County Council - Regular Meeting

That's the bugger one.

I don't want her to escape because she's always so strong. Oh, so strong. You want ice? Here. That's it. Thank you. All right, thank you for those brave ignitions.

Next council is the approval of the minutes from the May 5th, 2026 monthly meetings. Are there any questions or comments from the council on the minutes? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented? So moved. Second. Second. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by raising your hand. Opposed?

Motion passes unanimously. Next is the first public comment period. So I'll ask the clerk And we had people signed up for the first public comment period.

So for those who signed up, two things. One, well, let me say first, both of you talked about data centers. So I think you probably want to talk about that because the first public comment period is about items on the agenda. The only data center item on the agenda is the ordinance that has a public hearing.

So if you want to talk about that, if you want to talk about data centers in general, you want to talk Thank you. to the second public comment period to talk about data centers? Yes, please. Okay. And Michelle Walker?

Yes, sir. I'll keep this right here with me, and then we'll add it to the second one. It's sitting right here. All right, thank you all for that. All right, so, council, there's no one who signed up in the first public comment period, so I'll close that. Next is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Dr. Kenyon makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Ireland seconds. Any discussion? Any non of those in favor please signify by raising your hand. All opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Next is the public hearing. Uh, so this public hearing is on ordinance 25, 26, 0, 0, 9, and ordinance to amend section 2431, the land use table to only allow data centers in industrial zone areas of county. And so to certain condition, conditional use regulations. So again, I want to point out this public hearing is only on this ordinance, only on the specifics of this ordinance, or ways you think we can improve this ordinance if it's not in it, or things we might need to take out that you don't like. This is not the part that you would talk about whether you like or dislike data centers. So with that, is there anybody here to speak in the public hearing on ordinance number 2526009? We'd like to have your name and where you live, please.

Up here, please. My first name is Josh Hodgins. I live in Edgefield County. So can I ask some questions or is it just purely comments?

Go ahead if you can. We'll see.

This is your time, not our time. So I guess I want to commend you all. I feel like you're doing the right thing with this ordinance. I do think that there doesn't seem to be any wording on the resources. So it talks about the cost to add infrastructure right but it doesn't talk about if we're competing with resources right so do we know how much resources these data centers will be competing with us and how that could affect our cost of utilities would be my first question i don't know if we need to include any wording on I apologize. I have to face this way? All right.

Dress council. So there was a question about resources, meaning I think you mean water and electricity, probably. Correct. And the use of that. And you want to take that one, since you're here? I mean, it's going to come up anyway, so we might as well talk about it here.

Okay. So in the ordinance, by limiting it to an industrial area you would be ensuring that they are not going to be pulling it out of the water table. They would have to be on public water and that public water authority would then have to not at the detriment of citizens. And the study that is required by the ordinance has to ensure that if their capacity requirements exceed that of what the water authority has to grant, then at their own cost, they would have to improve the facilities to the point where that would no longer be the case. It also removes things like power requirements. You would have to do the same thing. you would have to show that the power company that serves that industrial part would then have to turn around and say, we have the capacity in the industrial part to serve it. And if they don't, then they have to pay for the improvements to get that power there. So it's not one of those where it would be on your local grid anymore at that point. So it wouldn't be on your water line in your neighborhoods. It would not be on your pulling aquifer water out of wells. It would not be pulling power out of your residential power grid. It would be a direct industrial grid.

Okay, so I don't know if the wording is clear. So in other words,

system than what you use as a residential use. Your neighborhood is not on the same grid as the industrial park is.

So we're not pulling power from the same power plant?

It might be the same power plant, but it's not the same lines.

I guess that's my point. The power plant is competing for... Right.

I think the capacity is not set by age to account. So we can't tell you whether you have three megawatts available in an area or 50 megawatts available in an area. The power company has the authority to sell their power however they choose. But what we can do is say you have to provide us with a study that's showing us how you're getting the power and how you're paying for it if you need to do upgrades. We are not going to pay for you to get power. But we don't regulate the power company is what I'm saying.

okay sorry i don't know who are you representing i'm the assistant county administrator for edgefield okay apologize i didn't do the introduction i guess the only other question is if there are you know the proposal comes out and say that they don't meet the proposal that's originally written are there you mentioned they would pay the additional cost or Are there fines associated with not executing as outlined in the proposal?

So they wouldn't even be able to continue with the process. They'd be shown the door. You can't come here if you can't already prove that you have the approval.

After it's already been approved and they're operating.

So they won't get approval if they can't show us that they're paying for everything.

I guess what I'm saying is they got approval. and then they start operating and then they don't.

Yes, we would shut them down and they'd be gone because they didn't meet the requirements of our law.

The only other comment I had was have you been working with our neighboring counties since they may also have competing resources?

