[4:24] Please join us for the pledge of allegiance and

[4:32] the states of America and to the Republic for which

[4:35] stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[4:42] Thank you.

[4:44] And welcome to the Board of County Commissioners' meeting February 18, 2021. Please let the clerk know

[4:53] that all five commissioners are present?

[4:57] Now we'll look for a motion for the consent agenda.

[5:00] Mr. Chairman, I'd move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

[5:04] Second.

[5:05] Move by commissioner Vaughan, second by commissioner Dedeker,

[5:08] any further discussion?

[5:12] Seeing none on paper I post same sign, unanimous approval.

[5:17] Now we will go to public comment and you're limited to five minutes, you'll see a car

[5:27] on the screen and when you come forward please give your full name, address if you have

[5:36] any group of affiliations and then deliver your remarks.

[5:42] So is there anyone for public comment today?

[5:50] Anything.

[5:54] Come on up, young man.

[5:59] I don't even lend you anything I live in.

[6:01] 3, 4, 2, 2, 5, look out, row, nose and water.

[6:04] Be about a mile for more of this projected projects going to be.

[6:08] Maybe a mile and a half.

[6:10] I've just read a little bit on internet.

[6:12] So I don't know if any part of that's.

[6:16] Valor, they're not valid.

[6:18] But I looked up on internet.

[6:21] Other projects are being built, so I copied off the length.

[6:24] outside of Chicago. They're doing the same thing. You get to see how the fans are working,

[6:31] how the exhaust is working, how the size of the building, how it impacts the neighbors,

[6:34] how they talk about their land shaking, vibrating. I mean, I don't want to hear the city manager

[6:41] of the mayor tell me, we're going to get all this money and then you won't pay taxes as bad.

[6:46] That all sounds good, but that's not realistic. So we need to take a look at what's actually

[6:51] happening somewhere else and see how that impacts us right here in Miami County and then

[6:58] have enough information to make a television decision not an emotional one.

[7:04] That's what I've got to say.

[7:06] Thank you.

[7:06] And I got to link here, if someone's interested in anybody's interested, they take a picture

[7:11] of it or take the top of it and look it up on the internet and see example of what's actually

[7:16] going on.

[7:18] I'll leave these later if we want one.

[7:21] Thank you, Lenny.

[7:24] All right, who else is, once, make a public comment today?

[7:32] My name is Elizabeth Grish, I reside over in Oswadamy. I think the bottom line here is, if anybody and I urge all of you to, if anybody does a quit Google search on pros and cons of a data center, you will very quickly find out there is a fallout across the country.

[7:51] The most recent thing I read is that researchers and scientists are struggling to even keep up with how bad it is just yet because of how quickly everything is being pushed to happen.

[8:06] I know, in my own experience, any time a project is being rushed, it's usually not something

[8:15] that's in the best interest for everybody.

[8:17] Many of the local citizens have spoken publicly and voiced we do not want the status

[8:24] center there.

[8:25] They're talking about putting it across from the state hospital.

[8:28] This is a building full of people that are trying to receive treatment.

[8:33] I would also encourage anybody to get on the Kansas City subreddit and just look into the

[8:40] data center talks on there because that's where I originally saw this happening most of

[8:46] the year ago when people were petitioning not to have the mayor in Kansas City where they're

[8:51] used to all the loud noise and the big bright lights but I mean the people that are just in

[8:55] a close vicinity to it said well they don't need outdoor lights anymore because they're in

[9:01] The inside of their homes is lit up from the amount of light that comes off these buildings.

[9:07] Aside from that, there are many questions and concerns as to how they're thinking

[9:13] OSTs, what I mean you would ever support it when we have struggled with water in the past

[9:18] and electric also.

[9:21] I really just want to make sure the community is informed and another thing I want to bring

[9:28] to the attention because I know that they're saying something about tax breaks or something.

[9:34] But there are already predicting that nationwide everybody, everybody will be affected.

[9:41] There's going by by 2030, but possibly in the next couple years, there's going to be an

[9:46] 8% increase in minimum to everybody's electric bill.

[9:50] That is pretty significant.

[9:51] Some places are going to get hit with 25 or more.

[9:54] They predict small communities will be getting hit the hardest.

[9:57] So, I really hope you guys will just take everything into consideration.

[10:01] I am happy to provide and say, oh, my sources and bring anything else I can.

[10:07] I'm having a really hard time.

[10:09] I have, I've got a bunch of statistics and numbers, but I don't want to bring them to you guys

[10:12] because they are changing so rapidly that it is, I mean, it is literally outdated information

[10:18] when I get on and do my research the next day.

[10:20] And I have been heavily involved in researching this, but as a mother to two small children,

[10:26] that I desperately want to raise in the community I was raised in.

[10:32] Oh, so what I mean, me personally, I would love to see our city council focus on how we could

[10:38] bring a grocery store back and get something a smaller project like that going before we try

[10:43] to jump into anything like this.

[10:47] Thank you very much.

[10:48] Thank you.

[10:55] Okay, our next public comment.

[10:58] Name and add to us, please.

[11:00] Ann Nelson Worley, new LLC, 293-22 was 330-503.

[11:05] I led directly behind the property.

[11:08] I am the rural citizen.

[11:10] I do not live in the city of Osoatomy.

[11:13] But I feel like I don't have much of a voice here in the city

[11:17] just because of that.

[11:19] I am the most closely affected by this project.

[11:23] I firmly object to any data center, any more solar farms.

[11:32] Ocewadamy's skirted around the moratorium to put the solar foreman, I thought that we

[11:36] had a moratorium in Miami County to prevent that, is this going to be the same.

