Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. you

At this time, I'll entertain a motion to come from executive session to open session. Let's make that motion. All right. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. All right. I'll start the vote with Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Horton.

Yes.

Mr. Bryant.

Yes.

Mr. Collins. Yes. And I vote yes. And I ask that each member certify. I read your certification of resolution. Whereas the Carroll County Board of Supervisors conveyed a closed session this date presented to the affirmative recorded vote and to the motion to close this meeting in accordance to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, whereas section 2.2-3711, and we went in under A3, A8, and A19 of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the Board of Supervisors that such closed session was conducted in conformity with Virginia law Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Carroll County Board of Supervisors hereby certifies that, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempt from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed session in which this certification applies, and only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was conveyed, were heard, discussed, or considered in the meeting to which this certification applies. I certify Mr. Early.

I so certify.

Mr. Bryant.

I so certify.

Mr. Horton.

I so certify.

Mr. Collins. I so certify. And I so certify. At this time, I'd ask if Mr. Collins, if you'd lead us in invocation and Mr. Early to pledge.

Father, thank you for the opportunity to be in this place tonight discussing the business of the county. We pray for guidance and leadership and direction in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So first thing on the agenda tonight is the audit presentation by Robinson, Farmer, and Cox.

Thank you, Chairman. You should all have in front of you two handouts. One's bound, and one is just our management comments for the year. What I'll do is kind of go over the bound document first, which is also up on the screen. And I'll try to remember to go through this so the public can see it as well, although I think a lot of the numbers are going to be too small to read. The audit went well. We were a little delayed this year. The EDA books weren't provided for audit until fairly late or into actually about March of 2026. So we were delayed. So this audit information, these numbers are about a year old going through June 30th of 2025. If you look at the handout first, I'll kind of walk you through that. And skip right to page two. Page one just is a boilerplate. opinion letter. On page two, we talk about the opinions that are in the financial statements. And the first opinion is that we think the financial report is materially correct. That doesn't mean it's without error. It just means we don't think there are material errors anywhere in the financial statements. The second auditor's report is on compliance and internal controls. And we did have, we didn't have any compliance findings. Compliance findings would be a significant finding that could impact the financial statement numbers. But we did have internal control weaknesses in that we identified some material adjustments to the financial statements that needed to be made so they were properly presented in accordance with current reporting standards. And then finally, we looked at federal programs kind of on a rotating basis. We don't look at every federal program every year, but on the federal programs we reviewed, we did not have any findings in our internal control or compliance matters with those items. The next page is our letter to those charged with governance. And basically, if we're working on an audit and we have any issues with management or something of that nature, we report that to you here. We also tell you about the major estimates in the financial statements. So as you review these financial statements, we've got estimates like the estimate of your pension liabilities. Ultimately, we don't know when someone retires how long they're going to be on the pension. and how long that liability is going to be out there. So it's our best guess based on actuarial tables as to how long those liabilities are going to be on the books, how long they're going to receive benefits through VRS, which is obviously funded by the county. You get the boulder plate letter. We do mention, just like I mentioned a second ago, that we had some material adjustments. So what I do is include those recommended audit adjustments with this letter. So the letter and the recommended adjustments, we won't go through all of that, but go to about page, I think, 13. Now we'll get to the summary financial information. And again, I think this is more... I guess, kind of useful as just kind of a macro overview of where the county has been. And so you know when numbers start coming in at 26, 27, kind of how you look compared to prior years. The top part of this analysis, it's on page 14, is basically if we sold everything the county had and paid off all your bills, what would your net position be? And you ended the year with $64 million, $64,840,000 in net position. It's about... A little over a third of the way down the page. Now, you're probably not going to sell this building and use that to pay off your debt. So part of that is invested in capital assets right at $19 million. Some of that net position is restricted, just over a million. And then unrestricted was $44,807,000. So it kind of gives you an idea, kind of from a macro standpoint, we sold everything tomorrow. What would we wind up with? I will tell you that the net investment in capital assets, that's depreciated value. When you build a building, you then depreciate it over time. So it's not the market value of that building. The next sheet down shows you your governmental funds. That's all governmental funds. And we're looking at just fund balance here. And you can see fund balance is actually higher than net position. Fund balance is 46 million compared to that. I'm sorry. It's more than that unrestricted net position. It's not more than total net position. But you can see fund balance at the end of the year is about 40, just at $47 million, of which about 31 million was unrestricted. Total fund balance to overall expenditures, and when we consider overall expenditures, we're looking at the county and the school board backing off the transfer between the two. Total fund balance stood at 49% of those total expenditures. Unassigned fund balance is really the important number here, stood at 32% of total expenditures. Unassigned means it's available