So currently we're one of six counties in the state of South Carolina that is restricting them. None of the other 40 have not got any regulations in place at all. So yes, we did look at the other six that are trying to regulate it, but most of the counties currently in the state are trying to wait to see what the state does to regulate it. We are getting ahead of that game just in case and putting our own protections in place in case the state does not.

Yeah, like I said, I commend what y'all are trying to do with the ordinance, and I just wasn't sure if we could strengthen the wording, but that's all I can say.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else here to speak on this ordinance?

I just have a question.

Can you come up here, please, so we can hear you? Thank you. And your name and where you live, please.

Lisa Campbell, and I live in Edgefield. Dr. Walker. I just kind of wanted to go along with him and ask if we, the public, could have access to which areas in Edgefield are zoned industrially and what's not because if a data center comes and you're on the outside of an industrial zone you're going to be the one that's the most affected by their presence so and also which six counties if you could list them are working together to restrict

So they're not working together. Counties cannot work together.

Well, okay, they're not working together, but could you tell us which six other counties are?

I can provide that to you. I don't have it in front of me, though.

Okay. How would I get that from you?

I will give you my contact information after. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

And we'll go over where the industrial zones are, but we may not need to do that. We'll just see how that goes in our discussion. Anyone else here to speak on that ordinance? Yes, ma'am.

She'll tell us your name, where you live, please. I would like to know what items are in place to keep the pollution down from a data center if it was to come and A thousand, from what I heard on the news, they said a data center could be like a thousand feet from a home. That will be a lot of noise, because from the research that I've done in other cities, they're complaining about noise, and they're eight miles from the data centers. So why would Inchfield County allow it to be only a thousand feet from home?

Again, I'd like to go ahead and address this.

In there, they do have to provide a sound study to prove that they're not going to exceed 50 decibels from their property line. So basically the same sound regulations that you have to obey as a person who lives in Edgefield County, after certain hours, they have to meet that regulation 24-7. So nothing over 50 decibels can leave their property. And if they can't provide that, then they can't come here.

So going back to the water use, I've gone through several areas where there are data centers and lakes that were there. You can see the ground of those lakes now. How would we, how are we to believe that they would have those things in place here?

So again, they have to prove to us that they can get the supply from the public water supply. and that it will not cause us a burden. If they can't do that, then they can't locate here. And that would be in part, we obviously don't control the public water system in Edgefield County, but the Edgefield County Water and Sewer Authority, they operate the plant that draws the water from the Savannah and purifies it. They have an exact amount of gallons per day that they can allocate to something. If they tell us that we can't allocate that much water to them, then they're not allowed.

I would like to add to There's still water usage, but it's a fractional amount compared to how some have operated in the past.

Okay, and like, for example, our electricity, when the wind blows hard, we're without lights. How are they planning on reinforcing that electricity infrastructure?

So they would have to provide that plan and they have to meet the sound requirements. So if they want to put in diesel generators, which is a popular method that other data centers have used, they still have to meet our sound requirements. So they would have to not only prove that they can supply their own power if necessary, but they also have to, there's a long list in the ordinance regarding generators and how that works. they would also have to make sure those generators were not too loud as well. So as for the power grid as a whole, as a monolith across the United States, obviously Edgefield County has no authority to regulate that. So that would be between them and the power company, and any infrastructure they had to improve there, they would have to work out with them. All we can do is say, you have to provide us a study and show us where we are paying for your infrastructure improvements to provide power.

Okay, you said diesel generators. That will emit pollution. Correct. So are they going to act?

And they have to meet all the requirements of the Department of Environmental Services, which is another thing that Edgefield County does not regulate, but there is a state agency that regulates emissions.

Will they be prevented on, like,

county people not disclosing what they're how they're going to do things you know like will everything be open to the public so any application that comes to israel county for any form of anything besides single family residents has to go before the planning commission and receive

Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else want to speak on ordinance 25-26-009? Okay, council see no 1 else. I will close the public hearing. Appreciate everybody who spoke. We'll now move to old business and number 1 on under old business is consideration of approval. The 3rd reading of ordinance 2526008 and ordinance providing for the 2627 general operating budget and establishing ancillary budgets for 911 administration. economic development, solid waste disposal, victims bill of rights, emergency medical services, road maintenance, tri-county solicitor, assistant solicitor, school resource officer one through nine, event security, sheriff's, discretionary funds, clerk of court discretionary funds, pretrial intervention, and criminal domestic violence. This is just simply the budget for our year. So I'll ask the administrator, now that we're up to the final reading, if there are any changes that council should consider tonight.

No, there have been no changes. Thank you. Okay.

Council, any questions, comments, changes you want to discuss? No. Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to give third reading to ordinance number 2526008? So moved. Mr. Talbot makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. And Mr. Moody seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Number two under old business is the second reading of the ordinance we just had the public hearing on, so I won't read that again, but it's ordinance 2526009. So again, I'll ask the administrator first, and the assistant administrator, if there are any changes we need to consider tonight.

