[0:00] Okay, everyone. We're going to call this
[0:01] meeting in order. This is going to
[0:02] follow the same guidelines as a city
[0:04] council meeting. It is a city council
[0:06] meeting. So, we're going to call it
[0:08] together at it's roughly 5:30, 5:32
[0:11] on um April 22nd. I want to go over some
[0:15] of the ground rules first. As everybody
[0:18] knows, we're going to conduct this and
[0:20] we've had great meetings before with
[0:22] lots of questions, but we do have um
[0:27] marshalss and PD here and if somebody
[0:30] gets um out of order, we will probably
[0:34] give one warning. If not, ask them to
[0:35] leave immediately. Um I don't anticipate
[0:38] to be that a problem. It's never been a
[0:40] problem in nine years. Uh, number two, I
[0:43] think we set this for 300 people tonight
[0:46] and it looks like it's going to be full.
[0:48] And the order of the presentation
[0:50] tonight will be Aaron Venoi will get up
[0:53] and talk about some zoning. He's going
[0:55] to have roughly 30 something slides that
[0:58] I think covers we're having an argument
[1:00] within staff. We think it's going to
[1:01] cover nearly 80% of the questions that
[1:04] come out as far as guidelines and
[1:08] what's say protection and what we want
[1:11] to see that protects the neighborhood.
[1:13] Um after that I will get up and do a
[1:18] discussion with two gentlemen here from
[1:20] emergent skybox.
[1:22] After that concludes we will move into
[1:26] um public comment which will be handled
[1:28] the exact same way as we do at council.
[1:30] You'll be allowed three minutes to talk
[1:32] at public comment. There will be no
[1:34] rebuttal from council. And at the end of
[1:36] that, I will I will say uh couple of the
[1:38] people here from Skybox and Emergent
[1:40] have said when the meeting is over,
[1:42] we're not in any hurry to run away if
[1:44] somebody has some questions. It won't be
[1:47] done from the stage, but they're they're
[1:49] not going to run out and hide if
[1:51] somebody has something they want to ask.
[1:52] So, it just depends how deep and how
[1:54] long public comment goes. If somebody
[1:56] wants that opportunity, keep that in
[1:58] mind. Um, another thing I want to point
[2:00] out and in, uh, if you haven't seen this
[2:02] already, there's been a petition
[2:04] submitted for my recall as mayor. I just
[2:06] think everybody needs to know that one
[2:08] up front. Um, anyway, that one's out
[2:11] there. I think I got notified of it
[2:13] yesterday at 5:00, so that's out. But
[2:15] with that, I want to go ahead and bring
[2:17] up Aaron Venoi.
[2:20] And Aaron heads up our planning and
[2:24] development services, the whole thing
[2:26] that we're going to talk about. And
[2:27] y'all have seen Aaron lots of times. So,
[2:28] let's give Aaron a hand and turn it over
[2:29] to him. [applause]
[2:38] » Good evening everyone. Thank you, Mayor,
[2:40] City Council. Uh we're going to go over
[2:42] the zoning items that we've come up for
[2:45] um what some people call protections,
[2:48] restrictions, regulations, but items
[2:50] within our zoning ordinance that we're
[2:51] proposing to city council to adopt as
[2:55] our ordinances for data centers within
[2:58] the city limits.
[3:01] So in our current process, in our
[3:03] current ordinance, we do not have any
[3:05] restrictions for data centers. We heard
[3:08] from the citizens that they would like
[3:10] to have some say in what goes on. So in
[3:14] the zoning ordinance, the process to do
[3:16] that is through a conditional use.
[3:18] That's what the process we've come up
[3:20] with. Uh we do conditional uses for lots
[3:22] of different things from short-term
[3:24] rentals to household living in
[3:26] commercial places and things like that.
[3:29] So, we are proposing to our city council
[3:31] conditional use process that would allow
[3:33] data centers in the light manufacturing
[3:35] and the heavy manufacturing areas. And
[3:38] I've got a couple of slides to show you
[3:39] where the majority of those are within
[3:41] our city. They would follow section 208
[3:44] of our current zoning ordinance, which
[3:46] is the section for conditional uses on
[3:48] how someone would apply, the process for
[3:51] review, and the process for planning
[3:54] commission to go through. that is a
[3:56] public meeting that does get public
[3:58] notice for those items and that means
[4:01] the public can come and comment on those
[4:04] items at at the planning commission. The
[4:07] planning commission has the option to
[4:09] approve or deny. If they approve, we
[4:13] have some regulations, design guidelines
[4:16] that we have within our zoning ordinance
[4:18] that we're going to ask to adopt that
[4:19] they would need to follow. If they get
[4:22] denied, it could be appealed to city
[4:24] council and then city council gets to
[4:26] make that decision. There is also
[4:29] processes that through the conditional
[4:31] uses that other folks can appeal that
[4:34] process and take it to city council for
[4:36] an ultimate vote.
[4:39] So here we have some maps. On these
[4:41] maps, if you look at the blue and the
[4:43] light blue areas, those are the light
[4:46] manufacturing and the heavy
[4:47] manufacturing areas. This is kind of the
[4:50] northeast portion of town where 67 uh
[4:54] comes in and 277 comes in and joins in
[4:57] right there. Goes by Howard College,
[4:59] splits off to 306. It goes to the south
[5:02] to 87 and then splits also here and
[5:04] comes along as Houston Hart Freeway. One
[5:07] of the things that I want y'all to
[5:08] notice is that along our railroad, you
[5:11] can see lots of properties are usually
[5:14] zoned light manufacturing and heavy
[5:16] manufacturing along our railroads as
[5:18] well as our major transportation areas
[5:20] because that's where things are
[5:22] produced. They're shipped out or shipped
[5:25] in. Uh and so that's usually where light
[5:27] manufacturing, heavy manufacturing are.
[5:29] You see the greens and the yellows,
[5:31] those are residential areas. Oranges are
[5:33] residential. And then when you get to
[5:35] the pinks and the reds, those are
[5:36] commercial or heavy commercial areas.
[5:40] Here's kind of the north section. Again,
[5:42] you have Bryant that comes in here. So,
[5:44] a major corridor comes in through here,
[5:46] comes in there. There are some areas.
[5:48] There's, you know, our steel works that
[5:50] happen right in this area that are along
[5:52] the uh spur line and the railroad. And
[5:55] of course down here just north of
[5:56] downtown you can start seeing the area
[5:59] that is along the railroad and the
[6:01] highway that has some manufacturing
[6:03] areas.
[6:05] If you look south of downtown again you
[6:07] see that rail line that kind of goes
[6:09] right through the middle. Lots of areas
[6:11] of of manufacturing around there. And
[6:14] then of course as our evolution of our
[6:16] city has grown and we gained a good
[6:18] fellow air force base in this area below
[6:21] and a major thoroughare with Chadburn
[6:23] coming out this way again areas of
[6:26] manufacturing um start to grow. And then
[6:29] our far south part of town where
[6:31] Christovala Road and the interchange is
[6:34] there before 277 heads south you can see
[6:36] some more light manufacturing.
[6:39] So those blue areas are the areas that a
[6:43] data center as a primary land use could
[6:46] apply for a conditional use. Asking the
[6:50] city, can we put a data center there?
[6:53] They have to ask all the other colors
[6:56] that are there. They are not allowed by
[6:58] right. That would be our proposal to
[7:00] city council.
[7:03] Also with our proposal with our
[7:05] definitions, we are asking that there
[7:07] would be no cryptocurrency mining
[7:09] allowed with a data center use.
[7:13] We would allow accessory uses because we
[7:15] have data centers in town right now that
[7:18] are lots of facilities use them from our
[7:20] hospitals, offices, campuses. There are
[7:23] data centers in town. Data centers have
[7:25] been around for 40 plus years um and
[7:28] been around in St. Angelo for that long.
[7:31] But we're talking about very large
[7:32] primary land uses. That's just a data
[7:35] center. Those are the ones that we would
[7:37] choose to regulate or have rules for in
[7:40] our community. We have some rules for
[7:43] generator yards. You know, the
[7:44] equipment, the fuel tanks, the
[7:45] associated equipment, [snorts] and also
[7:47] what does it mean to have a private
[7:49] utility? If they needed secondary power,
[7:52] we would have rules on on how they would
[7:54] be able to accomplish that private
[7:56] utility that's not a public utility
[7:58] that's owned by a political subdivision
[8:00] like the city water department. That's a
[8:03] political subdivision. This would be
[8:05] where they would be able to own their
[8:06] own types of utilities on their
[8:08] properties.
[8:10] When it comes to the conditional use
[8:12] application process, we've gone through
[8:15] and we've looked at ordinances from all
[8:17] over the country from Virginia to many
[8:20] cities within the state of Texas. Uh
[8:22] there's about five ordinances in the
[8:24] state of Texas that deal with data
[8:26] centers. And we tried to pull the things
[8:28] that what we heard from citizens, from
[8:30] consultants, from other city folks that
[8:33] we've talked to around the state. What
[8:35] is it that concerns your citizen and
[8:37] concerns you that we need some kind of
[8:39] protection for? So when they submit this
[8:42] conditional use, they have to give these
[8:44] plans to the city to put in the packet
[8:47] so that planning commissioners and the
[8:49] public can see those things. It comes
[8:51] with what we call normally call a site
[8:53] plan, but it's something that has the
[8:54] building location with all the setbacks.
[8:57] ground mounted equipment. So those
[8:58] generators and fuel tanks, where are
[9:00] they going to be located on site?
[9:02] Parking, driveways, that traffic
[9:04] circulation in and around the facility.
[9:07] If there's needed to be sidewalks or
[9:09] pedestrian routes, where are those going
[9:10] to be? A traffic impact analysis, both
[9:14] during construction and after they get
[9:16] operated. We know that data centers,
[9:18] large data centers, they operate
[9:20] different once they're under when
[9:21] they're under construction and then once
[9:23] they turn over to operation, they
[9:25] operate slightly different. Fencing,
[9:28] landscaping, screening, how are we doing
[9:31] those protections of vision, heat,
[9:35] noise, those types of things. And
[9:37] fencing, landscaping, screening are part
[9:39] of those lights and phototric items. if
[9:42] they have large lights that are high up
[9:43] above, how does that light spill off of
[9:46] their property, a sound study, um, and
[9:49] we'll get more into that in depth in
[9:51] just a little bit, building elevations
[9:53] and materials and signage. So, there's a
[9:56] lot of things that they have to turn
[9:57] into us for an application before they
[10:00] can actually get going with any kind of
[10:02] development process.
[10:06] So, here's some of the more specifics.
[10:09] So within our ordinance we talk about a
[10:11] building height maximum height of 75 ft.
[10:16] If it's greater than 50 ft every story
[10:19] they go above or then they have to go 10
[10:22] ft back from the property line. So the
[10:26] standard de uh setback is 50 ft from the
[10:30] property line.
[10:33] But again they have a maximum height of
[10:35] 75 ft. So they could be even a little
[10:37] bit further back if they chose to go to
[10:39] that maximum height. If you have
[10:41] accessory structures like generators and
[10:44] things like that or maybe an office
[10:45] building, uh, whatever it may be, then
[10:48] they they can be as close as 30 ft to
[10:51] the property line depending on what type
[10:54] of equipment it is. If it's a noise
[10:56] making equipment like a generator, we
[10:58] may have some things to to ask them to
[11:01] say, hey, we want to move that to a
[11:02] different location.
[11:06] setbacks between different land uses and
[11:08] zoning. It was very clear that through
[11:11] our planning commission and citizens
[11:13] that we wanted to protect our
[11:14] neighborhoods
[11:16] inside and outside of the city limits.
[11:20] So we had proposed some different
[11:21] distances. This is a compromise that we
[11:23] had come up to 200 ft setback from any
[11:27] property line that's adjacent to a
[11:30] residential use or a residence of any
[11:33] kind. So even if it's farmland and
[11:35] there's a farmhouse out there, they've
[11:37] got to be 200 feet on their side of the
[11:39] property before they can build any kind
[11:41] of structure. So that's a 200 foot
[11:44] buffer around a property.
[11:47] So if you look at this site here and for
[11:49] scale, this is a very large site. If you
[11:52] that
[11:53] um property line on the right, that's
[11:55] over 7,000 linear feet. the property
[11:58] line along this is highway 67 is the
[12:01] gray line along Highway 67 that's over
[12:04] 5200 linear feet. So a very large large
[12:07] site 350 plus acres
[12:10] you can just see
[12:13] it's a lot easier up here where there's
[12:14] not the the background information but
[12:16] that's 200 ft buffer between that red
[12:20] property line and where they could start
[12:22] building a structure if these rules are
[12:25] implemented through our city council.
[12:27] You can see that goes all the way on
[12:29] this perimeter of this as if this was
[12:32] all residential around them. So that's
[12:35] how that would work for there. On a
[12:38] commercial property, we would lower that
[12:40] down to 50 ft if it's commercial or
[12:42] industrial because those are very
[12:43] similar uses that they could be closer
[12:46] together.
[12:47] There's also buffers created by streets,
[12:50] driveways, and parking as well as
[12:52] landscaping.
[12:54] So again, the commercial setback is 50
[12:57] ft.
[12:58] Groundmounted equipment that's adjacent
[13:01] to residential property, we're asking
[13:04] for that same 200 ft. So you've got 200
[13:07] feet of buffering between there. If
[13:10] there's another, say there's a local
[13:12] street, we're asking that there's at
[13:13] least a 25 ft landscape buffer in there
[13:16] before they start having uh things that
[13:19] are part of their property going on. If
[13:22] it's an arterial or collector, that's a
[13:24] classification of road. So, Highway 67
[13:26] is an arterial. They would have to be at
[13:28] least 40 feet back with a 40 foot
[13:31] landscape area. And if they just have
[13:33] pavement on the side or the rear yards,
[13:35] it would be 15 ft back from the property
[13:38] line.
[13:40] Here's just another sample site. Uh this
[13:42] is off of FM 380. Um, we envisioned this
[13:46] one just just because we know the zoning
[13:49] right here is light manufacturing. This
[13:51] is also light manufacturing. This is in
[13:54] the ETJ, which means it's outside the
[13:56] city limits.
[13:58] And so we did a 50-ft buffer, a 50-ft buffer, and then a 200
[14:06] foot buffer. And that would be their
[14:09] area in which they could build
[14:11] something.
[14:13] So that's again looking at large sites.
[14:16] How do these sites get constructed? What
[14:18] are those buffers and things like that?
[14:21] So we try to do just a sample one.
[14:23] Again, you see that building in the
[14:25] middle, you see a parking lot, you see a
[14:27] roadway, you see the setbacks. Now,
[14:29] envision all of this area that would
[14:31] have some kind of required landscaping,
[14:34] whether that's trees, shrubs, or natural
[14:37] habitat that we have in West Texas that
[14:39] sometimes can be even more dense than
[14:41] just trees and shrubs as you go along.
[14:44] But that again is to help mitigate some
[14:46] of those issues that could be presented
[14:49] from heat, noise, sight, sound, all of
[14:53] those types of things.
[14:58] Landscaping became very important to us
[15:00] uh as we were looking at this and and
[15:02] people think landscaping of just as as
[15:04] aesthetics. How does it look? While
[15:07] there is something about how do we
[15:09] protect one of our major corridors if
[15:11] it's on 67, how does that look for
[15:13] people coming to St. Angelo? We also
[15:16] know that there's lots of other benefits
[15:18] to landscaping from erosion control,
[15:22] storm water runoff to cooling islands in
[15:25] big parking lots and along large
[15:27] buildings uh to breaking up the sight
[15:30] line as you're driving by and you're
[15:32] picking up the landscape instead of a
[15:34] large building. Um we know that uh
[15:37] through lots of different studies from
[15:39] many many years it improves air quality,
[15:42] reduces heat, um helps prevent flooding,
[15:46] [snorts] uh also pred helps um block
[15:49] wind and provide shade and it's that
[15:51] phyto remediation which also helps the
[15:54] soil from different toxins. There's a
[15:56] reason why certain plants do very very
[15:58] well with that and trees function as a
[16:01] sound barrier.
[16:03] So in one of our examples within our
[16:05] ordinance that we're proposing is a 40ft
[16:07] landscape buffer. You can see on there are mature trees which are the
[16:11] large circles. Then there are smaller
[16:14] trees that are the smaller uh circles
[16:15] that are shrubs. And 40 ft you can start
[16:19] getting this kind of clustering of
[16:20] trees. So there's just not a big long
[16:22] line of trees and you just drive by and
[16:24] you just see tree. You start getting a
[16:26] clustering of the of the different
[16:28] trees.
[16:30] If you do a 25- foot separation, they
[16:33] start to spread out a little bit more or
[16:35] they become more linear because the 25
[16:38] ft and a mature tree, you don't have as
[16:40] much canopy space as you would in other
[16:43] areas. And again, you can see with the
[16:44] medium trees, you can still cluster
[16:46] those. And then on a 15t wide buffer,
[16:50] again, it's going to be fairly linear.
[16:52] you're going to have so many trees so
[16:54] many feet apart and you would probably
[16:56] plant those in to keep that um that
[16:58] buffer line through there.
[17:02] So in town, do we have anything like
[17:04] that? Well, we do out at the uh
[17:06] Chapperel Park uh out on 67 already. You
[17:10] can see that these live oaks here, you
[17:12] can see 67 behind them, the new portion
[17:14] that they've built that Texot built in
[17:15] the last few years. Still fairly high
[17:18] speeds through there that drops down to
[17:20] 65 miles an hour. These trees are over
[17:22] 50 feet apart and they're also over
[17:25] right at uh 40 feet from the uh paving
[17:28] surface. And you can see that they have
[17:30] this nice linear shape going through
[17:32] there. You're picking those trees up as
[17:34] you're driving through. It's blocking
[17:36] some of the noise and things that would
[17:37] be coming from either the street onto
[17:39] that property or even from the property
[17:41] going off to the street. And you can
[17:43] just see in there they have some
[17:44] clustered small things from yuckas to
[17:46] pampas grass and some other things in
[17:48] there um to break up just that linear
[17:51] look of the landscape.
[17:55] This is along one of their side streets,
[17:56] a minor street, just a regular uh
[17:59] street, not a highway. Again, those
[18:01] trees are spread out a little bit
[18:02] further, but looking at our West Texas
[18:05] land, West Texas landscape, live oaks do
[18:08] fairly well once they get established.
[18:10] they are a
[18:11] dense cover. They're evergreen and they
[18:15] help uh provide protection year round.
[18:20] So again, not just do we require
[18:22] landscaping, we also gave them the
[18:24] option of creating a natural buffer zone
[18:27] of 40 ft if they didn't want to plant
[18:29] trees that we're going to have a 40ft
[18:31] buffer zone. And so you go back to that
[18:33] first one that had a very wide um area
[18:38] here where this is a 40ft buffer zone,
[18:41] but now think of that as all natural
[18:43] habitat with some live oaks that are
[18:46] natural with mosquite trees that might
[18:47] be natural from the other plants and
[18:50] density that you can get with some of
[18:52] those plants in our natural uh state.
[18:55] Now, if you're planting in a cotton
[18:56] field or a wheat field, you're probably
[18:58] you're going to have to do the
[18:59] landscaping. But if you're going to a
[19:01] site that's got a mosquite pasture
[19:03] that's got mature mosquetses, this might
[19:05] be an option for them.
[19:10] Other items that we're uh including into
[19:14] um the ordinance is making sure that
[19:16] they have enough parking spaces but not
[19:19] an overage of parking spaces, not a sea
[19:21] of parking spaces because once they get
[19:23] into operation, they're not going to
[19:25] have thousands of employees. They may
[19:28] have a hundred employees or so. It just
[19:31] depends on the data center, the size,
[19:33] and what's going on. But we don't need
[19:35] all that parking creating storm water
[19:37] runoff once they're done. Uh again,
[19:40] ground mounted equipment, generators,
[19:42] and things, those must be screened with
[19:43] masonry walls. Rooftop equipment must be
[19:47] visually screened. Um fencing, fencing
[19:51] is can be masonry, rowd iron or black
[19:53] PVC coated. And again, it needs to be
[19:56] along the the street frontage. Could be
[19:58] masonry or rot iron. Excuse
[20:01] [clears throat] me. If it's not along
[20:02] the frontage, it could go to that PVC
[20:04] coated depending on how far it is. And
[20:06] you think about the linear distance of
[20:09] 7,000 ft on that first one of those
[20:11] images I showed you. That's a lot of
[20:13] fencing. That's over a mile of fencing
[20:15] to put on one one property side if they
[20:17] chose to. Fencing is going to be up to
[20:20] the discretion of the planning
[20:21] commission. If it's against residential
[20:23] areas, they're going to want an opaque
[20:25] fence potentially. Uh if it's along
[20:28] industrial or other commercial areas, it
[20:30] may not need to be an opaque fence, and
[20:32] they may be able to fill in with the
[20:34] landscaping. If they have super parking
[20:36] lots, we're going to ask for landscape
[20:38] islands to create some shade islands.
