Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Hi Betsy.

Hi. How are you? Oh, 82. It is It's on 75 7.8. Do you want some money?

No. I know. He didn't even ask you to share with us, but I'm asking him. I've got some.

Are you sure? We're live ready to go. Okay. Well, we'll go ahead and get started. It's a minute or two before six. We'll go ahead and get started. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Well, I want to start by saying um thanks for everybody that came out tonight. Um wish there was this many people every time we had a meeting. But um we'll go ahead with public comments. Um we would like you to keep it. Do we do three or five minutes? Five minutes. Okay.

So is there anybody here for public comment? Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, that's why I was screwed up. Next time you're in the in the walkway of the interchange, run me over.

Slip slip slip off the brake and hit the gas. That was a joke to somebody. I don't want to get arrested for my name is Gary. I live at 3308 Frontier Circle in Manhattan. I uh I'm a native Junction Cian and have rental property as you know here. Um just a couple of things that I want to hit on. Last year I think it was that I asked about opening the burn pile on a second Saturday. Um I don't really I didn't really follow up. So I assume based on the sign that I saw out there and now that it's April that we're still on one Saturday. Is that correct or

we are on one but they are working on possibly doing two. Okay. Yeah. I It's still in the works, I assume. Yeah. See, just like the legislature, things move really slowly in government. We don't want to rush.

No, no, we don't want to rush. We don't want to do a good thing fast. Um, secondly, I uh I haven't been able Well, you're just getting started on the budget. So, so this is a question that's probably ahead of things and and you don't have an answer, but but I am curious after last year's and you'll have to refresh my memory. I think the city went with a 6% cola. That's my recollection. What did Gary County go with last year? Was a 1% cola and then a 3% step.

Yeah. I'm not sure how the step works. It's experience, right? And a posit or a years of service and a positive evaluation. Yes. And and not everybody receives it. It's not cart blanc. It's based on the evaluation. It it depends on the department heads and their evaluations. Yeah. And the department's head makes that decision. Yes. Okay. So, is there any inkling or indication of where you might fall this time around? Um, are in the preliminary? Dewy's not going to hold you to it. He might report it. Well, I mean, it's all preliminary. Um, just throwing the numbers out there. Tammy has um talked about doing a 2% colo with a 3% step. Okay.

So, the total cost,

right? But they're actually separate. I mean, the same dollar separate. The reason I asked that question is there was an extensive discussion at the law board meeting today in Riley County regarding cola and they have to do their budget before the county and city has to and they don't know what they're going to do the county and city and so they're kind of afraid well what do we do for cola but from what I understood and I was just watching it on audio is there's some kind of Midwest data that's used for cola in terms of inflation or and I don't I don't know all the specifics of that, but it seems to me that um most counties in that area should be about the same cola because they're all in the same region. So if you're going to be at under three or two and a half or whatever you just said, it's reasonable that others Dickinson County and Marshall County and whatever would be I'm just curious. It's a curiosity question. Uh lastly, because I know my time's almost up, is I want to encourage you, and I think I did this last year, to to really think about two things. Um on this nice budget overview, the adorum revenue is 54.1% of of all your revenue. 51 54.1% which is good thing because you don't have sales tax. Well, you have sales tax but you don't have significant sales tax like a city and your expenditures are at 47. I I want to encourage you as best as you're able to keep that spread as much as you can because Riley County for this same budget year they crossed the threshold where their revenue

for personnel I didn't say personnel but personnel crossed percentage-wise their adalorm and they don't have sales tax either well they have sales tax but not significant sales tax so just do your best to keep that down Because for example in Junction City as you know 100% of everybody's property taxes pay personnel cost and it's not enough money now. It's probably been that way for a long time and fortunately we have sales tax. That's why they say shop local because we need the sales tax revenue. So I just want to encourage you. you're in a better financial position is what I'm getting at than most system cities and keep it up as best as you can as long as you can. Uh and with regards to that well not on a on the same same topic on the right side of this um you call it uh general fund expenditures. Some of them are what I refer to as outside agencies. I I want to encourage you and this is my opinion. Hopefully I won't make the paper. Um, but in my opinion, government doesn't have a soul. Okay? So when you give money to nonprofits, which should be funded by charity, I just ask you to really think about that. Those nonprofits should really be knocking on doors and raising money themselves. I don't think anybody ever pays property taxes thinking, "Huh? H well, yeah, it's okay for the county to give charitable money." They do. They always have. It's the practice. But really think think about that because it's really not the role of of government. Never has been other than I mean statutoily has never been the role of government to do that. But it's a

hard one because you have issues, social issues, uh, that nonprofits deal with um, and things like that. But anyway, thank you for the evening. Oh, go ahead. Can I touch on that, Eric? So, um, we do put out and we put out to the outside agencies, not departments within the county. We say, "Are you looking for other sources of funding?" Right. So we are trying to encourage them in that.