Doc may want to talk about changes, but I just wanted to say We were all here in the last several meetings thinking that the state was going to pass legislation to regulate data centers, but not relying on that to happen. So I just want to say how much I appreciate the Planning Commission working so hard to put together the model for a data center ordinance and then Doc, Will Williams, Andrew, all the staff getting together to get something really in final form to give us some protections as we've seen around the state and the country. These things are important, but there have to be restrictions on them. So I just wanted to say thank you to them for that. And I'll ask Dr. Piazzi any new information on them.

So you'll see that the document in your book looks a little different than the one you initially got. The words are all the same. But Andrew wanted me to go ahead and format it as an ordinance. So I reformatted the whole thing. But other than the formatting, it is the exact same as the last one you read.

Anything else from either of you first? No. Okay. I did want to say a word here because this is going to jump into eventually the public comments coming up at the next time. So just for the record, I'll call it the 50,000 foot view. When we're talking about data centers, just like any other business in the world, you we have a requirement that we can't say you can't come to Asheville County if there's a legitimate business constitutionally we cannot deny that so that's number one so you have to then say to yourself all right we have to allow data centers if they come that's a requirement and so the industrial zoned areas of the site, of the industrial sites in the county. And Doc, I'll ask you, was there, I can't remember, was it three technically or four? I guess it depends on what you mean, because some of them like minority and those are industrial sites.

We have two blank industrial sites, so obviously the H-ville County Industrial Park has... 180 or so acres that are blank. 100 of them would be available to an actual industry. And then there's about 100 acres of rail property that is blank industrial land. All the rest of the industrial property in Edgefield County is an existing operating industry. So other than those two sites, there are no other industrial zones. The benefit to council for that, of course, is if a data center did come and they wanted, say, 400 acres of land, they would have to actively seek county council out and have a rezoning of the property to industrial in order to even qualify to apply, which means they're gonna be in front because it's an ordinance. So it would take you three readings, you'd have public hearings, there'd be the whole process of changing the zoning. This might seem like a loophole, but it's really not. You're not required to approve rezoning applications. You don't have to give a reason for denying a rezoning application. So it really gives you some political leverage to prevent something that would be inappropriate. Now, existing industrial properties, yes, we do have a couple hundred acres of blank industrial land in the county. But there's no large-scale data center that would locate home properties that small. And if they did, the industrial park obviously is a fully vetted industrial park, and that would be the most appropriate place for something like that to go.

So let me add to that, just for everybody's knowledge, again, because we talk about this later on, so you'll have this knowledge when you want to talk in the second public comment period. There are no data centers coming to Edgefield County right now. Nobody is knocking on our door. Nobody has said, please let us come if we're going, oh my gosh, let's pass an ordinance. That's not what's happening here. We are being proactive. My personal opinion, based on Will Williams' economic development expertise and the others in this room and other staff, is that we don't have the power for them. We don't have the water for them. They won't want to open here. It might be a long time before you ever see anybody knock on our door. It will probably be something different than we have today, a different model, a smaller version, something that's different in some way. I'm not a soothsayer. I don't know. Maybe I might. Maybe somebody will knock tomorrow. But right now, there is nothing there. And so I didn't want the news stories or social media, which is neither social nor media, to tell you something that you want to believe. It's not happening. I don't know how strongly I can say that. And I've also seen a few silly things like, well, I wonder if the council has signed some non-disclosure agreements. We don't sign non-disclosure agreements. Come on. We're telling you what we tell you. It's the truth. If you choose not to believe it, that's okay. But we're telling you based on our best information. So that's what I want you to know going into this. The second thing, and I'll mention this to council, when we make a motion and we get to discussion, I would like to amend the ordinance to say that it could only go in the industrial park. So that it's the only place it could go. And I don't know what council will say, but that's going to be my amendment. So that we know that is the only place in Edgefield County it could get. So we'll get to that in a moment. So I've said my piece. I want to ask council anything you want to say about the ordinance and where we are.

I just want to read something. Y'all think we aren't trying to protect y'all. While other communities nationwide are pushing back against unrestricted Davis centers. Edgefield is folding. I think after what Dean just said, we're not folding. We're trying to make this thing tougher and tougher and tougher and getting back to what you probably saw on Channel six. That was probably the worst news article of journalism could ever put out. He only goes to one side and gets one side of the story. He doesn't come to our administrator, our assistant administrator and gets both sides of the story. So I wish y'all, if you want the truth, just the five of us, two of them, call us and quit listening to what you see on social media. Or sometimes real media.

Thank you.

Thank you. Can I clarify something real quick on this comment? Just so everybody's aware, because people may not know that, currently, data centers would be allowed anywhere in edgefield county without any restrictions whatsoever there are no laws on edgefield county's books regarding data centers this is the very first ordinance in the history of edgefield county that regulates them so we are for the first time restricting them and it is very restrictive

And to that point, if we didn't, it could open anywhere.

So is this also the room full of people that would approve somebody who snuck in the back door and wanted to know if they could put a data center here? Or does that go through another channel?