[20:41] And then any lighting that's on the
[20:43] property is going to be shielded,
[20:44] pointed downwards,
[20:47] excuse [clears throat] me, not to exceed
[20:48] 30 feet in height. And then the the
[20:50] lighting on the building uh is to be not
[20:53] at such a a super height. If you've got
[20:55] a 50-ft building, you don't need to have
[20:57] lights up at 50 ft to shine down on the
[21:00] walkways. You need that lighting to come
[21:01] down so it reduces the light spillover.
[21:04] We've also placed and it was requested
[21:06] through um I think one of our
[21:09] educational meetings with city council
[21:11] about requiring the the lumens to be set
[21:14] at a dark sky lumens. And so that's in
[21:16] there as well.
[21:19] noise.
[21:21] Currently, we're going to request noise
[21:24] to be kind of at two different decibb, a
[21:27] daytime and nighttime. It could be that
[21:30] that's changed to just one decel across
[21:32] the board. Um, but the maximum sound
[21:35] levels that we would request is 60 dB at
[21:38] daytime and that's measured at the
[21:40] property line. And I found just the a 60
[21:44] dB is roughly equivalent to a normal
[21:46] conversation or typical background
[21:49] noises in an office, a restaurant or a
[21:52] quiet suburban neighborhood.
[21:54] At nighttime when most of us are
[21:56] probably getting ready to go to bed or
[21:58] in bed, we want it just a little bit
[22:01] quieter. Again, 55 dB. While that number
[22:04] doesn't look that much, but when you're
[22:06] dealing with decb
[22:08] a significant difference. Uh 55 is
[22:12] considered moderate and generally
[22:14] comfortable similar to a quiet office, a
[22:17] humming refrigerator or a moderate
[22:19] rainfall.
[22:21] And again, these are measured at the
[22:23] property lines.
[22:25] There was citizen concerns about the low
[22:28] frequency or humming noises. And so we
[22:31] have this proposed in our ordinance that
[22:35] there's some different octave bands and
[22:37] frequencies and things like that. Um,
[22:40] and a lot of the a lot of the times that
[22:42] we see this, we've never seen this at at
[22:45] data centers, but the research shows
[22:47] that there are sometimes whether it's a
[22:49] large generator, power generator, and
[22:52] the electrical engine has got a certain
[22:54] tune to it. They can come in and retune
[22:57] that engine just a little bit and bring
[22:59] that vibration down. Uh again, these low
[23:02] hums and vibrations on this scale uh
[23:06] would not be able to pass beyond the the
[23:08] property line.
[23:12] And then this is our last slide for our
[23:14] zoning ordinance and then I'm going to
[23:15] transition into a couple of other
[23:16] things.
[23:18] Zoning is not the best place to regulate
[23:22] water and wastewater. In fact, the state
[23:24] of Texas under code 212 mentioned
[23:28] doesn't mention water specifically, but
[23:31] it does not say that we can regulate it
[23:32] in zoning. So, we have adopted many
[23:37] years ago um utility ordinances, and
[23:40] that's where we're going to regulate
[23:42] water consumption and wastewater
[23:45] discharges. And I'll get to that in just
[23:47] a minute. But we are asking to add into
[23:50] our zoning ordinance to add these two
[23:53] clauses that would say hey don't forget
[23:57] you need to follow our utility ordinance
[23:59] as well because most development starts
[24:02] with zoning then site development they
[24:05] come to our ordinances and said all
[24:06] right what's the zoning and they look at
[24:08] this and they say oh I need to follow
[24:10] that also so that's why we're asking for
[24:12] that to be there
[24:15] so now we're going to transition out of
[24:17] the zoning ordinance into the utility
[24:20] ordinance.
[24:22] So again, the utility ordinance, if
[24:23] you're looking at it, it's chapter 11 in
[24:25] our code of ordinances.
[24:27] Uh and we will have all this stuff
[24:29] online for you to look up as well.
[24:33] So
[24:34] in the utility ordinance, we're
[24:36] proposing to add this for purposes of
[24:38] this article, we would use the same data
[24:41] center definitions in the zoning
[24:42] ordinance into the utility ordinance. So
[24:45] it's like for like. So there's no
[24:47] confusion.
[24:50] We would also add that all data center
[24:52] facilities shall employ closed loop
[24:54] cooling systems or similar cooling
[24:57] technology which minimizes water use and
[25:00] eliminates the need for continuous
[25:02] withdrawals from the city's public water
[25:04] supply for heat rejection. So, their
[25:08] cooling system has to be something that
[25:11] is closed, has to be something that
[25:13] minimizes the water use so that they're
[25:15] not continuously drawing large volumes
[25:18] of water.
[25:20] And then we get even a little more
[25:22] specific. And this is a very heavy
[25:24] slide, but I'm going to read through the
[25:26] whole thing for you. So when it talks
[25:29] about the cooling water allowances and
[25:31] we're talking about the initial fill,
[25:34] this is exact wording from the
[25:36] ordinance. The initial cooling system
[25:38] fill shall not exceed 15 um not 15 well
[25:42] 15 gallons per uh square foot of gross
[25:45] building area as defined in the approved
[25:49] building permit for each data center
[25:52] building.
[25:53] Initial fill shall occur within the 12
[25:55] months of the building receiving a
[25:57] certificate of occupancy. So they have
[25:59] they got a certificate of an occupancy.
[26:01] They can fill it up to 15 gallons per
[26:04] square foot of gross building floor area
[26:07] and they have 12 months to do that to
[26:09] operate it. If they have a scheduled
[26:12] maintenance refill, they can fill the
[26:14] cooling system uh the full the full
[26:17] Excuse me. I'm going to take a drink of
[26:18] water for just a second.
[26:26] Sorry about that. So, the full cooling
[26:29] system drain and refill not to exceed
[26:32] the initial fill volume may occur for
[26:34] each data center building at intervals
[26:37] no more no more frequent than once every
[26:40] 3 years. operator shall provide the city
[26:43] utilities director with 30 days written
[26:45] notice of when this is going to be
[26:46] scheduled and the draining shall comply
[26:49] with all TCU requirements and other
[26:51] applicable law.
[26:54] the annual makeup water. So on an annual
[26:57] basis, routine cooling system makeup
[27:00] water to replace minor losses from valve
[27:03] packing, gasket weepage, maintenance
[27:05] drains, those type of things shall not
[27:08] exceed 3%
[27:10] of the total installed cooling loop
[27:12] volume per data center building per
[27:15] calendar year.
[27:18] So that is that's the restrictions that
[27:20] we're proposing for wa for water usage
[27:23] from the city's water supply.
[27:28] Additional exempt water uses. These
[27:31] would be things that if things if bad
[27:32] things happen, we want them to use
[27:34] water. So fire suppression system fill,
[27:36] we want them to fill that up. During the
[27:39] construction phase, we want them to use
[27:41] water for dust control. So that
[27:43] mitigates some issues. um as well as for
[27:47] concrete curing and hydrostatic testing.
[27:50] So while they're doing their foundations
[27:51] and their tilt walls that they're able
[27:53] to utilize water for that site
[27:55] landscaping, but it's limited to drought
[27:57] tolerant zeroscape plantings. that's
[27:59] consistent with the city's uh water
[28:01] conservation plan and they are required
[28:04] they would be required to use
[28:06] droughtresistant plantings
[28:08] and they could use reclaimed or recycled
[28:10] water obtained from the city's reclaimed
[28:12] water system when available for any of
[28:15] those purposes. So they might be able to
[28:17] utilize reclaimed water not just the
[28:19] fresh water.
[28:23] And the last thing that we have for
[28:24] water consumption is if they exceed what
[28:28] happens in that first section. So if you
[28:31] have uh first they have to notify 48
[28:34] hours of an event to the water utilities
[28:36] director. Why did it happen? What was
[28:38] the cause? What was the volume? What was
[28:41] the duration? How much water are we
[28:42] talking about here that we that's gone
[28:45] that now we have to refill. The approval
[28:48] to refill comes down to the city manager
[28:51] or their design and they have five days
[28:54] to approve or deny. They look at our
[28:56] water situation and say, "All right,
[28:58] what is the best situation for the city
[29:00] of St. Angelo at this time? Do we
[29:03] approve them using additional water or
[29:05] do we deny them using additional water?"
[29:08] there is an emergency exception as if
[29:11] there's imminent risk to facility
[29:12] equipment or personnel and then they
[29:16] need to document and notify the city
[29:18] within 72 hours of that incident. Um
[29:21] more than likely our some of our city
[29:23] team is going to be responding to those
[29:25] imminent dangers and so that's probably
[29:27] going to be known and passed on very quickly.
[29:31] So, those are what we're proposing in
[29:33] the water utilities area for the water
[29:36] systems for using water. Now, I'm going
[29:39] to go over uh a couple of slides that
[29:41] talk about the waste water or the sewage
[29:43] that comes from the facility.
[29:47] So currently in our wastewater or sewage
[29:50] water uh systems ordinance there are
[29:54] currently prohibited discharges and this
[29:56] is kind of the first paragraph that no
[29:58] person may discharge to public sewers
[30:00] any waste which by itself or by
[30:03] interaction with other waste may injure
[30:06] or interfere with wastewater treatment
[30:08] processes or facilities.
[30:10] Constitute a hazard to humans or
[30:12] animals.
[30:14] create a hazard in the receiving waters
[30:16] or irrigation acreage of the wastewater
[30:19] treatment plant affluent. So those are
[30:21] the generic kind of statements of all
[30:22] right you can't you can't cause us harm
[30:25] by what you put back in our sewer system
[30:28] what you discharge back out
[30:32] also currently prohibited in our
[30:34] discharges and if you go to this again
[30:36] this is chapter 11 our water utilities
[30:38] or our utilities ordinance chemical
[30:41] discharges and there's a long list of
[30:44] chemicals there that are listed that
[30:46] says you cannot discharge these they
[30:48] have to be at a certain rate or not at
[30:50] All heavy metals and toxic materials
[30:53] again at a certain rate or not at all.
[30:56] Garbage. We It surprised me as I was
[30:58] reading through. You just can't put
[31:00] garbage down the sewer line. Okay, that
[31:02] makes a lot of sense. Radioactive waste,
[31:04] you can't put that in the sewer line
[31:06] either. These are already in our
[31:08] ordinances.
[31:10] High temperature discharges. When you
[31:12] get over 150 degrees Fahrenheit and you
[31:14] start pushing those things down the
[31:16] sewer line, you start having real issues
[31:18] and problems. and then also storm water
[31:21] and other unpolluted drainage going into
[31:24] the sewer system that overloads the
[31:26] sewer system and may cause it to spill
[31:28] out. Those things are already in our
[31:32] utility ordinance today.
[31:35] What we're proposing to add for data
[31:38] center specific
[31:40] uh a discharge event means any
[31:42] intentional release of treated cooling
[31:44] fluid to the sanitary sewer system. A
[31:47] planned discharge events means an
[31:49] intentional release associated with a
[31:51] scheduled maintenance, loop replacement,
[31:52] or repair activity.
[31:55] An emergency discharge event means an
[31:57] unplanned release caused by equipment
[31:59] failure, system rupture, or safety
[32:02] related incident.
[32:06] Sampling and laboratory verification of
[32:08] treated discharge must be completed
[32:11] prior to each discharge event. Records
[32:15] of the discharge volumes, analytical
[32:17] results, and discharge dates must be
[32:20] maintained for at least three years and
[32:22] provided to the uh director of water
[32:24] utilities upon request.
[32:26] Planned discharge events required
[32:28] written notification to the water
[32:30] utilities director at least 72 hours
[32:33] prior to discharge so that he can send
[32:36] his teams, let's go check, are they
[32:38] doing everything correct? Are they
[32:39] protecting our system? Are they
[32:41] protecting our citizens?
[32:44] Four, emergency discharges events must
[32:46] be reported to the director of water
[32:48] utilities within 4 hours of the
[32:50] occurrence. And a written incident
[32:52] report must be submitted within 7 days
[32:54] detailing the uh discharge volume,
[32:57] analytical results, and corrective
[32:59] actions taken. And the director of water
[33:02] utilities retains the authority to
[33:04] establish discharge flow limits and
[33:06] additional operation requirements
[33:08] necessary to protect the city. sanitary
[33:10] sewer infrastructure and ensure
[33:12] compliance with applicable industrial
[33:14] pre-treatment standards. So, we do have
[33:17] a lot of industrial sites around our
[33:19] community and we already have rules for
[33:21] those industrial sites. We're proposing
[33:23] these five things for data center
[33:26] specific.
[33:30] And so, I've gone through a lot of
[33:31] slides and a lot of information. And I
[33:33] know our city council's been listening
[33:35] over here to our right. Um,
[33:38] I'm not sure that there's any questions
[33:40] from city council at this moment today,
[33:42] but if you have any questions, I'd be
[33:44] happy to try to answer them. If not,
[33:46] we'll move to the next item on the
[33:47] agenda.
[33:54] » Okay. Well, with that, mayor, I think
[33:56] we'll move on to the next item on the
[33:58] agenda. Um, and let y'all take it from
[34:00] there.
[34:02] Thank you, everyone.
[34:06] » [applause]
[34:19] » Or do you have the clicker?
[34:21] >> Can I use the clicker?
[34:23] >> You want clicker? Sure. Cheers.
[34:27] >> Thank you.
[34:31] Cool.
[34:38] » I get the big arrow goes forward.
[34:45] » Put a mock check.
[34:47] >> Check. Check. Work. Get over here. We
[34:50] can pass it back and forth.
[34:51] >> Sure.
[34:52] >> Yeah.
[34:56] So, at this point of the time, or excuse
[34:58] me, at this point in time, the thing
[35:00] that I've been excited about for a long
[35:04] time, I guess it's been over a year that
[35:06] we've been working on this project, is
[35:09] to bring these two gentlemen up here to
[35:11] answer your questions.
[35:13] There were some benchmarks and there are
[35:16] some milestones that the city needed to
[35:18] achieve before we got to this process.
[35:22] There were several things that happened
[35:25] up to this date
[35:27] that would have changed had we brought
[35:29] them sooner. Wouldn't bring us to the
[35:31] point we are today to ask the questions
[35:32] we want. All right. So, what I'm going
[35:35] to be doing now is we're going to cover
[35:38] some questions that were submitted.
[35:41] Every question that was submitted over
[35:44] the from the I believe it was the 8th
[35:46] through the 17th of April is answered
[35:50] and we're going to make that website
[35:52] live to you here in a little bit. And I mean every question if they did
[35:57] not submit a question it didn't get
[35:59] answered. So I don't know they had they
[36:00] had 10 days to submit questions. If you
[36:02] didn't answer one we'll try to get that
[36:05] addressed in the future. We took the top
[36:08] seven or eight questions and try to
[36:11] build a summary of what those are
[36:14] and we're going to answer those here
[36:16] tonight. And when we get done, we'll
[36:19] flip on the website and everybody can go
[36:21] find their question. If it's not exactly
[36:23] how you submitted it, please understand
[36:25] we had to summarize it. If there were
[36:27] questions that were,
[36:30] I would say, something we couldn't give
[36:32] a very factual answer to, a yes, no, we
[36:35] didn't answer those. And I think y'all
[36:37] understand that sometimes people put out
[36:38] something that's real open-ended in an
[36:40] attempt to box you in a corner, and we
[36:42] don't want to box anybody in a corner,
[36:44] but we wanted to at least answer
[36:46] everything we could. And as always, uh,
[36:49] the entire council and myself were very
[36:51] approachable.
[36:54] talk with your councilman if there's
[36:55] something you've seen that hadn't gone
[36:56] forward. But right now, I want to
[36:58] introduce to you the two people up here
[37:00] on the stage. And I'm going to start
[37:01] with CEO Chris Sumpter of Skybox
[37:04] Emergent. And Chris, I would love for
[37:05] you to tell them a little bit about your
[37:07] history
[37:08] and we'll go from there.
[37:11] >> Um, again, Chris Sumpter. Um, I've been
[37:14] in the data center industry now for
[37:17] about as long as anybody can be. Um you
[37:21] know I started in 1996
[37:23] um you know with small company called
[37:26] TitchX. We pioneered managed hosting
[37:29] which is now basically the the cloud. Um
[37:33] you know I was in it you know basically
[37:36] running sales organizations.
[37:38] Um
[37:40] was with the company till 2002.
[37:44] Um I started working for another company
[37:47] called Raging Wire which is now NT
[37:48] Global and um then went to work for a
[37:51] company called Digital Realy Trust which
[37:53] is now I would say probably the you know
[37:56] largest global data center company um
[37:59] and you know 2007 I became founder
[38:03] co-founder of another company called
[38:05] Vantage Data Centers um you know again
[38:09] most way through these companies running
[38:11] sales organizations
[38:13] um took time out 2012
[38:17] uh coached football, watched my kids
[38:20] grow up, uh decided to get back into the
[38:22] industry about a year later and um
[38:26] helped two other companies in the data
[38:28] center industry get started. Um you
[38:30] know, helped the line data centers get
[38:31] up and running, edge core as well. um
[38:35] really got more into the development
[38:37] side of the house and um 2017 met some
[38:42] other individuals that were more private
[38:44] equity um and had my own building that I
[38:48] was developing in in Santa Clara,
[38:49] California and you know at that point in
[38:52] time brought in some investment uh from
[38:54] McCory Capital um and about a year ago
[38:59] ended up recapping you know out of that
[39:01] company and starting Emergent which you
[39:04] at that point in time teamed up with
[39:06] Mike. Um started bringing my team back
[39:09] together and u really started going out
[39:12] and you know looking for sites you know
[39:15] like the skybox site here as well as
[39:19] some of the other projects that we have
[39:20] around the country. Pennsylvania. Um
[39:23] that were, you know, really sites that
[39:25] we thought were, you know, good projects
[39:27] to bring to the community and develop
[39:30] for, you know, really what we target is
[39:31] the big five. Um, you know, which would
[39:34] be AWS, Google, Microsoft, Meta, uh,
[39:37] companies like that, which are primarily
[39:38] our customer base. Um, and you know,
[39:42] brings us to really today and you know,
[39:44] what we're doing now.
[39:46] >> Thank you. I I appreciate you being
[39:48] candid. I asked him before we came out
[39:49] here. I said, "If you had to rank
[39:50] yourself on on a scale of one to 10, how
[39:53] long you've been in the industry with a
[39:55] 10 being the most compared to your
[39:57] peers?" I both of them said, "We we've
[40:00] been in here tens." I mean, we have been
[40:02] with the very first ones initially. You
[40:05] started before they were called data
[40:06] centers. Um, I think it's great that we
[40:10] bring probably the most experienced team
[40:12] in the industry
[40:14] to the city of St. Angelo. Now, let's if
[40:16] you'll hand the mic over to Mike.
[40:19] Um Mike, we'll let you credential
[40:21] yourself here a little bit. All right.
[40:23] Uh good evening. I I want to thank
[40:25] everybody for giving us an opportunity
[40:26] to come speak to you first. Um really do want to be able to answer
[40:31] all your questions and and like uh Mayor
[40:33] Tom had mentioned, I'm I'm happy to stay
[40:36] behind and answer some questions if you
[40:38] didn't get the answers that you think or
[40:39] the information that that you really
[40:41] needed. So, um start there. Uh I've been
[40:44] doing this a long time too, almost uh 30
[40:46] years myself. I start I'm the technical
[40:49] and delivery um guy at at Skybox
[40:52] Emergent. Um I started out on the
[40:56] electrical and um overall design of the
[40:58] buildings approximately 30 years ago,
[41:00] but for the last almost 20 years, I've
[41:02] been on the operational side and and the
[41:04] delivery side for uh many companies that
[41:06] uh I think you guys all use. Uh for a
[41:09] long time, I was the technical leader
[41:11] and SVP at Yahoo. those of you that
[41:13] might still be carrying a Yahoo email
[41:15] address out there. Um, and I I managed
[41:18] that team globally and built their sites
[41:20] um all over all over the world. Um,
[41:23] transition from there to Google. I ran
[41:25] global data center operations um 26
[41:28] countries and about 6,000 people um and helped start up a lot of sites and
[41:34] um partner up with a lot of towns not
[41:36] just in the US but all over Europe and
[41:38] Asia as well. the last um last six years
[41:42] uh up until the end of last year.
[41:45] Another uh another another company you
[41:47] probably know pretty well. I I led the
[41:49] development um and of the infrastructure
[41:51] and the operational um teams for Bite
[41:54] Dance, which is the parent company for
[41:55] Tik Tok and Cap Cut and a bunch of other
[41:58] apps that you probably don't know about.
[42:00] But um so this is really um something
[42:03] that I've done I've always done. I I've
[42:05] been um in charge of managing the teams
[42:08] locally and building the teams locally.
[42:10] Um I've been responsible for working
[42:13] with the local community, the schools
[42:16] like uh like like we are starting here
[42:18] to create uh technical programs to put
[42:21] the jobs together and hire locally. Um
[42:24] and a and a lot of other things. We're we're not coming in to build
[42:27] something and run away. We're really
[42:28] looking to uh to come in here and build
[42:30] something and partner with the community
[42:31] and become part of it. Um I think uh
[42:35] rightfully so there's some you know some
[42:37] hesitation because there's you know
[42:39] there's there's some factual uh um
[42:42] instances where maybe some of the
[42:43] developers in our industry um haven't
[42:45] done it the right way and I think
[42:47] there's some valid concerns around the
[42:49] water. I think what we're doing is the
[42:51] most responsible way and we can talk
[42:53] about it a little bit more later. Um,
[42:55] and we'll explain it to you so you you understand the difference because
[42:59] um, I think some of the information you
[43:00] have is valid and it is happening in
[43:02] some places. We're just not going to do
[43:03] that here. Um, so anyway, no, thank you.