for county use. It's not restricted in any way. The next page, and I check these numbers a lot because they don't look like anybody else. And I'll explain it when we get down to that total expenditure line. Revenues, if we look back five years for the general fund only, revenues have been growing at 0.94% a year, so less than 1%. Now, you had that big bump in ARPA funds back early on in this look-back period. But revenues have been fairly flat. And you can see from 2004 to 2025, they did grow a little bit, primarily due to additional tax revenue, general property taxes. Expenditures, operating expenditures have been growing at 1.82% annualized. That's the part that I don't understand because we're seeing inflation really take a hold other places. And so I would have expected that number to be quite a bit higher. That may be the lowest number I've seen in terms of expenditure growth. For this presentation, I've probably given it 10 times this year. Maybe not 10 times, probably six or seven. Debt service has actually decreased over this five-year period as you paid off some debt. So total expenditures, have been growing at a very low rate, 0.57% on an annualized basis. Again, I think inflation will catch up with you. You can't hide from it so long. But I did expect it to have already done so. Ending fund balance for the general fund was $42 million. Ending cash balance in that fund was $34 million. And that's simply because receivables at the end of the year far exceeded payables. If we look at that in terms of ending fund balance as a percent of operating expenditures, 44%. Ending cash balance as a percent of operating expenditures, 36%. And I generally say look at the lower of those two percentages when you're considering how strong your fund balance or cash position is. The next page, and there was a trend that we noticed right before COVID, then it went away. We think it's coming back. You can see fiscal year 2021, the general fund revenues, 33% was state and federal government funding, 47% with locally generated taxes. And fast forward to 2025, 51% is now those locally generated taxes and 25% is federal and state aid for the general fund. And that's really a trend that has started before COVID that we had a greater reliance on local dollars than we had in the past. Then COVID came, and we got all this federal stimulus money. So federal and state aid really bumped up, and now we're headed back following that same trend that we do expect to continue. Ultimately, certainly at the federal level, they're going to have to address their debt levels at some point. So we do think longer term, if we lay out five to ten years, we're going to see a greater reliance on local dollars. And you can say the state's in good shape financially, but ultimately, they get a lot of funding from the federal government. So the federal government cuts state aid, then that in turn means the state may cut your aid. General fund expenditures on 17, I'm just graphing out or really putting in a pie chart for you where your major expenditures are. And really page 18 and 19, I'm doing the same. really a bar chart just showing your major revenues. And you can see that general property taxes are generally headed upwards on page 18, and intergovernmental revenue, that's state and federal aid, is generally headed downward on page 18. And those three revenues up at the top really make up the bulk of your revenue sources. The other things below just are not nearly as significant. Showing you the same thing for expenditures, where you're spending your money, public works and education, and increasingly health and welfare take the largest chunk. A lot of the health and welfare is federally and state funded on a reimbursement basis, but there is a local component there. And then on page 20, we just let you know about new accounting standards that are coming out. And if you're having trouble falling asleep tonight, this will help. But we do have a new accounting standard coming out that changes how some of this information is presented going forward. I don't think it's going to be a significant change for the county, but I do want to make you aware of it. And I'll also go over the management comments that we had as part of the audit, which that was a separate handout. And I'll hit the big ones. Some of them are really administrative type items that should be taken care of. The first big one is under the county reconciliation of bank accounts, and it was noted that the school board's consulting accountant and the auditor's us recommended some adjustments to the cash balances in the books. So as we went through and did our audit procedures to make sure the reconciled balances in your actual accounts tied back to the books, we had to make some adjustments there or recommend some adjustments as did the school board's consulting accountant. And we do know you implemented new software, and that's always a challenge. But we want to make sure cash is right. That's the one number we want to make sure is right in the books that you're seeing every month. And the other item of a significant note, it's under the school board, the budget for the school board. And this winds up being a question in a lot of places, but you guys, this board appropriates the entire school board budget. So 50 million, 60 million, whatever it is. And that tells them how much they can spend. So you really don't control that local transfer. you really control the total that can be spent. And during 25, their expenditures exceeded their appropriation. Now I will say they had additional state and federal revenue that offset those expenditures. So it didn't require an additional transfer on the county's behalf, but we wanna make sure in the future that the school board is coming back before this board if they think they're gonna go over budget. and seeking an additional appropriation to cover that. School board's budgets are kind of back in loaded. So a lot of the expenses occur in June when they're paying their teachers for the summer. So they basically have to run multiple payrolls in June for that. So you can understand how it happens, but at the same time, you need to kind of be looking out off the bow of the ship and realize you need to come back before this board. And those are really the two Two items of significant note there in the management comments. And I will stop there and try to answer any questions you might have.

Are there any questions from the board? Mr. Chairman, I have a question. I questioned this last year about our unassigned fund balance. Yes, sir. Last year it was 22%, and I thought that was high. This year it's 32%. What's the statutory requirement?