So I'm not sure how you sneak in the back door. They can't just open. You've heard us talk about this. So you sound like social media now. So there's no sneaking in the back door. We just told you exactly what happens.

They weren't coming to the data center without residents knowing. Ma'am. Obviously we would know at some point. They would come to the planning commission first. Planning commission.

And then they would come to us. Actually, they would come to the doc first.

And then the planning commission.

They would file their permit and their... Paperwork doc. He would send it to the planning commission. Planning commission would take it up for at least two meetings. And then it would come to us, us two, yeah. Public hearing, they would have a public hearing, planning commission. Then it would come to us, where we would take it up for at least three. And a public hearing as well. So, I mean, there's lots.

I know there's more than one opportunity, but there's multiple opportunities. Sometimes something gets read once or twice or three times, and then it gets passed or it gets denied, and then we don't know how. Multiple opportunities.

So, just for the sake of clarity, and I just want to be fair, a lot of development seems to happen fast through government. In the state of South Carolina, the law is if a business or private entity makes an application to a county for approval, they have to give a denial or an approval within 60 days or it's automatically approved by default. So, HVAC, just like any other county government or city government, we have to have our meetings and make a ruling within 60 days or it gets automatically approved. So, yes, from a citizen's perspective, it can seem like it's rolling through very quickly, but that's because the Planning Enabling Act only gives us 60 days to provide a response.

Thank you.

But our meetings are at the same time every month. And we post our planning commission packet the week before the meeting. So as long as you're going to our website and looking at what's being applied for, it all has to go to two readings of planning commission.

All right. And I think somebody up here.

Yes. I wanted to make a reminder. The state, as we've already mentioned, is working for us. They have legislation on the data centers. their legislation does not match up with ours in a lot of ways. So I would think ours is more prohibitive at this point. So my thing I would like to caution you or to remind you, I am happy y'all are here tonight. I'm happy you're involved. I'm happy you're asking the questions and getting the right information. And I foresee this moving forward and getting something in place. But once we're in place, The state still has something out there. I'm expecting them to bring it back next session. I think your eyes need to turn to that. I think you need to be very much aware of what the state is on and look at what they've got going on after this gets in place. So I just want to caution you. Don't don't drop that ball. Keep watching and watch what the state has. So the state would you serve the county?

So, to be clear, if the state legislation passes what they had originally proposed, Edgefield County government would have no say in data centers at all, whether we liked it or not. So, that's definitely something you can look to your state legislators about. It did not go through on the session. Their requirements were pretty restrictive, but it did effectively strip local government of any authority to regulate them. So if that were to pass, our ordinance would become void and null.

So that's why I caution you. Look to the state after this is in place. Follow what they're doing. Let your voices be heard there.

Anybody else down here? We're good? All right, so we'll go through this process then. I'd like to present my amendment, but first we have to put a motion on the table. So is there a motion to give approved second reading to Ordinance Number 2526009? So moved. Mr. Chauvin makes the motion. Second. Mr. Moody seconds. Under the discussion, I would like to amend the motion to change the the the words industrial zoned areas of itchville county to the industrial park and there's only one industrial park so that's that's my amendment is So council, that's my amendment. So is there? So yes, that's my amendment. That's my statement of my amendment. So I'll make a motion on that amendment.

Do we want to define the industrial park when the ordinance means specifically that park?

Yes. So I'll count on the legal words to be put in about, you know, located at Highway 25.

Or industrial park under the definition.

Yes. Okay. Yes. Please.

I'll second that motion.

all right so the the amendment uh is now up for discussion and uh i will say this is just one more way that we're trying to narrow this down for our citizens you can't narrow it down more than this thank you so let's try and do what we do all right questions or comments from council on the amendment Okay, all those in favor of the amendment, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed, motion passes unanimously. Now we're back to the main motion as amended. Any questions or comments from council on the main motion?

Thank you for making that amendment.

Okay, if there's no more discussion, then all those in favor of the amended ordinance, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed, motion passes unanimously. All right, we are on to new business. The first item of new business is consideration of approval of first reading of ordinance 25-26-010, an ordinance to apply an impact fee to new construction in Meriwether and County Line fire districts in the Edgefield County portion of the city of North Augusta. Again, I'll ask our administrator if he would like to take us through some of these details along with the assistant administrator, please.