[43:07] It's I think what's important to gather
[43:08] from the introduction to you two is this
[43:12] is not a B team. This is a very
[43:13] experienced senior team and for you to
[43:16] come here, we're lucky to have you pick
[43:18] our side. So with that, we'll go into
[43:20] the first question. We can put put the
[43:22] first slide up
[43:24] if we can put that up on the screen.
[43:28] Maybe it's going to go up.
[43:35] » Brian, is it coming up or do
[43:38] or would I need to press the button?
[43:40] >> Take it.
[43:40] >> All right, I got it now. I got to
[43:42] remember you have it. Yes,
[43:45] that one's fun.
[43:47] Technology.
[43:48] >> Technology gets me. All right. So,
[43:51] >> you had it connected to a data center.
[43:53] >> Yeah. If it was connected to a data
[43:55] center, would it work better? Okay.
[43:59] Skybox has been looking at Angelo for
[44:00] over a year. Can you walk us why you
[44:04] looked at St. Angelo, how you came to
[44:07] this spot in sight selection?
[44:09] And, you know, we kind of sit back and
[44:12] wonder why you got to us. And there's a
[44:16] lot of questions about the substation
[44:18] and where the venue is and location. So
[44:20] let's start there. Why did you start
[44:22] here?
[44:23] >> So you know when you start looking at
[44:27] site selection for data centers,
[44:28] there's, you know, some real major piece
[44:31] parts that you need to have for a
[44:33] successful project, land being a very
[44:36] large part of that, right? You need to
[44:38] have,
[44:39] you know, at least for a campus, you
[44:41] know, you need several hundred acres. We
[44:43] also want to make sure that you know if
[44:46] you look at areas like you know Ashurn
[44:49] Virginia
[44:50] we as a company I don't want to build in
[44:54] the middle of what I would consider a
[44:55] population center right so when we start
[44:57] looking for things I want to build
[44:59] outside away from you know neighborhoods
[45:02] hospitals schools things of that nature
[45:04] so um you start taking a look at that
[45:07] you also start taking a look at major
[45:09] fiber routes which you know there's new
[45:12] fiber routes that are being built right
[45:13] alongside that corridor. And then you
[45:15] start taking a look at, you know, the
[45:17] power, you know, hubs as well. So, you
[45:19] know, the Red Creek substation that's
[45:21] out there is a major regional substation
[45:24] and, you know, there's a lot of power
[45:26] that sits on that substation. There's no
[45:29] real upgrades that need to be done. um
[45:31] there's a lot of capacity that can be
[45:33] drawn on for the data center and there's
[45:36] also going to be a lot of the new 765 KV
[45:39] upgrades that are going to be feeding
[45:41] into that from the generation sources
[45:43] that are in West Texas. So instead of
[45:46] waiting for that to get into, you know,
[45:49] I would say more, you know, central
[45:51] Texas, you know, the Dallas, Fort Worth
[45:53] type areas, which is very congested, you
[45:56] know, we wanted to come this way to get
[45:58] closer to the source. So that was a big
[46:01] part of the reason why just from a, you
[46:03] know, a reason why we wanted to pick
[46:05] that specific location. Um, it was just
[46:08] all the piece parts were really perfect
[46:10] for sight selection.
[46:13] One thing that amazed me and this this
[46:16] started under Mayor Gunner, but when you
[46:17] came here, the first thing y'all asked
[46:19] for was to be annexed and inside the
[46:22] city limits.
[46:24] All right. So, I think people don't
[46:26] understand when you get size and you get
[46:28] scale, you also get governance and
[46:30] ethics that come along with that.
[46:34] Maybe elaborate a little bit on why you
[46:35] wanted to be inside the city limits
[46:37] because of all the data centers that
[46:39] have been talked about and noise has
[46:41] been going. This is the only one that
[46:44] any type of governance will be on at
[46:46] this point. All right. So, I know
[46:49] everybody was familiar with the event
[46:51] that happened at Dove Creek and there's
[46:53] discussion of other data centers.
[46:54] They're outside the city limits and they
[46:56] are moving forward, but understand
[46:59] because of the input that we've done
[47:01] here, this is going to be the only one
[47:04] that has a set of ground rules and
[47:05] parameters to help it develop. And I
[47:07] want to say I want to ask you why is
[47:09] that important to you?
[47:11] So, you know, every one of the projects
[47:13] that that we've been involved in, we've
[47:15] always had our sites annexed in. Um, you
[47:18] know, I've never stayed in the ETJ,
[47:21] there's been, you know, the vast
[47:23] majority of the reason is I think a lot
[47:25] of the developers, at least the ones
[47:26] that you take a look at that are staying
[47:28] out and want to stay out of annexation,
[47:31] if you look at them as a company, you
[47:32] look at their projects, most of them are
[47:34] new entrance into the data center
[47:35] ecosystem. um they don't really
[47:38] understand that getting involved in the
[47:39] community, you know, being able to to
[47:42] have access to, you know, I don't want
[47:44] to necessarily say, you know, city
[47:46] water, sewer, things like that, but you
[47:48] do need to be able to have certain
[47:50] levels of city resources, you know,
[47:52] paying for them or not. You need to be
[47:54] able to have that. And I just don't
[47:57] think they really understand that. You
[47:59] start paying into the tax basis, it also
[48:01] helps the community. You know, you're
[48:03] also getting emergency services. Our tax
[48:05] dollars go to help the fire department,
[48:08] police department, things of that
[48:09] nature. It goes to the schools. It just
[48:12] all kind of works into the ecosystem.
[48:14] You're not getting that when you're
[48:15] staying in the ETJ. You don't really get
[48:17] the support from the community either. I
[48:20] think they start learning once they get
[48:22] one to two years into their developments
[48:24] that they need to come back and start
[48:26] asking for those services and that help.
[48:28] It's a little too late when you get to
[48:30] that point in time.
[48:34] It was a little bit of a question in
[48:35] some of our mind why you why you want to
[48:37] do that because we could have sold you
[48:38] the property, all right, and just run
[48:40] your water pipeline. And then we looked
[48:42] at what we could bill you for, we'd have
[48:44] been millions of dollars in the hole,
[48:46] all right, because you don't use that
[48:47] much water, but we would have built you
[48:48] a pipeline. But the fact that you asked
[48:50] to be annexed in as a start brought a
[48:54] whole different complexion to how we
[48:56] looked at it as a council. And it's
[48:58] like, okay, we're going to have input.
[48:59] We're going to have governance. We're
[49:00] going to have somebody wants to be a
[49:02] community partner. And we thought that
[49:03] was great and we appreciate that.
[49:06] Next slide. Got it.
[49:09] Water protection. This is one of the key
[49:11] hot buttons.
[49:12] >> It's It's been a punch and and
[49:15] >> yeah,
[49:15] >> it's a top priority for residents.
[49:18] >> We're talking clos loop. We're talking
[49:19] Gen 3. And I just want to say,
[49:21] >> yeah,
[49:21] >> we vetted a lot of this out up front.
[49:23] Had it not been to this, we never would
[49:25] have even opened the discussion over a
[49:28] year ago. But y'all brought this to us
[49:30] at the forefront. I want you to talk
[49:31] about Gen One, Gen 2, and water.
[49:34] >> Yeah, this is this is a this is probably
[49:36] the biggest topic that that we ever that
[49:39] we run into ever. And again, like I
[49:41] said, um a lot of justified feelings
[49:44] around this topic. Um not everybody's a responsible developer and operator.
[49:49] So, some of the stories you see online,
[49:52] um, again, when you get out into the,
[49:55] uh, outside of the city limits and your restrictions are zero, people are
[50:00] sinking wells, you know, suckling
[50:02] aquifer dries, things like that. We we
[50:04] just don't believe we we just don't
[50:05] believe in that process, right? So,
[50:08] what you have developed from a a
[50:11] governance and restriction standpoint
[50:13] meets meets our typical design anyway.
[50:17] So, but to give you just give you kind
[50:19] of an iteration of what the data centers
[50:21] have done 20 years ago and really even
[50:23] up to five years ago, we didn't have the
[50:26] technology on the aircooled chiller side
[50:29] to really make them functional and
[50:31] cost-effective. And the technology has
[50:33] moved mainly because of the people like
[50:35] you that come out and have said we don't
[50:37] want this uh happening. It's very
[50:39] difficult for us to drive the
[50:40] manufacturing uh companies to create a a system that that we're not deploying.
[50:46] um if they're making a lot of money on
[50:47] the old system, why innovate it, right?
[50:49] So, it it did I think public outcry
[50:52] helped um move that along a lot quicker
[50:54] than we could have as an industry. The
[50:56] initial um standard design I think a lot
[50:59] of you would be familiar with the Gen
[51:01] One cooling was was traditional
[51:03] evaporative cooling with cooling towers.
[51:05] And basically what we did was we used an
[51:07] enormous amount of water every day. We
[51:10] cycled it through the building. Um we
[51:13] collected the heat through uh you from
[51:15] air inside. Um exchanged that very much,
[51:19] you know, like on a radiator. Um and
[51:21] then we we pumped that loop up to a
[51:24] tower above the building and we would
[51:26] evaporate use evaporation to reject the
[51:28] heat and circle the water back. And what
[51:30] happens is we could only run that water
[51:33] through the system, you know, roughly
[51:36] five or six times. as we evaporate it,
[51:40] all the dissolved solids and everything
[51:41] else that's in the water becomes
[51:43] concentrated. We can't use the water and
[51:44] then we discharge it out and stick it in
[51:47] your sewer system. That that was the
[51:49] standard for many years. Um we all knew
[51:53] that that wasn't okay and and I would
[51:56] say even as far back as 20 uh 2007, we
[52:00] started um conditioning the water
[52:02] oursel. Um some places we built
[52:05] evaporative ponds so that we didn't
[52:06] discharge at all. Um but eventually we
[52:09] started to drive the industry to to make
[52:11] that process more effective because
[52:13] that's all we could do. We looked at
[52:15] using uh you know outside air
[52:17] economizers. Um at Yahoo we built you
[52:20] can look it up online. It's called the
[52:22] Yahoo chicken coupe. Um we used 100%
[52:25] outside air very specific environments
[52:28] that where that works. You can't do it
[52:29] everywhere. Um so environmentally it was difficult to site those. Um but
[52:34] the technology helped us iterate. um
[52:38] we were still using a lot of water. So
[52:40] today I think the best way to describe
[52:41] this closed loop system is the radiator
[52:43] on your car, the the cooling system on
[52:45] your car. You fill it up with coolant.
[52:48] It's a closed loop system. You shouldn't
[52:51] be adding water to it, right? I mean,
[52:53] anybody here knows that if you're adding
[52:54] water, there's probably a problem
[52:56] somewhere that needs to be fixed.
[52:57] There's there's a you know, there there
[52:59] are um a lot of lot of piping and
[53:02] connections and pumps that can possibly
[53:04] leak. So we might we might have to add a
[53:06] little bit here and there if we're
[53:08] having to do maintenance. Um but once we
[53:10] fill the system it is a closed loop and
[53:12] we we don't lose the water. We over a
[53:15] period of time we can we can get some
[53:17] concentration of certain u it really
[53:20] depends on on what what the water coming
[53:23] in has in it and how how that um how how
[53:26] the operation affects it. So, what we do
[53:28] to um if we have to uh swap the water
[53:32] out or add water, we don't discharge
[53:34] into your sewer. We have storage tanks
[53:36] on site. Each building has enough
[53:38] storage to empty into the tank. So, even an emergency, I know you you guys
[53:43] have put some stuff together on the
[53:45] emergency side of this. We're not going
[53:46] to discharge uh directly into the sewer.
[53:48] We we discharge into our own tanks and
[53:51] then we will treat the water so that it
[53:53] it's basically similar to the way that
[53:56] it came in. Um, we test the water. We
[53:59] provide that testing to the city water
[54:01] department before they allow us to
[54:03] discharge. And then we don't just open
[54:05] the tank and let it go. They tell us how
[54:07] much they can handle based on activity
[54:09] in the city and what's going through um
[54:12] the sewer treatment plant and we slowly
[54:14] discharge it. Uh continuous monitoring
[54:17] of that. We will we will commit to make
[54:20] that monitoring available full-time. So
[54:22] we'll have it on our website. You can
[54:24] see water usage, water quality, water
[54:27] discharge. We are required to put that
[54:30] reporting together and provide it to the
[54:31] city as well and hold that for three
[54:32] years. But that's how we treat it. So
[54:35] there is no there's no discharge. And I
[54:38] think um to to maybe oversimplify it a
[54:40] little bit, it's just water and glycol.
[54:43] So it's just like radiator fluid in your car and some water and that
[54:47] that's what the system runs on. Um
[54:49] chillers are on the roof. They're air
[54:51] cooled. So, they're basically
[54:53] just like the big radiator on the front
[54:55] of your car. Um, they're large large
[54:58] fins with surface area that we we run
[55:00] the water through and blow um air over
[55:02] and it it dissipates the heat and the
[55:04] cooler water goes back into the
[55:06] building. That that's basically how it
[55:07] works.
[55:09] There's I can't leave a hot topic like
[55:11] that this quick. I mean, we got to stay
[55:12] in. So, we're we're talking about
[55:15] emergency. You've already said, hey,
[55:16] we'll discharge with our own facility.
[55:18] Um,
[55:20] let's look at what you've seen. I mean,
[55:22] you've built data centers for 30, 40
[55:25] years.
[55:26] Do you think what what has amazed me?
[55:29] Let me phrase this. Every time I have
[55:31] talked to you, you were like, just give
[55:32] it to me and I'll design it that way.
[55:34] All right. There I've had a couple
[55:35] questions like, we'll just design that
[55:37] in. And it amazes me how open y'all have
[55:40] been to say that's not an issue. I I
[55:43] mean water, we have had information talk
[55:45] about billions of gallons that were
[55:47] going to be used in 4 months. Then it
[55:49] went to millions and then things. Never
[55:51] once have y'all told us exactly how much
[55:53] water you're going to use or require
[55:55] until you've got your design and you
[55:56] said it's about 15,000. So at this point
[56:00] when you compare the technology of this
[56:02] proposed site versus what's already out
[56:04] there, how do we benchmark against that?
[56:08] >> This this is the most advanced as of
[56:11] today. Um what what I would say even at bite dance when I was we were
[56:16] deploying this same technology you know
[56:18] very similar I should say not the same
[56:20] because we all have a little bit of our
[56:21] own secret sauce um but we were
[56:24] deploying this in a tropical environment
[56:25] so Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia
[56:28] um five years ago a closed loop system
[56:31] would have never been um able to operate
[56:33] in a high humidity high temperature
[56:35] environment. the manufacturers have come
[56:37] a long way and really really provided us
[56:40] the the tools and the equipment to put a
[56:42] system together. Um, and to be to be
[56:45] honest, it does cost more and it's not
[56:48] as it's not as efficient from an
[56:50] electrical use as uh the as as the
[56:54] evaporative cooling is. And that's
[56:55] really why a lot of developers are still
[56:57] using the water because they grab the
[56:59] water for pretty cheap and it it brings
[57:01] the the cost down. We as an industry use
[57:04] a a metric called PUE. It's power
[57:08] utilization effectiveness. And that
[57:10] basically and so we've always been
[57:12] tracking this. Well, at least for 20
[57:14] years we've been tracking this. Um
[57:16] basically we look at the amount of power
[57:18] that we use and then the amount of
[57:19] energy that we need to cool off or
[57:23] reject the heat is actually the
[57:24] technical term. Um we have always tried
[57:27] to bring that pee down as close to par
[57:29] as you know we can't get to we can't get
[57:31] to zero but when I started in this 30
[57:36] years ago we were two to two and a half
[57:38] times so not not in the ones like 2.25
[57:42] 25 2.5. Um, a lot of people in the
[57:45] industry will will still tell you today
[57:47] that a 1.5 is a good number. Um, we're
[57:52] designing at much much lower numbers
[57:53] than that. And and that really has been,
[57:56] you know, because we manage it and we measure it. It does reduce the
[58:00] amount of servers we can run. But that's
[58:02] the right way to approach this. I we
[58:05] responsible way to to to build this is to reduce your energy use and the the
[58:10] water use as well. And I appreciate you
[58:12] saying that because it's been it's our
[58:15] most precious resource. Um there have
[58:18] been companies that have wanted to come
[58:20] to Angelo chemical companies and through
[58:22] the economic development process. We did
[58:25] not welcome that because of their water
[58:28] consumption and we we realize that and
[58:30] we appreciate the fact that y'all threw
[58:32] that out up front. You've talked about
[58:33] it. Here's what we do. Here's how much
[58:36] we use and we'll put our name on the
[58:37] bottom of it and you can hold us
[58:39] accountable for it. Earlier today, you
[58:41] mentioned you're going to have a live
[58:42] website. You brought it up there. You as
[58:45] this develops somewhere within the
[58:47] process the next few years, people will
[58:49] be able to go on daily to your website
[58:51] and see the water consumption.
[58:52] >> Yeah. And they can validate our numbers
[58:54] against yours because our water numbers
[58:56] are going to be metered by you. We're
[58:57] just going to we're just going to give
[58:58] them to you in real time, but ultimately
[59:01] you you guys are the ones that have to
[59:03] validate the data. Same with the
[59:04] discharge. you guys are me metering and
[59:06] measuring that as well, but we're gonna
[59:08] we're just going to provide it to you um
[59:10] at will basically.
[59:12] >> Well, it's you know sometimes you know I
[59:15] would say facts are not popular and it's
[59:20] when you kick it out like this to say
[59:21] this is exactly what we're going to
[59:24] have. We appreciate that. Transparency
[59:26] is I think the key, right? If [laughter]
[59:29] it's one thing for us to come up here
[59:30] and tell you what we're going to do, but
[59:31] if we don't give you a way to measure
[59:33] and monitor us and and we're not
[59:35] transparent, who are you going to
[59:37] believe, right? I mean, I I don't think
[59:40] the industry has earned the trust yet
[59:42] and we need to do a better job at that
[59:43] and we're going to do our best.
[59:45] >> Well, I was not just me. I would think
[59:47] the whole room appreciates that and the
[59:49] fact that you're very transparent and
[59:50] upfront about what your consumption is
[59:52] going to be. Let me roll to the next
[59:53] slide. Noise mitigation. Um, you talk
[59:57] about a hum of a data center. You've
[1:00:00] already committed to the 60 decel level.
[1:00:01] I I think Patrick, we have a um meter
[1:00:06] over there at the table. We're exceeding
[1:00:08] 60 right now, but talking at the
[1:00:09] property lines. That's something that it
[1:00:11] becomes a hot bed for the surrounding
[1:00:12] environments. And so we're roughly four
[1:00:15] miles away. Tell me how you stay within
[1:00:17] those limits. Prove it.
[1:00:19] >> Yeah. So once once you've provided a a
[1:00:23] requirement and the requirements that
[1:00:25] you've given are are not difficult for
[1:00:27] us as an industry to meet, there's no
[1:00:29] reason you guys should hear it. I mean
[1:00:31] it just again this is this is really if you've got a responsible developer
[1:00:35] and operator, it shouldn't be built so
[1:00:38] that you know it's there. Um, I I can
[1:00:41] tell you in I I have built a lot of
[1:00:43] hundreds of these sites over almost 30
[1:00:46] years and I've only had one site where
[1:00:48] we had a noise issue and
[1:00:51] basically the way this works is we we
[1:00:53] start with a noise level that we need to
[1:00:54] meet. Um, and it's it's typically not an
[1:00:57] issue. I mean we we can usually uh
[1:00:59] design within it but as we start to
[1:01:01] place the buildings and we or orient the
[1:01:03] buildings so that the equipment is not
[1:01:05] facing you or facing the road um we have
[1:01:09] to choose mechanical equipment and
[1:01:10] electrical equipment. All of that
[1:01:12] equipment has noise ratings that are
[1:01:14] engineered. It's it's it's in the
[1:01:16] manufacturer um you know documentation
[1:01:18] and specifications. So we start by
[1:01:20] putting an assembly of pieces together
[1:01:23] that meet the minimum requirement. Then
[1:01:25] we run into the what we would call the site related um issues and and this
[1:01:31] is why we do a study. So once we have it
[1:01:33] all put together and engineered to work,
[1:01:35] I think this is where a lot of people
[1:01:36] fail is once you apply that to the
[1:01:40] actual location, things can change. So
[1:01:43] you don't really know how the noise is
[1:01:44] going to react to the local environment.
