Susie Strauch reported at the Nodaway County Commission meeting Thursday that people were still coming and tapping the land which would hold the proposed $6 billion data center to see if it was feasible to build a large building on it.
Ms. Strauch said she was still not happy over the fact that in the feasibility study commissioned by the Rural Water District, two of the plans involved crossing their land. “What else are we going to destroy,” she asked.
Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker said that no tax abatements were no the table yet, and that they would meet with the attorney that afternoon.
Asked about Chapter 100 bonds, Assessor Rex Wallace, who was at the meeting, explained how they work. A governmental entity like a county or city issues bonds, the developer buys the bonds itself so no public funds are at risk, the governmental entity owns the project and leases it back to the developer, and then the developer buys it back at a nominal amount at maturity. Like tax abatements, there have been no discussions regarding Chapter 100 bonds between the county and the developer.
“If you’re thinking of giving an abatement, what makes you think they’re going to implement an agreement,” asked Tim Schafer. “If one is coming here, it needs to be state of the art, not one that is going to consume all our water.”
Deseret News reported on a proposed 30 megawatt data center in Utah that would use helium cooling from a high-temperature nuclear microreactor and air-based closed loop cooling, requiring no water for cooling.
George Null talked about school funding and data centers. He said that the school funding situation in Missouri was even worse than commonly believed. “If you don’t do an abatement, that means you’re trusting South Nodaway to do the right thing with regards to the tax money they get.” He expressed the fear that if a moratorium was too long, Scale Microgrids might walk away. Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker said that if no abatement were done, the tax money would be distributed to South Nodaway and other taxing entities like it normally would.
Nina Wiederholt said that she feared water leakage from such a massive project. She noted that the proposed buildings and gas turbine were small compared to the size of the land, meaning there was a lot of room for expansion later. A conceptual rendering of the proposed data center on the White Cloud Acres site shows three larger buildings and two smaller buildings, with a gas generator.
Kim Mildward, Assistant Nodaway County Economic Developer, said that without a tax abatement, the county would have no say in the project. “We need a moratorium to get straight answers,” Scott Wilson said. By state law, tax abatement agreement’s can’t go below 50%.
Possible consolidation of schools came up given that South Nodaway would have a huge windfall from the proposed data center. Dustin Skoglund, South Nodaway Superintendent, said that he had no authority to give funds away to other schools. All funds are spent according to state law and under a budget that is approved by the school board. Consolidation between two schools would require a vote of both school boards and then voters in both school districts.
Donna Tompkins said that she wanted to get the Nodaway County Commission, the Maryville City Council, and the Rural Water District Board in one room to answer everyone’s questions. “You don’t know what is being said at other meetings,” she pointed out. Commissioner Walker said he was open to that. “After we get the facts, I’m all for it,” he said.
Kim Swyers said that if the proposed data center clearcut all the vegetation, it would cause a massive erosion problem. “We have one of the few timbers left in the area,” added Susie Strauch.
Citing the argument by supporters that data centers would save local schools, Scott Wilson said that schools will consolidate whether data centers come or not.
J.R. Calkin, who lives next to the proposed data center, said that he had concerns about noise and health if the data center were to come. “We bought our place in 2011 to retire,” Mr. Calkin said. “There were no wind turbines or power line substations. How much is enough?” Jean Calkin said, “We wanted to live out in the country, not this. We came to live next to family, and now we’ll have to go different ways.”
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