Yes, so an impact fee is a fee applied to new construction at the time of obtaining a building permit The fee collected has to be used for capital improvements in the area where the fee is collected. It has to be used for the benefit of those people in that area who pay the fee and specifically for items listed in the capital improvement plan which council just approved as an appendix to the budget. So this impact fee was initially in the draft documents a percentage-based fee. And based on legal counsel from the South Carolina Association of Counties, they recommended that we change it to a flat fee to meet the proportional fee definition in state law. So we have done that. This impact fee of $1,600 per residential unit of new construction will be first applied to an EMS substation serving Meriwether Fire District, County Line Fire District, and the City of North Augusta annexed area of Edgefield County, pending their approval. Now the fee will be collected on new construction, again, residential and commercial, not ag-type buildings or utility buildings, in Meriwether Fire District, County Line Fire District, and the North Augusta annex portion of Edgefield County, again, with their approval. So I would like to thank Doc for all of his hard work on this. This is a tremendous study, a lot of research, a lot of investigation into statistics and data for this and building permit histories. And he did, I think, an incredible job on it. is so very important to this county, and that is the high growth part of the county. That's the part of the county that's putting pressure on the service. That's the impact being paid for the capital improvements to serve those people, and that's all I have.

Thank you. Before I ask questions from council, so for clarity for everyone, this impact fee only affects basically those, well, it only affects those two areas, County Line and Merriweather Fire Department districts, right?

Let me add this and I'm sorry I didn't add this. This is a one-time fee. This is not an annual on your tax bill. This is at the time you pay this fee with your building permit fee, or your builder would, and then that's it.

So it doesn't impact citizens that already have a home, it's only the new construction. Correct. But if a citizen's down there and builds a new home or something, then yes, that would impact them.

Correct.

Okay, so it's new construction. People wouldn't know this, but probably a year ago, I guess, year to year and a half ago, this council talked about EMS as a package. And one of the parts of that was putting the financial infrastructure in place that will allow us to create a brand new EMS headquarters that will be located around the industrial park area. And that will help service the whole county better. and then this was another part of that discussion that we had to get to which was doing the impact fee so that we could have the highest growth area protected because correct me if i'm wrong but the those that area you're talking about has about 70 of the county's growth So it's the high growth area. So we wanted to make sure we were taking care of that area through the impact fee, which makes sense. And the new headquarters could also service Merriweather area too. It's not restricted, but also that the new headquarters will build separately from this ordinance. This impact fee would service everybody too. So I just want to kind of put those facts out there. So I'll open it up to council. Any questions or comments?

Thank you, Doc. It's been a long time coming. One of the first things I asked for when I got elected. But anyway, Edgefield County has a value. People like Brian, David, who's lived out here for 50 years, whatever. People want to come to Edgefield County for a reason. And now it's going to start costing them. And I don't think that's a bad thing. But like I said, the man right there needs some more help and needs more analysis. He gets calls all the time from A to Z, and we've got to be ready. The man sitting next to him, he needs help, and so we need to be ready for his calls, and that's what we're working on. So thank you all.

As we spoke, I didn't want someone wanting to build a barn because their cows are not going to cause impact on EMS. I hope not. You never know. I know, right? You never know. So I appreciate the exemptions that we did put in there and offer for doing that for them. It only seems right to me, in my mind, that the rest of the county not put the bill, if you will, for the extra services that this area needs now because of their growth. They should pull their weight in that area and they should pay for the stress that it's putting on the rest of the county. And this will mean that we can put that substation there and that will mean they will have the services they need And so I appreciate the hard work that went into this, the study that had to go for months before, people who participated. Thank y'all for putting this together for us to talk about. Not very happy that we can't go after the percent thing, but I get it.

Other questions or comments, McKenzie?

I would just like to say we'd like to thank Doc and David because they put in a lot of hours and a lot of work. And it helped us out a lot when we see them working. And I hope each and everyone that sit here tonight have gained some knowledge from what our chairman had indicated here tonight. We here to do the right thing, try to do the right thing to please the people in the Innspirit County. It hurts me when I hear and see so much misleading people on the social media. And I just wish there was a way that we could get away from it, but everybody have their own opinions of what they want to do. But we here to serve and do the right thing for the people that live in Eastfield County and want the community to live. Doc, we thank you also very much. And we definitely appreciate this council member. We worked hard together also. And we thank each and every one. We also thank you all for coming to listen. It's good when we can get schooled on different things. Thank you all. Thank you. Other comments or questions?

Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to give first reading to ordinance number 25-26-010? So moved. Mr. Moody makes the motion. Is there a second? Dr. Kenyon seconds. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Next, under new business number two, consideration of approval of first reading of ordinance number 25-26-011 and ordinance authorizing the issuance and sale of general obligation bonds series 2026 or such other appropriate series designation of Ishmael County, South Carolina in the principal amount of not exceeding $6,250,000, $6,250,000, fixing the form and details of the bonds, authorizing the county administrator to prescribe certain details relating to the bonds, providing for the payment of the bonds and the disposition of the proceeds thereof and other matters relating thereto. And again, I'll ask the administrator if he'd like to walk through the details of this one, please.