I don't think there is. Yeah, there's not a statutory requirement.

What do people like you recommend to be the minimum?

Minimum 10%. Minimum 10%. But I'm going to qualify that. So if you know you've got a big expenditure coming up, just like your household, you're going to save up for that. So that fund balance, and I think the best-run places we've seen, they've got a big capital outlay or something like that. They will save up for five or even 10 years for that capital outlay, a new school or what have you, and then use fund balance to drop back down. So fund balance is really some function of your capital needs and your operating needs. So you really have to mesh those two together. But minimum, we say 10%. And the reason we say that is 10% for 52 weeks a year. A 10% unassigned fund balance means you can operate for 5.2 weeks. That's not a lot of time. But typically, we don't see, if you have at least 10%, we don't see cash flow issues in localities. I think you did go to twice-year tax collections too.

We did, yeah.

Yeah, so that's going to tend to elevate fund balance a little bit more. So I may even go higher in a place that has twice-year tax collections. What we have seen there is that because that second round of collections isn't as high, they can run into cash flow issues, particularly kind of in the spring, right before that first set of tax revenue comes in.

Okay.

Maybe I should say 15%, but still, you've got a healthy balance.

Last question. I think you said you had to check the numbers twice because they were kind of unbelievable. How do we compare the surrounding localities?

The expenditures grew by 0.57% over a five-year period. That's compounded. I think it's probably the lowest I've seen this year for 2025. That's pretty good.

Thank you. Are there any other questions? All right. Well, thank you for your time.

Well, thank you. You do, of course. Absolutely. You're absolutely welcome. And my contact information is on the cover of that handout. So if you do have any questions, you get home and you read that accounting standard and you want to know more about it, just send me an email or give me a call. I'm happy to help you in any way I can.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is citizens' time. And we have a few signed up. Gene Bergoletta. I'll remind you three minutes. We don't have a time for man here tonight. Okay, great.

I just have a couple of things to ask. Thus far, it's been said that Nobody, no entity has approached Carroll County as far as building a data center in Carroll County. That's been what I've heard the last few meetings. I don't know if that still stands. But at what point or will the citizens of Carroll County be appraised as to who is proposing this data center and where it is the timeline, all the particulars, what the water requirements are, the electrical requirements, the size of the land. Is there any point where we will have some information as the public? Because right now we have nothing. We're just hearing little whispers. And, you know, I was in construction for 42 years in New York City, and big things don't happen overnight. It's not like they're going to put up a fence or soap. It's my contention that stuff is already in the works. I mean, that's my belief. So I'm asking like at what point or if at all, will we as a public be provided with information particulars, especially what's going to pertain to us as far as water usage, electricity usage, sound, decibels, all that kind of stuff. So that's my question. And I know you can't answer it here, but I just want to, put that out there. And hopefully this board and the county will will be transparent as far as what the public needs to know about this project is going to be in our community for a long time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next is Jason.

Thank you. I'm not here with any Huge issues like data centers, things like that are a whole lot more important. But for personal reasons, I'd prefer not to have our information posted publicly. The reason I'm here is to discuss what should be a very simple matter, getting the HVAC fixed for the Carroll County Public Library here in Hillsville. I notice it's pretty nice and cool in here. The inside thermostat at the library read 82 degrees behind the desk. That was earlier this afternoon, but across the room, it read closer to 90 degrees at times. Inside, that's with three indoor AC units purchased and placed inside the library. There's a fourth one there, but it can't be used because it trips the breaker. My family and I moved here in 2021 and have enjoyed coming to this library on an almost weekly basis for about five years now. Obviously, we aren't the only ones who enjoy the use of the public library here in town. Many families with both elderly members and very young members enjoy being in the library, meeting there, going to family game nights, et cetera. But some of those families, my own included, have some with serious disabilities who find it very difficult to function under certain circumstances. Our daughter is a severe intractable epileptic, and one of the triggers for her seizures is high temperatures. So in short, we cannot use the library for an extended period of time during any given day while the air conditioning isn't working there. Several weeks ago, my wife brought the kids into the library and noticed that it was much hotter inside than outside. When she found out that the reason was because of the malfunctioning air conditioning unit, she asked why don't they just open the windows at least. The librarian stated that there are no screens on the windows, so unfortunately they weren't able to open the windows because that would then let the bugs in. But then they mentioned that the HVAC, the broken HVAC system has been an ongoing problem since last October. Now, I don't claim to know the ins and outs of the flow of tax revenue in this town. I don't know who decides what money gets allocated for what, but I can't imagine that it would be this difficult and take this long to deal with a problem as relatively simple as an air conditioning unit for a library building in a small rural town in southwest Virginia. We've seen the town spend a lot of money on a lot of other things, most of which I can genuinely appreciate. But we, the citizens of Hillsville, don't necessarily want to go and sit inside a public library when it is 90 degrees outside and inside. And this is to say nothing of the employees who have to stay there all day, every day, and work in that heat. So I'm not only here on behalf of my family and the rest of the citizens of Hillsville who enjoy using the public library, but also on behalf of the employees who have to work there every day. I've gotten to know many of them, and I know that they really enjoy their jobs. but for something that should be relatively simple to deal with to take this long is completely unacceptable in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Next is Marlon Staples.