[11:43] My next focus is on the property.

[11:46] property was given to Osawa to me by the state that an agreement that in 20 years that

[11:56] if nothing was done with the property, they have to give it back to the state.

[12:02] Nothing's

[12:02] happened with the property. Why are we scrambling at the very last minute to try and put some

[12:08] kind of crazy data center on this property just so that they can keep it? I think that it's been

[12:19] they've had no plan. They keep claiming they've spent millions of dollars and thousands of

[12:24] man hours on infrastructure leading to this property, but yet I can barely drive down my road

[12:30] there without running through mud holes and pot holes every single day. Now they say that this is

[12:38] going to bring economic relief to the residents. I'm going to ask anybody, would you buy my property

[12:45] knowing that there's going to be a data center being built next door,

[12:51] how am I going to sell

[12:52] my property if I would never recuperate my money. I would be at nearly a total loss on this

[13:00] property if I was to try and sell it. Now, their proposal is this is going to bring in 350 construction

[13:08] jobs. Well, those are temporary jobs. How long are they going to last? Two, three years, the time

[13:14] the build, and then they're talking about 90 jobs that it will have full time. 90 jobs, that's

[13:23] it. I thought we were talking about long-term future, you know, stability here, you know,

[13:31] business is coming to the area and thriving, but no business is going to want to build anything

[13:37] around that area, knowing there's a data center.

[13:42] That's my two cents.

[13:44] Thank you.

[13:44] Thank you, Nelson.

[13:47] All right.

[13:48] Who else we have for public comment today?

[13:57] My name is Amy Evans, and I live at 201 North 11th Street, Louisville, Kansas.

[14:03] I am not a resident of the city of Osloan.

[14:05] My primary concern with this data center is how it's going to impact all of us regarding water supply.

[14:11] We have been through several severe droughts over the last few years and I haven't on my phone.

[14:18] It looked like it was going to use like 10 million gallons of water in a day.

[14:24] Like I saw the proposal put out by the city manager and it said something about the city had to provide 10 NGD's worth of water,

[14:36] but it did not have a time frame.

[14:38] I feel like this is all being pushed through with very little clarity and it just seems

[14:44] rushed and the merit is in, like you can walk across the in places and at least seen

[14:49] they did a 5K where people ran across the river because it was so low.

[14:55] My dad and my brother are farmers, my dad does a lot of work for duck hunters and they

[14:58] Who pump water?

[15:00] It's further duck hunting, and that's way less water than the state of center would use, and they have to shut down sometimes because the conservation district says you can't pump water right now, you're using too much.

[15:13] The state of center just seems short-sighted. AI is scheduled to take out like 20% of entry-level, like color jobs in the next few years.

[15:23] So maybe you've got 90 and that's the top end for data centers.

[15:27] Maybe you've got 90 new permanent jobs, but 20% of entry-level white color jobs.

[15:34] That's our kids who've been going to college for last four years.

[15:37] What are they going to do to pay back their student loans?

[15:40] I just really think we needed to get long, deep look at how this is going to impact everybody.

[15:46] Thank you for your time, sir.

[15:47] Thank you, baby.

[15:49] Who else we got for a public comment today?

[15:55] Please come up and give your name and address Debbie Evely 33118 Oswami Road Oswami.

[16:05] I just want to say that this is going to be less than a quarter of a mile across from my

[16:12] house.

[16:13] I'm going to be looking at it when I look at sunrise that won't be there anymore the sunrise

[16:16] won't.

[16:17] But I'm just really concerned.

[16:21] The scenes to just come up on all of us

[16:23] that live along the road.

[16:24] We just learned about it somehow this week.

[16:27] So we've all been passing me information around.

[16:31] And directly across from me, his property line

[16:35] will be that property line.

[16:37] His backyard will be right up there.

[16:40] Heat, they get at the house.

[16:41] They made it their home to live in for a long time.

[16:44] They've got an orchard back there.

[16:45] We all enjoy kind of a country atmosphere, so we're just really concerned about it.

[16:53] My, my, my husbands, parents had the small farm there, George and Helen Ebley and Roger Ebley

[17:01] and I bought it from them and now our son, Toby, bought the home place.

[17:05] So we've been there for many, many years and enjoyed a really nice rural life and I don't know.

[17:13] We're just really concerned and hope that this is given a lot of a lot of luck, see.

[17:20] So I just, I thank you.

[17:22] I don't know anything about this, but I wanted to come because I'm really interested.

[17:26] Thank you.

[17:27] Thank you, David.

[17:28] Who else we have today for Bubba Comet?

[17:31] Please come forward.

[17:38] My name is Amber Kothelt.

[17:40] I live in Osuwa, to me, Kansas 834 Pacific Avenue.

[17:44] I am a little new to the table on this because I actually just recently got the information

[17:51] that this was even something that was on the table and I would like to mention as I was

[18:00] rushing out of the house that my husband said the Cothel family has lived on that corner

[18:10] of Pacific for since 1950 and his mother's family has lived in Osawa,

[18:17] to me since 1850.

[18:21] I have a lot of questions. So I am going to pose those

[18:29] questions to you all. Hopefully, you know, the answers yourself,

[18:38] they're in the writings

[18:40] about the data center that is proposed for Osoonomy. There was a large amount of electricity

[18:49] and water that the city was supposed to provide. I have extreme concerns about that. It

[18:59] was I'm thinking maybe two years ago that they had

[19:03] to take our electricity lines, well, they didn't take them down.

[19:08] They had poles to lift them up in the air while this huge

[19:13] contraption enormous.

[19:15] I had my son come out to look at it because it was so big

[19:17] and drove down our street.