Thank you. This proposed bond will fund the main EMS station as opposed to the substation we were talking about earlier. It should be located around Generac in that area. It will fund part of the industrial park property acquisition and the county building improvements that were unexpected such as the courthouse flat roof and the chamber roof replacement here. This bond will be paid back with existing debt service millage as council will recall last year in our millage discussions. paying for this station. Well you cannot use debt service to pay the bill directly. You have to incur debt that you will then service with the millage and that's what we're doing here. Now the total amount of the bond will be reduced substantially by second reading if the state approves an earmark for the new EMS station. There are very positive signs there but I wouldn't want to assume 6.5 million in this first reading, but we really hope that that will drop substantially.

That's all. For clarity of people here and listening eventually, the This general obligation bond doesn't have anything to do with the impact fee. This is a separate, distinctly different, it's still EMS, but it's different in other things too.

That is correct. It's completely separate. In fact, we intend to start on the EMS main station within a year or so. The impact fee will gather money over a period of a few years to then follow up with an EMS subsidy. And just for the public's information, a general obligation bond is the typical way that a county incurs debt. Counties don't typically go out for a bank loan or something of that nature. There are specific state laws governing this. So this is a standard state debt vehicle that's paid directly from property tax debt service millage, which we have in place and we have a substantial fund already collected.

Thank you. Questions or comments from Council?

I'd just like to remind people that last year we had thought we were getting an MRT from the state for this purpose. We are all excited thinking the state is going to give us some money. And at the last minute, they pulled the rug out from under us. So we are hopeful that this time it comes through. They pulled the rug out from everybody last year. So to be fair, it wasn't just us. They didn't do any of ours last year. But we are very hopeful. The delegation has worked very hard for us, our delegation, to get this money. And so we're hoping it does stay in place because it will, like the administration, bring this cost down substantially for us. And hopefully that will mean we can lower some taxes in the future. That's my goal.

That is the hope.

That's the hope.

Other comments and questions from council? Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to give first reading to ordinance number 25-26-011? Dr. Kenyon makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. And Mr. Talbot seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Next, we're up to the second public comment period. I'll ask the clerk if she can bring me the, I'm assuming some people have signed up. So, while she's bringing that to me, just a couple of things the speakers need to know. First, that you're reading your agenda, the maximum amount of time is five minutes per person. 30 minutes total on the timing. And we'll start with the people who signed up the first time I talked about this. So we'll start with Oh, I'm sorry. And we have a clock. So the clock will start. So but first up is Joyce Easley. You want to? You want to speak?

And

If you'll wait just one second. When the clock starts, then you can start.

It'll be loud.

The only thing I would like to say is I do appreciate everything that you guys are putting in place. And my comments weren't all from social media. I did see that feed from the news guy. And that's what provoked me to come out because I didn't know that you guys were having a meeting. But the other thing that the part with the water and the lakes and stuff where data centers are, I've seen it. And that's why I brought that up. But again, I do appreciate you guys putting this in place to protect us. And that's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Next up is Michelle Walker. One second.

I'm Michelle Walker. I live in Trenton, South Carolina. I live at the end of Bettis Academy Road, so right up the road is Generac. Not saying, I know y'all said there's not a data center right now coming, but I'm asking you in this ordinance, think about people that do live around that area. You know, my neighbor has cows, and when I think of Edgefield, I think of country. I think of a safe place for my child to be raised. You know, he plays soccer here. That's where I know Mrs. Ireland from. My husband works out here in Titan Farms. Y'all might even see him at Sarah Peach Stand. So I'm just asking y'all to please think of the ones that do live around there. Unfortunately, if you go up the other way to Bettis, they're already built at Data Center near Bridgestone. And I live on family land, so it's not like I can just up and move. Everybody in the family is going to have to move. So, and I just say that I think what all y'all are doing, this is my first time ever being out to something like this. And what made me want to come is, you know, I felt like the good Lord just said, you need to go and you need to see what you can do in your community. And I just say that, you know, and I saw that News Channel 6, Talk about the meeting we're having tonight. I'll say, well, wait a minute. I need to go because I live right up the road from Jenner Act. This will affect where I live, too. So I just want y'all to please keep that in mind. I know y'all are from here. Y'all live here. Y'all got family that live here. So think about your loved ones. If they live right there where one may in the future be at. You know y'all no one has control over the light company, but light company or the water You know no one says they wouldn't raise our our light bill or our rates if a data center comes so I'm not a you know expert on data centers, but Whoever y'all hired to do if that ever was to come I'm just asking y'all to make sure they do their due diligence You know we are doing the best we can now just to making EMS meet some of us that live here. So I just ask you all to please really think about the people that do live here. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up is Lucille Burton.

