Thursday’s
meeting of the Nodaway County Commission had the normal group of data center
opponents present. But there was also a group of around 20 commissioners from
around the state who shared their experiences with data centers. They were
members of the County Commissioner’s Association of Missouri, of which Scott
Walk is the board president. One of the duties of the president is to host a
meeting of the group every year in his home county.
Jeff
From reported that he had a discussion with Dan Scheffler of Scale Microgrids
which lasted almost two hours. “A lot of the things he told me were great to
hear, but they need to be documented,” said Mr. From. “That’s a big deal.” Mr.
From offered to help do cost/benefit analysis for the county, accounting for all
the impacts, both positive and negative.
In
response to a question from Tim Schafer to the assembled group of
commissioners, several opened up about their experiences in dealing with data
centers. Like everyone else, one of the Audrian County commissioners said they
were still in the learning phases of data centers.
One
county commissioner reported on how their county passed a moratorium on data
center development, framing it as an effort to protect the health and welfare
of its citizens. The goal is to require data centers to prove that they can
meet health and welfare standards and set up a process of inspection.
Kyle
White of DeKalb County said that his county was in a unique situation; while
the county as a whole does not have zoning, they have a township system, and
three different townships have zoning. White Cloud Township in Nodaway County is
seeking to pass zoning in November to regulate data centers.
If
DeKalb County were to pass zoning, then Mr. White explained that zoning in the
individual townships would trump the countywide zoning. Similarly, if Nodaway
County were to pass zoning, it would not affect Maryville, which has its own
zoning.
Lacy
Miller of Marion County said that her county has had zoning since 1972. They
have two cities with zoning. She said that they can’t single out any specific
industry, or it will be challenged in court. They have a 40-page zoning manual
with all the different regulations. One time, a hog farm wanted to put in a
wash, only to get pushback from the other two commissioners. The project was
delayed by several weeks. It was a $2.5 million project that employs 12-15
people. It took them four years to finalize regulations for solar farms.
Joe
Galthouse said that there was a 6,000-acre solar farm that located in his
county, and that one farmer put 3,000 acres of their land into the project. “We
never even heard of solar in 2019,” he said.
Mr.
From said that if the project is going to be built, that it should be built as
cleanly as possible. “We want the commissioners to check all the boxes. Maybe
they will relocate elsewhere. That’s fine,” he said. “I understand why
landowners are doing what they are doing. I leased to the solar farm that was
going to locate here, and then they backed out.” Mr. From called for
transparency in the process. “When they approached me about the solar farm, I
told my neighbors what was going on. That didn’t happen here,” he said.
Mr.
White said that in the course of the process, many officials have gotten death
threats, and a few have even quit. “There is so much hate in the human heart,”
he said. “It’s sad to see it come to that point.”
Bruce
Skoglund, a supporter of the project and a former superintendent of South
Nodaway, talked about his fears of the legislature doing away with the Hold
Harmless clause, which area superintendents fear could mean hundreds of
thousands, or even millions of dollars in lost revenue. “When I look at the
data centers, it means a windfall for our schools,” he said. “As a superintendent
of a small school, I lost good teachers to St. Joseph and Maryville. If they
don’t locate here, they’re going to locate somewhere.”
Dave
Teeter, who formerly taught and coached at Worth County and who is now a
commissioner of Montgomery County, talked about the impact the Google and
Amazon data centers would have on his counties. The combined worth of the two
centers in his county is around $25 billion. He noted that the Montgomery
County schools will have more money per capita than anywhere else in the country.
“I grew up here,” said Mr. Teeter. “Change is hard, but I know what schools are
going to face.” Like everyone else, Mr. Teeter, as a teacher at Montgomery
County, saw how the school was training up people, only to see them go
elsewhere. “It’s a challenge,” he said. “We have lost 30% of our population. We
could not keep doing what we were doing.”
Like
everywhere else, Mr. Teeter talked about the pushback he got as a commissioner.
“We were accused of taking bribes.” Talking about his job as a commissioner,
Mr. Teeter said, “I understand what you guys go through. You’ve got a difficult
job.” He noted that in Montgomery County, the FFA did a research project on
what industry would be best for the county, and they chose having a data
center. “They did an outstanding job of listing all the pros and cons. We did
everything we could to protect human health.”
Talking
about his background, Mr. Teeter said, “I grew up in Worth County. I went to
Northwest. This is still home for me. One thing my dad told me was to never
forget where you came from. I hope Nodaway County can weather this storm and
that the positives can outweigh the negatives. This is still a place where I
hold dear.”
Commissioner
Chris Burns said that the draft development agreement was still in the hands of
the attorney. “It’s still so vague that it doesn’t answer any questions,” he said.
They are in the process of hiring a person to help the commissioners collect
info. He noted that the developer didn’t have all the answers either. As an
example, Mr. Burns said, “They’re still looking for a place to connect water
from.”
“I’m
frustrated like everyone else,” said Mr. Burns. “We have to wait for answers
like everyone else.” Bruce Skoglund said that when the solar farm was
considering locating in Nodaway County, it took a long time to get answers
then. “If we’re not going to get answers, then we need to extend the moratorium,”
said Mr. From.
Scott
Wilson said that the turbine project from White Cloud Generating would generate
500 gallons of water per minute alone. “The data center would be separate. They’re
not helping,” he said.
Kim
Swyers asked what would happen if there were a significant archaeological find.
Commissioner Burns said that DNR rules govern environmental and historical
considerations and that it would take time to rule on the factors. Ms. Swyers
noted that one such project found a mastodon that was 20,000 years old.
Mike
Wilson noted that the Lottery promised money for schools, but that when it was
passed, the state just cut the funding correspondingly. “It’s going to happen
again,” he said.
Bruce
Skoglund talked about his time at King City when they were putting in the wind
turbines. “Do I think they will try to get rid of Hold Harmless? Yes, they might,”
he said. He said that the purpose of the governor’s newly-touted report card
was to make small schools look bad.
Nodaway
County Assessor Rex Wallace noted that there had been an effort in the legislature
to redistribute the tax money from wind farms from local schools to statewide,
but that he, Allen Andrews, the State Representative for the area at the time,
and another legislator got it stopped. He noted that while South Nodaway got
money this year from the new Evergy substation, that next year, it would be
state assessed, meaning it would be distributed statewide. “We don’t get money
from the Royals or the Cardinals,” he noted. “If the data center wants to
locate here, they need to pay taxes like everyone else.”
Mr.
Skoglund said that in Gentry County, the commissioners there wanted to turn it
into a pilot project and distribute the money from the wind farms to all three
of the school districts there, which would have drastically reduced the revenue
for King City, but that he got it stopped.
“They
want to build the facility here because it’s right next to the Evergy
substation,” said Scott Wilson. “You’re negotiating from a position of
strength.”