Appreciate y'all letting me speak. Greg. Greg. Greg Gordon. I met you one time down at the quarry. Yes, sir. Gordon, you're a wife. There ain't nothing you can do that's wrong. Okay. Oh, it's Greg this and Greg done that. Depends on which day you're talking. And I got to tell a funny story on Mr. Early there. As Jody, when I was in the first grade, some of them boys slipped in some crab apples and brought them in during recess, and we was all laying on our mats, and Jody and Terry Edwards got throwing crab apples at each other, and the last one Jody threw hit the door, and about that time, Miss Cox, Love Cox, walked in, and before she walked in, I think, well, this looks like a lot of fun, and I reached down to grab that crab apple and right back and throw it at Jody, and I didn't get to turn it loose. Miss Cox got me by the behind.

I remember that. It's good to see you. Good to see you.

With that, knowing you all my life, 68 years old, lived here all my life, lived in the Beasley Hill area and raised in the Coon Ridge area and farmed and worked and drove a truck 37 years, but really concerned about this situation talk of this AI center. Don't know the details too much, but a lot of times there's a lot of truth with a rumor. And people are really, really worried and troubled and concerned over it all. If it is true, if it's to come to fruition or whatever, people are concerned about the water, the electricity, the noise especially. Miss Newman, Myra Newman, really revealed a lot in that last meeting. And I was here about all that. My wife spoke at the last meeting. But I've got a creek that runs through the backside of the farm. And with the drought we're having right now, the small drought, it's way down. And since I was a boy, Little Reed Island, you could just about swim in it. And now about the deepest places is just knee deep. And you know from looking at the streams, our water level's way down. And so with all that, I just, unless there's something being revealed in the public or in the news about this center, everyone that I come in contact with in the community or the store are just really, really concerned of the bad things it could bring. And there's so many good companies out there that would be, I think, a better fit with our county. in the area than this center would be, but I don't know that much about it, and I'm sorry if I ain't following the parliamentary procedures too good. Last time I was doing that was junior high and secretary in FFA. This is Carroll County. But anyway, that's about all I wanted to say, and knowing Jody and now knowing you, Mr. Horton, and I have faith in you other members that you will come up with a good answer for all this, hopefully, and it'll be a positive one. And the community trusts you. And it seems like you all have been a better set of supervisors and leaders than we've had in many years here in the county. So I appreciate you all, and thank you for letting me talk. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm going to say Carrie Darnell, but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm going to echo what he's saying. I do believe everybody trusts y'all very much. Y'all are good people. And the subject matter has kind of gotten everybody excited and standing up and getting involved. So I like seeing that. I know you don't have a timer, so just wave at me when it's on. It's not real organized, but it's everything I want to say. The subject of data centers have been going on all across the United States. We have more than any other country. So the questions are like, why do we need so many? Why do we need thousands? If the data centers are so great for the community, why are the deals always going down in secrecy? Not just here, but everywhere. Any good deal should be able to see the light of day and not have a problem with that. It just doesn't make sense to me that our community public leaders have to negotiate in private and secrecy on behalf of the community, but yet the community can't know a thing about it until it's too late. So I appreciate y'all taking comments and questions. Two questions I had from the last meeting is that we might have been the attorney that's assisting counsel during the last meeting. And I'd like to ask if this gentleman in any way has now or in the past been affiliated to data centers, their businesses, growing their businesses, their companies, or their interests. And also, is he a member of our community and interested in what's best for our community? I know you don't answer back. That's just for later. Continuing conversation about the impact of AI data centers, it's such a critical conversation since the potential impact on our environment, natural resources, and our health is still unknown, but potentially devastating. Once a 400-acre piece of land or a 10-acre piece of land has been bulldozed and all of these things slammed onto them, even those solar panels, it's all so toxic, it's not gonna be farmland again down the road, it's gone. So I'd just like to pose the question of, have you heard the old saying, a new broom always sweeps well? What happens when these new companies are not putting their best foot forward to get the buy-in to build? I have a few examples I'd like to share. In Georgia, a major data center using around 29 million gallons of water stayed running at full capacity, but the local residents was asked to please conserve water. Don't water your gardens. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't take long showers. Don't do this, that, or the other. Fayette County, Georgia residents noticed that the water pressure was plummeting during a drought. After an investigation, it was uncovered that Quality Technology Services had secretly drawn nearly 30 million gallons through two connections the county didn't even know existed. That is the equivalent of 44 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Lake Tahoe, approximately 50,000 residents. Almost the same size as Hillsville. 75% of Tahoe's power will end. Electricity is being redirected to support rapidly growing AI data centers in northern Nevada. If they could do that without blinking an eye to a 50,000 resident community, just imagine a small community such as our area. The concentration effect came into light in March 2026 when Amazon had to settle for $20.5 million to resolve claims that its Oregon data centers contributed to nitrate contamination of groundwater beneath two different counties. A lot of the people here still use wells, and those wells and that underwater flows run into our lakes and rivers too. I did notice, now that Plucked is up and running, that they listed the land beside them as for sale. It's advertised as asset class data center land. And on the online sales pitch, it highlights some investment highlights. Near-term power availability, reduced operating costs, improved PUE. I don't know what that is. It's PU. I've heard these things smell, but I know it's not really PU. But it highlights permitting hurdles unlocked. I'd like to ask the council members what permitting hurdles had been unlocked for that acreage to be used as data centers. I wanted to share these things to say everything dressed in glitter is not gold. And every sheep might be a sheep in wolf's clothing or a wolf in sheep's clothing. It also said that that unique location allows the data center to route waste heat and CO2 into the greenhouse rather than expelling it through cooling infrastructure. If they're selling organic vegetables, what contaminants is now being pumped in, and who is going to observe where these contaminants are being absorbed into the vegetables, and are they really still organic after that? The other thing I would like to say is here are some questions that I respectively submit to any developer that would like to come into our community. What is your total water footprint on site and from your power supply? What chemicals are used in your cooling system and where does the blow down discharge go? All cooling systems, including closed-loop ones, periodically discharge what is called blowdown. Water bled off the cooling system to prevent mineral and chemical buildup on the cooling towers. These things have content traces of chemicals like chlorine, biocides, and altered pH. Also, are you drawing from municipal water, groundwater, or treated alternatives? What DEQ or EPA discharge permits will you be required to obtain? And the most important one is the last one. Who bears the cost and the liability if local water supplies and aquifers are contaminated? The reason I said that one's the most important because we often hear in the news, recent studies have identified a risk that wasn't previously known. This has happened all through centuries. The furniture industry, the automotive industry, prescription drug industry, food additives, drug additives, landscaping items like Roundup. Hindsight is a luxury that we don't have. I respectfully ask the county to find legal ways to stop all data centers until the industry can prove it. Prove it. Two simple words with a big meaning. Prove it's safe. Prove the blow off doesn't have chemicals. Prove the heat won't raise our local temperatures. Prove that noise won't hurt the animals or the community or different. Prove it. before we jump in with both feet and let them take large swaths of land that can never go back to cattle or farming or campgrounds or whatever it can be. And like Marlon said, I sure appreciate everything y'all are doing. And I appreciate the due diligence and letting us add too, because it takes a village and everybody adding to can help the conversations be more safe