[1:01:46] You'd be surprised sometimes to the
[1:01:48] amount of moisture in the air. um that
[1:01:50] like there there's there's some crazy
[1:01:52] things that we've had to deal with, but
[1:01:54] we will use a a company that that we
[1:01:57] both agree on to do an independent study
[1:01:59] so that we can model the equipment and
[1:02:02] model that for the site. Um and then
[1:02:05] we're we have you you guys have actually
[1:02:07] created some pretty robust language so
[1:02:09] that we will be testing for the first
[1:02:11] year to make sure that everything that
[1:02:13] we've engineered um will meet the
[1:02:15] minimum requirements if not better.
[1:02:18] There's there's all kinds of tools that
[1:02:19] we use. The the equipment has sound
[1:02:21] attenuing uh properties to it. The
[1:02:25] generators I think a lot of people are
[1:02:26] potentially worried about. Our engines
[1:02:28] go inside a sound attenuated enclosure
[1:02:30] and that sound rating is is met before
[1:02:33] it even leaves the footprint of the
[1:02:35] generator.
[1:02:35] >> That's been a hot one. I've several
[1:02:37] people have brought up well they're
[1:02:38] going to cycle those generators and you
[1:02:40] can time those. There's it's always been
[1:02:42] what do you need?
[1:02:43] >> Yeah. So, the the the generators um they they don't sound any different than
[1:02:48] a truck driving by. Um we don't run
[1:02:51] those generators unless there's a
[1:02:52] utility outage other than once a month
[1:02:55] for 30 minutes. It's like having a car
[1:02:57] in the garage. If you don't run it once
[1:02:59] a month, if these are remember these are
[1:03:02] emergency backup. So when the power
[1:03:04] shuts off, we have uh battery systems in
[1:03:08] the building that bridge the time it
[1:03:10] takes for the engines to start up and
[1:03:12] get ready to take the load. We can't
[1:03:14] have an engine fail. So we we have to
[1:03:16] test them once a month for 30 minutes
[1:03:19] and then we shut them down. And that's
[1:03:22] all. So both the noise and the the
[1:03:25] discharge from those are are regulated
[1:03:27] by
[1:03:28] >> you could stagger those. You could do
[1:03:29] those anyway when you
[1:03:30] >> Yeah. So we won't we would never run
[1:03:32] them outside of the normal business
[1:03:33] hours. So it wouldn't be at night,
[1:03:35] wouldn't be on weekends, it would be
[1:03:37] during the middle of the day. We will
[1:03:39] give you notice literally the each
[1:03:42] building runs for 30 minutes and it
[1:03:44] shuts down.
[1:03:46] You likely are never going to notice
[1:03:48] that they actually run. Right. Well, it
[1:03:50] there's a lot of facilities here in town
[1:03:52] that have emergency backup generators
[1:03:55] and the hospitals, there's
[1:03:57] pharmaceutical companies, odds, all of
[1:03:59] those have it available. I've never
[1:04:01] heard anybody complain about it just
[1:04:03] because of the perimeter and the cushion
[1:04:04] we have. some of the uh some of what I
[1:04:06] heard um about the low hum again you uh
[1:04:10] I think you or um I think it got covered
[1:04:12] in the in the zoning again that that is
[1:04:15] a that's a an assembly and a
[1:04:17] construction means and method issue
[1:04:19] typically none of the equipment that we
[1:04:21] buy and install is meant to have a low
[1:04:23] hum um it does happen and and I I had
[1:04:27] >> I wanted to make sure you brought this
[1:04:28] up because you told me you you
[1:04:29] engineered one out
[1:04:30] >> I did have this happen to me and it was
[1:04:32] in Ashurn Virginia um which is a very
[1:04:34] dense data center indust
[1:04:38] it's it's pretty much the the center of
[1:04:40] the universe for all things in the
[1:04:42] internet um mainly and it it it started
[1:04:45] there because the subc cables leaving
[1:04:47] the US out is land in that area and that
[1:04:50] and they wanted access to to the the
[1:04:52] subc cable but we had a uh we we did
[1:04:55] have a an air handling unit when I say a
[1:04:58] I mean hundreds of them um on the site
[1:05:01] and it was it was basically five fans on
[1:05:03] a all four in corner and one in the
[1:05:06] center and for some reason that center
[1:05:07] fan we could never get it to balance and
[1:05:10] it did create a hum and one of the
[1:05:12] neighbors did bring it up and we tried
[1:05:14] for a month or two to to balance them.
[1:05:17] The only way for us to fix it was to
[1:05:19] remove that fifth fan and that those are
[1:05:22] just the things you have to do. You you don't say you know deal with it. Um,
[1:05:26] your regulations are great because if
[1:05:29] there's a complaint, there's a study,
[1:05:31] there's some testing and measurement
[1:05:33] required. If we're over, we have a we
[1:05:36] have a short amount of time to give you
[1:05:38] a plan to fix it. So, we're
[1:05:41] if there's an issue, just let us know
[1:05:43] and we'll we'll take care of it. But
[1:05:45] there's there's there's a lot there's a
[1:05:46] lot of measurement and management around
[1:05:48] it that that's put in place to to make
[1:05:50] sure that you guys don't have to ever
[1:05:51] get to a point where you complain.
[1:05:53] >> Yeah. One of the times I called you, I
[1:05:55] said, "I'm running across this question
[1:05:57] and I don't find it anywhere to find an
[1:05:58] answer." And you just said, "No." And
[1:06:00] what was funny straight up? You said,
[1:06:02] "We we had one." You gave me that exact
[1:06:03] example and you said, "You know what? I
[1:06:05] just engineered it out." I was kind of
[1:06:06] like, "Well, how'd you do? I just took
[1:06:07] it out." Oh, okay. I thought that was
[1:06:09] really great. Um, let's go on to the
[1:06:12] next question.
[1:06:14] Construction impact. Let's talk about a
[1:06:16] build this size.
[1:06:18] >> Yeah.
[1:06:18] >> The timeline. Um, y'all were going to
[1:06:20] share this one back and forth, but this
[1:06:23] one I want to talk about here in the
[1:06:26] prephase during the buildup and the
[1:06:29] closure bar and then compare it to some
[1:06:31] things you see happening in West Texas
[1:06:33] that I say have been unfairly compared
[1:06:35] to ourselves.
[1:06:36] >> Yeah. So,
[1:06:38] the scale of these are very different
[1:06:40] from sight to sight. the um what I would
[1:06:43] say is I think you know what you're
[1:06:44] seeing over there in West Texas right
[1:06:46] now that's that's the first and only of
[1:06:48] its kind. I even as long as I've been
[1:06:52] doing this I've never seen anything like
[1:06:53] it. So it's it's it's difficult to
[1:06:56] explain that and then explain what we're
[1:06:58] building um
[1:07:01] we we do have multiple buildings and I
[1:07:03] think if you if you look if if you think
[1:07:04] about it um everybody's looking at this
[1:07:07] like it's one big data center. The the
[1:07:09] reality is this is like building a
[1:07:10] commercial uh industrial park that might
[1:07:13] have multiple buildings that and and
[1:07:16] roads um and parking and and that's
[1:07:19] ultimately what it is. The only
[1:07:20] difference is it's secure. You can't get
[1:07:22] in unless you work there because for for
[1:07:24] a number of reasons. Um so we aren't
[1:07:28] building 3 gawatt. I mean that that
[1:07:30] that's three 3x plus 300 megawatts of
[1:07:34] on-site energy generation. It's a very
[1:07:37] different project than what we're
[1:07:38] proposing.
[1:07:40] This is still a large project in you
[1:07:43] know if you look at data center
[1:07:45] development over the last 20 years but
[1:07:48] we're going to stage these bu we're
[1:07:50] starting with one building and then we
[1:07:52] will stagger them and build them one
[1:07:53] building at a time. So we're not talking
[1:07:55] about thousands of people coming into
[1:07:57] town for three years. We're t we are
[1:08:00] talking about hundreds you know s maybe
[1:08:02] six or 700 people during a peak um and
[1:08:06] then it goes down. So there should be
[1:08:09] minimal impact. Look there's there's no
[1:08:12] way to say we're not going to we're not
[1:08:13] going to be renting hotel rooms and
[1:08:15] renting places and eating in your
[1:08:17] restaurants and like that is going to
[1:08:19] happen because these guys are going to
[1:08:20] live here uh for you know 3 to four
[1:08:23] years. Um
[1:08:24] >> a lot of the people should be living
[1:08:26] here.
[1:08:26] >> Yeah. Well, but but I think the first
[1:08:29] thing we try to do is make sure that
[1:08:30] we're sourcing labor um and partnering
[1:08:32] with the local construction companies
[1:08:34] and we're going to work we've already
[1:08:36] started working with with some of them
[1:08:38] um to minimize that.
[1:08:40] >> We don't have a staffing plan yet
[1:08:42] because
[1:08:43] >> we haven't put a schedule together yet
[1:08:44] because you have we just kind of give
[1:08:45] you the guidelines. You haven't approved
[1:08:47] the project yet, but but we but I've
[1:08:49] built a lot of these and and I can tell
[1:08:51] you we're not going to we're not peaking
[1:08:53] at a thousand people. So it it's also
[1:08:56] out on the edge of town. So we're you
[1:08:58] know you're not going to see traffic
[1:08:59] rolling through town. The other thing
[1:09:01] too is um we try and stagger some of
[1:09:03] this work on shifts. Uh once the
[1:09:05] buildings get closed in we will we we
[1:09:08] will start you know changing the shifts.
[1:09:10] So some of the some of the mechanical
[1:09:13] electrical work can happen um you know
[1:09:15] in in the second and third shift hours.
[1:09:18] It reduces the number of people on site.
[1:09:19] And I think what a lot of people don't
[1:09:21] understand is the more people we have on
[1:09:23] site, the more congested it is, the
[1:09:25] harder it is for us to build it. The
[1:09:27] more crowded it is, um, our safety goes
[1:09:30] down, the quality of work goes down. So,
[1:09:33] we're not we're not we're not in a race.
[1:09:35] We're looking to, you know, take a
[1:09:37] logical approach and do this smart. Um,
[1:09:40] and we we've we've done this a lot. We we know we can do it with minimal
[1:09:45] impact. it it's been hard for us to
[1:09:49] define how that comparison is because
[1:09:50] everybody in here has friends in Abalene
[1:09:53] and and it's just been a boom and I said
[1:09:56] that's that's not what we're going to
[1:09:57] see here to some degree we're going to
[1:09:58] see some but not at the extent we see
[1:10:00] and we all have friends and neighbors
[1:10:03] that have gone through that experience I
[1:10:05] have a friend that's I guess working for
[1:10:06] Oracle on the project over in Abalene
[1:10:08] and I elaborated
[1:10:09] >> I think Chris can maybe give a little
[1:10:11] more insight to the impact on Abalene it
[1:10:14] it's not just one site
[1:10:16] Yeah, if you if you take a look at
[1:10:18] Abalene, you know, like Mike was
[1:10:19] explaining, it's it's a 3 gawatt site
[1:10:22] and there is a significant level of
[1:10:25] difference, right? They were trying to
[1:10:26] build that site as fast as they could.
[1:10:30] You know, it's the first Stargate site.
[1:10:31] They threw as many bodies at it as they
[1:10:33] possibly could and the size and scale of
[1:10:36] it continues to grow. You know, we've
[1:10:39] only got 350 acres, guys. We can only
[1:10:42] build so much product on that site.
[1:10:44] um I couldn't throw 6,000 people at it
[1:10:47] at once if I wanted to. There's just not
[1:10:49] enough acreage there. Um but when you
[1:10:52] start taking a look at that, you know,
[1:10:54] you've got one the Stargate site. You've
[1:10:57] also got another site which is about an
[1:10:59] hour to the west uh of Abalene, which is
[1:11:02] another multi-gawatt site. There's no
[1:11:05] services out where that site is. So all
[1:11:08] of those construction workers and you
[1:11:11] know the people that are working on that
[1:11:12] project are also living in Abalene. So
[1:11:15] they're commuting back and forth. So you
[1:11:18] know all of those services are coming
[1:11:20] there. And then if you go up to Haskell
[1:11:22] there's another multi-gawatt project
[1:11:24] which is you know know who it is but I
[1:11:28] can't say. Um but it is another one of
[1:11:30] the big five which is another project.
[1:11:32] Well if anybody in this room has been to
[1:11:34] Haskell it's a very small town. There's
[1:11:37] not a lot of services in Haskell. All of
[1:11:40] those people are also living in Abalene.
[1:11:43] So, you know, yes, it is putting a
[1:11:47] significant strain on the local
[1:11:49] community in Abalene. We get it. Um, I
[1:11:52] don't see that level of strain happening
[1:11:56] on San Angelo. There's not the level of
[1:11:58] activity happening here. Um, you know, I
[1:12:02] don't think that it's going to happen
[1:12:03] anytime. And if some of those people
[1:12:05] should this move forward, if some of
[1:12:07] those people still want to stay in
[1:12:08] Abalene and drive back and forth, I
[1:12:09] don't think anybody in this room would
[1:12:11] have a problem with that. All right? I'm
[1:12:12] just saying we have to be practical
[1:12:13] about what's going to happen and moving
[1:12:15] forward. And I I appreciate y'all's
[1:12:17] honesty on that moving forward. What you
[1:12:18] think is going to be factual.
[1:12:22] >> We
[1:12:23] I tell you what, we have to go through
[1:12:25] this presentation. That's public
[1:12:26] comment. I can't let that happen. But
[1:12:28] you submitted questions and we'll get to
[1:12:30] those in a minute. And you they actually
[1:12:32] have that answered and we're going to
[1:12:34] get to that here in a minute.
[1:12:37] Job creation beyond the constru
[1:12:40] construction phase. What do we see? I
[1:12:43] mean a lot of people have said you're
[1:12:44] going to come here. How many people is
[1:12:46] it going to bring? What are we going to
[1:12:48] retain? I look at it and go for the
[1:12:51] revenue that you're going to bring to
[1:12:53] the city. It's the least impactful
[1:12:56] stress on infrastructure you'll ever
[1:12:58] see. But people here want to know how
[1:13:00] many people are going to start. And
[1:13:02] let's just maybe skip all the way to the
[1:13:03] end and say potentially how many jobs
[1:13:06] are going to be here. But I think people
[1:13:08] have to realize Goodfellow is going to
[1:13:10] love to interface. I mean I we can guess
[1:13:12] it's it doesn't take a rocket scientist
[1:13:14] to figure out who maybe your top three
[1:13:15] candidates are. and for our university,
[1:13:19] for our good fellow people, for our high
[1:13:21] school students and them to be able to
[1:13:22] come through in the next 10, 15 years
[1:13:24] and say, "Well, I was at a campus and
[1:13:26] did an internship for these people just
[1:13:29] is the coolest thing in the world." This
[1:13:31] is about some opportunities there, but I
[1:13:33] want to go back and talk a little bit
[1:13:34] about the job creation.
[1:13:35] >> Yeah. So, it it's it's in a couple of
[1:13:38] different buckets. Um there's the first
[1:13:41] one is is really just the facility teams
[1:13:43] that have to operate and manage the
[1:13:46] let's call it the building, right?
[1:13:47] Mechanical, electrical, the the entire
[1:13:50] campus. There's there's probably 100 to
[1:13:53] 150 jobs that are full-time. These are 7
[1:13:56] by 24 uh operational facilities. So, you
[1:13:59] know, daytime staffing is a little
[1:14:01] higher, but these these facilities have
[1:14:03] to have people on site like a hospital
[1:14:04] kind of. um these the the facilities
[1:14:08] team is what we refer to them are there
[1:14:10] seven days a week 24 hours a day. So you
[1:14:12] can imagine one role um in the building
[1:14:16] that has to cover 7 days a week 24 hours
[1:14:18] plus holidays takes three people that
[1:14:21] one job is a threeperson job for just
[1:14:23] that just that task. So um that and and
[1:14:27] that the the numbers around that are
[1:14:29] pretty pretty well established in
[1:14:31] industrywide because we know what it
[1:14:32] takes. The IT infrastructure um
[1:14:34] operations inside is vastly different
[1:14:37] and it could be it could be it could be
[1:14:40] at least that much and it could be
[1:14:42] double that. It really depends on what
[1:14:44] IT equipment gets installed in that
[1:14:46] building. Um and that's anywhere from we
[1:14:50] again it's
[1:14:50] >> so will will you specify that equipment
[1:14:52] or will your renters? No, we don't we
[1:14:54] don't specify. Look, the the IT
[1:14:57] equipment typically refreshes every 3 to
[1:14:59] 5 years. So, day one they put it in,
[1:15:04] they run it for 3 to 5 years depending
[1:15:06] on what it is. And at a certain point,
[1:15:08] new technology is has come out and it's it the the cost effectiveness of
[1:15:13] operating the servers that are in there
[1:15:15] become, you know, there there's a
[1:15:17] complicated uh algorithm that we use
[1:15:19] based based on power consumption and
[1:15:22] output of the CPU. eventually it just
[1:15:24] doesn't make sense to keep it. So we
[1:15:26] pull it all out and put new. And that
[1:15:27] that's a pretty constant every 5year um
[1:15:31] 3 to 5 year uh depending on what
[1:15:32] >> not only would that the value of the
[1:15:34] facility would increase every 5 years
[1:15:36] too, right?
[1:15:38] >> The value of it based on the interior,
[1:15:39] the equipment, things like that
[1:15:41] >> that refreshes every 3 to five years.
[1:15:43] >> Correct. Three to five. Okay.
[1:15:44] >> Yeah. Yeah. So
[1:15:46] those jobs those jobs cover, you know,
[1:15:49] the installation and what we refer to as
[1:15:51] break fix.
[1:15:53] You could have a million servers in
[1:15:55] there. Um, anyone here that has a
[1:15:57] computer knows you got to do stuff with
[1:15:58] it pretty regularly. So it's replacing
[1:16:00] components, keeping them operating.
[1:16:02] There's there's a pretty large staff of
[1:16:04] network technicians. There's a lot of
[1:16:07] fiber and structured cabling and network
[1:16:09] equipment that is always being upgraded,
[1:16:12] moved, added. So um
[1:16:16] the
[1:16:18] there's a there's a there's a lot of
[1:16:19] fixed um jobs but then I think the third
[1:16:22] bucket is there's a lot of peripheral uh
[1:16:24] jobs that get created to support the
[1:16:26] site and those are those are jobs
[1:16:28] created in town for services that the
[1:16:31] entire the entire function needs. So we
[1:16:34] have external contractors that that we
[1:16:37] hire food service like there's there's a
[1:16:40] uh I can't put a number on that because
[1:16:42] every every operation is slightly
[1:16:44] different.
[1:16:44] >> I don't
[1:16:44] >> but but we're we're talking about 400
[1:16:47] probably permanent on-site and you know
[1:16:49] a few hundred ex external but indirect
[1:16:53] support to uh to to the project. It's
[1:16:56] you can see lots of numbers, but the one
[1:16:57] I see that brings the most consistency
[1:16:59] to what we're talking about is for every
[1:17:00] one building you have on a site at a
[1:17:02] data center, you're probably going to
[1:17:03] have six or seven businesses that are
[1:17:05] going come up. Just a ratio of one to
[1:17:08] six. If you put in four buildings, we
[1:17:10] could look at roughly 24 businesses that
[1:17:12] will come here. These are jobs that left
[1:17:14] middle America and are coming back to
[1:17:15] middle America.
[1:17:16] >> That's correct.
[1:17:17] >> Yeah.
[1:17:18] >> With that, let me move over to the next
[1:17:20] slide.
[1:17:22] Here's one that
[1:17:24] AE could probably answer this more and
[1:17:26] they do answer some questions, but let's
[1:17:28] talk about grid reliability. Um, people
[1:17:31] talk about brownouts. You're going to be
[1:17:32] using all of our electricity. What
[1:17:34] happens when it's 114 degrees in Angelo
[1:17:37] for 60 days straight. How do you manage
[1:17:39] that? And what we want to make sure
[1:17:41] you're not going to Yeah. steal the
[1:17:44] electricity.
[1:17:44] >> Understood. Um I I do think that they
[1:17:47] answer it pretty technically, but I'll
[1:17:48] give I'll give more of a a nonutility
[1:17:51] layman's uh uh answer. So before we even
[1:17:56] get
[1:17:58] final site selection on one of these
[1:17:59] sites, we have to go to the utility
[1:18:01] being A and then URKT and we have to we
[1:18:04] have to pay them to do a study on the
[1:18:07] grid um to determine whether they can
[1:18:09] supply this or not. And if they can't,
[1:18:12] they tell us no. if they can with enough
[1:18:15] generation but they need additional
[1:18:18] infrastructure and we're talking about
[1:18:19] transmission lines, switchyard,
[1:18:22] substation upgrades, they will come back
[1:18:24] to us and say we can serve it but
[1:18:27] there's all of these upgrades that need
[1:18:29] to be done and then we're responsible to
[1:18:31] make uh pay for that. So the the
[1:18:34] infrastructure coming to the site um and
[1:18:36] the cost of that never gets passed on to
[1:18:39] the the rateayer. it it's a direct cost
[1:18:41] and we not only do we have to pay for
[1:18:43] the study and the engineering but but we
[1:18:46] have to put the money up front for those improvements long before we um
[1:18:51] actually dig you know put the shovel in the dirt. So, um, and then our, uh, a
[1:18:56] lot of people think that we go in and
[1:18:57] negotiate a rate. U State of Texas and
[1:19:00] Urkott and A. We're we're governed by a
[1:19:03] tariff. We we don't we don't get to
[1:19:05] negotiate the rate. So, we we pay what
[1:19:07] the tariff uh, and the the laws say we
[1:19:09] pay. Um, that's not the same in every
[1:19:12] state than every municipality. But, but
[1:19:14] here in Texas, we don't uh we don't get
[1:19:16] to pick our um, well, here in St.
