Past Conversations On Consolidation

Here are a couple more situational facts of the history of the situation that are of note:

1986

In 1986, at the direction of the North Wilkesboro Board Of Commissioners Mayor Neil Cashion of North Wilkesboro approached Mayor Fidell Frazier of Wilkesboro to bring up the issue of consolidation only to be told by the Wilkesboro mayor that it wasn’t the time to bring up the issue, and that though consolidation would happen one day, it would not in his lifetime.

Shall we repeat this now? Or, shall we say that now is the time that the citizens make the decision to support a study?

Source: Hubbard, J., (1986, August 7). “Wilkesboro Board Of Commissioners Left No Doubts Monday Night: There Will Be No Merger With North Wilkesboro in the Foreseeable Future”. The Wilkes Journal-Patriot.

1999

In 1999, during the meetings of the Wilkes Vision 20/20 Task Force, when asked about combining the towns nearly all of the 115 people who were asked supported looking into the issue of bringing the two towns together.

This situation happened before Lowe’s moved its corporate headquarters to Mooresville, NC and before our area took such a big economic hit from their departure. Like then, shall we talk about it now only to forget about it in a few weeks, months, or years? Or, will we finally decide to look into the issue?

Source: Hubbard, J., (1999, March 12). “Vision Task Force supports merging 2 towns”. The Wilkes Journal-Patriot.

2020

In early 2020, The Wilkes Journal-Patriot conducted an online survey poll that posed the question “Do You Support Merging Wilkesboro And North Wilkesboro?” At the time the poll concluded and was taken down on February 9th, 2020, nearly twice as many people answered “Yes” to consolidating towns, versus “No”. The results were as follows:

YES - 391

NO - 204

MAYBE - 60