in the long run thank you thank you thank you thank you next is wendy alexander unfortunately i've run here after working not bring my speech with me so however i'm just asking everyone on this board i'm begging and pleading with you all Please don't sell your souls to the devil. Please don't do that to Carroll County. I speak for all citizens. So I just plead and beg for you all to stand with us and do what's right for our county. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Teresa Alexander.

I just wanted to say that you suggested that we, you know, look into data centers and study it. And nothing good, nothing good about them. Haven't read anything that makes me think, well, yeah, we need one. Anybody that spends time outside especially. But I just ask that you all don't go in the back room and come out with a data center, okay? We trust y'all. We put you in here for a reason. Be our voice. And I feel like a few times we've been let down and that probably falls on us not being up here and trying to change that. So I just appreciate that y'all keep that in mind to keep the area clean. We're in a bad drought right now. It'd just be a shame. And I don't know what, you know, Pluck apparently had this planned all along. I thought that they was going to heat their greenhouses with the locals sawmill, you know, wood. and help out the community. I don't know if they are or if they're not. Not hearing real good things about Plucks, so I think we kind of got suckered in there. So I just appreciate y'all letting us come out here and speak.

Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is minutes. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from June 1st, 2026. and June 10, 2026 together, or we can break them out, whatever the board chooses. Tracy, I make a motion to approve the minutes together, A and B together. All right. I have a motion to approve A and B together. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Are there any discussion? Hearing none, I'll start to vote on Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Horton. Yes. Mr. Early.

Yes.

Mr. Brown.

Yes.

And I vote yes. Next on the agenda is the consent calendar. At this time, I entertain a motion to approve it as presented. I'll make a motion to approve it as presented. All right. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Are there any discussion? Hearing none, I'll start to vote. Mr. Horton? Yes. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. I'll vote yes. Next on the agenda is the invoices. We have A, which is June 1, 2026 invoices. and B, June 22, 2026 invoices. I entertain a motion to break them out or approve them together.