Yeah. And and hopefully you know I I think one of the ways if you could possibly move to this possibly I'm just thinking out loud is you know and it's hard it's it's nearly impossible is maybe you can incentivize them by doing a match. you know, if you raise x number of dollars in 2025, just making up the years, um, we'll give you, you know, a 50% match of what you raise. Or maybe that's too generous, 25% match or whatever the case may be, because you're you're trying to balance services to revenue and in between that is the property tax that everybody's facing now. As I've said that gets me in trouble is you can really raise your taxes here in Gary County to whatever you'd like. It's not a problem for me. It just means that you increase the cost of housing in the county or in junction city. Same thing's true in I just say it in Riley County. You just raise the taxes on everybody or the rents on everybody on the other side of the river. That's the reality of it when you're a landlord.

Thanks for your time. You got you guys are you guys are doing a good job. I mean, keep it up. That's I think that's because you got that. I think you got Yeah, keep her. Yeah, I'm pointing to Tammy. Keep her because she's just done a phenomenal job and you've done a good job of trying to be transparent. And by the way, it's a lot of fun watching by going driving by the fly over construction. I'm still trying to figure it out in terms of where it's going to go. I'm thinking all that rock. I hope you guys got some of that rock. It's gravel because it'd be pretty cheap, I suppose. But I mean, it's Yeah, it's going to be impressive when it's done.

I mean, 20 27 million or whatever it is. But thank you very much. You bet. Thank you.

Anyone else? I'm sure everyone knows why I'm here. Um, but anyway, on the EDC agenda last week, there was an AI opportunity assessment that was man that was mentioned and Mickey stated that she really didn't know what it was about. It was something that she won. Sound like some sort of a contest or something and she asked asked the board members if you know what to do with it and they suggested maybe looking into it to see what it was. But whenever I see AI and what I've been helping with other communities trying to, you know, curtail is data center development, um AI has always been a short term for data centers. So that's why I thought, you know, maybe the commission needed to be aware, you know, and I'm I'm just glad that she put it on here because so much is always, you know, secret. They couldn't can't give out any information on that on projects, you know, that they're looking at. Well, that was a uh something that she won at one of her uh meetings or something and and she wasn't gonna be ungrateful for not going, but she didn't know if she should attend

or not. And I one of the members did suggest she probably should even just check it out, right? Since she no money out of go. So, right.

But that's what you know when I see assessment, are they assessing our area for one of these? And if that boy, I sure don't want something like that sneaking up on us because if it and if it's kept secret, it's just going to stir up controversy just like the slaughterhouse did several years ago. So that's why I asked in the meeting. And I said, I hope that if this is one of these data centers that everything will be handled openly, transparently, honestly, and all the information will be given to all of the entire community, not just the EDC commissioners, you know, because this is something that can impact the whole area. And so that's why I came here and I was I found out that Riley County has now um they voted in a moratorum on Dana centers for a short time period because you know like I said there needs to be some like it says here an assessment before this is ever taken up by the EDC or anyone else trying to bring something like this to the community. So that's that's why I'm here and I was wanting to ask if you know there's a possibility to you know create a moratorum on this

have that discussion later on. Yep. I saw that on the agenda but like I said I just wanted we're all aware of it. We talked about it and um you know um this all all we could I just wanted the public to know there's five cano Miami Harvey and Butler and Butler's a pretty hot topic and I think um that um that meeting might be either tonight or tomorrow but they're going to have a a meeting about that I know but um I also know in St. Louis wherever they did that the five four members of their five commission they took them out. I mean, yes, literally. They're wrong. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's it's it's a it's a serious issue. You know,

I think, you know, we I don't think we know, right? That's why when you guys talked about Nikki going, she obviously said she's going to go and report back. Correct. Yeah. Well, it uh one of the members said, "Well, you probably should go just to see what it is, right?" Yes. They just mentioned in the meeting just check it out and see what it is. Yeah.

But right there's nothing wrong with that but I just want you know the commission to be aware because you know how many people are actually aware that AI is a short term for data data centers. So because the members there that were there there were not many there um they asked me well what is the problem with a data center? So a lot of people are unaware of that and if that's what happens you know something like this could start getting pushed and you know it could have some unintended consequences. So that that's just why I wanted to make it public and make it known so that everyone is aware of it.

So thank you. Anyone else? I can speak a minute if I could.

I just the reason I'm here is to talk about the data centers. Um I don't know if it would be at this point it may be premature uh to put a moratorum on data centers. I can tell you that AI and data centers are not the same at all. Data centers are what generates the information. Um but the data centers know that the communities don't want them because they take water's the biggest issue. Uh some communities don't have enough electricity to support them anyway and then they use so much water. Uh and these companies Google has come out with a data center that uh they recycle all their water. They they and I can't remember the amount but it's not a large amount of water. it's something that a community could handle, then that's all they use. They just keep recycling that water. Uh the power intake, uh they're they're downgrading them, making them smaller so they're not uh such a cumbersome for a community, but they pay really high wages. Uh the smaller data centers that they're doing, they have between 45 and 65 employees. And when you're starting wages 80,000 a year, it's not a bad thing. So, uh I think the data centers are looking at themselves knowing that everybody is not wanting them. Uh and more and more counties, well, a lot of counties are are putting moratoriums on wind farms. Uh they're not liking that very well. Uh and so that's maybe something to look at if you want something like that in our county. the discussions.