[19:20] That was because our city did not have enough power

[19:25] to sustain itself during a hardship, and not only did that happen, it happened kind of spurred

[19:37] the moment, because they had to rush around to get this appointment in to get it set

[19:44] up.

[19:45] And we fortunately had power, but our neighbors were out of power for a long time.

[19:50] I also have concerns about the water supply.

[19:56] You know, I'm just a citizen, mom, of two small children.

[20:03] And every month in my water bill, we get an extra paper.

[20:09] Do you know what that extra paper says?

[20:11] Does anyone else get that?

[20:13] It lets you know that the City of Ocewattamis water did not meet standards.

[20:19] it happens nearly every month. I find that concerning myself just living there, but it raises a lot of concerns to me as to how we would be able to sustain this amount of water for a data center if we're having trouble sustaining water for citizens themselves.

[20:42] The, someone else that was speaking brought up the 350 construction jobs that this would bring in.

[20:51] Do we have a guarantee that those jobs will come from our area?

[20:55] Will those jobs be brought in from places like Utah and other places that have large construction businesses?

[21:06] There was a number quoted of 60 to 90 full-time employees, will those be citizens from

[21:14] Ocewadami, Peola, Kansas, or will those be specific jobs that are brought in with the

[21:22] medicine.

[21:27] Also, I tend to wonder how many jobs Walmart has in Paila. I have a feeling

[21:36] there's more than 60 to 90 employees at a time working at Walmart. My biggest concern

[21:46] would be what this data center brings to Osootomy as a whole and then to each individual living

[22:01] in Osootomy and in the surrounding area. What is it going to us?

[22:10] What is it going to

[22:16] we have about what it brings to a community, and what it takes away from a community.

[22:24] That would be my biggest concern.

[22:28] I would like to see...

[22:30] At 10 seconds. That it's the prose outweigh the cons. Thank you. Thank you,

[22:41] and I have any one else for

[22:43] public comment today. Please come forward. Good. Welcome. My name is Aller Vobile. I pay a little

[22:52] cancels. My wife would kill me if I didn't speak on this. So, one of the biggest concerns would

[22:59] definitely the mental health facility, usually the people that work with these facilities

[23:04] have to deal with people biting them and fighting them all the time, right?

[23:08] And I would assume throwing in low frequencies and constant noise into a place where it's

[23:13] already degrading the mind is quite not great.

[23:17] Utilities increasing.

[23:18] I'm going to see utilities increase with electric and water.

[23:22] And a place where it's already increased pretty high already.

[23:25] Even if you don't have water turned on, you're still going to build about $80.

[23:28] So a month, which that's kind of weird to me.

[23:33] On top of that, that's the property tax, and itself has already gone up about, I think, three times, the past five years.

[23:40] So I originally paid in Oswald and I went ahead of house there.

[23:43] It was about $500 in property tax, pretty nice, but it was very old house.

[23:48] I removed a little bit and I paid 2000, but it was not still that little boat and had a big hole in the backyard.

[23:54] So something was not correct there and when I called they didn't seem to correct it so there's something that wrong with those numbers

[24:02] Again with the water use they say it's gonna use about I think it's a million gallons per day

[24:07] They want to put in a new system to take out the obsolete one in Oslo, I mean which will be a new system

[24:13] Is it gonna be about 3 million gallons a day which they made a lot of good points about other places who are already having these issues

[24:20] taking it from the mayor to see, for example, where we would, I know we're going to drive

[24:24] the river if we don't get good rainfall, which we're seeing issues with that in Colorado.

[24:28] So that's not good for the community. The community itself, I'm sure you people know, is poor.

[24:35] All right, so poor communities usually don't fare well when prices increase, and especially

[24:40] if the people who work there can't work, or who live there can't work with the place that

[24:44] then come replace them. So what you'll see eventually is a community going. You'll see maybe a

[24:51] couple houses still and you'll have no community at all and you'll have a data center. So not a total

[24:56] win unless you don't like people I guess.

[25:02] Yeah and the jobs totally way off on that is not 90

[25:05] tops about 35 people. It's a data center. It's a big computer. You get a couple nerds with IT in

[25:11] That's it, you know, it's not in a couple of janitors, it's not going to open up this big massive great volume of jobs.

[25:20] And I don't know where the numbers are skewing with the city of Oswami giving these City Council, Oswami getting these numbers.

[25:27] Oh, trust the science, it's in the research, I don't know where they're getting it.

[25:31] Everything I've seen from scientific reports and reports themselves from the media, there's been nothing good.

[25:40] I mean the only good thing is you're letting Amazon come in in my Bitcoin in your neighborhood and destroy your community.

[25:47] I mean maybe that is a victory I don't know.

[25:53] Thank you.

[25:54] Also, back on the low frequencies, low frequency travels really far and can harm a lot of people.

[25:59] So you have a lot of children right down the road also that can be harmed by these frequencies, by this consistent noise.

[26:06] I've heard the City Council say it's like a low lawnmower, a quiet lawnmower, and it's still pretty loud, nonstop, 24-7.

[26:12] Some have said it's like a Boeing 747, which is a very loud nonstop, 24-7.

[26:19] And then it says it's a closed loop system, but it evaporates the air.

[26:23] It already evaporates the water into the air to create this clean air.

[26:28] How's it closed loop?

[26:31] Close the loop stays within the loop, right?

[26:33] It doesn't leave the loop, so if it's leaving the loop,

[26:35] what is that excess that is leaving the loop

[26:37] and then going into the air, it's kind of brought to me.

[26:41] And if it goes into the air, then that's not good.

[26:44] That's also then going to go bother whoever's around it

[26:47] or of course the county doesn't matter only the city, apparently.