I move to approve them together.

All right. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Are there any discussion? Here and then I'll start to vote. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton?

Yes.

I vote yes. All right. Next is new business. And at this time, I'll ask Mr. Feltz to come forward for the Citizens Award.

Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening.

Thank you all for your time and allowing us a few minutes to recognize one of our local citizens. You know, we do different awards for different things, save awards for our crews, firemen, EMTs. A lot of times some of our neighbors don't get recognized. And as the case on April the 23rd, 2026 this year, the captain and myself was out in an engine doing some PR work and the call come out for a structure fire, flames showing possible occupants still in the house. So at that point, it was all hands on deck. The fire department, Captain and myself, fire, EMS, rescue, we all responded. And what we did find was the house fully involved with flames and smoke coming out. Our emergency management coordinator, Ms. Monica McCullough, made contact with the neighbor and got a little more details of what had happened. The neighbor heard something come out and seeing what was going on, seeing one of the vehicles gone, went and knocked on the door. And the neighbor thought she was there for a social visit. She was sitting in the back room of her son room with her walker. And she continued to knock on the door, was told, come on in, come on back. She went back and she said, your house is on fire. We've got to get you out. So not only, you know, for her safety to go into a burning house, for her neighbor and to get her and her walker and get her out. There wasn't multiple people at the house. The husband had left. And then they also got the car out of the carport and moved it down. And, you know, with that risk to her and the heroism of going in for her fellow neighbor with no due regard for herself. And after more conversation with Monica and myself, we felt like we needed to recognize her tonight with this Citizens Award. And it says, in recognition of your exceptional courage and decisive actions in face of a life-threatening emergency on April 23rd, 2026, thank you for your quick thinking, selfless dedication, and unwavering commitment to serve others. Your actions directly contribute to saving a human life that day. I'LL LET YOU GO ON THAT. OKAY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I APPRECIATE YOU ALL AND THANK YOU ALL FOR ALLOWING US.

All right. Next on the agenda is public hearing for disposition of lease of property. So at this time, I'll open the public hearing at 744. All right. I'll close the public hearing at 745. Is this an action item for the board, Mr. Watson?

Yes.

I'll entertain a motion to approve.

Based on final approval of the... County attorney?

Yep. I'll make that motion.

All right. I have a motion to have a second.

Second.

All right. Are there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, I'll start the vote. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. I vote yes. C and D, the Idaho Civic Leave property and the repairs to Woodlawn Ag Building. I'll ask that the board would consider tabling these items until next month. I'll make that motion. All right. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. Are there any discussions? Hearing none, I'll start with Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Horton.

Yes.

Mr. Bryant.

Yes.

Mr. Collins. Yes. Next is the physical year 2027 school budget. I'll entertain a motion to approve it. I'll make that motion. We approve. All right. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

All right.

Are there any discussion? This is a question. This is one we looked at in the last meeting.

Yeah, we didn't have a motion. Okay. We passed it without a vote. Okay. All right. I'll start the vote with Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Horton.

Yes.

Mr. Brown.

Yes.

Mr. Cullen. Yes. All right. Next agenda is old business committee appointments. So entertain a motion if the board has any committee appointments that they want to take care of this afternoon. All right. Here and then I'll move on to board member comments. I'll start with Mr. Bryant.

Okay. I'd just like to thank the staff, and I'd like to thank all the people that came out this evening and spoke and are here to support us. That's how we get input. It helps a lot. I just appreciate everything. That's all I've got. All right.

Mr. Early. Thank you. I'm going to try to address a couple of things that were mentioned tonight and maybe dispel a couple of rumors. First of all, Marlon, it was great to relive those crabapple fights. Poor Mrs. Cox, she had a tough time with us. This is the first I've heard about the library, HVAC. Are we doing anything about that?

Yes. We went out and got two quotes. We were just trying to get one more. We're right at the level where it has to be bid out as far as port. We've added into the CIP. We've gotten quotes. The issue, from my understanding, is that it won't keep up with extremely hot weather. So our maintenance has been in charge with looking at it. They had the three. He's supposed to be buying three more of those units, and as... As soon as we can get some energy to do it, that's the process. But we are aware of it. Okay, good.