Uh but but I would just wait a little bit. Um uh I can tell you that at this point u there's not any discussion with any kind of a data center, but I think if somebody were interested in Junction City America, it would be the smaller ones that are contained, don't use a ton of water, and don't use a ton of electricity. would we be able to um have I mean I don't you know we have an issue with our electricity we don't have enough for some of these industry so I wouldn't even think that we even

we have a we have a lot of trouble with ever u but ever has they are in the process or I shouldn't say in the process uh within the next year they're going to add another 24 megawatt to the substation on the east side of town that that would give us about 47 megawatt which is huge. The issue we have today is there's not any uh transformers and uh the plant in Dodto the Panasonic battery uh has taken four years worth of our transformers. So that's the issue. Uh we're going to have plenty of power but they won't be able to break it out to supply businesses with it. I think that'll change

the data center, wouldn't it?

The data center would be, you know, we can probably supply it with enough power today. Um, I don't think at this point we would want to do that unless we have a little one personally, but um I don't think that we're going to have to look at that. I don't think they're looking at Junction City. I I think they want to be by a metro area and we're not big enough. Well, my other question is I don't know where you're getting your 45 to 60 employees because what I read it's a lot of that is done outside the area and there's only a handful of people working directly at the status. So, these smaller ones are a different beast, Keith. Um, that there is more uh alignment that they have to do from they're not routers, but there's more alignment that they have to do between the machines that they need more staff. Um, and that is what u I think that the communities are more inclined to go with these data centers because they're smaller, they don't take as much energy, and they have more employees. Well, I would say a moratorum as far as I understand it is I would like to put a moratorum on it. You know, you could put a three-year moratorum on it and you could still go back in and change it, but uh we need the time for people planning and whoever to make up some planning and and regulations just to have in place or to be thinking about these things. I hate to say we're not going to do anything and then two years down the road some we'd be hit with something. We need to be in the ahead of the game and know what's going on. We need proper people to be checking out the regulations because rural Gary County can't sustain. There's no there's no infrastructure or anything for that. So it'd be the city. So I

guess they're talking about tomorrow night. But as far as a moratorum for me and I'm concerned is you could take it off any time. You know, if you we have a three years that should be give people ample time uh to Yeah. I don't think you're going to hurt anything, Kathy with the three-year moratorum. I don't think there's again this this smaller data center that's going to take some time to, you know, formulate how they're going to put that out anyway. And well, I just as fast as it's moving, I would think they could do have that long before three years, but it's not going to hurt that

to have a moratorum. I think we've visited briefly about this, but I think um I think for us to do our due diligence in that is making sure that we have our ducks in a row and knowing what we're dealing with and and uh and so and I don't know if we'll know what we're dealing with even by putting more on until it happens. Yeah. Well, I'm just Well, we've already had issues with they had solar um some people were upset about the solar out on south. It was a backup for the rural um for your Grand Plaza. Yeah. But that was solar only for us. Well, we want in fact one of the things I'm going to bring up tonight in our discussion is us having any kind of solar that is being sold to other places.

But the wind and solar are different than they know. Well, most of your wind generation talking about all of that, you know, alternative stuff. Most of your wind generation is not delivered to Kansas. No, it all goes back. It goes to Florida, goes to California. Well, and there's already kind of I mean, they say an unofficial one um in the Flint Hills. That's why we have none here because the governor several I think it was governor civilians civilians um put in there wouldn't be any wind. Well, we also got four rally

and yeah, it can't happen with the helicopters flying around too. So, but I think uh we owe the citizens of Kerry County uh to be upfront with them because you know you get to more of their speculation and if we're trying to do something or you know Butler County is having that issue now and um I always believe that things are a lot easier if you're upfront with people and so I want to be as forward coming to people and know where where we're at not working on anything and have people research and and then you know when we ask for well not a recommendation but I just hope the people they're in place have the equipment they need to do their due diligence to report back and to us as to what's going on. So that is my I think we all feel that way.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But I appreciate the information. Sure. Sure. Glad to hear it. Thank you. Is this a BA situation where I need to hand it to her first or can I give this straight to you guys? I give it to us. Okay. Do you have one for her, too? Uh, I brought four. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Anthony Burkewood 6210 Highway City. The chickens that were growing in my yard the other day, I Yes. Um,

there's a rooster in there. So, last week there was a meeting. I forget what it was called. It was like a zoning commission meeting. Um, and they voted yes to have chickens in that area. That picture was taken less than 12 hours later with chickens roaming free on my property. So, I don't have an issue with people having chickens out by me. The issue is when people aren't confident enough to keep the chickens on their property.

I agree that yeah, I that's what I said. I heard one in town and then I I thought that you know again if somebody has well chickens in their yard fenced in and they're not bothering me, I don't have to hear them or necessarily see them. I don't have problem with it. But when it starts infringing on somebody's property. So do they not have a fence or do they get out of

I think they they said they put up a fence. I don't think they put it around the chickens though. That's the problem. So, the issue is I showed them seven pictures from March where the chickens were on my property. I could have went back to December and probably had the same amount of pictures or January, whatever month. I have chickens, dogs, even people coming down my property when they shouldn't be. It's continuing issue. The larger issue is the sheriff's department and their incompetence in handling the scenario because they lost paperwork. or whatever the justification is. Okay. Well, from what?