[26:52] And then, only like I said, with the mayor to scene,

[26:54] if it doesn't receive water, who's affected by that

[26:56] side from Oswara being inside from this community right now.

[27:00] Is there anybody down the line, is that not matter to them?

[27:06] I think, I just think professionally this was not thought through in any kind of way.

[27:11] I don't think there was any kind of planning.

[27:13] I think they could have gone and they've gotten, I've heard of this grocery store many times

[27:16] and I've throughout my period of being around Oswara and I've heard that one point they could have

[27:21] had an audience. I don't know if this is true. I know poor people.

[27:24] I think they like cheaper stuff that is good quality. All these has that and that was the night

[27:30] So it's weird to have such a good system and a community that cares to then say or a good counsel that cares to then say too bad

[27:39] I'm gonna give you this which does nothing for you. So that's my time. I got 10 seconds. I appreciate it. Thank you, Alex

[27:46] Okay, we got anybody else from public comment come forward please

[27:56] My name is Kathleen Henninger, Matt Lenny, and I voted for some of you.

[28:03] And, appreciate you doing some clarification on Facebook, helping some people get here.

[28:08] That was very nice.

[28:09] Did you give your address, please?

[28:11] I live at 2909 Lone Star Road here in Paila, Kansas.

[28:15] And I'm a little tear four years ago.

[28:17] So, little history is that I served at the pleasure of the mayor for 17 years.

[28:23] I've been on your side of the road.

[28:25] Can you come a little closer to the microphone?

[28:28] I know it's like to be a part of the council.

[28:31] I've served at the pleasure of the mayor for 17 years.

[28:35] My father was planning zone for 36.

[28:38] I sat by his side at every single meeting.

[28:41] I served the pleasure of two mayors.

[28:44] I wasn't invited to be on the board when the second mayor came on.

[28:49] So, I understand growth line-lock community,

[28:54] but in North Iowa, Mississippi River, where I'm a captain.

[28:58] And everybody else locking us in, we had to have some plans.

[29:01] We had to have some growth.

[29:02] It comes a pain, but it also comes with planning and consistency.

[29:10] So, growth is exponential.

[29:13] One household will bring four people.

[29:16] Four people will bring two cars.

[29:18] two cars will now be on the road. Where are they going? What do they need?

[29:25] They need resources. They don't need AI.

[29:29] They need resources. We need to build

[29:33] an analytical manner that lets people know that my investment is going to be something

[29:39] that the future can also invest in. My children, your children, their children.

[29:47] They want this. I'm building a future. I moved here where water was scarce. And they would raise our rates.

[30:00] Because we had very small amount of water we could use. And if you used any more than that, the rate went up. And it went up. And it went up. You couldn't even water your yard.

[30:13] I don't want that to happen to our small little community. If we're going to get exponential growth, let's do it in a way where the money goes into the community and not out of the community. Let's all ask.

[30:26] So, let's take breath.

[30:30] I heard the city manager of Osawa to me.

[30:33] We went to the meeting.

[30:34] You told us to back.

[30:37] We're doing it.

[30:39] Did he not?

[30:41] And they also said it's your problem out of his.

[30:46] But he said this is the first opportunity we've had.

[30:51] The first opportunity we've had to make revenue

[30:53] for Osawa to me.

[30:54] Okay, well, I don't necessarily believe that, but I don't also, I also don't believe your first opportunity is your best opportunity.

[31:03] That tells me people are showing interest. That tells me people are looking.

[31:07] That tells me this is when we need to start digging in and saying, what do we want for our future?

[31:13] Let's not just give it up,

[31:17] and I'm really concerned because they really had a circular conversation.

[31:21] in the city of Osuwa, they were rude,

[31:26] they were very disinterested in anything we had to say.

[31:32] They told us that even though they had annexed it, that we had to come to this meeting out of our day,

[31:38] to make sure that it didn't happen but too bad because we're just going to do it anyway.

[31:44] He also said that he was approached by the company.

[31:48] I know I have a minute,

[31:52] made a proposal, give it to the mayor.

[31:56] You can check the record.

[31:58] The mayor made his revisions.

[32:02] He gave it back to Brett.

[32:03] Brett gave it to the council and they voted on it.

[32:06] Excuse me.

[32:09] I don't think anybody voted Brett to make decisions for them.

[32:18] I need all of you to take care of us and protect us.

[32:20] That's why I moved here.

[32:24] Thank you.

[32:25] Thank you.

[32:29] Okay, who else we got Republic comment today

[32:39] afternoon gentlemen. My name is Dino Mada. I live at 17905 West 319th Street

[32:44] Fail of Kansas. I'm not going to reiterate everything that's gone on here. Listen to this morning sessions

[32:51] Paul asks some great questions. That's a great thoughts. I'll leave you with a couple more

[32:55] Understand this is the county level not city, so can't speak to anything's the mayor and those folks that did out there and I I got I know the difference

[33:03] But a couple of things I'd like to point out, and we're one district-landenings assumptions

[33:08] appear to be quite overstated.

[33:12] He's talking about, again, the 90 jobs coming in for a data center.

[33:18] By the way, somebody asked the question, how long data centers have been around?

[33:20] I'll be able to glad to answer that for you.

[33:22] They've been around as long as telecommunications companies have been around.

[33:24] They've had them for decades.

[33:26] All over the country, they don't provide as many jobs as 90 in that small of a data center.

[33:31] It's going to be probably a third of that, but that's why I say his estimates are probably

[33:36] overstated by a factor of two.

[33:38] The other things they've mentioned is that there's going to be a 10 year 50% tax abatement.