[1:19:17] Angelo, we're we're not we're not
[1:19:19] choosing what we pay for power. Well,
[1:19:21] and I think sometimes people don't
[1:19:22] understand that when the grid gets
[1:19:24] tight, there's a hierarchy in who gets
[1:19:26] cut off first and how it works down. The
[1:19:29] last people will be cut off will be a
[1:19:30] hospital and a nursing home, but there's
[1:19:31] a hierarchy and you have the ability
[1:19:33] with generators basically to be an
[1:19:34] island.
[1:19:35] >> Yeah, we do. If there's if if there is
[1:19:37] so our backup generation is we're from a
[1:19:40] business perspective in the way that our commitments to the tenants we have
[1:19:45] to have enough emergency um backup
[1:19:48] generation on site to run roughly 48
[1:19:51] hours on an island. Right? So if there's
[1:19:53] a if there's an emergency or if there's
[1:19:55] a a load a load issue like a an overload
[1:19:59] issue um they can ask us to go to
[1:20:01] generators and and run and operate and we can do that
[1:20:05] >> well and that's what it comes up a lot.
[1:20:07] It's a hot button and people are like
[1:20:08] you're going to take all that. I'm like
[1:20:10] no you you can be self-sufficient. You
[1:20:12] can survive on your own to help us get
[1:20:13] through those periods whether it be cold
[1:20:15] or heat.
[1:20:15] >> No is not going to let us impact you.
[1:20:19] It's it's pretty it's pretty clear in
[1:20:21] the way that they operate. That's not how it works.
[1:20:23] >> I I get it. All right. So, we'll go to
[1:20:24] the next slide.
[1:20:26] Here is I I think this may be our last
[1:20:28] slide. Um
[1:20:30] a lot of people have talked about well
[1:20:32] what are you going to give us for this?
[1:20:34] I mean, you know, what is everybody
[1:20:36] going to get? Um but some form of a
[1:20:39] handout, what makes this go? And then we
[1:20:41] talk about corporate social
[1:20:42] responsibility. These this isn't
[1:20:44] anything we can force on you. every
[1:20:45] company in the world, every nonprofit,
[1:20:48] every business commercial, they make
[1:20:49] their own decisions on what they're
[1:20:51] going to give to the local community. Um
[1:20:54] the the fact that we propose this
[1:20:56] question to me bothered me. I had
[1:20:58] hesitation going, it's not our right to
[1:21:00] demand that. All right. It's up to you
[1:21:03] to say what you can and cannot do. And
[1:21:05] it's so I'll go back to the first time
[1:21:06] we sat on the stage and throw I think
[1:21:08] Chris gave a very good answer at that
[1:21:10] point. You know, give us some examples
[1:21:12] of what you've done before. These are
[1:21:13] not guarantees. These aren't promises,
[1:21:15] but throw out some examples of what you
[1:21:17] do for a community.
[1:21:18] >> Yeah, I I'm going to let Chris uh take
[1:21:20] this one, but I I understand what you're
[1:21:22] saying, and I I think the fact that
[1:21:24] we're wanting to to be annexed into the
[1:21:25] city means we we want to be part of the
[1:21:27] community. So, we understand it's not
[1:21:29] you're right, but that's why we're here,
[1:21:32] right?
[1:21:34] >> So, you know, this question really
[1:21:36] breaks down into two pieces. um you know
[1:21:39] we're the developer of the project and
[1:21:41] as the developer we'll develop the
[1:21:43] buildings and then we're going to lease
[1:21:44] these buildings to you know again a
[1:21:47] Fortune 500 company. So, you know, there
[1:21:50] are certain things that we will do for
[1:21:53] the community and then when we have a
[1:21:55] tenant that comes in, the tenant that
[1:21:57] leases the campus from us, the tenant
[1:22:00] will also get ingrained in the community
[1:22:02] and those tenants always come in and
[1:22:04] will do things for the community above
[1:22:06] and beyond what we do. So, you know, I
[1:22:09] can only speak to, you know, the things
[1:22:11] that we generally do. Now, once the
[1:22:13] tenant comes in, that'll be a completely
[1:22:15] different discussion topic. um you know
[1:22:18] but you will see them get much more
[1:22:20] ingrained in the community. Now you know
[1:22:22] for us every community is different. The
[1:22:25] ask is always a little bit different.
[1:22:27] the needs are always a little bit
[1:22:28] different and we do try to spend time
[1:22:30] and and you know we have been having uh
[1:22:32] conversations with with Mayor Tom you
[1:22:35] know about you know the needs of the
[1:22:37] community but some of the things that
[1:22:38] we've done in different communities are
[1:22:41] their apprenticeship programs their
[1:22:43] sponsoring school programs
[1:22:46] um you know we've sponsored you know
[1:22:48] concert in the park series for you know
[1:22:50] 10 years running uh in other communities
[1:22:53] you know we've you know the fire trucks
[1:22:57] for, you know, Westlake Village and and,
[1:23:00] you know, one of the suburbs of Chicago.
[1:23:01] I mean, there's just different things
[1:23:03] that different communities, you know,
[1:23:05] have needs for. So, I can't put my
[1:23:08] finger on one specific thing that that
[1:23:10] we would say this is what we're going to
[1:23:11] do for the community. I don't want to
[1:23:13] say that we're only going to do one
[1:23:14] thing for the community because that's
[1:23:16] not really how this works. There's a
[1:23:18] partnership that we want to have with
[1:23:19] the community. So, you know, we're open
[1:23:22] to doing different things. is we just
[1:23:24] need to be able to spend more time with
[1:23:25] the mayor and come up with what are the
[1:23:27] things that are going to impact the
[1:23:29] community the most and those are the
[1:23:30] things that we're going to focus on.
[1:23:33] >> I I can I can add a little context too
[1:23:36] from the the tenant side because that I was the tenant for the last
[1:23:41] probably 18 years um and operating you
[1:23:44] know dozens of these sites all over the
[1:23:45] globe. What I can tell you, every one of
[1:23:48] the hyperscalers or big five or fam,
[1:23:51] there's all kinds of names for them. Um,
[1:23:54] we all have a dedicated role on the team
[1:23:57] on a campus like this. That is the
[1:23:59] community manager and the community
[1:24:00] relation team. They're there for you if
[1:24:02] you've got questions about what's going
[1:24:04] on the site. If you if you're not happy
[1:24:06] with something that's going on the site,
[1:24:08] they they have a full-time team that is here to to engage, but they but
[1:24:13] they're also working with you. um the
[1:24:16] needs change and the teams um a lot you
[1:24:19] know we're hoping the majority of the
[1:24:21] people that get hired there are are uh
[1:24:23] you know people that live here and I
[1:24:25] don't think we're going to see commuters
[1:24:26] coming into St. Angelo but um there's a lot of community engagement u
[1:24:32] and and there'll be dedicated people to to do that guaranteed it's too big of
[1:24:37] a too big of an operation and it it's
[1:24:40] too risky to have a negative impact. Um,
[1:24:42] so it's a it's a pretty big high
[1:24:44] priority for the operational teams that
[1:24:46] will that will be on site.
[1:24:48] It's it's always an ask. It's never an
[1:24:52] obligation and you know it's it's it's
[1:24:54] never handout and people do that
[1:24:56] respectfully to help a community grow.
[1:24:58] We've seen it in renewables with you
[1:25:01] know wind turbine companies with solar
[1:25:02] power companies. But we're starting to
[1:25:04] talk about the big five and I just have
[1:25:07] to sit back and think, okay, how cool
[1:25:09] would it be for students of people here
[1:25:13] in the next 5 10 years say they I'll
[1:25:16] throw out, you know, any one of those
[1:25:17] big five. Yeah, I did an internship with
[1:25:19] them. They subsidized this project. ASU
[1:25:22] would be excited to have this on stream.
[1:25:23] Uh GoodFellows very excited about this.
[1:25:26] There's there's things that move forward
[1:25:28] that make it applicable for everybody to
[1:25:31] actually get some benefit out of this.
[1:25:32] So, I I know we've talked about um kind
[1:25:35] of the school boundaries here on the
[1:25:37] profit. Now, the majority of this lies
[1:25:38] in the very best school district and due
[1:25:40] to the Robin Hood law and all of y'all
[1:25:42] are familiar with it. Um all of that
[1:25:44] money is going to go to very best and
[1:25:46] then the state's going to take what's
[1:25:48] you know the excess part of that and go
[1:25:50] on. But I mean, what has amazed me was
[1:25:52] even in these discussions, y'all were
[1:25:54] open to if there's ideas to help make
[1:25:56] this thing blend to help more schools,
[1:25:59] we will certainly engage in those
[1:26:00] discussions.
[1:26:01] >> Yeah. Um, nobody else has come to town
[1:26:03] and ever made that obligation. I mean,
[1:26:05] the fact that you've signed on to do a
[1:26:07] lot of this certainly validates some of
[1:26:09] that. So, we appreciate that.
[1:26:12] Let me see.
[1:26:14] Okay. So, everyone that sent in a
[1:26:18] question, this website went live at 5:30
[1:26:22] today. Every question that was submitted
[1:26:25] got summarized and put up here. All
[1:26:28] right. I I I I can't thank staff and
[1:26:32] council for rolling through and putting
[1:26:35] and and I was like, "So, you've put all
[1:26:36] of this up?" And they're like, "Yes, we
[1:26:38] have." Okay. If you don't find your
[1:26:40] specific question, it was probably
[1:26:42] summarized. All right. We only answered
[1:26:45] those questions that we could give you a
[1:26:47] 100% factual answer. If it was something
[1:26:50] that involved an opinion or was
[1:26:53] subjective, it didn't get answered.
[1:26:54] We're not going to back ourselves into a
[1:26:56] corner like that. We wouldn't back you
[1:26:58] into a corner like that, but we wanted
[1:26:59] to put up everything we could to let you
[1:27:02] see those answers that she submitted.
[1:27:05] I've got a mayor statement on the front
[1:27:06] that talks about my obligation as we go
[1:27:10] forward, council's obligation, and I
[1:27:13] will say this at this point,
[1:27:16] and I don't know how many of y'all got a
[1:27:18] tax letter the past week.
[1:27:21] All right, I think two times of y'all
[1:27:24] have sent me an invoice about that. and
[1:27:25] I'm or an email about that and I say I I
[1:27:28] get it. But I will say this is the door
[1:27:32] and the path moving forward.
[1:27:36] This is a door to make your tax city tax
[1:27:39] rate and county tax rate and school tax
[1:27:42] rate start with a different number and
[1:27:44] that number is lower. The city tax rate
[1:27:47] starts with a seven over time. This
[1:27:50] gives an opportunity uh one of the few
[1:27:53] things we talk about because we don't
[1:27:54] know the full money but there's
[1:27:55] franchise fees and there's property tax
[1:27:58] there's depending if you hit a certain
[1:28:00] benchmark you know there there may be
[1:28:01] sales tax there maybe not but the
[1:28:04] ability of this to help us is the only
[1:28:08] amount of money that I've seen in the
[1:28:10] past nine years and probably for the
[1:28:12] next 10 years in front of us a way to
[1:28:16] uh as we say it's a way to see more
[1:28:19] people come here It's a way for to put a
[1:28:22] splash pad in every park. All right.
[1:28:24] It's a way to I I need two fire
[1:28:28] stations. I don't know if y'all know
[1:28:29] what fire stations cost, but they cost
[1:28:31] $12 million. All right. I need I need 20
[1:28:35] more.
[1:28:37] policemen. All right. We
[1:28:40] are 20 policemen understaffed right now.
[1:28:43] So, the revenue of this helps us
[1:28:45] accomplish those goals. It's not a sales
[1:28:48] pitch. I just want you to understand
[1:28:50] this is a door and it's up to y'all and
[1:28:52] y'all have had lots of input to move
[1:28:54] forward with it if you think that's a
[1:28:57] way to move forward or not. Uh with
[1:28:59] that, we're going to move into public
[1:29:01] comment. I I think uh we deserve a big
[1:29:03] round of applause to Mike and [applause]
[1:29:07] Chris for what you've done.
[1:29:11] Gentlemen,
[1:29:12] thank you very much.
[1:29:15] >> Thank you.
[1:29:16] Mike. Appreciate it.
[1:29:27] You going to take that mic back there?
[1:29:29] Gotcha. At this point, as in fashion
[1:29:32] with all of our city council meetings,
[1:29:34] we're going to move into public comment.
[1:29:36] People wishing to speak at the city
[1:29:38] council meeting must sign in prior to
[1:29:39] 5:30 p.m. Speakers are limited to 3
[1:29:41] minutes. Comments must be relevant to
[1:29:44] the authority of the city. Please state
[1:29:46] your name, address, or single member
[1:29:47] district before beginning your remarks.
[1:29:50] Citizens bringing materials for
[1:29:51] distribution to city council members
[1:29:53] must during the meeting must bring a
[1:29:55] minimum of 12 copies. Responses from
[1:29:57] officials will not be provided during
[1:29:59] this portion of the meeting. So,
[1:30:01] Heather, where are you? Heather, how
[1:30:05] many just let me start with this. How
[1:30:07] many public comments do we have signed
[1:30:08] up?
[1:30:09] >> 30.
[1:30:10] >> All right. So, we have 30 comments. Just
[1:30:12] so you know, they're allowed up to 3
[1:30:14] minutes each. I will tell you, just
[1:30:17] because you signed up for it doesn't
[1:30:18] mean you have to provide it. And if your
[1:30:21] questions were answered here tonight, I
[1:30:24] would say that may help you. We'll be
[1:30:26] here to the very end. Us and council
[1:30:28] will. Other people have time
[1:30:30] obligations, but with that, Heather,
[1:30:32] call your first public comment.
[1:30:34] >> Tanya Atkins.
[1:30:36] >> Tanya, where's the timer going to be?
[1:30:38] Heather,
[1:30:40] >> you've got the timer.
[1:30:43] I'm not going to sit up here. I'm going
[1:30:44] to go sit over here at the table.
[1:30:46] >> But you are given that and you're on
[1:30:47] film.
[1:30:48] >> See this?
[1:30:49] >> Yes.
[1:30:52] » Um, good evening, mayor, council man
[1:30:54] members, and skybox representatives. My
[1:30:57] name is Tanya Atkins. I'm a resident of
[1:30:58] San Angelo District 2, owner of a Texas
[1:31:01] licensed private security company. I got
[1:31:03] your six. As reported by the St. Angelo
[1:31:06] Standard Times in the city's public
[1:31:07] announcement for tonight's meeting. As we saw, residents have submitted
[1:31:11] numerous questions in advance, including
[1:31:13] the direct question, will construction
[1:31:15] jobs be filled with local community
[1:31:17] companies or out of town workers? This
[1:31:20] question deserves serious attention.
[1:31:21] When work is awarded to local San Angelo
[1:31:23] contractors and service providers, every
[1:31:25] dollar spent typically generates about$
[1:31:27] 1.8 to$2.2 in total economic activity.
[1:31:31] on a 16 proposed $16 billion project
[1:31:34] like the SATA center with construction
[1:31:36] expected to span several years. That
[1:31:37] would mean roughly 29 to $35 billion in
[1:31:41] total local economic output for St.
[1:31:43] Angelo over the construction period,
[1:31:45] including wages for the workers
[1:31:46] contracts with local suppliers and
[1:31:49] spending throughout our own community.
[1:31:51] St. Angela has been has had seen major
[1:31:54] projects in recent years that no public
[1:31:55] records have shown the exact split
[1:31:57] between local and outside contractor
[1:31:59] spending. For example, the recent s uh
[1:32:01] Shannon Medical Center West Texas West
[1:32:04] Tower expansion used an outside prime
[1:32:06] contractor from Alabama. The $41.6
[1:32:09] million Coliseum renovation bond is that
[1:32:11] our taxpayers is paying for is also
[1:32:13] likely to send a large portion of those
[1:32:15] dollars out of town. This data center
[1:32:18] gives us the opportunity to actually
[1:32:19] change that pattern and keep far more of
[1:32:22] the economic benefit here when a
[1:32:24] substantial portion of the work instead
[1:32:26] goes to national regional firms
[1:32:29] headquartered outside of the Koncho
[1:32:30] Valley such as Allied Universal, other
[1:32:32] companies such based in uh Kurville and
[1:32:35] Sweetwater. Economic leakage can reduce
[1:32:38] uh can reduce that benefit by 30 to 50%
[1:32:40] or more. that could cost San Angela
[1:32:42] billions of dollars in lost wages, local
[1:32:44] businesses, revenue, and tax collections
[1:32:46] that never stay here. Council members,
[1:32:49] this is our community. Why Why would we
[1:32:51] not do everything possible to keep all
[1:32:53] of that money, the billions of dollars
[1:32:55] circulating here, creating jobs and
[1:32:57] opportunities for our town, our
[1:32:58] families, our neighbors, instead of
[1:33:00] sending them out of town? Security
[1:33:02] services offer a clear practical
[1:33:04] opportunity. Large data centers often
[1:33:06] default to national providers. Yet local
[1:33:08] qualified local firms like mine are
[1:33:11] fully capable of delivering professional
[1:33:13] 24-hour sight security, access control,
[1:33:15] traffic management, work zones in
[1:33:17] coordination with offduty peace officers
[1:33:19] with faster response, lower trash,
[1:33:21] travel costs, and spending that remains
[1:33:23] right here in St. Angelo. Council
[1:33:25] members, I respectfully ask that you and
[1:33:27] the project team give meaningful
[1:33:29] preference and consideration to all
[1:33:31] qualified local business and San Angelo
[1:33:34] businesses and contractors, not just for
[1:33:36] security, but for any portion of work
[1:33:38] that can be effectively performed from
[1:33:40] within our community. This single
[1:33:43] decision could help ensure that San
[1:33:44] Angel receives the greatest possible
[1:33:46] economic return from this project and
[1:33:48] keep as many dollars as possible
[1:33:50] circulating right here among among our
[1:33:52] own residents and businesses. Thank you
[1:33:54] for your time.
[1:33:56] [applause]
[1:34:01] » Heather second.
[1:34:02] >> Steven Markx.
[1:34:08] Steven Marx.
[1:34:15] Let's go to the next one. Heather
[1:34:20] » Katherine Bayer.
[1:34:22] Katherine Bayer.
[1:34:28] >> Go to the next one.
[1:34:30] >> Adam Jonkey.
[1:34:34] » Adam.
[1:34:37] » Okay,
[1:34:38] >> the next one.
[1:34:39] >> Shannon Carpenter.
[1:34:43] » Shannon.
[1:34:46] >> Okay,
[1:34:47] >> go the next one. Heather
[1:34:48] >> Libby Grapha.
[1:34:51] >> Libbyy's here. Sorry.
[1:34:55] [applause]
[1:34:59] » Hello. My name is Libby Graa. I am a St.
[1:35:02] Angelo resident. I'm sorry. I don't know
[1:35:04] the number of my district,
[1:35:07] >> but I live in I'm in five. Okay, I'm in
[1:35:09] five. There we go. I just know who my
[1:35:11] councilman is. Um, you answered most of
[1:35:14] my questions. I appreciate that. And I
[1:35:18] will look at the website for a little
[1:35:21] more clarity of I I think my answers
[1:35:24] will be there. But the one question I do
[1:35:27] have is who is going to receive all the
[1:35:29] data services?
[1:35:32] I well St. Angelo, you're bringing in
[1:35:34] someone in the big five. Who's going to
[1:35:37] receive all of that service? Um so that
[1:35:41] is that's a question. Um, I am going to
[1:35:44] look for the total amount of gallons you
[1:35:46] plan to use. You said it's going to take
[1:35:48] a 12 months, I believe I understood, to
[1:35:51] fill the quantity you need. Um, but I
[1:35:56] didn't get a number. And I'm sure you
[1:35:59] know what that is. You just didn't tell
[1:36:01] us that. Um, you did say our utilities
[1:36:05] will not rise with the use you're going
[1:36:09] to be using our water and our
[1:36:11] electricity. I think I understood that.
[1:36:14] Um, that's important to me. Um, I'm glad
[1:36:18] you're here explaining this. I hope more
[1:36:21] St. Angelo residents will come. They'll
[1:36:25] hopefully if this is going to be online
[1:36:27] or on television, they'll view it and
[1:36:30] become informed. [clears throat] Thank
[1:36:32] you for your time,
[1:36:35] [applause]
[1:36:40] Heather Wy.
[1:36:44] » [applause]
[1:36:55] » Good evening. My name is Heather Wy. I'm
[1:36:58] a resident of District 3. On November
[1:37:00] 19th, 1863, Abraham Lincoln said in his
[1:37:03] favorite speech, the Gettysburg Address,
[1:37:05] that this nation was a government of the
[1:37:07] people, by the people, and for the
[1:37:08] people. Isn't it amazing that before St.