I hope we get it taken care of pretty soon. About plucked and tomatoes out there, I had a tour last week of the facility. I'd flown over it. I've seen it from the outside, but I've never been inside. It's quite a sophisticated operation, to be quite honest with you. And I asked the question specifically, is this organic? No, it's not because they use chemicals for fertilizer. Otherwise it would be organic. So, you know, the threat of it, their tomatoes becoming not organic, it's already that way. So we don't have to worry about that one. I really appreciate it by coming and learning more about the whole process with data centers and stuff. I'd never even seen one until this past weekend. I drove to D.C. and going back out 66 on the way home, drove by one, and it was humongous. I mean, it was the biggest building I think I've seen in a long time. You all need our help, to be quite honest with you. We need your help because there is absolutely nothing we can do without a land use ordinance, and that ordinance is prepared. It's ready to be voted on by Congress. the Planning Commission, and hopefully this board. But we cannot, we can't tell data centers how much water they can use, how much electricity they can use, what kind of noise they can make without an ordinance that is called zoning. And people have a terrible taste in their mouth about zoning. But I'm telling you right now that we need your help to get behind the zoning ordinance. Otherwise, we can't stop any of this stuff. And there'll be plenty of opportunities for people to ask questions about the zoning ordinance to learn more about it. It's really there to protect you and not to take away any of your rights that you have when you bought the land. It allows you to keep Carroll County the beautiful place it is today. And that's the way I want it to stay. But this board right here, you know, when we'd find out about a data center is after it's under construction. We don't have a say. We can't tell it where to go. We can't tell it, anything about what it wants to do or how it's going to harm our land. The same thing with solar. You know, solar, we've already got two sites in Carroll County, perfectly good agricultural land, farmland, being covered up by solar panels. Unless we have zoning, we cannot, we just can't stop it or dictate where it goes. You may never be able to stop them all, but at least you can confine it to areas that would be less offensive, and we can obviously regulate or try to have some say over what water is used, electricity, and those sort of things. Somebody mentioned something about permitting being unlocked. What permitting have we unlocked? We don't have an ordinance, so we haven't unlocked anything because it's already unlocked. It's by right in Carroll County. They can come and locate anywhere they want to until we have a zoning ordinance that dictates where they can go. All the questions, and I think I've already mentioned it, but the questions about water, electrical pollution, noise, all those things, all those things are taken care of in that ordinance. It specifies limits to those things, how much noise you can make, what kind of pollution, what the heat sink is, the whole nine yards is taken care of in the ordinance. And we are standing with you all, believe me. But we need you to stand with us. And that is to get educated. And some of you and all of you may already be educated about land use. But we need education, which we're going to provide if we ever get to the point where we're going to pass a zoning ordinance. So keep coming to meetings. I love seeing this room full of people. And that's how you learn. That's how we learn. And we're here to protect Carroll County. You can count on it. And I will do everything I can to make sure it looks as much like it did when Marla and I were throwing crab apples as it does today. So I appreciate you coming. Thank you. And I hope you continue to put your trust in this board. Mr. Collins.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman. Let me just write this down. I can go to Mr. Horton. No, you go ahead.

Basically, I just want to reiterate everything all the other board members have already said, but I appreciate everybody who came out tonight and keep coming out to our board meetings, guys. I mean, we need this input from you guys. We are your representative. We want to represent you guys, and I appreciate all the faith that you guys have got in us because we want to make the right decisions and do the right things on y'all's behalf. Of course, I want to see our county be just like it is, like Cody said, 30 years from now. I want my grandkids to grow up in this county, and I want it to look like it is now. I'm proud of our county. But I just want to say, you guys, thank you again for coming out. And Jody brought up some good points. I mean, we don't have any way to control these data centers and stuff unless we do some type of zoning or ordinance. And we're all still learning, guys. And we don't want to be behind this. We want to get in front of it. Other than that, that's all I've got. Thank you. Mr. Collins?

Yeah. First of all, thankful for a good financial report. It was good to hear. Actually, excellent, not just good. And I think Jody's already answered it. Mr. Bercoletti asked the question, when will we know about data centers? Probably the same time we do. We've not been, I personally, I can't speak for anybody but myself, but I certainly don't know anything. They've not come to me or to this board as a whole to ask to do anything. Mike, I think I understand that AC is being addressed at the library, and that'll be done soon, as soon as we can get somebody in there to do it. Just looking for a company to be able to install it.

We've received a couple quotes, but we will get one more. We're right at the point of a $50,000 mark in order to bid it out. We're checking on one of the companies and see if they're qualified to do it.

Okay, thank you. Just to let everybody know, the Countywide Trash Update will be out later tonight. We've got that for you. Just more details on, as we learn more details, we'll give those details to you. Then thank you, everybody, for coming out. I hope you keep coming. I hope you keep speaking up. I have had probably 300 to 400 people reach out to me in the last month. I've had petitions sent to me that have over 400 names on them. So lots of people are speaking up. Ms. Durbin, can I ask you a question? We adopted an ordinance at some point that limited the amount of acreage that could be used for solar panels. Am I correct? That's correct.

Yes. That wasn't an ordinance. That was the 2232 site review policy.