[33:46] Your correct Mr. Press, the city does have quite an autonomy, but they also have to get

[33:52] your permission along with the school districts to provide that tax incentive to build this.

[34:00] And I don't know of any school district around here that doesn't need the money.

[34:05] And I certainly know all the things that are going on around here in the county,

[34:09] and I'm pretty sure you do too.

[34:12] So I'll leave it at that.

[34:14] Those are the two big things.

[34:16] There's lots of others.

[34:17] They've already spoken many of these things.

[34:19] But again, school districts need the money.

[34:22] You need the money.

[34:23] Offering this type of tax incentive.

[34:25] I think their claim is going to be 10 years.

[34:28] It's probably not.

[34:29] They're going to ask for it every 10 years.

[34:32] They're going to issue investor revenue bonds as well.

[34:35] Then the question becomes if those are defaulted on who pays those back.

[34:40] It's going to be the taxpayers.

[34:42] Just ask any star bond project that's going south.

[34:46] Got one up in the Soto, going south.

[34:49] Can you see power and light district?

[34:50] We had a bunch of bonds issued for the city.

[34:52] That thing isn't paying for itself. None of these work out, so I'll leave you with that. Thank you.

[35:11] I'm Brian Love, 27242 West 335.

[35:18] Obviously, I'm here to talk about the data center.

[35:23] At this point, I'm strongly against it because it's being pushed through.

[35:30] Everyone of you here appreciates a quality of life in Miami County.

[35:38] I talked to you, Mr. Precious, today. You know what you need to do.

[35:43] You're not city council, but you have the ability to stop this.

[35:51] So, you know how to do it.

[35:53] Thanks.

[35:53] Going to hear a little more on that. How do we have the ability to stop?

[35:57] more torrent. That would only be in the end incorporated area of my Macan. Well, I mean, I'm

[36:06] interested, but I've done some research on that and I would be glad to provide that to you

[36:12] by email,

[36:15] but you with all the commissions. I will. You all again in the ministry. I definitely will.

[36:22] I got your email address.

[36:25] Thank you.

[36:26] Thank you.

[36:27] Appreciate it.

[36:37] Hello.

[36:37] My name is Courtney Crawford.

[36:38] I live at 30842 Indianapolis.

[36:40] And that's Paola.

[36:42] As many of you know, I went to Tepeca on Monday and spoke on House or on Senate Bill 146,

[36:47] which is the bill that would give the land back to us a lot of me for an additional 20 years.

[36:54] What I went there to speak up on is we need an amendment to this bill.

[36:57] we need to push for there'd be restrictions on data centers, solar and wind.

[37:04] Also, a lot of me done put a solar farm when we had a more touring on solar.

[37:09] This bill gives you guys the opportunity to contact the House, the House,

[37:13] Local, Governments, Committee, and voice your concerns and push for this amendment.

[37:17] That's what you guys can do as commissioners for your citizens. Thank you.

[37:21] Thank you.

[37:26] Who else we got today?

[37:28] Going on.

[37:30] Once, going twice,

[37:35] if you have a public comment, please come up and give your name an address.

[37:42] No, you get one shot at it.

[37:45] But thanks for the question. You get five minutes, one shot.

[37:57] I didn't hear you.

[38:01] Okay. Thank you. All right. That concludes our public comment.

[38:11] Is there any presentation in the boards and

[38:13] Procumations today? Thank you Madam Clerk. Action item number one is a point Pat Campbell as

[38:22] is Sweet Supervisor for 2026,

[38:31] what's the name of Commissioner

[38:32] Eric Sampert-Rude and Bridge. Every spoke earlier today, every

[38:37] year we've got an appointment and not just lead Supervisor, we had

[38:40] Darrell White Retire last year, we recently hired Pat Campbell, and

[38:44] I might ask is the Chua Point Pat Campbell who the not just lead

[38:47] Supervisor here in 2026. So I would so move. Second.

[38:56] Okay,

[38:57] Tyler Bond II,

[39:06] we can do that later today as an alternate?

[39:08] Yes.

[39:09] We can do that later.

[39:14] Okay.

[39:15] I would be friendly to that amendment and add it to my original motion.

[39:22] I'll second that.

[39:25] So, it's moved by Brad 2nd by Commissioner Dietiker, the motion to name pad as a noxious

[39:35] weight director and once again, what else we alternate to, what is the pad?

[39:43] Lake Regents all the way to authority.

[39:45] Like we, Lake Regents all the way to authority.

[39:49] Everybody understand the motion.

[39:52] home, but any discussion, home favorite I, both same sign, unanimous approval. Now we're

[40:02] moving on to item two, action item, annual noxious weed, management plan, and we, the

[40:11] eradication report.

[40:13] Yes, good afternoon, commissioners, Pat Campbell, noxious weed director. That's sorry, noxious weed

[40:17] supervisor. I apologize. What you have before you use the annual report that gets

[40:21] submitted to the state, I went through last year's numbers to the best of my ability

[40:25] and came up with numbers. It just basically states the amount of anchors of chemicals we

[40:33] sold and how many what kinds of weeds were treated in which chemicals and so on and so forth.

[40:39] Are there any questions or anything on either of those plans that I can answer for you?

[40:44] Ben, your first year, do you have any different kind of plans or ideas going forward for the county on Knox's way?

[40:53] Going forward, yes, for 2026, no, because we are getting ready to start the time of season to really get to Roland. Hopefully,

[41:02] you'll use next fall and next winter to maybe try the ample amount, a couple different options for the county to make a little better for everything and everybody.

[41:13] would probably think that if we have an early spring, you might need to be out earlier than some years.

[41:21] Looks like it could be.