Good evening. My name is Lucille Burton. I am from Johnson, South Carolina. I am And my reason for coming this evening, the Israel County African American Heritage Commission has been trying to form for two years or more. We had a bump in the road with getting our 501c3, but we finally accomplished that. We have been meeting in different areas in the county, so our group could be familiar with what was in the county and what kind of, like we met at the library, we met with Mr. Oh, Jesus, what's his name go? Anyway, we met several places, so we would know what was in the county. Our purpose is to share the African American history in Edgefield County. And the idea came from our chairman, which is a great idea. And at this point, we have been meeting at a lot of the facilities here, like we meet at the council building here. We meet sometime at Scott, Scott Hut. We meet sometimes down in Tweed Ward. But my reason for coming this evening, we have applied for our bank account and They asked where did we meet and I was like we meet in several of the county's facilities. But we are required to only have one. So my reason for coming out this evening is to see if we could use the address at the Scout Hut to satisfy our banking needs. Now our post office box is post office box 117 Edgefield. No mail will be going to the skype address because we have we do have our own post office box we just need something to take to our bank so they'll see that we are in existence and we do need so that's my purpose for coming this evening and as administrators i recall we talked about this and there was no issue because they're not doing mail there or anything that's great there's no issue whatsoever they're just documenting a

standing in common, meeting the trails, that's fine.

Thank you, we really appreciate it.

Thank you. And the last speaker who signed up is Aaron Hodges. Hang on one second please.

Are these the only ordinances that we have against data centers right now?

Forgive me, I don't understand. Just in layman terms, are you saying that you cannot guarantee that they wouldn't affect our utility rates?

So they would have to provide a study showing that they wouldn't. And if their study does not show that, we would have a reason to deny them. Obviously, I don't have any control over the water authority or the power plants, so I can't speak on their behalf. But I can say that we're going to require them to study it, and that study has to satisfy that they will not be impacting our water and power. And if we feel like they can or will, then we'll deny them. And if in the future they do end up impacting it, it also gives us a reason to shut it down.

so if our rates end up hiking you will shut the data centers down if it's due to something they did yes okay um there are a lot of other concerns i have besides the things in these ordinances are there plans

to add any other ordinances concerning data centers so the most and we've discussed this with uh several times in the planning commission a lot of concerns that people have are environmental concerns which is not managed by Edgefield County. We are not what's called an MS4 district. So we don't do environmental regulation ourselves. That's a service that the State Department of Environmental Services does for us. Most of the time when you see like a big city, they are an MS4 district. They have their own environmental engineers. They have their own environmental department. We don't do that ourselves. So that's why you don't see those in that ordinance is because we have a third party, the State Department of Environment, doing it on our behalf. And they would still have to meet those regulations. So they have to meet it through them and then we only receive an approval or denial from that agency. So if they violate an EPA regulation or you know, endangered species regulation or something of that nature, then DES would send us a letter of denial and that gives us the authority to kill it on our side.

Okay. Okay, so my other concern is Beyond the initial construction and development, these data centers usually only employ like 25 to 150 people. So my question is beyond that initial investment, like what benefit does this have to our community?

Well, I mean, if you want a theoretical benefit, I'll give you an example.

As opposed to all of the other like detriments that these data centers bring, like really what good is it doing us?

So from our perspective, you know, it doesn't really have to do any good for us because

bannered we don't have that you can make mandates that like de-incentivize them from building here right which is what we just did i think we just did that yeah so the three ordinances though so those those ordinance makes it so restrictive that it they basically

No data center of scale can come to H-ville County. That's what that ordinance effectively does. It is illegal for us, of course, to just outright ban anything. And it is also illegal for us to do what's called technical infeasibility, which means we restrict it to the point that it is no longer possible anywhere in the county through technical means. can't do those sorts of things but we have restricted as much as we really can and I'm not going to call it a project killer but this is like as much as you can do locally to de-incentivize them from building here okay I mean obviously the state has powers you know they can declare a statewide moratorium and and pass other laws and stuff of that nature. That's not a power we have.

Okay, so lastly, worst comes to worst, we get a data center, they end up polluting our air, our water, all that stuff. What avenues besides shutting down do we have to correct that?

So we do have decommissioning requirements if the plant shuts down, and they will have a very hefty bond on file with the county We will use that, if they don't pay for it up front, then we will use that bond to clean it up.

So they're responsible for all of the cleanup. That is correct. Thank you, thank you. Thank you.

Well, thank you. All right, council, that's everyone who signed up for the second public comment period. So we will move to report from county council members. Does any county council member have a report tonight?

I just want to remind everyone that we have our camps are open. And our registration is open for our summer camps. We have many different camps for our children and teachers. Some are already full. Some don't have a cap. Some don't have a cap. They don't want to join us. And so we're looking forward to having some fun with the children. We have some adult camps. All the camp information can be found on our community website. So we just encourage you to look at that. And if you have some children or grandchildren that would like to come participate with us, we'd love to have them there. And just want to thank, again, y'all for all the work that you put into these. Want to remind everyone, especially those here tonight who are involved, keep your eyes on the seats and remind you that we are accessible. We are here. You see us at the soccer field and you see us at the grocery stores. We are not like the state representatives who you may not see all the time or even however. But we are here in your town. Our numbers, our ways of contact are all there. Do you have questions? I had several questions before leading up to this meeting, people emailing me about the issues that we spoke of tonight and felt like we were able to address them well and alleviate some concerns and fears because of all the misinformation that was put out. So we are accessible. That's just what I wanted to share with you. We're accessible.

