Citizens attending a Bulloch County “town hall” meeting at Willow Hill this week told their concerns about roads, parks, data centers – and who knows what else – to the elected county commissioners and their top departmental staff members.

Nearly 70 people gathered in the cafetorium of the Willow Hil Heritage and Renaissance Center, near Portal, around the 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, start time. After welcoming them, county Board of Commissioners Chairman David Bennett announced that officials were “flipping the script” on expectations for the event. Past county town-hall sessions consisted of opening statements by officials followed by an “open mic” opportunity for citizens to ask questions heard by everyone.

But this time, an unusually large number of county staff members were seated at the front of the room, and Bennett had them introduce themselves.

They were Recreation Director Dadrian “Dee” Cosby; Planning and Development Director James Pope; Chief Ben Tapley of the Bulloch County Fire Department; Shelter Supervisor Amanda Anderson from Animal Services; Warden Robert Toole of Bulloch County Correctional Institution; Commissioners Nick Newkirk, Ray Davis, Anthony Simmons and Ray Mosley, as well as Bennett; Emergency Medical Service Director Brian Hendrix; Roads Maintenance Director  Mitch Johnson; Building and Facilities Manager Darryl Hopkins, Solid Waste Superintendent Rose Bonner, County Engineer Ron Nelson and County Manager Chris Eldridge.

After others said a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and Dr. Alvin Jackson, board president of the Willow Hill Heritage and Renaissance Center, also welcomed the crowd to the historic school, Bennett said, “So this is the fun part where I get to flip the script on everybody.

“I know everybody’s thinking we’re going  to stand up here and have folks address the board … one at a time, but what I found when we did this last year was there were a lot of people who didn’t get to say a word, that came  with questions that they didn’t get down to, to get answered,” Bennett continued. “I don’t want that to happen. I want this to be a personal event.”

So he invited citizens to instead come forward and speak to the commissioners and department heads one-on-one as everyone spread out around the room.

Excited for Portal Park

Dadrian Cosby, the Recreation & Parks Department director, was seated beside a colorful site map of the envisioned Portal Community Park, to be built on a slightly more than 50-acre site the county purchased in May 2025. Portal resident Jennifer Pease spoke to him about the park and said it was the main thing she wanted to hear more about.

“I live right down the road,” she said. “I have two kids that go to school in Portal, but I also have a lot of kids I help out with in Portal, too. I’m excited.”

Data center concern

Meanwhile, Shanna Smith, a Willow Hill area resident, was talking with Bennett about her concerns about the possibility of data centers being built in Bulloch County. Data centers, especially those for artificial intelligence, or “A.I.” computing, can be very large users of electric power and, in some instances, water for cooling the electronics.

“I’m concerned about them bringing data centers to Bulloch County when we’re already stretched on our water supply and the promises that data centers say that they’re going to bring to the county when they really don’t bring the employment that  they discuss  and then they just use up all the resources and the residents are the ones left paying for it, basically, with the water and electricity rates,” Smith told the Statesboro Herald.

County commissioners and some staff members have, in fact, been researching data centers, but not because of any specific proposal.

“I’m not saying it is coming today, I don’t know at what rate it’s coming here, but  what I do want to do is be proactive with this,” Bennett told her.

 The commissioners have scheduled a work session – open to the public – on the subject of data centers for after the business portion of their 8:30 a.m. regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 17. He said the work session might begin at 9:15 or 9:30.

Want roads paved

While a few citizens from the Portal and Willow Hill neighborhoods were asking about data centers – one of the newest topics of local concern – a far larger contingent was raising questions about a time-honored rural Georgia concern, roads. Historically, the county governing boards in Georgia were “commissioners of roads and revenue,” and with more than 600 miles of remaining unpaved roads – reputed to be the most in any county in Georgia, the condition of roads remains a topic at almost every meeting of the Bulloch County commissioners.

Detrich Harden said he and his wife, Latrecia, were concerned about dirt roads sometimes being in such poor condition that school buses cannot travel down them.

“We’ve got kids in school and when the roads are real bad, when it rains a lot, the buses won’t come, so the parents have to get together on the dirt road to make sure the kids get to school,” he said.

The Hardens are part of a petition process to have a particular dirt road, Banks Creek Church Road, paved by the county. Residents or property owners along the road have been signing the petition, and he said “99 percent” have signed.

The Rev. Maurice Hill, funeral home owner and longest-serving member of the Bulloch County Board of Education, attended the town hall meeting not to represent either of those but because he’s also pastor of Johnson Grove Missionary Baptist Church.

“There’s a group here, they’re trying to get the road paved up there, Ponderosa Road to Johnson Grove Church,” Hill said.

Some residents along Ponderosa Road may want the road paved and a few may  not, “but if we can get it on one side paved, we won’t have to worry about all that mud trying to get to church,” he said.  “You know, the membership is growing, and we want to be safe driving that way.”

Some of the citizens interested in road improvements were talking to County Engineer Ron Nelson about specifics of the plans and scheduling. Others got the attention of commissioners. Commissioner Ray Mosley, who lives on Banks Creek Church Road and is a deacon at Banks Creek Primitive Baptist, has a more than political interest in seeing the paving projects stay on schedule.

“We’re definitely making good progress,” Mosley told a couple of constituents, and noted that the Banks Creek Road goes all the way from Ponderosa Road to U.S. Highway 25.

The commissioners are planning to have a town hall meeting in Statesboro, probably in their own usual meeting room, on May 12 during budget-making season, and then one on Aug.  11 in Brooklet.