From originally I was told that the person who came on my property wasn't like mentally competent enough to like get charged for the crimes. Then the sheriff then I was like, "Well, how does he own guns?" So then the sheriff's department came back and was said, "Well, we're working it." That happened back in October. It's now April and I don't think he's been charged. He came on property. He broke a sound system part of my alarm system. So kind of like a more heinous crime path to me.

So that alarm was set up to only trigger if there was a large animal or if it would send me a notification like do you want to trigger for this? So it would trigger if there was a chicken or something I didn't want on my property that was undesirable. So I had this alarm system set up. He came on the property because his dog triggered the alarm and then broke it. I'm not sure how he broke it. like had pulled the wire or something. Um, but what I'm saying, so the main reason I'm here is we don't make laws in America for the people who aren't going to be stupid. I know a million people when I lived in Tacoma had chickens in their backyard and we were on quarter acre lots and their chickens never make to my property. We're over there with two two and a half acre properties and their chickens are always on our property. You live out in rural How far?

How about a lakeish off of what? Milford Lake Road and Highway K. So the reason drunk driving is is against law is because of the people who crash in other people. It's not for the people making it home safe. So we make laws in America for people who are too incompetent to live around the rest of us. I don't care about the chickens. What I care about is a chicken staying off my property. So, that's the main reason I'm here. If you guys have any more questions, have you uh I know you've talked to the sheriff's department. Have you talked to the sheriff?

I have not talked to the sheriff. Uh I've talked to a major. His last name starts with an M. Really nice guy. Very nice. He uh has kind of taken the situation under uh I guess another major lives like next door to the uh the guy who came to my property. Does he have problems with them? I have never talked to him. So the the so one the major talk to the end but it's like in a different place. I was talking about a different major man. I apologize. Oh that's okay. Um well I mean if you're not getting any satisfaction I would go up the chain. You're already obviously starting with you know if M's not doing something there's an under sheriff and a sheriff

and a captain. I I understand that and I I I will progress it. Um, but I was just hoping if we are going to pass a law to allow people to have chickens on property, it needs to be stringent like restrictions with the chickens can be in and the number of chickens to include like the length and height of the fencing. I agree. Okay. And we can talk to um Troy Livingston about that and get with our Are you on that? But he No, I'm not. None of us are. But you just said that there was a meeting last week and I was alerted to this issue um that it's going to come before us.

Yeah. But before it does, we could probably put those in if we're going to approve that because I mean we have to approve what they approved. Correct. They're going to advise us recommendation. It's Yes, that's what I mean. So it's a recommendation which you know I feel if you live out in the county you should be able to have chickens but you also need to be a responsible well I grew up with chickens with my grandpa and you had chicken coops. I mean they can't they're not free range.

Well here's the thing is it's so my dog we had an issue with him getting out of the yard and attacking the chickens. My dog hasn't been off my property unless it's going to a vet visit or under like a person's uh watch since summer of 2024. I have a GPS collar on them 24/7. I actually bought two of them so if I take one off I can put another one on them. So four times I got off the property to deal with chickens and then I took measures to prevent it. The problem is my criminal neighbor doesn't do those things cuz he's a low life.

Okay. Well, we'll we will be getting that probably coming up soon. And um I will I feel we need to put some parameters in there that they need to be in a specific type of a cage and uh and uh be able to stay on their property cuz I brought you that one, but I have three other pictures I could have brought, but I didn't want to like shower you. Where was your dog when the chickens were in your yard? My dog I have a double fence yard now. It's about six feet tall. And then I put a foot a foot deep of a steel pipe around my fence so you can't dig out. I can't even get to where? No, it's tighter than Alcatraz.

Jumping over the fence. I don't know. He ain't jumping over six feet. Well, we appreciate the information again and evidently then uh we'll be hearing from that. I apologize. I have to run to his council meeting in Manhattan. I'm trying to get to tonight. You guys have a blessed day. Thank you. Can I have a little word? That's why you moved to the country so you can have animals. No disputing. Come on. You got to be responsible. He put a fence up. They ain't getting on his property. Well, it looks like Well, he got a picture of them on his property right now.

Why don't he move to town? They're going to have chickens there, too. So, what difference does it make? Chicken fly. Yeah. If you ever raised chickens, and I've been around them my whole life until I went in the army. Chickens like roosting in trees. Exactly. And it's not the low branches that you can reach. It's up there. You always go to the tallest one. Plus the fact the tree the chickens were there a long time before he ever moved there. Why did he choose to move? I heard a rooster town and I wasn't very happy about that. I asked my neighbors like, "Ian, was that a rooster that I heard?" He said, "I think it was." And it's like,

"Well, don't come out to buy my place. I got What was his address?" He lives on 18. I don't I don't know. Well, Milro is here at 18 and he lives He lives on 18. I'm just looking at it trying to but I mean once again whether you live in town or in the country that each person is entitled their property and anytime it's infringing on somebody else's property to me that's a problem and if you're a good neighbor you'll try to address it with them but uh seems like a civil issue to me. Yeah. Not sure he knows that. The chicken.

Anybody else? Anybody else have any?

