Northampton County

Tell us about your time.

What happens in Northampton County School District that changes the course of your trajectory towards local gov?

Yeah, I think what I experienced when I was teaching, and I may get emotional, talk about this part of my story, was I had such great kids.

I mean, I hate to call them kids.

Hamlet, North Carolina.

Northampton, North Carolina.

Greenwood, South Carolina.

Lumber City, Georgia.

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the In Our Backyard podcast with your host Jen Galler.

And in this episode, I'm joined by Al Queshibi, Sylvia Vincent, and Belinda Joyner, all residents of Northampton County, for an in-depth conversation about the county's approach to data center development and the proposed pause on new projects, questions about transparency, and the future of their community.

Data centers are often presented as engines of economic growth, bringing investments, jobs, and new opportunities.

But they can also raise serious questions about electricity and water consumption, noise, traffic, environmental impacts, and the long-term consequences for the communities that live alongside them.

In Northampton County, the debate has taken another turn.

From questions surrounding a proposed 12 month pause in February and March to the eventual approval of a 32 month pause in May and the presentation of a proposed data center ordinance in August, Residents have been trying to understand not just what the county is planning, but how those decisions are being made.

Today we're digging into the timeline, the public records, the planning board's role, and the questions surrounding public participation.

We'll also discuss the county's meeting with officials from Macklenburg County and whether Northampton County is doing the research necessary to understand the potential costs and consequences before making a permanent decision.

Here's our radar on satellite composite.

You can see a few clouds east around Rocky Mountain, the Wilson area, Edgecombe County, Halifax, Northampton.

A few clouds off to the west as well.

We're going to have a lot of sunshine on the way tomorrow.

On December 25th, Cathy's loved ones spend the day worrying instead of opening gifts.

But on the next night, December 26th, nearly 100 miles away in Northampton, North Carolina, a patrol officer makes a gruesome discovery.

I was working night shift on the 26th, and basically, the shift was kind of quiet.

I decided to, um, you know, check out the side roads.

She didn't have gunshot wounds, no stab wounds.

She just had marks around her neck, looked like she'd been strangled.

The victim has no identification on her, but within a few days, the Northampton Sheriff's Department finds a possible match.

We sent out a confirmation saying that we located a person through each agent within at least a 1 to 200-mile radius.