[41:22] Yeah, that could be one of those years. That's for sure.

[41:25] Yeah, that's something I want to try to do a little more of personally is.

[41:30] We need to keep it quiet. We're conducting the meeting here.

[41:35] And I need to turn off my phone.

[41:45] But I'm going to try to do some more in-house spring this year.

[41:49] Obviously, I'm learning the county.

[41:51] I've spent the last, I've been here for two weeks now.

[41:53] I've been spend a lot of time on the windshield driving around.

[41:55] And you can see some of the problem areas in the county.

[42:00] So get myself reaffirmed, but after me, to where we need to go and what we need to hit.

[42:05] We'll try to get with the contract sprayers, try to get some that lined up as well.

[42:09] I don't think I'll be able to do the whole county myself.

[42:12] it's just one person. That's a tough task. You know, the other guys they'll be doing the

[42:16] bare ground and around the guardrails and things like that. But yeah, I'm going to try to do

[42:21] more in-house spring. So you do plan on still doing the 50% rotation of spring like the

[42:27] north end of the county for the, with the toward on and stuff through the run. I'm just going

[42:32] to go this year. I'm going to go to hot spots. I want to try to get those contained. Like

[42:39] I'm going to try to learn the county and there may be a different, I won't say better, but a

[42:44] different way of doing things as well, maybe make it more efficient, not that it wasn't

[42:50] efficient before, but like I said, it may not be better, but it might be different.

[42:55] And until we try it, we don't know if it's going to be better or not.

[42:58] I mean, I'm open to suggestions, and I'm just like I'm still going through, there are

[43:03] old records and trying to figure a couple of things out of how things were done and how

[43:08] He did it.

[43:09] Now he's a structured man.

[43:11] Yeah.

[43:11] Like I said, we need to get a chemical rotation, too, so you don't build up resistance.

[43:15] Right.

[43:17] Did I hear a motion to accept this annual, noxious weed, eradication, so on and forth?

[43:26] Move by Commissioner Von II, by Commissioner Deityker.

[43:30] Any further discussion?

[43:33] Thank you.

[43:33] Seeing none on paper I.

[43:35] I post same sign.

[43:38] And then I'm a approval.

[43:39] Thank you.

[43:40] Thank you.

[43:40] Especially the

[43:46] third action item is authorised, authorised, signing a letter.

[43:51] A letter of a commitment for the build grant.

[43:58] Good afternoon commission.

[43:59] Thank you chairman.

[44:00] Medal of Project Manager.

[44:02] Before you have a letter of commitment as you stated,

[44:04] this is for the build grant,

[44:07] which is a planning and project grant for 223rd.

[44:12] This corridor is from Columbia Road, East to US69 Highway.

[44:17] Really, this letter just formalizes, it'll be a part of your application,

[44:21] and it just formalizes the analytical agreement that you have with Spring Hill already

[44:24] in the amount of or up to $150,000 for the 8020 grant application.

[44:31] It is a 10% mind-me-county investment, 10% spring-hill investment, really, staff would request

[44:39] that the Commission Chair signed the letter of commitment against spring-hill's executed

[44:43] their portion.

[44:45] It is, this letter states that you are not committing the funds, but you are at this point

[44:52] in time committed to the project that if you were awarded,

[44:56] you would, in conjunction with

[44:57] spring-hill, submit your 10%.

[45:00] Up to 150, and from this discussion this morning, I believe that those funds are coming from your economic development funds.

[45:09] But move to approve as presented, please. Second.

[45:13] May you buy a commissioner bond, second by commissioner, did you hear any discussion?

[45:18] I would just also just comment publicly thanking Matt and your team and the coordination of Spring Hill.

[45:25] I think duly noted, and nice work.

[45:29] Sounds good to the result of path forward on that.

[45:32] Yeah, my pleasure.

[45:34] I hope we get the way.

[45:35] It's great.

[45:37] All right, any other discussion?

[45:40] Seeing none on Baybrow, I, I, all both, same sign,

[45:45] unanimous approval.

[45:46] Thank you.

[45:47] That concludes those three action items.

[45:51] Next we have applications.

[45:52] as we have a 20-25 inventory, Madam Clerk.

[45:57] On the inventory, we're actively collecting it,

[45:58] but we have one more entity that we are waiting on.

[46:02] So hopefully by next week, we have that wrapped up,

[46:05] and we'll be presenting next week.

[46:06] Then you'll want to commissioners to review it in.

[46:11] You are review it.

[46:12] We'll give you a couple weeks this year.

[46:14] I hope so.

[46:15] Thanks for that.

[46:16] Thank you.

[46:17] Thank you.

[46:17] Now, is there today, is there any reports from staff,

[46:25] reports from staff?

[46:28] Seeing none, we're ready for commissioner comments, we'll start with Mr. Bickley.

[46:35] Yes, I guess to everyone that came and spoke today, this commission is listening to what

[46:42] or thoughts are and it's very concerning when business with the type energy usage is going

[46:54] to be one of our neighbors. I don't know that this county commission has the authority

[47:01] to veto something that a city is decided to do.

[47:09] Mr. Scrooff.

[47:10] Yeah, I won't reiterate what I said this morning, but I'm on the same issues.

[47:15] You guys, the decision being immediately against it, but more than the decision was the process

[47:21] that led up to the gentleman in the polo shirt, my issue, because we'll deal with more

[47:26] these issues coming forward, the county.

[47:28] You can tell me the flaw for the potential, but tell me the downsize to everything.

[47:33] And most of the cases that you said, I touched space this morning, but you know what I took 15 minutes

[47:38] say out of the street a letter by one of my constituents that I got today that kind of sums up everything.