So it was a site review policy. And am I correct in that we're basically at our limit in the county as to what can be used for solar farms, or are we not?

I would have to defer to Mr. Newman on that. I think there's a few hundred acres that are still open. Okay, so there are a few acres.

Am I correct in also that there might be a possibility of a noise ordinance and other avenues outside of a zoning ordinance that could possibly help us in the data center?

Yes, it could only help it so much, but yes, I've prepared a noise ordinance, sent it out to you all tonight, so please review that, look at that, and I look for your feedback.

I appreciate it. I'm in favor of searching for every way possible to do it outside of the zoning ordinance. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman.

All right. Thank you, everybody. I want to thank Alicia. That was your first budget. Good job. Mike and Mr. Curley for all their work on the budget. I want to thank Mr. Collins and Mr. Bryant for their work on the trash. I know that's been a lot going on and appreciate y'all stepping up and taking that by the bull. I did have one more thing and I'll speak to you as well. Whenever I usually hear of the seven acres of the data center and stuff, I see it on Facebook. That's when I'll be notified, too, so I can vouch as the rest of the board. But also, Mr. Durbin, I did get your email for the noise ordinance, and I've asked if you would get the board one for a height restriction based on our prior ordinance. trucks and different things that we possibly could put an ordinance in for fire protection.

And I have been looking at that. Actually, we've been sitting here. Okay. That's clearly allowed under the zoning power. It's a little more questionable if we can utilize some other statutory authority, but I'm looking at that. Okay. Thank you for that.

I want to thank everybody for coming out again. and like the rest of the board, it's good that we're all getting educated together. And like Mr. Early said, we do need help. You know, we're working every day trying to find ways that we can help dictate our great land that we live in, that we all love. And that comes through a joint effort between the citizens and the board. I do want to thank our fire and EMS and all the people that put their life on the line. It was wonderful hearing the story of a citizen that saved a life there. And with closing, I got this letter from the sheriff's office. It was actually sent by the sheriff himself to the Board of Supervisors, but as I read over it, I was gonna share it to the Board of Supervisors, but in some of it, I think it entails Carroll County and what Carroll County has done through this process of losing the officers. So at this time I'll read a letter from the sheriff to the board. On behalf of the men and women of the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for the prayers, support, and acts of kindness shown following the tragic loss of Deputy Logan, the outpouring of compassion from the Carroll County Board of Supervisors, along with Carroll County administration office has meant more to us than the words can adequately express. In one of the most difficult times our agency has ever faced, your support has provided comfort and strength to Deputy Ut's family and every member of our Sheriff's Office family. The kindness shown by our local government leadership reflects the character and spirit of Carroll County. knowing that our deputies, staff, and Deputy Ut's family were surrounded by such genuine care and concern has been a source of encouragement as we continue to mourn the loss of a dedicated deputy, husband, father, and friend. Deputy Ut faithfully served the citizens of Carroll County and it is humbling to see our community come together to honor his memory and support those he left behind. Please know that your prayers, words of encouragement, and unwavering support will never be forgotten. Thank you for standing beside Deputy Utz's family and the Carroll County Sheriff's Office during this difficult time. We're grateful for your friendship, leadership, and commitment to our community. Respectfully, Kevin Kemp, Sheriff of Carroll County. So I wanted to share that with each of you. And I feel like a lot of that is the county we live in. And we all got to continue to pray for this family as days go on. I'm sure it's They need our prayers. So with that being said, I'll turn it over to Mr. Watson.

I don't have anything.

All right. Mr. Durbin. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman. Just very briefly, we've had some good comments tonight from the citizens raising legitimate concerns about pollution, water use, noise, land consumption, power use. And as the county code is right now, a data center doesn't have to come to the board for approval. People are concerned about a backroom deal, but right now your code is very much by right. So a data center wouldn't be doing a backroom deal with you all because they don't need you right now. Without a zoning ordinance, we are limited in what we can do, but we are working on the noise ordinance. And again, I look for... Look forward to your feedback on that. You could conceivably use the PSA to make sure that you've got some limits set on water consumption. And maybe the fire code could be used for building heights, but they might be able to get around that with sprinkler systems. But beyond those levers, the rest of your regulatory authority, we're generally talking about zoning. make some amendments to the comprehensive plan and the 2232 policy to tighten that up somewhat. But right now, Carroll County is very much a by-right county, as are all localities that don't have zoning. But I appreciate, I understand the board's very concerned about this, and we are working hard to do everything we can to give you all your best options. I also just want to make it clear, you all already know this, but in my law practice, I only represent Virginia local governments. I do not represent data centers or data center developers. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you. At this time, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment.

I'll make that motion.

All right. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

All right. I'll start to vote. Mr. Early?

Yes.

Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. And I vote yes.