[1:37:11] Angelo even existed, a man would speak a
[1:37:13] phrase from one of the most historically
[1:37:15] significant speeches in American
[1:37:16] history. And it applies even to you, our
[1:37:20] elected leaders. You are chosen leaders
[1:37:22] elected by the people and for the
[1:37:24] people. And weirdly, there's nothing in
[1:37:25] there about rep representing
[1:37:27] corporations or data centers. The choice
[1:37:29] before you is one of humanity, a choice
[1:37:31] for the people. Set aside your
[1:37:33] justifications about what this might do
[1:37:35] for the city budget or property taxes
[1:37:37] and consider instead the ways your
[1:37:39] people have been trying to communicate
[1:37:40] with you through Facebook posts, the
[1:37:42] Next Door app, yard signs, bumper
[1:37:44] stickers, petitions, and emails. Even if
[1:37:47] they say the same thing, our public
[1:37:49] comments, our presence, your people are
[1:37:52] speaking in many different ways. The
[1:37:54] collective voice is loud. They are
[1:37:55] telling you at a minimum they want a
[1:37:57] moratorum for a full length of time
[1:37:59] allowed by the state. and truly they
[1:38:01] want no data center at all. Can you hear
[1:38:04] the people over the noise pollution of
[1:38:05] the data centers you're trying to bring
[1:38:07] into our home? Thank you.
[1:38:15] [applause]
[1:38:24] Alli Deo.
[1:38:28] [applause]
[1:38:39] » Do I have to tell you my address because
[1:38:41] I'm
[1:38:42] >> I'm not in a county specific district.
[1:38:45] county resident.
[1:38:46] >> Yeah, county resident. [snorts] And um
[1:38:49] I'm just here to reiterate this um
[1:38:52] however you want to spin it, we do not
[1:38:54] have the water resources for hypers
[1:38:56] scale data centers in St. Angelo.
[1:38:59] And the people of Texas don't want the
[1:39:02] 765 KV power lines all over the state
[1:39:05] that are needed to power them.
[1:39:08] Those [applause]
[1:39:10] lines will stand taller than the Statue
[1:39:12] of Liberty. And that contains a powerful
[1:39:15] symbology, power over liberty. I think I
[1:39:19] speak for the majority of the people in
[1:39:21] this room when I say we want this city
[1:39:23] council to engage in projects that
[1:39:26] empower the people and help make life
[1:39:30] more livable, not schemes that virtually
[1:39:33] enslave us and make the costs of living
[1:39:36] even more unbearable than they already
[1:39:38] are. While the taxpayers and rateayers
[1:39:40] subsidize billionaires and corporations,
[1:39:43] we want you to actually take care of the
[1:39:45] watershed and our resources.
[1:39:48] >> [snorts]
[1:39:48] >> and not campaign to sell us projects
[1:39:51] that will threaten those resources and
[1:39:53] sacrifice everything that we most value
[1:39:55] here. If [snorts] you really want to
[1:39:58] create a legacy, stop trying to sell
[1:40:00] this right now. Start representing the
[1:40:03] people and listen to their concerns and
[1:40:05] their knowledge, not with an ear to sway
[1:40:08] them or prove them wrong, but actually
[1:40:10] consider that they might have something
[1:40:11] valid to say that you may have
[1:40:13] overlooked. One thing you're overlooking
[1:40:15] is the fact that the city owns thousands
[1:40:18] of acres of land outside the city limits
[1:40:20] with miles of frontage on the Concho
[1:40:23] River. And you've never once thought to
[1:40:26] do one good thing in the interest of
[1:40:28] protecting this land as a valuable
[1:40:30] natural resource in the recharge and
[1:40:33] repairarian zone of our primary water
[1:40:35] supply. St. Angelo's city council has
[1:40:39] entertained plans for giant private
[1:40:41] prison complexes, waste gasification
[1:40:44] plants where we could burn our trash and
[1:40:46] invite other communities to come burn
[1:40:47] their trash, too.
[1:40:50] The people of St. Angelo managed to get
[1:40:53] the council to come to those senses on
[1:40:55] those two projects, and now we're facing
[1:40:57] data centers. Can we envision something
[1:41:00] that would actually protect our water
[1:41:02] supply with all of these lands that the
[1:41:05] city owns? Other Texas cities have
[1:41:08] invested hundreds of millions of dollars
[1:41:10] raised by either bonds or passed by the
[1:41:12] people or voterapproved 1/8 cent sales
[1:41:15] tax to protect hundreds of thousands of
[1:41:18] acres of land in their watersheds.
[1:41:22] This city already owns thousands of
[1:41:24] acres of land in our watershed. It's
[1:41:27] time you start focusing on protecting
[1:41:29] that and not just exploiting it. And
[1:41:32] until you start rehabilitating that
[1:41:34] land, you do not demonstrate any
[1:41:39] semblance of having
[1:41:42] stewardship and we can't trust you.
[1:41:45] >> Please wrap up your comments.
[1:41:46] >> Okay. Thank you.
[1:41:49] [applause]
[1:41:55] » [applause]
[1:41:58] » Jaton Geese.
[1:42:06] [applause]
[1:42:07] Hi, Jaton Gizy, District 5. Um, first I
[1:42:12] didn't I saw that we weren't going to do
[1:42:14] a cryp crypto mining, but it wasn't
[1:42:16] defined if we would be AI processing
[1:42:18] versus just data storage. I understand
[1:42:21] the resources are demands are different
[1:42:23] on that. Um first, why do we want these
[1:42:27] data centers here? Do we have plenty of
[1:42:29] resources here? No, not that.
[1:42:33] Uh what guarantees do we have that their
[1:42:36] water and electric bills will not
[1:42:38] increase like we've seen all across the
[1:42:39] nation? Will this be how is this going
[1:42:42] to be the exception to the rule?
[1:42:46] Is it going to bring a significant
[1:42:48] number of permanent jobs? I don't know
[1:42:51] if it's worth the resources that we have
[1:42:54] that we're exchanging for those. Are we
[1:42:56] equipped to handle the pollution?
[1:42:58] There's no wastewater treatment around
[1:42:59] to treat the chemicals. And I still
[1:43:02] haven't seen any kind of study on the
[1:43:03] fine particulate matter that would be
[1:43:05] produced. Do we have adequate housing or
[1:43:07] even a police force that's available? We
[1:43:09] know the answer to that one, too. There
[1:43:11] are so many unknowns when it comes to
[1:43:13] long-term health risk and resource risk.
[1:43:16] It has been decided, it hasn't even been
[1:43:18] decided on the federal level who would
[1:43:20] be legally liable if there is harm
[1:43:22] caused by data centers, construction of
[1:43:24] or long-term environmental effects. I'm
[1:43:26] afraid that even if it gets decided,
[1:43:29] where will there actually be a company
[1:43:31] to be held liable between all the LLC's
[1:43:33] and foreignowned companies? I can't
[1:43:35] imagine tracking any of them down if
[1:43:38] there's a pollution leak or when it
[1:43:39] comes out how harmful these things are
[1:43:40] to humans and animals. All of those are
[1:43:43] good reasons not to build a data center,
[1:43:45] but I feel like it goes so much deeper.
[1:43:47] This is the equivalent of building our
[1:43:48] own prison cells, monitoring, flock
[1:43:51] cameras, social score, restrictive
[1:43:53] travel. Please don't pretend that that's
[1:43:56] not where this is leading. And I'm
[1:43:57] pretty sure no one wants that. I know
[1:44:00] investments have been made, but the city
[1:44:02] council is supposed to represent its
[1:44:04] constituents, not themselves, and not
[1:44:07] some company from out of town. Why is
[1:44:09] the city council making decisions based
[1:44:10] on opinions for why is it not making on
[1:44:14] not making decisions voiced here today
[1:44:17] and over the months? We vote on school
[1:44:21] bonds because it it's an expense to us.
[1:44:24] this is going to be an expense to us
[1:44:26] whether it's through illatilities
[1:44:29] or other um if this is good for us try
[1:44:34] proving it to us and putting it to a
[1:44:35] vote for the public. Thank you,
[1:44:39] [applause]
[1:44:47] » Steve Elenius.
[1:44:51] [applause]
[1:44:55] Steve Elenius, president CEO of the San
[1:44:57] Angela Chamber of Commerce, 418 West
[1:44:59] Avenue B. When we talk about the data
[1:45:02] centers, one of the most immediate and
[1:45:04] tangible impacts that it can have is on
[1:45:06] our hotel occupancy tax rate or the hot
[1:45:08] tax revenue. During construction phase,
[1:45:11] which will last anywhere between 36 and
[1:45:13] 60 months, you're going to bring
[1:45:14] hundreds of workers to this community,
[1:45:17] contractors, and specialized crews that
[1:45:19] will be staying in our hotels and
[1:45:22] pumping money into our local economy.
[1:45:25] But it doesn't stop during the
[1:45:27] construction phase. Once the data center
[1:45:29] is built, there'll be technicians, uh,
[1:45:32] corporate visitors, and folks coming to
[1:45:34] this community because of the data
[1:45:36] center. Now, here's where it becomes
[1:45:38] transformational. The increased hotel
[1:45:41] tax revenue coming in the community is
[1:45:43] going to allow us to have the resources
[1:45:45] to promote this community more, to bring
[1:45:48] more attractions and more events to St.
[1:45:50] Angelo. The visitors that stay overnight
[1:45:53] means more, more revenue, and more
[1:45:55] visibility for our community. And then
[1:45:58] finally over the 3 to five year window
[1:46:01] or period of time with a steady increase
[1:46:04] in hotel occupancy, it's going to create
[1:46:07] an opportunity for more hotel
[1:46:09] development in our community, thus
[1:46:11] increasing more revenue for the
[1:46:12] community and giving us more resources
[1:46:15] to market the community. So I'm here to
[1:46:17] say I'm in support of it. I appreciate
[1:46:19] mayor and city councils for bringing
[1:46:21] this together and giving us a chance to
[1:46:23] hear uh present the thoughts and what's
[1:46:25] involved with it. and I think you're
[1:46:27] doing an outstanding job. Thank you,
[1:46:29] [applause]
[1:46:36] » Gabe Msaka.
[1:46:47] » Good evening, mayor, council, uh,
[1:46:49] citizens of St. Angelo. My name is Gabe
[1:46:52] Manaka and I live in single member
[1:46:55] district 6. I want to begin by
[1:46:58] acknowledging that citizens who come
[1:47:00] here with concerns deserve to be heard.
[1:47:03] I said this back in January during the I
[1:47:05] think it was the January 13th meeting
[1:47:08] and I believe all of your voices have
[1:47:10] been heard many times. Voices in support
[1:47:13] of the of this opportunity deserve to be
[1:47:15] heard as well.
[1:47:17] And I believe that
[1:47:20] we may just be the silent majority,
[1:47:22] those of us who are in favor of this
[1:47:24] data center. And that is why I have
[1:47:26] returned tonight in support of data
[1:47:28] center development in St. Angelo.
[1:47:32] I believe it is important that we
[1:47:34] separate
[1:47:36] legitimate questions
[1:47:38] from broad assumptions. Not every
[1:47:41] proposal, not every company and not
[1:47:44] every project belongs in the same
[1:47:46] category because of one meeting, one
[1:47:50] rumor or one difficult interaction.
[1:47:54] That is exactly why due diligence
[1:47:56] exists.
[1:47:58] I believe
[1:48:00] that due diligence is already occurring
[1:48:04] with the Skybox Box project. I've seen
[1:48:07] it happen. I've se I've seen it being
[1:48:08] talked about and it's the the same facts
[1:48:12] that I heard a year ago are being
[1:48:15] repeated and they're being very
[1:48:16] consistent from the authorities who are
[1:48:19] doing and put this together both the
[1:48:21] city as well as Skybox.
[1:48:24] There are many people involved in
[1:48:26] getting this right which includes the
[1:48:29] council of city staff, utilities,
[1:48:31] engineers, community stakeholders, us
[1:48:34] citizens. Collectively, our job is to
[1:48:36] examine the facts. Infrastructure,
[1:48:39] water, power, economic value, and
[1:48:41] whether project a project fits in Angelo
[1:48:44] long term. That process should be
[1:48:46] careful and transparent. And I believe
[1:48:48] it is, and I believe that you are being
[1:48:50] transparent. We should also recognize
[1:48:53] the opportunity before us. It's been
[1:48:55] said several times this evening. A major
[1:48:58] development project can create years of
[1:49:01] construction work for local trades,
[1:49:03] electric construction, different trades,
[1:49:07] contractors, suppliers, and small
[1:49:09] businesses. Beyond construction,
[1:49:12] long-term operations can bring
[1:49:14] technology or technical jobs,
[1:49:16] high-paying jobs, facility management
[1:49:19] roles, security maintenance, and
[1:49:21] additional economic activity that
[1:49:23] benefit our community long term. I have
[1:49:26] heard questions about water, noise, and
[1:49:29] infrastructure tonight and months
[1:49:31] leading up to today.
[1:49:34] Those are all fair questions, but when
[1:49:36] answers are provided through study
[1:49:39] agreements and oversight and through
[1:49:43] events like this, they should be taken
[1:49:45] seriously and not misconstrued or
[1:49:48] reported differently in the community or
[1:49:50] on social media.
[1:49:52] Thank you.
[1:49:54] >> [applause]
[1:49:59] » Richard Summers.
[1:50:03] [applause]
[1:50:18] Got it.
[1:50:21] Okay.
[1:50:26] I was kind of stunned to discover that
[1:50:28] Skybox uh let a lease on this land
[1:50:31] instead of going ahead and purchasing
[1:50:33] it, particularly since they've had an
[1:50:36] option on the land since just before the
[1:50:38] mayor was elected.
[1:50:40] Um, that shows me something that there's
[1:50:44] a little uncertainty.
[1:50:48] In fact, St. Angelo is entering a period
[1:50:50] of hyperscale development with high
[1:50:52] uncertainty, increasing friction, as we
[1:50:56] can tell, and growing public scrutiny
[1:50:59] seated by the Skybotch Progs Act and
[1:51:02] those to follow. That's not speculation.
[1:51:05] It's happening right now.
[1:51:08] It's going to cause things that we're
[1:51:10] not prepared to deal with. One of the
[1:51:13] biggest things in my mind beyond the
[1:51:16] water, beyond our energy is we don't
[1:51:19] have the housing even for 6 to 700 extra
[1:51:22] people. We have housing problems right
[1:51:26] now with the citizens that are living
[1:51:28] here.
[1:51:29] They need the intention, not a glamorous
[1:51:32] project.
[1:51:35] For example, people dealing with housing
[1:51:36] instability for which this council has
[1:51:39] already been imminently warned regarding
[1:51:42] impacts of the data center come in
[1:51:45] that housing arriving eventually doesn't
[1:51:48] float.
[1:51:50] Eventually doesn't house somebody
[1:51:53] tonight.
[1:51:55] It doesn't house somebody tonight nor a
[1:51:58] year from tonight.
[1:52:01] Eventually doesn't work.
[1:52:05] for a lot of reasons and I'm not going
[1:52:07] to stand up here and list them all
[1:52:08] because you'll be able to read about
[1:52:10] them all on public record. [snorts]
[1:52:13] I am submitting tonight a formal ethics
[1:52:16] complaint addressing issues of Kosa data
[1:52:20] center transparency,
[1:52:22] communication control and public access
[1:52:26] involving most of the upper level staff
[1:52:29] and elected officials of this city. That
[1:52:32] complaint stems from what uncertainty
[1:52:35] has already occurred with the data
[1:52:37] center. I proposed a set of ordinances
[1:52:40] earlier called the civic ordinances.
[1:52:43] These were designed to keep that from
[1:52:45] happening. I've received no response on
[1:52:48] it, but that's all right.
[1:52:50] By the way, because the city attorney
[1:52:52] has referenced in these ethics
[1:52:53] complaints, I've also requested an
[1:52:55] independent review of them when they are
[1:52:58] complete. Going to do that now.
[1:53:04] I just want to remind you folks, council
[1:53:07] and mayor, when your constituents
[1:53:10] believe they're not being fully informed
[1:53:12] and not being fairly heard, they will
[1:53:15] not acquies.
[1:53:20] They will act.
[1:53:23] Thank you.
[1:53:25] [cheering]
[1:53:32] » [applause]
[1:53:36] » Wade wall.
[1:53:41] [applause]
[1:53:50] » Hi, I'm Wade Wall. I've been a resident
[1:53:52] of this city for nearly a decade at this
[1:53:56] point.
[1:53:57] There's a couple of things I would like
[1:53:58] to address that were glossed over in the
[1:54:01] uh first part of the presentation. Um
[1:54:05] sorry, let me get my notes here.
[1:54:10] Phyto remediation.
[1:54:13] They uh they talked about that as a
[1:54:15] possible way to offset the heavy metal
[1:54:19] um heavy metals that will be leeching
[1:54:21] into the ground. Phyto remediation has
[1:54:23] never been used on scale.
[1:54:26] at all.
[1:54:28] So, you just want to use some untested
[1:54:31] technology on us uh to um to to offset
[1:54:35] the ec um the ecological
[1:54:40] uh sorry, I'm not good at public
[1:54:41] speaking. Uh the ecological uh
[1:54:44] ramifications of this data center. So,
[1:54:47] without any sort of long-term plan
[1:54:50] studies on that, you just want to use
[1:54:52] that. That's fine. Okay. I'm going to
[1:54:54] bounce around to something else. You
[1:54:56] said the tenant will be um you don't
[1:54:59] have the exact name of who the tenant is
[1:55:02] going to be. So, it could be Palunteer.
[1:55:04] It could be, you know, any number of one
[1:55:06] of these AI companies. Palanteer
[1:55:08] recently made a manifesto that they
[1:55:11] posted on Twitter talking about their what they want to use their um
[1:55:16] resources for for the future
[1:55:19] including AIdriven
[1:55:22] weapons systems
[1:55:24] that this data center could potentially
[1:55:26] be used for. I would like to see you a
[1:55:31] um
[1:55:33] sorry I'm I'm a little frustrated right
[1:55:35] now at the moment. Um, I would like to
[1:55:38] see possibly
[1:55:39] legislation or um statutes that would
[1:55:43] disbar them from using this for that
[1:55:45] because I would not like our tax dollars
[1:55:47] being used for killing people. I think a
[1:55:52] lot of people would like to believe
[1:55:53] that. Um, sorry, let me get my notes
[1:55:56] again.
[1:55:58] not good at public speaking, so
[1:56:00] sorry. Um, another thing, uh, closed
[1:56:05] loop loop systems are not reliable at
[1:56:08] this point. There have been multiple,
[1:56:11] um, studies being shown and I I don't
[1:56:14] have them right here. Again, phones at
[1:56:15] 1%. So, um, that that show that they
[1:56:19] have not been fully uh, all the kinks
[1:56:22] have been worked out of that system yet.
[1:56:24] Um, also the ex um the wastewater what
[1:56:29] are the consequences for violating the
[1:56:31] wastewater statutes? If it's a fine,
[1:56:33] then that's just a fee. You know, it's not anything that will uh
[1:56:40] it's not anything that will be uh
[1:56:43] something that can
[1:56:45] Sorry again, not good at public
[1:56:46] speaking. Um it's just I don't know why
[1:56:50] we're doing this. Why are we doing this?
[1:56:53] So,
[1:56:59] [applause]
[1:57:03] Elizabeth Morales.
[1:57:08] [applause]
[1:57:20] Hello, my name is Elizabeth Morales. I
[1:57:22] live in district 4. I have been a
[1:57:24] resident here for over 30 years. Um I'm
[1:57:28] also not very good at public speaking,
[1:57:29] but I am very frustrated with especially
[1:57:32] how this meeting has been run this
[1:57:33] evening. Um
[1:57:36] essentially it was a sales pitch, all of
[1:57:38] it. And snake oil lies over and over
[1:57:42] again. Anybody with the internet knows
[1:57:45] what the numbers are. Um,
[1:57:49] with this I do also want to say that uh
[1:57:52] with that 200 foot buffer that
[1:57:54] everybody's so proud and in awe of these
[1:57:57] centers radiate
[1:58:00] up to 16 degrees of increased
[1:58:04] temperatures up to six miles even more
[1:58:07] depending on how the weather tends to be
[1:58:08] that day.
[1:58:12] Paul and its surrounding areas within
[1:58:14] Harriet community is going to be up to
[1:58:18] 130 degrees what in the summertime most
[1:58:20] of the year and we're just supposed to
[1:58:22] deal with that? I don't think so. I'm
[1:58:25] sorry. Um also with the higher cost of
[1:58:28] living and
[1:58:30] taxes going up, everything going up,
[1:58:32] utilities going up because they will.