[47:46] He said, Paul, I'm writing the express by concern regarding the proposed destruction operation

[47:50] of data centers in Miami County. I'm strongly opposed to this development as I believe it would

[47:55] cause economic and environmental harm that would negatively affect the citizens and taxpayers of

[48:00] also want to be in Miami County. The significant demand these facilities placed on water and electricity

[48:06] could put residents of also water me in the surrounding county at risk, while I understand that

[48:11] the city is eager to find a tenant for the Northland area. I do not believe a data center

[48:16] is the right solution. Offering a 50% tax abatement for 10 years also seems counterproductive

[48:22] if the goal is to increase tax revenue for the city. In my opinion the city should focus on

[48:27] attracting small light manufacturing businesses that would create local jobs without placing such a

[48:33] burden on essential utilities. I recognize that this may not be an easy objective as shown

[48:40] by the limited development of the Northland site over the last 20 years. However, prioritizing

[48:46] small industry, which typically requires less infrastructure and fewer taxes than it would

[48:52] be a more sustainable long-term strategy than approving a project that could strain utilities

[48:57] impact the environment. I plan to speak under the open session today, but I have a prior

[49:02] commitment in the city that I must attend. I appreciate your time and consideration when

[49:06] insure my concerns were shared. It's a dearly Brad Riker. Homeowner of multiple homes in

[49:12] Osuwa and me in pale board member of Miami County World Water 2. And our reference to World

[49:20] Water 2 and leave it at that because I contacted to answer one of your questions that you

[49:25] brought up on water usage. I asked Brad and Water District 2, which I think combined with

[49:30] water district one in 2023.

[49:36] How much water goes out water district two? And he said

[49:38] water district two produces one billion gallons a year with half a million going

[49:45] into Miami County.

[49:49] So that kind of hit me because this data center uses

[49:51] one million a day. That's 73% of the total usage and that hit me like a ton of

[50:05] I'll leave it at that, so I'm in on your same side, I wanted to relay that to Brad, because

[50:11] he's, from Bureau, I mean, Liz and his counties, he's on the wall, what he knows, what

[50:15] the utilities, the fact will, and he owns several homes and also water.

[50:18] I mean, Sue, as a good perspective on that, too.

[50:21] So, thank you.

[50:24] Commissioner Dittaker, yes, I'll have to agree with the citizen on this one.

[50:28] This is one of those things that the research that I've looked at that to since I was aware of it on Monday with the amount of water usage and and not necessarily knowing what type of

[50:40] effluence would become an out of this as it the discharging

[50:43] I don't think this is a very good fit for my mc County or actually for the city of Oslo, Latamy

[50:49] So in my view, I'm not in favor of data centers at all and I would be a

[50:58] So we would have a better chance to see the pros and cons and make a better decision without

[51:04] it being rushed.

[51:09] So.

[51:09] I'm going to take a little different approach to this.

[51:14] So I'm going to address the data center, but I'm going to address something else first.

[51:19] I would say in the last week has probably been the best week I've experienced in Miami County

[51:25] for several different reasons.

[51:28] Yeah, you laugh.

[51:28] I'm going to explain why.

[51:29] I'm going to explain why.

[51:32] So I've had the opportunity to set down with individuals, citizens, individual in Hillsdale,

[51:40] group of people in Hillsdale, address their concerns, be able to have eyeball to eyeball

[51:45] conversation with them, let them know where I was coming from inside of this, but also

[51:50] explained what the process is.

[51:53] George always is good about talking about the process and Courtney I'll call you out on that

[51:59] you're spot on. You're right. That's the thing we can do. Right? Those are the things we can do.

[52:06] And it's notable that three or four people who was wrote left before they got the chance to hear what the

[52:13] commissioners actually had to say. And I would further say we probably won't get a phone call from some of

[52:23] the talks about how corrupt we are,

[52:26] pattern or pockets or some of those type of things in.

[52:30] Personally, and so, good friends of mine that are up here, I'd say these five guys, I know each of them personally, know their wives, know a lot about them.

[52:39] So when I say the last week in my county was great, Sunday I went to lunch with my daughter at Alporto.

[52:48] I ran into Jacob Vickery and his family, saw Rusty Gurkin and his wife, and you know what they were doing, they're smiling, they're enjoying themselves.

[52:57] We have a community, so what I would ask for is your respect and the court understand what our responsibility is,

[53:07] what the actions are that we can actually take and advocate for that.

[53:12] So of all the comments we appreciate that, but Courtney was actually the only comment that was relevant to what the County Commission could actually do.

[53:21] Then the other thing that I would address just publicly and make sure I'm clear on this is

[53:28] for eight years I've advocated for local control.

[53:32] It would be ridiculous if I did not advocate for local control and understand the process behind what local control means.

[53:41] Local control means you trust the people that at least 51% of the voting population put up here to represent you.

[53:49] Of that in the eight years that I've done this, I would say at least 50% of disagree with me and a lot of the decisions that I've made and those are the things that we expect to happen whenever we fill these positions.

[54:03] So we expect the ridicule but I would expect the respect of the public and understand and we're paying the same taxes.

[54:12] We're doing this job to represent and to serve and frankly, it's insulting and somewhat

[54:24] not cool actually when you don't know enough about the process to understand who you're advocating with.

[54:33] Thank you.

[54:35] Thank you, Commissioner Wong. Good comments. I want to thank everyone that came and participated

[54:43] in the days meetings. There's pros and cons, I'm sure, but I think Tyler did a good job

[54:52] that City of Oswadamy has a separate entity from county government. So they control inside

[55:02] there are city limits, they have separate elected officials that make their decisions.