This Thursday at 4 o'clock p.m., we invite everyone to come out, learn about Eshfield County, your roads. I'm on that committee as a liaison, but we don't have men to come to ask questions about their roads and the bridges in Eshfield County. But I see a lot of complaints on Facebook about the roads and their bridges. We're on a meet quarterly. So the meeting will be this Thursday at 4 o'clock p.m. I know men have to work. We need to send someone to stand in for you. For all this seat. We meet right here. The seats be empty. So that's to everyone. Tell someone if you want to know anything about the roads. Come out and speak.

All right. Nothing else from council. I'll turn it over to the county administrator for his report.

Thank you. Councilwoman Ireland stole some of my thunder on the summer camp, but I do want to roll through them real quickly just so the public knows what the county's doing. And this has really been amazing. We didn't really have much in the way of summer camps until a couple of years ago, and it's gotten better and better and better. The partnerships, the volunteers have been amazing. The partnership with Clemson 4-H has been amazing. But the summer camp started this week with outdoor camp. Next week we have art camp and another adventure camp, which is the outdoor camp, followed by cheer and dance the following week. And that's followed by soccer camp, and then it concludes with basketball. There is still space in soccer, girls basketball, and the Adventures in History camp. And I can promise you the effort that's been put into these camps, any of them, would be a great experience. and i just have to say our rec department has worked so hard i can't say enough about them marcus and nick that put forth a lot of effort and then aretha if you're worried that your child may not get anything good for lunch and that that's a ill-placed worry there because aretha acts like she's feeding her kids so our kids EMS department started their own EMT school and the class is concluding with six graduates. Six of them made it through. That's been a great success and we intend to do it again. Garrett, when's the graduation? June 22nd. June 22nd. So we'll graduate six students, and we're so happy about that. If anyone listens to the news, you know that EMS services have a heck of a time filling the ranks, having enough employees. So we decided to seek our own solution, and I think it's going to work well for us. Again, we'll have another class later in the year. That's all I have. Thank you.

Questions from council for the administrator? Okay, hearing none, we'll go to the chairman's comments. I have a few. First, I held my town hall last month. I appreciate the administrator and assistant administrator joining me. I believe we were able to communicate what the council has done, is doing, and wants to do in the future. for those citizens. Oh, I'm sorry. And we also just go miss that some people are hanging on to in social media. So for those citizens who like to say our council isn't transparent and doesn't answer questions, where were you? We all had town halls in the past three months. We all stand ready to answer your questions. As we have said, as a reminder in the 29 other days of the month, you can reach out to us anytime for a one on one discussion if you'd like. We're not hard to find. Also, I appreciate everyone's comments tonight and implement data centers. Again, I'm pleased we could dispel some myths for some people that others have chosen to embrace. I do want to point out though a couple of facts that we never got to. So first, and this is not opinion, this is fact. that industries and our local industries in the area, I mean, not necessarily in H2O County, but the area industries and as citizens, we use more water than these data centers do. You want an example? The Metta Data Center in Aiken, we use about 30,000 gallons a day. We use about one million gallons a day watering our lawns in H2O County. There are industries that use more water than 30,000 gallons a day. So just remember, it's not just data centers. All industry uses electricity. And by the way, there are some local industries that use more electricity than the newer data centers. So you gotta put things in perspective here and think about all industries. And we look at all industries. This is an industry, we look at all industries. And we have rules and regulations for them all. And finally, I think it's worth pointing out that Electric rates aren't determined by county. Dominion doesn't say, how much electricity are you using in Edgefield County versus Greenville County, and should we raise your rates? We look at it as a broad perspective on what they charge, and they go through the Public Service Commission. And so, just so you'll know, let's just say a data center opens in Greenville and takes up the electricity. I could raise your rates. It's nothing to do with Edgefield County. So you've got to get some perspective on all this. And remember, everything that happens here doesn't necessarily mean it's going to affect you here in that way, if you understand what I'm saying. So I just want to kind of bring those perspectives to you because across the state, a big industry could open. It has nothing to do with data. But maybe they use a lot of electricity. and that could affect it so just keep in mind you you got to think beyond your your county borders on things like that because those things impact us so we all have to deal with that so i wanted to to bring that up finally i appreciate us passing the budget tonight which takes effect July 1. We didn't discuss it in detail here tonight because it was the final reading, but we discussed it, the five of us and staff, in great detail publicly in March and April. So I tell you that because I appreciate and commend all those involved in preparation for budget and working through all the details for the past six months or so. The budget sets us up for a great year. The budget, to me, is the most important document we do because that sets the tone for the whole year. So that's all I had counseled. There being nothing else on the agenda, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Mr. Talbert makes the motion. I think Dr. Kenyon second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed? The motion passes unanimously. Thank you all for coming.