[1:58:36] The higher cost of living is going to
[1:58:37] bring more homelessness to all of us,
[1:58:40] not just those who are kind of on the
[1:58:42] fence now. A lot of us are going to be
[1:58:44] dealing with bills, unpaid bills,
[1:58:48] and worse. I mean, there's going to be a
[1:58:51] lot more people out on the streets, and
[1:58:52] when that happens, there's a lot more
[1:58:54] crime. And our mayor has already stated
[1:58:57] that the police force is
[1:59:01] at a lack right now. And so I mean I
[1:59:04] don't understand how this could be even
[1:59:06] brought up for consideration. This is a
[1:59:08] horrible idea. This city, this area of
[1:59:11] Texas cannot support this type of data
[1:59:14] center. This is not just a data center.
[1:59:15] It's a mega data center. And it's not
[1:59:18] just one building. It's going to be
[1:59:19] eight, 12, 14 once that one building
[1:59:22] first comes. Plenty more are already
[1:59:24] planned behind it.
[1:59:27] We already know of three coming in our
[1:59:28] area that we're actively fighting right
[1:59:30] now. We're going to be surrounded with
[1:59:32] data centers, each one of them bringing
[1:59:35] up to 16 degrees of increased
[1:59:37] temperatures.
[1:59:40] I mean, it just I can't wrap my brain
[1:59:42] around it.
[1:59:45] And I mean, that's all I've got. Thank
[1:59:49] you,
[1:59:57] [applause]
[1:59:59] Antonio Martinez.
[2:00:07] [applause]
[2:00:16] Uh, good evening, council. I'm Antonio
[2:00:18] Martinez, a resident of single member
[2:00:20] district 4. Um, you've heard me speak a
[2:00:23] few times. Uh, today I am also
[2:00:25] unscripted. I'm just going to ask some
[2:00:28] things that are should be obvious and
[2:00:31] it's just purely a rhetorical question,
[2:00:33] but um, how can we guarantee the ethics
[2:00:35] of what data would be stored um, if this
[2:00:38] is just leased out to another company?
[2:00:40] because that's another shell of uh
[2:00:43] deniability or accountability removed
[2:00:46] from where it should be. So I mean you
[2:00:50] have Grock owned by Elon Musk submitting
[2:00:54] CSAM child sexual abuse material and uh
[2:00:57] being shared on his website being
[2:00:59] created by AI. We have women with deep
[2:01:02] fakes being circulated. We don't know
[2:01:05] where these where this data is stored.
[2:01:07] We can't guarantee that. That's one
[2:01:09] concern. So, excuse me. [clears throat]
[2:01:13] And another concern is that we we talk
[2:01:15] about bringing in people from outside to
[2:01:17] work construction jobs and then they
[2:01:19] fill up our hotels and it brings in all
[2:01:21] this revenue, but it also brings in
[2:01:23] profit and that profit is not
[2:01:24] transferred to working people that have
[2:01:26] to supply the the the services to these
[2:01:30] workers, hotel workers, food service
[2:01:32] workers. These people are out working
[2:01:34] right now in McDonald's, Walmart, they
[2:01:36] can't be here. All of us here have the
[2:01:38] ability to be here. So this isn't the end all beall of who has something
[2:01:42] to say. Those people are also going to
[2:01:44] suffer from this too. And and all that
[2:01:46] money coming in, they don't see the
[2:01:48] benefits of that. They have to stay and work the same job that they have and hope that they get a magnanimous $1
[2:01:56] raise after a year, which is 40 bucks a
[2:01:58] week. Wow. You know, so I think there's
[2:02:01] a lot of questions that need to be
[2:02:03] really considered
[2:02:05] such as that. uh these benefits may
[2:02:08] benefit some people that can reinvest
[2:02:10] that money into the community, but what
[2:02:12] does that matter if none of us can spend
[2:02:14] the money to live in the community? It's
[2:02:15] ridiculous. Um
[2:02:19] I think that if we continue in this
[2:02:22] fashion where we just gaslight most of
[2:02:24] the public into saying that this is good
[2:02:26] for us without being completely
[2:02:28] transparent through vetted questions and
[2:02:30] whatnot, it it it it just erodess trust.
[2:02:33] It's it's it's not acceptable to me. Um,
[2:02:36] I wish I had more prepared data sets and
[2:02:39] everything else, but um, normal people
[2:02:41] are expected to become experts in the
[2:02:43] face of corporations that have these
[2:02:45] people to provide them talking points
[2:02:47] because we're told that we're being
[2:02:48] presented with facts today, but those
[2:02:50] are talking points. These are these are
[2:02:52] practiced, rehearsed responses. So, we still don't have the trust that that
[2:02:57] this is going to go the way that we're
[2:02:59] being told. And even if it does, it
[2:03:01] still isn't provably beneficial to the
[2:03:04] majority of us, the 100,000 some odd
[2:03:06] people that live in the area. Uh, that's
[2:03:08] all I have.
[2:03:11] [applause]
[2:03:17] Rebecca Ridge.
[2:03:22] » Rebecca Ridge.
[2:03:27] » [applause]
[2:03:34] » Hi, I'm Rebecca Ridge and I live in
[2:03:36] district 5. Um, [sighs and gasps]
[2:03:40] good evening city council members.
[2:03:43] I was born and raised here as was my
[2:03:45] mother. My grandfather was the mayor in
[2:03:47] the 50s. He brought water to St. Angelo.
[2:03:52] He was responsible for building OC
[2:03:55] Fiser. It used to be called the Bryant
[2:03:57] Reservoir.
[2:03:59] >> I'm sorry. Thanks.
[2:04:02] Okay. Water is life.
[2:04:06] Without it, nothing else matters.
[2:04:09] Data centers threaten that life. They
[2:04:12] consume enormous amounts of water and
[2:04:14] energy. If our water is gone or
[2:04:17] contaminated, no project, no revenue can
[2:04:20] save us.
[2:04:22] We cannot trade our future for
[2:04:24] short-term gains. Do not be blinded by
[2:04:27] crazy promises of money. State tax
[2:04:30] abatements for these centers shift the
[2:04:32] burden to us. The promised revenue means
[2:04:35] nothing if water is gone or our quality
[2:04:38] of life is negatively impacted. City
[2:04:41] services cannot help a community without
[2:04:44] water. Clean water comes first, always.
[2:04:49] Just yesterday, there was a fatality in
[2:04:51] Abalene from one of the data center
[2:04:53] construction gravel trucks.
[2:04:56] And another example, Abalene hired 1,200
[2:04:59] workers. Guess how many were local? 34.
[2:05:04] St. Angelo deserves smarter solutions.
[2:05:08] We have bright, creative people. We need
[2:05:10] to come together to find solutions to
[2:05:13] help the city with funding needs while
[2:05:15] protecting our resources.
[2:05:18] for the ordinance. The proposed setbacks
[2:05:20] are too small. 200 feet in residential
[2:05:23] areas is
[2:05:25] not enough. It's tight. 50 feet in the
[2:05:28] county is worse. Our neighborhoods will
[2:05:30] bear the risk. Worst case, when things
[2:05:33] go south, owners behind shell
[2:05:36] corporations will walk away and leave us
[2:05:38] with no recompense, no recompense via
[2:05:42] bankruptcies. Pause any action on data
[2:05:45] centers for a year. Do not rush us. Let
[2:05:48] us find options. Make this ordinance
[2:05:50] stronger. Protect our water. Protect our
[2:05:53] future. Mr. Mayor, please remember your
[2:05:57] job is to represent the people, not the
[2:06:00] data centers. City
[2:06:05] [applause]
[2:06:09] city council members should not sign
[2:06:11] non-disclosure agreements. You represent
[2:06:15] us.
[2:06:17] >> [applause]
[2:06:18] >> Stop selling our city down the river. I
[2:06:21] s aside I sincerely believe this is
[2:06:24] going to be used for AI data warfare. I
[2:06:27] mean for for warfare period. That's the
[2:06:30] popular topic now. That's why there's
[2:06:32] such a press.
[2:06:35] I think it's
[2:06:37] done. Thanks.
[2:06:41] [applause]
[2:06:48] Glenda Bacon.
[2:06:52] [applause]
[2:07:03] I'm Glenda Bacon and I live out in the
[2:07:05] county. I don't live in the city. Uh but
[2:07:08] I did attend the Dove Creek and uh my
[2:07:11] heart is for the county because I have
[2:07:14] people out there with no water having it
[2:07:17] hauled in and everything like that.
[2:07:19] Water's always been a problem, not just
[2:07:22] in the county, but in the S St. Angelo
[2:07:24] area. You see that because you're only
[2:07:27] limited to two two days to water and and
[2:07:31] everything. So, it's always been a
[2:07:33] concern. It's a concern. I grew up in
[2:07:35] Andrews, Texas, West Texas. I think
[2:07:38] Andrews could do it because they have a
[2:07:40] lot of water or they used to have a lot
[2:07:43] of water. But I want to thank Skybox.
[2:07:47] Thank you for your presentation because
[2:07:49] the presentation out at Dove Creek the
[2:07:52] other night, they did not know their
[2:07:54] stuff at all. At all. So, it was a
[2:07:59] disaster out there. Thank you, city
[2:08:01] council. Yes, I am married to an elected
[2:08:05] official and I understand where you come
[2:08:07] from. You have hard decisions to make
[2:08:10] and everything else like that. Um, I'm
[2:08:13] just sharing my heart because I was in
[2:08:15] Abene. It's a disaster over there. It's
[2:08:18] a total disaster. Our son lives over
[2:08:20] there. People are suffering over there
[2:08:23] because of the data center. I went out
[2:08:26] to the data center. It is disaster. The
[2:08:29] lady was talking about the trucks, the
[2:08:31] fatalities and stuff like that. I just
[2:08:34] would like to see our city council
[2:08:38] um your city council because I don't
[2:08:41] vote for these people but I know these
[2:08:42] people and I respect every one of you
[2:08:45] because I know you on a personal basis.
[2:08:48] But I would like for you to just to take
[2:08:51] a step back, consider um everything um
[2:08:56] that you've heard here tonight. There's
[2:08:58] a lot of pros, there's a lot of cons.
[2:09:02] I'm I'm afraid you may not be hearing a
[2:09:05] lot of the cons, but if people don't
[2:09:09] realize, they put a halt on 50% of these
[2:09:13] data centers right now. I don't know if
[2:09:15] y'all heard that, but 50% of the data
[2:09:18] centers, which would probably include
[2:09:21] St. Angelo, there's a 50% because they
[2:09:23] cannot get parts. Another thing,
[2:09:28] our governor
[2:09:31] has taken a lot of money,
[2:09:33] 500,000 from black something. Skybox
[2:09:37] probably knows it, but if you go into
[2:09:39] our Governor Abbott and look at his
[2:09:42] financials and all the money he has
[2:09:45] taken from data centers, it's pathetic.
[2:09:49] I'm sorry.
[2:09:50] Let's
[2:09:52] [applause]
[2:09:54] we got we all of the cities are being
[2:09:59] buffaloed by Governor Abbott. And I'm
[2:10:02] sorry, but that's what's happened.
[2:10:04] There's 444
[2:10:06] data centers already in the state of
[2:10:10] Texas. We don't need anymore.
[2:10:16] [applause]
[2:10:20] » [applause]
[2:10:24] » Nancy Treadwell.
[2:10:28] [applause]
[2:10:37] Good evening. I'm Nancy Treadwell. I'm
[2:10:39] in District 6. Remember the chameleon?
[2:10:42] [clears throat]
[2:10:42] He was a well-b bred chameleon and
[2:10:45] nothing could be brought against his
[2:10:46] record. As a chameleon, he had done the
[2:10:49] things he should have done and left
[2:10:51] undone the things that should have been
[2:10:52] left undone. He was a first class
[2:10:55] unimpeachable chameleon and nobody had
[2:10:58] anything on him. But he came to a scotch
[2:11:01] plaid and tried to cross it. In order to
[2:11:05] cross it, he had to imitate imitate six
[2:11:08] different yarn colors. first one and
[2:11:10] then another and back to the first or
[2:11:12] second. He was a brave chameleon and
[2:11:14] died at the crossroads true to his
[2:11:17] chameleon instincts.
[2:11:20] What kind of liar are you? People lie
[2:11:22] because they don't remember clearly what
[2:11:25] they saw. People lie because they can't
[2:11:27] help making a story better than it was
[2:11:29] the way it happened. People tell white
[2:11:32] lies so as to be decent to others.
[2:11:35] People lie in a pinch, hating to do it,
[2:11:38] but lying on because it might be worse.
[2:11:40] And people lie just to be liars for a
[2:11:43] crooked personal gain. What sort of a
[2:11:46] liar are you? Which of these liars are
[2:11:49] you? This was written by Carl Sandberg
[2:11:52] in the people yes 1936.
[2:11:57] Which brings me to my questions. The
[2:11:59] zoning you're talking about isn't in
[2:12:02] place yet. But it sounds as if you
[2:12:04] already have a deal going. In West
[2:12:07] Texas, a person's word is his bond
[2:12:11] and verbal contracts count. So how
[2:12:15] binding is what you have said tonight?
[2:12:18] Is it legally binding?
[2:12:20] In addition, this is going the funds are
[2:12:22] going into the very best ISD. Correct.
[2:12:26] SISD will get no funds from the center.
[2:12:28] So why are you saying it will?
[2:12:31] And why have you had us sitting back
[2:12:32] here listening to a back and forth
[2:12:35] conversation
[2:12:37] with no facts and not inviting us to
[2:12:39] join? Thank you.
[2:12:44] [applause]
[2:12:51] » [applause]
[2:12:52] >> Riley Rodriguez.
[2:12:57] [applause]
[2:13:05] » How y'all doing? My name is Riley
[2:13:06] Rodriguez. I'm actually from Abalene. I
[2:13:09] am uh one of the data centers are what
[2:13:12] actually got me to run for a political
[2:13:14] office. And I've been going around the
[2:13:15] counties trying to let everybody know
[2:13:17] exactly what you're going to get to see.
[2:13:20] Not 6 months down the road, not a couple
[2:13:23] speculation reports, not in six years,
[2:13:27] when they get here.
[2:13:29] I could give you a big speech, but I'm
[2:13:31] just going to tell you a small story.
[2:13:33] This Saturday, we had a woman from the
[2:13:34] BCFS come in and speak to us about some
[2:13:37] of the issues we're facing in our
[2:13:38] district. She works with families. She
[2:13:40] works with uh people who have struggled
[2:13:43] with drug addiction, lost their kids.
[2:13:45] She helps them get back on their feet,
[2:13:46] get their lives back right. Okay. That
[2:13:49] morning, she was late because she had to
[2:13:52] handle a case in which a single mother
[2:13:55] who is trying to recover from drug
[2:13:56] addiction needed to get a hotel room
[2:13:59] because her rent went up and if she
[2:14:01] didn't pay it, she was going to be
[2:14:03] evicted.
[2:14:05] We have families showing up at our
[2:14:07] family helping Hamilton centers that
[2:14:09] haven't been there in decades.
[2:14:12] It's it's not it's not a a an abstract
[2:14:16] thought. It's not something that might
[2:14:18] happen. Oh, maybe it'll happen. It this
[2:14:20] is what we are seeing in our town. We
[2:14:23] have 134,000 people. We dwarf
[2:14:26] St. Angelo when it comes to that. And we
[2:14:28] don't have the housing. We don't have
[2:14:31] the housing. Go look on Zillow right
[2:14:33] now. You can find a wonderful
[2:14:35] one-bedroom apartment on at the back of
[2:14:36] somebody's house for a thousand bucks a
[2:14:38] month. And you better believe that them
[2:14:40] bills ain't going to be paid as part of
[2:14:42] that. That's what's happening in our
[2:14:44] district. Another thing we're seeing,
[2:14:46] people are losing their houses. When
[2:14:48] people get desperate, they start making
[2:14:50] decisions they otherwise wouldn't make.
[2:14:52] I volunteer and I help out with beyond
[2:14:54] trafficking. Guess what we're seeing?
[2:14:57] More trafficking, sex trafficking, labor
[2:15:00] trafficking. more of it has come to our
[2:15:03] city and it is because people are
[2:15:04] getting kicked out of their houses and
[2:15:06] having to live on the street. There are
[2:15:08] much more sinister dark things that are
[2:15:12] a foot than even water and energy. Guys,
[2:15:15] I'm I'm I'm telling you right now, I've
[2:15:17] been fighting it for two years. Our city
[2:15:19] council cut deals at 8:00 in the morning
[2:15:21] with two hours notice to the community
[2:15:23] and all signed NDAs. You can't get a
[2:15:26] word out of them other than this is
[2:15:28] going to be great for us.
[2:15:30] Let me tell you another thing. They've cut that deal in Sweetwater. One
[2:15:34] of the fellows brought it up a minute
[2:15:35] ago. That's a great point, man. We're
[2:15:37] getting ate up with workers right now.
[2:15:40] We're going to get ate up with workers
[2:15:41] from Sweetwater. We're getting ate up
[2:15:42] with workers from Haskell. We're going
[2:15:43] to get ate up with workers from Albany.
[2:15:45] And guess what? When we run out of hotel
[2:15:47] rooms, I worked in the oil field. I'll
[2:15:50] drive three hours to make some money.
[2:15:54] So, it doesn't stop. Okay. The scale
[2:15:57] might be fine. Hey, whatever.
[2:16:00] It's it it is it is widespread and it is
[2:16:03] a a 90minute drive. Think about it.
[2:16:07] [applause]
[2:16:18] Vernon Hegler
[2:16:23] [applause]
[2:16:32] I'm Bern Haggler. I live off of
[2:16:34] Armstrong.
[2:16:37] Heather heard my I have a proposal. I
[2:16:41] think the city should send a team of at
[2:16:43] least three people to go to a facility
[2:16:46] that operates as the one they've
[2:16:48] described to verify all the physical
[2:16:50] operation.
[2:16:52] I propose a panel of at least three
[2:16:54] people. I would think probably somebody
[2:16:56] from the water department who has
[2:16:58] hands-on experience and knows all the
[2:17:00] paperwork involved that a facility like
[2:17:04] this would have to turn into the EPA.
[2:17:08] Then an engineer who doesn't have any
[2:17:10] ties really to the any of the
[2:17:12] governments to observe and report on
[2:17:16] things. And then a Joe Blow who has
[2:17:19] industrial experience that knows about
[2:17:21] cooling towers and and this sort of
[2:17:24] thing who can go in is not going to be
[2:17:26] blown away by something they haven't
[2:17:28] seen who can verify you know what the
[2:17:31] fellow reading of the water reports and
[2:17:32] so forth.
[2:17:34] Uh I understood the gentleman in the
[2:17:36] dark coat talking about the u the
[2:17:41] different sort of uh heat exchangers and
[2:17:44] so forth. understood what he was talking
[2:17:46] about. I think there's been so much
[2:17:49] information put out there that nobody
[2:17:52] knows what to believe to a large extent.
[2:17:54] And I think we sent a panel got some
[2:17:57] real information from people's neighbors
[2:18:00] could come back and say, "Well, we went
[2:18:01] and saw as far as the physical
[2:18:03] parameters, what they're talking about
[2:18:05] is on the level. It's not going to
[2:18:07] affect our water future and so forth."
[2:18:10] I've lived here for over 40 years. I
[2:18:13] drive downtown and I see the old signs
[2:18:16] from when this was the wool capital of
[2:18:19] the world. Now we just barely have
[2:18:21] enough to talk about. Uh
[2:18:25] I've seen our one various government or
[2:18:29] another. This city has gotten short
[2:18:31] changed. Uh
[2:18:34] do not envy y'all people have to try to
[2:18:36] deal with making this decision. It's a
[2:18:38] big decision, but
[2:18:41] somehow I've I've seen us turn away
[2:18:44] projects that would have been good for
[2:18:45] the city. And uh I think this should be
[2:18:51] some expert to try to get
[2:18:54] clear away all the smog and get down to
[2:18:56] some sort of real information that
[2:18:59] everybody could the council could make a
[2:19:02] judgment on and that the citizens could
[2:19:04] feel about what happens. Thank you.
[2:19:08] >> [applause]
[2:19:13] » Shelby Storm.
[2:19:23] [applause]
[2:19:29] My name is Shelby Sturm. I am a county
[2:19:33] resident. I own a property in um St.
[2:19:38] Angelo. I apologize. I'm not familiar
[2:19:40] with what district number that is. I'm
[2:19:43] here today as a farm wife raising a
[2:19:46] fourth generation farmer which is
[2:19:48] probably the youngest citizen of St.
[2:19:51] Angelo in this room and I'm proud that
[2:19:53] he is taking part of this process.
[2:19:57] We all know that data centers require an
[2:19:59] immense amount of water for cooling.
[2:20:03] Water tables will lower regardless of
[2:20:06] what is promised to us. That will affect
[2:20:10] irrigation of crops and strain local
[2:20:12] aquifers. Crops and citizens will also
[2:20:16] be impacted by what are called heat
[2:20:19] islands.
[2:20:22] We are concerned about chemical
[2:20:24] contamination from the cooling systems.
[2:20:27] We want concrete asurances, regulations,
[2:20:31] and independent regular testing. Not
[2:20:34] corporate talking heads, not hopes and
[2:20:38] prayers, not passing the buck to the
[2:20:40] next regulatory authority. We have
[2:20:44] already had breaches of our so-called
[2:20:46] prohibited wastewater contaminants by
[2:20:49] Ethicon. We do not want to experience
[2:20:52] further exposures.
