20 Statewide Commissioners Attend Nodaway County Commission Meeting on Data Centers

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.”