All right. Well, Charles, you are up. Oh, I'm sorry. I have to cross that off. Sorry. in there. Mine might not be as interesting as

well. I ain't going to be sure. Never be quiet. Oh gosh. You're going off somewhere. So got back.

I know. Yeah. Good evening, Commissioner. Jeremy Myers, public works administrator. Got Kaylin Ross with me, administrative services manager. Um, first thing we have this evening is a requested petition on Kansas Falls Road. She bring it up here. uh walk over kind of point out it's not very clear on this map. Currently, there's already an entrance for this property located right here in the center. Land owners just as asking to move that further west over here by the property boundary. So basically, they come up and they come into what they have here with some new buildings and stuff. And this here is just they've cleared out for utility right away. So again, with that, there's already an entrance. They're just wanting to move it further to the west. So with that, I would recommend commission approval for the request petition on that. We did go out make sure there weren't any side issues with moving it or anything. So

So move. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the petition for um to move the driveway. Is that right? Yes. current entrance

on Kansas Falls Road. All those in favor carried. And next we have another requested petition. This one is located on Cutoff Road. Uh you'll see the little red mark on there. That's the proposed entrance. Uh this is just a field entrance for an agricultural field. Um there currently is no entrance there. The person just bought the property, so is needing an entrance there. I believe some of it was probably split off from another owner. Again, we went and looked. No side issues there. So I'd recommend commission approval on that as well. Some move.

Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to approve the petition to um access the cover to access the egg property. All those in favor say I. I. Motion carried. Okay.

And next we have Cloud County Community College mowing contract recommendation. Uh after reviewing the quotes received, uh we would recommend Abala Lawn Maintenance to be awarded the 2026 Cloud Community College mowing quote at a cost of $85 per mowing. And he was rather cheaper than the rest of them. Uh we did did our homework the best we could, contacted his references and spoke with him just to ensure that he knew what all it entailed and he fully said he understood. So we'll give him a shot. I would move your recommendation for Cloud County Community College ming contract. Second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the mowing quote $85 for Cloud County Community College at $85. All those in favor say I. Motion carried.

Yeah. Next is the sheriff's office kitchen HVAC replacement. Uh the HVAC in the kitchen area has been an ongoing issue for several years now. Know the previous administrator was working on it a little bit and there's been some extensive repairs tried to be made to kind of change things. Uh TCA proposes to retrofit modify the existing kitchen HVAC system uh to improve space temperatures and humidity conditions and improve service related issues with the attic mounted makeup air handling unit. Uh during a recent visit that I had up there with kitchen staff kind of talking about the project, they they did voice a lot of concerns with the temperatures that they're seeing during the summer months in that kitchen area.

So proposed cost for that would be $39,437 and that includes materials, electrical, pressure testing, evacuation, charging and startup. Now, the current data management system for the existing HVAC would be removed and put into customer stock as we could utilize that portion of the current deal in some other buildings if we were to have some issues with that. I did talk with finance about this and she did say this could fall with the facility fund at this time. So, my recommendation would be to accept TCA's proposal and get the HVAC fixed up in there for those employees. Yeah, I know. It's been an issue for a long time,

yeah, we actually had this kind of drawn up last August, but with the cooler months kind of getting closer, we pushed it out till this year, and so now we're back at it. Motion. I I make a motion to accept the recommendation. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to um approve the uh proposal for thermal comfort air to take care of the um H back at the um sheriff's kitchen. All those in favor?

Thank you. Next is the TE study Mson and Ritter Road. I did provide you guys with that final draft. Don't know if you've had a lot of time to look through it. It is rather lengthy. Um, after reviewing myself and speaking with KOT, aside from what we have done with lowering the speed limit around the high school on the county roads, there isn't a whole lot more that we can do. Um, I did speak with KOT and they are going to look at the lowcost supplemental plaques, the W4-4PS, uh, and the medium cost option for a full reduced school limit along K18. the two stop signs there um at Ritter Road and 8 18 the K do DOT takes care of those. So that's why the plaques the little lower cost option would be for them to put them up. So but as you review that if you have any questions on it feel free to reach out to me we can talk about it. Uh next is Thomas Creek Road drainage structure replacement. Uh, we have a drainage structure on Thomas Creek Road that is in disrepair and in need of replacement. I'm proposing to take out the existing structure and replace it with pre-cast reinforced concrete box sections to form a box cover. The proposed RCB would have structural design and engineer seal that is included uh in the cost of $20,742.33. Um, I did talk with Chad with Call Valley. Um, he's worked with Morris County in putting some of these in. Uh, we actually went over and looked at one that they had done and it did turn out really nice and looks like a product that'll last for many years to come. So, um, with that, I'd recommend commission approval to purchase the RCB sections from McFerson Concrete at a cost of $20,742.33. And that would come out of the special bridge fund.

Second. And what was that? The uh RC what? RCB. That's reinforced concrete box. It's been moved and seconded to um approve the replacement of the Thomas Creek drainage structure for the cost of 20,74233. Um all those in favor? time. And just a little FYI on that special bridge firm uh fund current balance is 627,657. So my question

you talked earlier about we're talking about home street but there was also a structure on McNeel. Yes. Is that in the works? Yes. Yes. Yep. That's that bridge that we got awarded. Right. Yep. Yep. That one's in the works. So, is this an off-road bridge project or This is going to be done through the county by ourselves. Yeah. Because this actually does not qualify as a bridge. It does not have the have the length to qualify as a bridge. So, it's on on us to replace that one. Or I should say no grants out there to help assist with it.

