Sherrills Ford, Terrell, Monbo, and Long Island are unincorporated, there’s no town hall here connecting the dots. Hickory has always been the county’s center of gravity, so a lot of people out here don’t realize what county services already exist and apply to them. Here’s what’s actually available, plain and simple.
For any real emergency, police, fire, or medical, call 911 first. Everything below is for non-emergency questions and situations.
Sheriff & Law Enforcement
This area is unincorporated, so there’s no separate town police department. The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office has jurisdiction here, and there’s actually a local substation at 8456 Sherrills Ford Rd.
- Non-emergency line: (828) 464-3112
Fire & Rescue
Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire & Rescue is the volunteer department serving this area, the prominent one to know, with headquarters at 4011 Slanting Bridge Rd. Its official district is Sherrills Ford and Terrell; if you’re in Monbo or Long Island, it’s worth confirming your specific coverage since district lines don’t always match community names.
- Non-emergency line: (828) 478-2131
EMS
Catawba County EMS handles ambulance and paramedic response countywide, dispatched through 911. General info on the county’s emergency services is on the Catawba County Emergency Services page.
Medical
There’s no hospital physically in Sherrills Ford or Terrell. For everyday care, Catawba Valley Family Medicine – Sherrills Ford is the local clinic. For a hospital, your two realistic options are Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, the county’s main hospital, or Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in Mooresville, across the lake. Which one’s faster depends on where you’re starting from and what the bridge traffic looks like.
For public health questions (vaccinations, environmental health, etc.), Catawba County Public Health is part of the county government, see the county services directory for current contacts.
Trash & Recycling
Out here, there’s no curbside pickup from the county, you take your own trash and recyclables to a staffed convenience center. The closest one is the Sherrills Ford Convenience Center at 8876 Sherrills Ford Rd, open Thursday through Sunday, 10am to 6pm (closes at 3pm on Christmas Eve).
- Sherrills Ford Convenience Center: (828) 478-2248
- General questions (Republic Services, which runs all the county’s centers): (828) 256-2158
All household garbage has to be bagged, and it’s $2 a bag. Bulky items like furniture and mattresses are accepted for a fee ($20 for a small truck load, $30 for a larger one). Recycling is free, same materials as curbside recycling programs generally accept.
New as of September 2026: the Sherrills Ford center now takes used motor oil and oil filters, antifreeze, and cooking oil, part of the upgrades the county finished this month. We haven’t seen anything saying it now takes appliances or scrap metal, so for those, the Oxford Convenience Center in Catawba (4637 Lookout Dam Rd) is still the place to go. For larger loads than a convenience center can handle, the county’s landfill on Rocky Ford Rd in Newton is open Monday-Friday 8am-4pm and Saturday 8am-11:30am.
All five convenience centers are closed on New Year’s Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Full details, fees, and the other four centers are on the county’s Solid Waste page.
Utilities & Service Providers
Unincorporated means there’s no single town utility system tying this together, who serves your address can genuinely depend on exactly where you sit. Here’s the practical rundown, with the honest caveats built in.
Electricity
Two possible providers out here, depending on your exact address: Duke Energy, the large investor-owned utility, and EnergyUnited, a member-owned electric cooperative based in Statesville that covers this area along with 18 other counties. Coverage can genuinely change block by block in unincorporated areas like this, so check a recent bill or a neighbor’s setup if you’re not sure which one serves you.
- Duke Energy customer service: 1-800-777-9898 (Mon–Fri, 7am–7pm ET; automated outage/payment line available anytime)
- EnergyUnited member support: 1-800-522-3793, or 1-800-EUNITED for outages and payments (Mon–Fri, 7am–8pm)
Internet & Cable
Spectrum cable is the practical default for most of the area, coverage is wide. Brightspeed offers fiber, but it’s concentrated in lake-waterfront neighborhoods specifically, a real fiber option if you’re on the water, less likely if you’re further inland. Windstream also shows up in parts of the area with DSL and some fiber. If none of those reach your specific address, satellite internet (Starlink and similar) is the usual fallback for the most rural pockets. Worth comparing current plans and actual availability at your address directly with each provider, coverage maps shift.
Water & Sewer
Most homes here are on private well and septic, there’s no municipal water or sewer system covering this unincorporated area. Newer developments are sometimes the exception, built with their own community water system or tied into a package system as part of the development, so don’t assume either way, ask directly when buying or building. For well and septic permitting, inspections, or water testing, Catawba County Environmental Health handles all of it.