[55:10] Now I personally fully understand that the city and the county meet at this line and

[55:19] it's affecting some of you close to the city limits, so I certainly understand that.

[55:26] But if we have to understand the process that Oathwater Me elected, there's city council, there's city council voted to have this day to center, and that appears that's the direction it's going.

[55:46] But as the county, we need to be thinking about the unincorporated area of the county because we could get approached any day.

[55:57] So I propose a motion to have a moratorium on data centers in Miami County for at least two years.

[56:05] And pending and instruct our county administrator and our legal counsel to draft a resolution that we can pass next week at the latest in two weeks that we don't run Osuadame.

[56:28] We like working with those who ought to me.

[56:32] We like to help those who ought to me, but they went this direction on the data center and

[56:39] they have every right to do by the people who ought to be elected to be on their city council

[56:46] and vote on this topic.

[56:49] That didn't stop you from going to their meetings and stating your desires and requests.

[56:55] But I think we all got to understand the process, but I'm concerned about all the cities

[57:02] in Miami County moving forward, but our job right here, the cities are in the county,

[57:11] but the cities have jurisdiction over their own city limits, and we can't ever blur those

[57:18] lines, but yet the county wants to work with the cities at all time, because it's good

[57:25] for the whole county and our county's nothing without the cities and it's nothing without

[57:31] the unincorporated part.

[57:34] So that's my motion to have a more touring among data centers in the unincorporated part

[57:42] of the county where we do have jurisdiction and we can't go through the process.

[57:47] I just think Miami County isn't ready with if somebody walked in the day and wanted

[57:57] the day to center we wouldn't have the process to analyze it to our zoning rules aren't

[58:08] to speak for that and it would probably turn into a CUP and with conditions on it and it

[58:21] Bobby go in the I-2 category and can we bundle that with solar and when we've already

[58:33] I'd be friendly with that motion on wind and solar, and I might even add battery plants.

[58:42] There are another thing too that's coming down the pipe.

[58:46] So that would be, and I don't think you will check with our legal counsel.

[58:51] I don't know about, I think there does have to be a time limit on it and you can't just say forever.

[59:00] You got to keep analyzing it, keep evaluating it, keep way in the pros and cons.

[59:07] So that's my motion to have a moratorium on when solar data centers and battery storage.

[59:15] Check out pending a, uh, us passing a, uh, resolution in the next week or two and have our legal

[59:25] counsel draw that up.

[59:29] Yeah.

[59:29] Okay.

[59:30] You got a motion by commission of breaths.

[59:32] You got a second by a commission of a dedicated, now we're ready for further discussion.

[59:44] would, I guess I would say I will vote for this motion I agree, but I understand

[59:52] also want to be in their desire to grow their economy and, you know.

[1:00:00] I hope that they can look at this, maybe refocus on this, I don't know whether or not in the process, but yeah.

[1:00:09] And yeah, I might just say, that's, that's also why it means business.

[1:00:18] And, and, you know, we've always stressed that the real economic development is going to be in the towns where they do have the

[1:00:29] utilities of electricity, water, and sewer. So that's where your economic development goes.

[1:00:42] So, probably knowing that companies hire very sophisticated lobbyists and representatives

[1:00:48] that are probably making it look pretty enticing. So, this is in no way stepping on the city

[1:01:01] I was so out of me, because I represent the, I was so out of me and understand the process of their elected officials have the right to do what they vote on.

[1:01:14] Any further discussion?

[1:01:17] Yes.

[1:01:17] Just offer from the standpoint when we included the solar and wind aspect of it in, because I believe there's a moratorium that's been in place for two

[1:01:28] not three years on solar, they can't go indefinite. I think it would be prudent to probably

[1:01:34] have the county counselor look into that a little bit further and have him attend on the

[1:01:41] first Wednesday and March and present the resolutions and his findings because otherwise you'd

[1:01:48] be looking at a four or five year moratorium on solar and you've never taken any actions to do anything

[1:01:54] with it and if we're going to do a taking of property rights we'd probably want to ensure that

[1:02:01] we're on the ground and we do that.

[1:02:04] Good advice.

[1:02:06] I think everybody's friendly with that.

[1:02:10] We're going to have that Alex come down that Wednesday.

[1:02:14] Maybe next Wednesday.

[1:02:15] The following one.

[1:02:16] I don't.

[1:02:17] Third.

[1:02:18] Hard to speak for someone else's working encounter but I have a suspicion with all that's

[1:02:23] that you're asking for. It's probably a two-week task there with them.

[1:02:28] Okay. Yeah.

[1:02:30] No, this is going to happen in the snap of a finger in terms of somebody showed up tomorrow

[1:02:34] to develop in any home so let's go.

[1:02:38] I think everybody's friendly to the same work. We're kind of zeroing. Zeroing in on data centers

[1:02:46] at this point, and go by legal counsel advice on solar and wind and battery storage,

[1:02:57] everybody friendly with them.

[1:02:59] All right.

[1:03:00] Any further discussion?

[1:03:04] Once again, my feelings on this, I don't think the county is prepared or he evaluated it

[1:03:10] long enough if the data center would come in and propose to build one today.

[1:03:17] So, we better get ready.

[1:03:22] All right, all in favour, aye?

[1:03:24] All opposed saying sign, unanimous approval.

[1:03:29] We'll wait for legal counsel and the resolution for final approval.

[1:03:39] All right.

[1:03:40] Thank you.

[1:03:41] Any other commissioner comments?

[1:03:43] Sing none, is there any need for executive session?

[1:03:50] Sing none, we will adjourn the meeting at 159.

Board of County Commission Meeting

Agenda

Transcript