Uh, next city county joint cleanup update. As you guys know, the cleanup began today and runs through Saturday, April 25th. Uh the county put two rolloffs back at the same locations that we had last year. That Gary County Rural Fire Station number eight at 3500 Pleasant View Road, Milford, Kansas, and then Gary County Rural Fire Station number two at 719 East Lions Creek Road. Um, we'll report back when that ends kind of how it all went and what tonnage was collected and those things. Yeah, there's been I've seen a lot of um information. I don't know who made the flyers, but those are nice.

Yeah, the city put the flyers together, so they did a really nice job with that. It's nice. And it's nice that everybody's working together. Yeah, I think things will go a little smoother than they did last year. Of course, last year was the first one and there was little hiccups along the way, but we learned a lot and I think we're few people still ask me about tires, but I understand and it is I know in the information that, you know, I didn't know they necessarily said maybe, you know, we might be be on the road maybe a time that they do it again. But

yeah, and that's kind of what we've spoke about as well. You know, maybe some joint effort in tires by themselves later on at a later date. So they've just never had any ordinance. So everybody's just been stacking up tires home. Cost a lot. You can take them now to Walmart. Walmart takes them inside. So this Yeah, that's what somebody was telling me that Walmart takes them. I think $2.50 a tire. Whenever I never I've always left my tires, but I just I guess when the farmers out in the rural Yeah. and transfer tires is you can use them for

and just to be clear, we do accept tires at the transfer station for a fee, but they have to be properly processed. That's either cut the sidewalls out of them or cut the tires into force. And that's what some of the issue was this last time, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, that way that that way they don't hold water and then hands will accept them in that form. Good.

Uh, next is the 2026 federal funds exchange. Uh, the federal funds exchange program is a voluntary program that allows a local public agency to trade all or a portion of its federal allocations in a specific uh federal physical year with KOT in exchange for state transportation dollars. uh the 2026 program rate of 90 cents of state funds for every dollar of the local federal limitation exchange. Uh state funds will be paid on a reimbursement basement reimbursement basis as the LPA incurs costs for transportation related projects. Uh this year's federal funds exchange is $176,247.88. 88 cents with that exchange rate of 90 cents on the dollar. Available funds after exchange are 158 62309. Historically, we've used our chip seal cost as the incured cost for that and I would I would do that again this year should commission approve of exchanging those dollars. So my recommendation would be commission approve of the 2026 FFE exchange and for public works administrator to sign all related forms for that.

So move second. It's been moved and and seconded to approve the 2026 FFE exchange to get some of these projects done that it's kind of same as what's been done in the past then correct.

Yeah. What how it works is we like we'll chip seal and then we'll take our cost receipts from the chip sealing. Then we'll submit those uh with the forms and then they'll credit us that back. And just an FYI, 2025 available funds uh that were exchanged was $99,693.31. So that has gone up this year. A pretty good little amount. So good to see that.

Yeah. Uh, next is a historic historic tax credit approval. Uh, we were notified on 47 of 26 by the Kansas historic preservation office that our application for the historic tax credit rehabilitation was approved. Uh, this was from the courthouse limestone tuck and point project that was completed. So we will be working with finance and a couple of companies uh have already reached out to purchase those try to get those moving took a little bit but we found the benefit for

slow moving process. Uh lastly, KCHA uh 2026 spring conference, that's Kansas County Highways Association as May 5th and 6th in Hutcherson, Kansas. And Thomas Snograss, road bridge supervisor, and myself will be attending that. So there Hutcherson this year. Y that's good that for Hutcherson because the commissioner's conference is there the week before. Okay. So yeah. And with that, that's all that I have. Do you have anything for us? Um, how did the survey come out? You guys on our grant? Um, it

wasund 101. Yeah, 110 something like that. Um, I think last we were updated. We can't see the poll information, but I think there were around 90 submissions on the quick poll that was on the right hand side of the website. So, we got a meeting Wednesday with them and then our third TAC meeting is this week as well or next week. So, next week wrapping that up, but um lots of good feedback. So, we appreciate everyone that took the time to do that for us and we'll see where it leads us. Awesome. Thank you.

Um East Street, where we at? So, I finally got a hold of Wildcat Construction and he is supposed to be in town Wednesday or Friday of this week and we're supposed to meet on site evaluate. When I was coming into town, I came on street and they've got some people out there now. Yeah, I think that's that's a fiber project there. Have we had any talk with the city about possibly switching them taking over East Street? We have. Yes. Yep. Yep. I think That makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, Ray actually reached out to me and they they've got uh some projects going on where I believe Call Valley is going to be cing some of their streets and wanted know if if I mind if they ced that, I said not at all. So, I think they'd like to know what's there as well. But my my assumption is once we get it fixed back up and get it in pretty good shape to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So, anything else? Nope. Uh I do have one thing.

