DOBSON — At least five officials with Fibrowatt LLC came to Surry County Wednesday to answer questions from citizens who are both for and against the company moving into the county.

According to Kasia Wieronski, public relations specialist for Fibrowatt, the company was available in the Surry County Government Center from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. to answer questions from the public.

“Only about 13 to 15 people from the public turned out today. I’m really disappointed in the turn out. We understand that people have been showing up to commissioner’s meetings to protest us coming to Surry, but not a lot of people showed up today so that we could explain how we work to them,” Wieronski said.

Following a vote Monday by the Surry County Planning Board to recommend rezoning of the parcel of land from Rural Agricultural (RA) and Manufacturing Industrial (MI) that has been eyed for Fibrowatt’s location in the county, a vote will be taken by county commissioners on Monday night. At least 25 people came to the planning board meeting to either speak against the rezoning or to protest the vote.

Commissioner Paul Johnson said that the group opposed to the rezoning request approached him at the Fibrowatt public information session yesterday.

“They asked me to delay the rezoning Monday night and I told them no. As far as I’m concerned we’ve done our due diligence. The county has been more than open and fair in this. I see no reason to delay it. As far as I’m concerned, we need to move on,” Johnson said Wednesday afternoon.

At least 30 to 35 people came to the last commissioner’s meeting on March 6 to protest Fibrowatt’s move to Surry County.

Wieronski said at least two county commissioners, the county manager, Dennis Thompson, the mayor of Elkin, Lestine Hutchens, Chris Knopf, Surry County’s assistant county manager for Economic Development and Tourism and other county officials stopped by the information session.

“Things went very well. We had a bunch of folks come through. We had a cross section of folks. There were some questions about air emissions, litter supply. How we will operate and what Fibrowatt will bring to the community,” Wieronski said.

She said the overall purpose for Fibrowatt’s visit Wednesday was part of the company community outreach and not a response to the recent opposition.

“Our overall purpose was to answer the community’s questions and for them to get to know us, to give them factual information about us. This is part of our outreach. I wish more people would have turned out today. I am really disappointed. We gave them an opportunity to voice their opinion, yet they are not showing up.” Wieronski said. “There’s no excuse why people didn’t show up today. We did our part in passing out fliers, getting information in the newspapers and on television. One lady said she doesn’t take the paper she does not have access to the Internet and doesn’t watch TV. I’m just flabbergasted. What do we have to do, to get information out there. There’s no excuse for people who are against us coming here not to come here and learn about what we do.”

The Surry County Commissioners have planned a special question and answer night on March 26. According to Johnson, the commissioners will be open to hear any question from any citizen on any topic that night. It will be held in the commissioner’s meeting room beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.