivers and Waterkeepers Carolina to hear and learn from rural leaders from across the communities we serve. I was also curious about conversations about data centers from a rural economic development perspective,” Heather said. “I was very pleased with the keynote addresses because they were very on point about things that we see and say pretty much all the time.”

The NC Rural Centers’ annual conference, in partnership with the Institute on Emerging Issues, was held at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley and drew local and state government officials from across North Carolina. Keynote addresses included those from N.C. Governor Josh Stein, Lt. Governor Rachel Hunt, State Auditor Dave Boliek and Founder and CEO of Center on Rural Innovation Matt Dunne.

Dunne made an impact by describing large manufacturing facilities and data centers as not the panacea such facilities once were for rural communities.

“It was said that they might bring in some tax revenue, but they don’t bring in the jobs,” Heather said. “He was very clear that data center jobs, the construction jobs, are not sourced locally, and in manufacturing, it’s a very similar situation, because of automation. Part of his message was, ‘If you’re going this route, you should get concessions from the company coming in.’”

Concessions include agreements for the industry to pay for expansion of infrastructure where it’s required to support the industry — water, sewer, electric — rather than have those expansions passed off on the community.

“For data centers, he was very transparent on the high-energy use, the high-water use, impacts for residents that include noise,” Heather said.

Other issues raised in a keynote address by Chuck Flink, Howard C. and Margaret G. Bissell Director of the Pappas Real Estate Development Program at North Carolina State University, made a statement about how a community’s ordinances should be determined locally, not by the state.

“He was clearly talking about the need for rural communities to plan well in relation to climate change, such as adjusting to heat, to increased storms,” Heather said. “He was also very clear that communities need to have a say in what their communities look like — kind of that bottom-up approach — which was very great to hear.”

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