Yes. was in a a birthday party yesterday and a gentleman was there that um was on Lion's Creek Road and give kudos to you guys for usually there was complaints but this was an outway for your Okay, good. Y So, all right. Yep. We're good kind of working into that. He said I took a dozen donuts down the shop. Was it Marty? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Nope. It's always good to get some good feedback. He said he was he told me too, but he said he was gonna call you guys. So, we try to do a good job here. It is. It is. Yeah. And food will work with the crew. So,

yes. You find an extra don. All right. Well, thank you, commission. Thank you. We did have somebody up here. What day was she? Thursday. Thursday, I believe it was. Yeah. looking at the system at the through he contacted he's the one that did the cities and Riley counties and city I think and so he came over and Jeremy came up and he looked around and he's going to put in a prize something

he seemed to think he could come up with something that wouldn't break the bank so we'll see What do you think? Um, I watched the Riley County meeting and it you could hear them, you know, it was they had a little they just started so they had a little technical difficulty and some tweets and stuff. He was there and um got him situated. Okay. Yeah. And that's kind of what we had talked about. We asked him, he said, "Well, could you be here? You know, we do this." Yeah. Just in case we had a blip, whatever we end up with. Hi. He's from Indiana. Yes.

Yeah. They actually were the ones that put this box in down on the floor. The same company that did that. Okay. Have a good evening. Thank you.

How's it going? back on track.

Mine shouldn't be too long today. So, I was kind of worried your packet was bigger than the public works, so I didn't know. I had to look through there and see what all you had in there.

Uh, one contract was like 24 pages. I'm assuming that uh like that went to the counselor, correct? Uh, no. I never sent her the this one. It's the exact same contract we sign every year.

Okay. So, is that something Betsy that you've seen before? Yeah, it's the Opus contract. I don't think I've ever looked at it. I don't know if he's done it before. I don't recolct it didn't come this year.

Well, if we were supposed to approve it, I would probably um want her just to look over delayed process, but um I would prefer that she looked over at it first. Yeah, that's not a problem. And we what we can do is say that she's in based on that. Okay. But that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Just in case they

No, I'll make sure to send it. Yeah, I read through it and uh the only change I saw was a different form they want us to use when reporting. I'll make sure give her a little time to look over make a motion that we um go into the board. You want to second? Sure.

And moved and seconded to go in to the monthly board of health meeting. All those in favor? Okay. Hey, I'm uh Charles Martinez. I'm the director at the health department. Uh so this month we had a lot going on. Uh the first thing I want to bring up is the about the healthc care coalition. So this is a regional asset that we're a part of. It involves the hospitals, EMS, emergency management, and health departments. Uh it's like a coordination unit. uh if an emergency happens. Well, it was shut down on April 8th and we found out about it on April 14th. Uh we're not sure why. The only thing in the email was that uh they disbanded the organization. Uh they said that they'll follow up with more information and we haven't heard anything. So, I'm not sure what happened there. We like as a coalition, we decided we're going to continue meeting, especially since the World Cup's coming up. Uh we're going to continue doing the work and then uh hopefully KDH puts something out about what's going on. Uh,

so sorry to interrupt, but does this tie in with any of what emergency management does with their table? I was going to ask. Yes. Yes. I mean, because we already did that. Uh, so this is like if we need to pull medical resources from another part of the the state, we coordinate through the HCC. Oh. And so emergency management would go through the HCC to pull in resources.

Yeah, it was a huge hit to our plan. We've got to rewrite our entire response plan. Uh normally we go we'll work local, then we go to the Wildcat region, and if they can't handle it there, then it goes to the Northeast Healthcare Coalition. But the HCC has been eliminated throughout the state

and we're not sure why. And it's also part of our grant reporting. There's things we have to do for the HCC. Uh so we need guidance from KDHG. I'm hoping they put something out soon. Well, he might um let um uh Mr. Veres know as well because G you your plan is installed into the whole what's the name of that the coupe plan. Yeah coup plan. So yeah he needs to know about that too and maybe he could do some talking with the state or whatever get you know work on it together.

No I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure you'll be the Speaking of our grant reports, we got them all submitted on time. Uh both our FSRs and our progress reports. Uh there was another issue with the state on that. They kicked everyone's back from who submitted it. Uh there was an error in their computer system. Uh it was only for one day. They said some people will have to go resubmit, others won't. we didn't have to resubmit ours. But, uh, yeah, there's just issues with the K gems now that they updated it again.

Uh, the next thing, the Opus contract. So, I'll get a copy to Betsy and it's the same thing we've used for years. Uh, it's $128,000 with a $64,000 match. uh we use it to pay salaries and utilities and supplies for patients. Well, I'll make a motion that after um Betsy reviews it, if she approves it, that um we'll go ahead and allow you to sign that second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded uh based upon the counselor's approval that um once uh she's approved the grant then we will go ahead and and approve it at that time. That sounds good.