[2:20:54] Your so-called self- testing and
[2:20:56] reporting is what I think unacceptable.
[2:21:01] If the water is so similar to what
[2:21:04] you're pulling in is what you're putting
[2:21:06] back into our sewer and wastewater
[2:21:08] systems, then why don't you keep reusing
[2:21:11] it?
[2:21:13] We have already seen [applause]
[2:21:17] We've already seen realtime reports of
[2:21:20] the impacts caused by high power demands
[2:21:23] and infrastructure of AI data centers
[2:21:26] driving up electricity rates of
[2:21:27] surrounding residents and farmers. We
[2:21:30] oppose new power lines constructed
[2:21:33] through any farmland.
[2:21:35] What you intend to bring to our doorstep
[2:21:38] is noise and light pollution from
[2:21:41] warehouse style facilities. Construction
[2:21:44] and traffic influx pushed down the
[2:21:46] throats of a quiet rural area. We have
[2:21:49] seen dangerous construction traffic
[2:21:52] already from the solar farm out in Eola.
[2:21:55] My daughter rides the school bus with
[2:21:59] some of these semis and other big
[2:22:02] vehicles and have had reports of near
[2:22:06] traffic accidents. We refuse to accept
[2:22:09] any proposal tied to byright approval.
[2:22:12] It is a dangerous precedent to set
[2:22:14] giving a cart launch approval for future
[2:22:17] expansion. We furthermore demand no tax
[2:22:20] abatement and agreements ever.
[2:22:23] Corporations must pay their fair share.
[2:22:26] I've had enough of corporate talk in my
[2:22:28] life to call bull when I hear it. Let me
[2:22:32] say, keep your greedy and gluttonous AI
[2:22:36] pods off our San Angelo.
[2:22:40] [cheering]
[2:22:42] [applause]
[2:22:50] David Duso
[2:23:02] Elena Luna
[2:23:08] [applause]
[2:23:15] Good evening, mayor, council members,
[2:23:16] and St. Angela residents. My name is
[2:23:18] Elena, resident of district 2, and I am
[2:23:21] here tonight to stand before you to
[2:23:22] respectfully ask for you to reconsider
[2:23:24] the proposed data center development
[2:23:26] currently under your consideration. You
[2:23:29] were not elected to simply approve
[2:23:30] development. You were elected to protect
[2:23:32] the city, resources, people, and its
[2:23:34] future. And that is exactly what is at
[2:23:36] stake here. Let's speak plainly for a
[2:23:38] moment. This project asks St. Angelo to
[2:23:40] trade away its water, power, land, and
[2:23:42] finite local resources for the benefit
[2:23:44] of an industry that will give us very
[2:23:46] little back. Data centers consume
[2:23:48] enormous amounts of electricity, water,
[2:23:51] strain infrastructure, and in return
[2:23:52] produce minimal permanent jobs and
[2:23:54] limited long-term investment. And here,
[2:23:57] that reality matters more. St. Angelo
[2:23:59] was built on land, agriculture, and our
[2:24:01] economy depends on ranchers, farmers,
[2:24:03] and the small businesses that support
[2:24:04] them. These are not just temporary
[2:24:06] industries. They are generational and
[2:24:08] they all depend on one thing. Reliable
[2:24:10] access to water. Every gallon used to
[2:24:13] cool a data center is a gallon that
[2:24:14] cannot sustain livestock, irrigate crops
[2:24:17] or support the backbone of this
[2:24:18] community. This is not just a
[2:24:20] development decision. It is a resource
[2:24:22] allocation decision. So we have to ask
[2:24:24] who are we prioritizing? local producers
[2:24:27] who sustain our economy and identity or
[2:24:29] an outside industry that brings high
[2:24:30] demand and low long term in low
[2:24:32] long-term return because once those
[2:24:34] resources are committed, you cannot
[2:24:36] easily take them back. The precedent you
[2:24:38] set here will determine who thrives in
[2:24:39] St. Angelo and who gets pushed out. And
[2:24:42] too often these projects come with tax
[2:24:43] uh abatements and subsidies, meaning the
[2:24:45] people of the city are being asked to
[2:24:46] subsidize their own displacement. That
[2:24:49] is not an e economic development. That
[2:24:51] is a a failure of stewardship. This
[2:24:53] council has a duty to think long term.
[2:24:55] What happens during drought? What
[2:24:56] happens when agriculture is forced to
[2:24:58] compete with industrial scale
[2:24:59] consumption? And what happens when the
[2:25:01] industries that built this region can no
[2:25:03] longer afford to operate here? Our
[2:25:04] founders warned us about this. Thomas
[2:25:06] Jefferson believed the strength of the
[2:25:08] nation came from land-based communities
[2:25:09] rooted in independence and
[2:25:11] sustainability, not dependence on
[2:25:13] outside interests. James Madison warned
[2:25:15] of power powerful factions and
[2:25:16] federalist hint pursuing their own gain
[2:25:18] at the expense of the public good. And
[2:25:20] George Washington cautioned against the
[2:25:21] influences that do not share the
[2:25:23] long-term fate of the people. This
[2:25:24] warning applies here. A corporation can
[2:25:26] leave when conditions change. Our
[2:25:28] farmers, ranchers, and families cannot.
[2:25:30] So the question is not whether this
[2:25:31] project is modern. The question is
[2:25:33] whether it is loyal to this community.
[2:25:35] And it is loyal to our is it loyal to
[2:25:37] our agricultural backbone. Is it loyal
[2:25:39] to responsibility to responsible water
[2:25:40] use in a region where water is already
[2:25:42] scarce? Or is it loyal to the people who
[2:25:44] live here? Not just today, but decades
[2:25:46] from now. If the answer is no, then your
[2:25:48] responsibility is clear. St. Angelo is
[2:25:50] not for sale at the cost of its own
[2:25:51] sustainability. Our water is not
[2:25:53] expandable, and our agricultural
[2:25:54] foundation is not something to be traded
[2:25:56] away for short-term promises. I urge
[2:25:58] you, stand with this community, protect
[2:26:00] our resources, and reject this proposal.
[2:26:02] Thank you. [cheering]
[2:26:06] [applause]
[2:26:16] Jamal Shimpert.
[2:26:21] [applause]
[2:26:33] » Uh Jamal Shumpert, SMD3. I'm not going
[2:26:36] to speak a lot about data centers, but
[2:26:38] it kind of reminds me of when I was
[2:26:41] studying in school about how they ran
[2:26:43] highways through certain communities.
[2:26:45] Now they're they're building data
[2:26:47] centers in communities like this. Uh it
[2:26:52] gives me like a bad feeling that we
[2:26:55] don't have a chance unless we do
[2:26:58] something about it like recall some
[2:27:00] people or maybe put in a petition to
[2:27:03] take some of that sales tax money away
[2:27:04] out of the ballot uh to address some of
[2:27:07] these harms they're not willing to
[2:27:09] address as a city council. Uh, but I'm
[2:27:12] going to move forward because what I
[2:27:14] came here for is to advocate for the
[2:27:16] children, the youth. They they've been
[2:27:19] killing themselves quite often, hurting
[2:27:21] themselves in St. Angelo, way more than
[2:27:24] what I'm used to here. Uh, I would like
[2:27:26] for the city council, since Tom talked
[2:27:28] about giving them a building for use to
[2:27:31] put some money towards paying for these people, I mean, these children
[2:27:35] whose parents can't afford for them to
[2:27:37] go to these camps in the summer. So they
[2:27:39] go to these camps in the summer when
[2:27:40] they're not at school instead of
[2:27:42] thinking of bad ways to harm the
[2:27:44] community. They're going to be at your
[2:27:46] houses at night or during the day uh
[2:27:49] causing problems, making our police
[2:27:52] having to answer to these petty things
[2:27:54] instead of actually addressing real
[2:27:56] issues that city have. Um and another
[2:27:59] thing I came up here was to thank Mr.
[2:28:02] Keley for talking about Carver and
[2:28:05] wanting to save Carver. That is that is
[2:28:07] huge. Uh, believe it or not, quite a few
[2:28:12] uh, black schools got burned just like
[2:28:14] Mr. Dendles. So, I understand exactly
[2:28:16] where Mr. Dendle's coming from. I
[2:28:18] understand both sides of it. Uh, I I I'd
[2:28:21] like for you to keep pushing that, Mr.
[2:28:23] Keley. And, um, that that's really all I
[2:28:26] had to say about the data centers, but I do have a somewhat of a solution, but
[2:28:31] y'all going to have to ask me. Thank
[2:28:32] you.
[2:28:35] » [applause]
[2:28:41] » Edward Zbecki,
[2:28:53] Karen McGinness.
[2:28:58] [applause]
[2:29:04] Good evening. My name is Karen McGinness
[2:29:06] and um I don't know what district I live
[2:29:09] in. I just moved,
[2:29:12] but I am born and raised in St. Angelo.
[2:29:17] And Mike and Chris, I want to tell you
[2:29:20] that um I'm sorry that your industry has
[2:29:24] such a poor track record and such a
[2:29:27] lousy reputation.
[2:29:29] Um, you may be the one shining example,
[2:29:34] the white knights within the industry,
[2:29:38] but you've already told us that you're
[2:29:39] going to build this and then you're
[2:29:41] going to lease it to somebody. You don't
[2:29:43] know who that somebody is, and neither
[2:29:45] do we.
[2:29:47] You've already told us that uh they'll
[2:29:50] refresh the equipment every five to six
[2:29:54] years, 3 to six years. So, where does
[2:29:56] all that old equipment go?
[2:29:59] I mean, it's not just going to
[2:30:01] disappear.
[2:30:03] I have a lot of questions
[2:30:06] and very few answers.
[2:30:14] I'm oldfashioned. I still write checks.
[2:30:19] Yeah. On this move, I misplaced my
[2:30:21] checks, but I found them.
[2:30:25] I'm wondering if perhaps
[2:30:28] it's time for us to stop just looking to
[2:30:32] the end of our nose, our local
[2:30:36] government, our state government, our
[2:30:39] national government,
[2:30:41] and start thinking not just what's best
[2:30:44] for me, but what's best for my
[2:30:47] grandchild
[2:30:49] and more importantly, what about my
[2:30:51] grandchild's
[2:30:53] grandchildren?
[2:30:55] If we could look seven generations down
[2:30:58] the road,
[2:31:00] I think we might be making different
[2:31:02] kinds of decisions.
[2:31:06] The bottom line is you can put lipstick
[2:31:08] on a pig. You can wrap that pig in silk
[2:31:12] and satin and you can even put diamond
[2:31:14] studs in his ears,
[2:31:16] but in the end, he's still a pig.
[2:31:22] » [applause]
[2:31:31] » Karen Best.
[2:31:36] [applause]
[2:31:42] » Give me a second, Karen. Sorry. It's
[2:31:43] >> okay.
[2:31:45] >> All right.
[2:31:46] >> I'm a better writer than a public
[2:31:48] speaker, so forgive me. I heard
[2:31:50] everybody say what they're going to say.
[2:31:51] So, I'm just going to riff here on what
[2:31:53] I saw tonight. Okay. First of all, thank
[2:31:55] you to the city council members who are
[2:31:57] present and staff and the members of
[2:31:59] Skybox, the the two gentlemen who
[2:32:01] addressed the group today on community.
[2:32:05] Gentlemen, when you at Skybox talk about
[2:32:07] community, you're talking about the big
[2:32:09] five. You're not talking about any of
[2:32:10] us. When you talk about the schools, I'm
[2:32:14] sitting next to a school board member.
[2:32:16] Y'all haven't approached SISD about
[2:32:18] anything. The monies that are going to
[2:32:20] very best will almost largely go back to
[2:32:24] the state of Texas when they collect it.
[2:32:27] It's not just the overage. Okay. But
[2:32:30] what bothers me most isn't Skybox. You
[2:32:32] guys are doing a business. I'm in
[2:32:34] business for myself, too. I get it. And
[2:32:36] that's fine. We're a commodity for you.
[2:32:38] We are not your community.
[2:32:41] We're wait. [applause] We're your
[2:32:44] community.
[2:32:46] You asked to put
[2:32:49] your signs in our yards. You came to our
[2:32:53] Republican women and Concho Valley
[2:32:55] Republican women groups. When you have
[2:32:57] Glenda Bacon standing up putting the
[2:32:59] governor in a box, you know things are
[2:33:01] bad. Okay. But you're our community and
[2:33:05] the first we get to hear about Skybox
[2:33:07] with Skybox is up here today as this is
[2:33:10] upon us. Not at some we should have been
[2:33:12] on the conversation in on the
[2:33:14] conversation a year ago and on the
[2:33:16] zoning changes to housing a year ago.
[2:33:20] we should have been included.
[2:33:23] But tonight, the best optic we have of
[2:33:26] where this is at is that empty stage
[2:33:29] right now where you should be sitting
[2:33:31] answering our questions.
[2:33:35] Not not huddled in a corner with skybox
[2:33:39] saying we will not respond to any
[2:33:41] questions other [snorts] than the
[2:33:43] library meeting that Mr. Keely was brave
[2:33:46] enough to call and citizens got to be as
[2:33:51] open and vocal as they wanted to be. And
[2:33:53] God bless you for that. That man spent
[2:33:56] two hours in the street with me last
[2:33:58] week talking about data centers.
[2:34:01] That man has represented the city of St.
[2:34:04] Angelo better than anyone else around
[2:34:06] that table.
[2:34:08] We deserve that kind of We deserve that
[2:34:11] kind of openness. We deserve that kind
[2:34:15] of opportunity.
[2:34:17] I will lose
[2:34:19] staff in my office when they can't pay
[2:34:22] rent and I can't charge enough to
[2:34:25] somebody to come in to raise their pay
[2:34:27] to keep them because of the housing
[2:34:28] issues that the gentleman from Abene
[2:34:30] brought. That's not conjecture. That's
[2:34:33] fact. Because I just had to raise her
[2:34:35] salary to pay for rents. Now, today,
[2:34:40] hers went up $300 a month because of
[2:34:42] taxes and insurance. That's not a future
[2:34:45] problem. That's a today problem. Thank
[2:34:47] you.
[2:34:51] [applause]
[2:35:02] Michelle Daruso
[2:35:11] And finally, Joe. Uh, Joe Hyde.
[2:35:14] >> I signed up.
[2:35:17] >> Oh, Amber, you did. I'm so sorry.
[2:35:20] >> Uh, Amber Armanderas.
[2:35:26] [applause]
[2:35:31] » Good evening, council members and fellow
[2:35:33] residents. My name is Amber Armandereas
[2:35:35] and I live in district 6. I'm here to
[2:35:38] implore you place a definite moratorum
[2:35:40] on the construction of skybox data
[2:35:42] centers in the San Angela city limits
[2:35:44] properties and for you to encourage our
[2:35:46] fellow neighbors in Tom Green County and
[2:35:48] surrounding counties to vote against
[2:35:49] these any such proposal. Yesterday
[2:35:51] morning I spoke of box's closed loop
[2:35:53] system and how their blowdown process
[2:35:54] will dump its toxic sludge and dangerous
[2:35:57] contaminants into our water sources. If
[2:35:59] you missed it, please go have a listen.
[2:36:01] Now I will explain the noise pollution.
[2:36:04] Have any of you been to one of these
[2:36:05] data centers and heard of what their low
[2:36:07] hum sounds really is? I assure you it's
[2:36:10] not a low hum at all. I have firsthand
[2:36:12] knowledge of what these data center
[2:36:13] sounds emit. During the time I live near
[2:36:16] one of these data centers, I suff
[2:36:17] suffered for from daily headaches and
[2:36:20] extreme discom discomfort. And every
[2:36:22] time I would fly back here for the
[2:36:24] weekend, my headaches would clear up and
[2:36:26] instantly fell at ease.
[2:36:29] I was on all sorts of medication for
[2:36:30] these chronic problems and couldn't
[2:36:32] figure out why. After moving back here
[2:36:34] officially, my chronic headaches no
[2:36:36] longer exist. I encourage each of you to
[2:36:39] go to one of these data centers and see
[2:36:40] what they're really like. Cooling
[2:36:42] systems and generators create a constant
[2:36:43] loud hum that can negatively impact the
[2:36:46] quality of life. Yesterday, Steve Elius
[2:36:48] from our chamber of commerce per
[2:36:50] purposely spoke misleading words to
[2:36:52] paint a picture of what this data center
[2:36:54] is. And I'm here to give you a reality
[2:36:56] check of truth. and I quote, "A data
[2:36:58] center is basically the building full of
[2:37:00] computers that deliver information that
[2:37:02] we use every day. These data centers are
[2:37:05] not full of computers. They are full of
[2:37:07] servers. One rack mount server is
[2:37:09] approximately 7 ft high, 2 feet wide,
[2:37:12] and 4t deep and emits a frequency of 60
[2:37:14] hertz, which can be felt physically as
[2:37:17] vibration and heard as a deep bass tone.
[2:37:20] On average, a data center will house
[2:37:22] 100,000 server racks, which is a
[2:37:25] frequency of six million hertz or six
[2:37:27] megahertz. A frequent a high frequency
[2:37:30] ultrasound. This cannot be heard by
[2:37:32] humans, but can be a cause but can cause
[2:37:36] a heating tissue vibration and potential
[2:37:39] cap uh cavitation in tissues. This is
[2:37:42] 300 times higher than the limit of human
[2:37:44] hearing. Combine the combined noise from
[2:37:47] fans, cooling systems, and servers are
[2:37:49] cons considered hazardous for long-term
[2:37:51] exposure. For instance, it causes
[2:37:53] confusion, nausea, and potential
[2:37:55] internal injuries. Nearby residents are
[2:37:57] exposed to infrasound that causes
[2:37:59] vertigo and nausea. That said, you made
[2:38:02] a unilateral decision be behind closed
[2:38:04] doors and backdoor deals that affect all
[2:38:07] of St. Angelo that will cause long-term
[2:38:10] physical harm. Just as you asked the
[2:38:12] residents of St. Angelo to vote on the
[2:38:13] expansion of our coliseum that directly
[2:38:16] affects our taxes. You are mandated to
[2:38:18] ask the residents of St. Angelo for a
[2:38:20] vote that directly affects our water
[2:38:22] resources and our health. You do not own
[2:38:24] the land and water here. The people of
[2:38:26] St. Angelo own this land and water. And
[2:38:28] I reiterate from yesterday, we are the
[2:38:30] stewards of the land and water and you
[2:38:32] are voted to represent your community
[2:38:35] and your community is progressively
[2:38:37] opposing data centers from being built
[2:38:39] here. I motion to require all of St.
[2:38:42] Angeloans place a vote for indefinite
[2:38:43] moratorum or opposition for the data
[2:38:46] center and full future data centers as
[2:38:48] well. Mini Wakani it means water is
[2:38:52] life. I'm a Native American. I have
[2:38:54] history here. My family is from here. I
[2:38:57] grew up right down the road. And what
[2:39:00] you're doing to our land and our water
[2:39:02] is ridiculous.
[2:39:04] You should be ashamed of yourselves.
[2:39:07] [cheering]
[2:39:10] » [applause]
[2:39:21] >> and
[2:39:21] >> Joe Hyde.
[2:39:23] >> My name is Joe Hyde. I run two
[2:39:25] businesses in town. I have St. Angelo
[2:39:27] Live, which is the news organization,
[2:39:29] and I also have a little bar and and a
[2:39:31] hotel called the Arkite. in that arc
[2:39:34] light. I got a cook name of TD and I
[2:39:37] can't give him enough money right now
[2:39:39] for him to buy a reliable car to get to
[2:39:41] work.
[2:39:43] And when I see things like these data
[2:39:45] centers, which is a gigantic opportunity
[2:39:47] for this town, for this city, for this
[2:39:50] region to make a lot of money for our K,
[2:39:53] for the guys working for us, I don't
[2:39:55] know why there's so much opposition to
[2:39:57] it. All it is is a building full of
[2:40:00] servers.
[2:40:02] And regardless regardless of what you
[2:40:05] want to say here, you already have a
[2:40:07] data center on Johnson Street. One
[2:40:09] entire floor of the GTE building is a is
[2:40:13] a data center and it's full of ant
[2:40:16] meters. It's mining Bitcoin. And while
[2:40:20] it's mining Bitcoin, none of you got
[2:40:24] cancer. You have plenty of water.
[2:40:28] You have no noise. No one complains
[2:40:30] about noise on Johnson Street. 40,000
[2:40:34] square ft of Bitcoin miners.
[2:40:38] All of you. All of you walking out here
[2:40:41] are nothing but a bunch of low IQ
[2:40:43] idiots.
[2:40:45] >> Yes. Weirdos and losers.
[2:41:00] people like us.
[2:41:06] » Nothing like
[2:41:07] >> I won't be running.
[2:41:09] >> So, we are finished with public comment.
[2:41:13] » Thank [snorts] goodness. I need a motion
[2:41:16] to adjourn the meeting.
[2:41:18] Got a first from Joe. Got a second from
[2:41:22] Tommy Heert. All those in favor say I.
[2:41:25] >> Any oppose that want to stay?
[2:41:28] That motion closes to close the meeting.
[2:41:30] 70.