- Catawba County Environmental Health: (828) 695-5800
Unconfirmed, worth watching: we found an older reference to the county considering a “Southeast Catawba water and sewer district” along NC 150 and Sherrills Ford Rd, tied to the road-widening project. We couldn’t confirm the current status or whether it ever moved forward, not citing it as anything more than a lead. If you know more, let us know.
Natural Gas & Propane
Unconfirmed, take this one with caution: we could not verify whether piped natural gas actually reaches Sherrills Ford or Terrell specifically. Piedmont Natural Gas serves parts of the broader region, but we don’t have confirmation at the level of individual streets or neighborhoods here, this is a gap in our research, not a confirmed fact either way. Propane appears to be the practical default for most homes in this area, and AmeriGas has an active local service presence, but don’t take that as complete either. If you know your actual setup, natural gas, propane, or otherwise, let us know and we’ll fix this section with real, confirmed information instead of a best guess.
Trash and recycling are covered above under Trash & Recycling, not repeated here.
Animal Control
Catawba County Animal Services handles strays, loose animals, and licensing countywide, based at 201 Government Services Dr in Newton.
- Main line: (828) 466-6814
- Animal cruelty hotline: (828) 465-7945
Wildlife
Wildlife issues, deer, snakes, nuisance animals, aren’t a county service, they go through the state. The NC Wildlife Resources Commission runs a helpline staffed by biologists for exactly this.
- Wildlife Helpline: 1-866-318-2401 (Mon–Fri, 8am–5pm)
Hunting season
Deer and waterfowl seasons bring hunters onto the islands and open water around the lake, especially during goose season, and gunshots near the shoreline during those windows are normal and legal. For the 2026-27 season: archery deer opens statewide on September 12, 2026, and Catawba County’s firearm deer season runs November 21, 2026 through January 1, 2027. Goose and duck season dates vary by species and zone and shift slightly year to year, so check NC Wildlife Resources Commission’s official season dates before you head out, hunting or not.
Here’s the part that surprises people who’ve moved here from more suburban areas: North Carolina law generally makes it illegal to fire a gun within 300 yards of an occupied home without permission, but that rule specifically does not apply to lawful hunting regulated under state wildlife law. Catawba County’s own discharge ordinance carries the same hunting exception, since state law preempts it. So hearing shots near the shoreline during hunting season doesn’t necessarily mean anything’s wrong, legal hunters really can be closer to homes than people expect. This is general information, not legal advice, if you have a specific situation, contact the Sheriff’s non-emergency line above or NC Wildlife Resources Commission directly.
That said, hunting without the landowner’s permission on posted land is still illegal, and real safety concerns are still worth reporting. To report a suspected hunting violation, poaching, or unsafe hunting, contact NC Wildlife Resources Commission’s enforcement line: 1-800-662-7137 (or 919-707-0040 in the Raleigh area). Reports can be made anonymously through the state’s Turn In Poachers program.
If you’re interested in hunting yourself, current season dates, license requirements, and public hunting access are all maintained directly by NC Wildlife Resources Commission. Most of Lake Norman itself is open water bordered by private shoreline, so legal access generally means your own or permitted private land, or following NCWRC’s public waterfowl hunting rules for open water. We haven’t confirmed a dedicated public game land inside our immediate coverage area, NCWRC’s site is the place to check before you go.
Injured or orphaned wildlife
Found a hurt or orphaned wild animal? NC Wildlife Resources Commission keeps a live, searchable map of licensed wildlife rehabilitators by species and location, that’s the most current source since availability changes. For a severely injured deer or bear specifically, call the Wildlife Helpline above during business hours, or the Enforcement Division at 1-800-662-7137 after hours.
For birds of prey, hawks, owls, eagles, vultures, the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville is one of the closest dedicated options, about a 30-40 minute drive. Call before bringing a bird in.
- Carolina Raptor Center: 6000 Sample Rd, Huntersville, NC 28078 · (704) 875-6521
We’ve also come across Catawba Junction Wildlife Rehab & Farm Animal Rescue, based right in Catawba, but so far we’ve only found them through Facebook and haven’t independently confirmed their current status. If you’ve worked with them, or know of other local rehabbers we should list, let us know and we’ll confirm and add them properly.
Phone numbers, addresses, and hours change. We’ve pulled this from official sources, but if something here is out of date, let us know and we’ll fix it.