Uh for our safe kids program, I'll talk about that in a little bit. I just wanted to let you guys know who our partners were and I listed it in a different section and it's poorly laid out on my part. Now for disease surveillance, uh it was looking good this month. Our suicidal ideiations, this is the patients that go to the ER and they're contemplating suicide. Uh that's dropped and uh that's actually at a three-year low. So for last in February, it's a month behind. Uh we were at 14 patients showing up to the ER. Uh our overdoses uh our big one is suicide related. It's people who are trying to take their lives who uh you know that's how they overdose to take their life. Uh the rest of them it's uh alcohol is number two and that's like three patients. So uh we're still targeting the mental health pretty hard right now. Uh for acute respiratory illness, uh that dropped and that's expected. Uh we're coming out of flu season. It's warming up. Respiratory illnesses are going to go down with it. RSV, it dropped. Uh COVID and influenza. Our GI illnesses, they're holding steady. Uh there's nothing we can really do. It's people who don't cook their food correctly or they're not washing their hands. We're still pushing information out there about proper food handling, but uh it's been around between 15 and

19% for decades. So, as long as we stay in that that range, we're doing good. uh for our sensitive disease report. Uh this may not look that great, but to have only nine patients show up with chlamydia in the county for last month, that's really good. Uh zero gorrhea, zero syphilis, uh I mean that that's pretty impressive. And people we haven't dropped on our testing. It's uh we're running the same rate. It's just people are being safer about it. Uh for our patient encounters, the big one for this month is TB screening and that's because we had the two uh TB patients or active TV in the county. And so we've been hitting that one really hard to make sure it doesn't spread. Uh for training and professional development, we've got one person going to the Kansas Health Co. Oh, okay. So, this is different than the HCC. This is the Kansas Health Coalition. Uh it's training on building up your organization. Uh we've got one going to the immunization conference and one going to the billing symposium. Uh so with our partnerships, we have our the normal ones that we work with and then our safe kids coalition. No, last month I was talking about that uh but I wasn't able to list them off the top of my head. So I went ahead and put them in here if anyone wants to check out who we're working with. And it's not our typical partners. Uh, I mean, we've got uh Department of

Wildlife and Parks and the Army or Yeah, the Army Corps of Engineers. It's not like the regular people. So, we're getting to expand. Uh, we've got a couple events coming up. We just finished one this weekend, uh, which was pretty successful, the Junction City Books, Balls, and Block event. Uh we've got our bike rodeo that uh we're holding it over at 12th Street Community Center, but we're running a a full bike rodeo and handing out helmets and teaching bicycle safety and then we're going to be part of the family uh fit and fun day.

Now, how do you um advertise those events? because or do you try to get any of that information to to like um us that we can put it on our website? I don't think I've seen any of it. Uh it's not on our website. We put it on our Facebook and then the other organizations. We have them put it out too. Yeah. Probably should try to share it over here so we can put it on Gary County website as well. Now we can get that on there. after hearing some of this. So, I did see the picture where they were having it at the page at the Yeah, I guess that one was a lot of fun. So,

yeah. Uh we have no new staffing updates and facility updates with just general maintenance. Uh for our finances, uh it doesn't look too impressive, but our deposits for our grants hit on the first, so it's not included in this report, but uh it was like another 16,000 in there. Uh that's all I've got. I got a question. So you talked about maintenance. I had somebody talk to me about your signage for Yes. Who is in control of that sign board?

Uh we are. We've got a work order in with Nexttec. Uh because the time is off on there. It's definitely off and uh they they're supposed to get to it this week. Uh there's a computer program that they have to use to go in and change it. Okay. Well, this is in reference to what Kathy asked. Um, is there any way of putting some of these events coming up? Oh, yes. We can get that put on there board and let people see that as they drive by. Yeah, we can put that up.

Um, if you could get the next section and somehow you figure out what events you got coming up and and advertise, I guess. Yeah, we noticed the issue with the time and we put the work order in today. Uh, well, it's from what I heard and I I don't drive by there very much, but what I and I don't pay attention to it, I guess, maybe, but they So, it's been off for a long time that time. Yeah. I mean,

yeah, temperature varies from bank to bank to wherever you go, you see the temperature. Yeah. I had never noticed it until I guess at that event someone brought it up to Paige and they said it's off and you know when you go into work you don't check it right and I guess it's like 15 minutes off. I drove by the other day when I was up doing lab work at the hospital and it was off more than that. I know it was enough to stress her out. Uh the lady that was talking to her, she thought she was late. But that's going to be fixed this week. Okay. Well, thank you.

Okay. Well, that's is Thank you, Charles. Make a motion to close the public board of health. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to close the monthly board of health meeting. All those in favor? I. Okay. And I'll make sure I get that to you. I'll read through this one. That has to be submitted the 20 by the 24th. Yes. This one has to be submitted by the 24th. Yes. Okay. I'll give it to you. Hey, thanks.

Okay. Um, we'll go into commission review and update. Um, do you want you want me to go ahead and go or do you go ahead? Okay.

Um, I had juvenile attention board meeting. Um, not a lot um going on. Just the usual monthly um updates. We did uh I um Sean is extending his retirement till October. And then um they he reported that um they did have inside and outside u applications for replacing him and we're going to look at them at the next meeting. So, um we stressed that they we did feel like um it needed to be advertised not only just internal but also um external as well. Um went to Rock Springs after hours. I had been out there for a number of years and that was nice. um maybe had a lot of um updates and that's another one of those um places you know if you have events or something that you want to have and council you were out there as well I missed you I went on the trolley ride but you must have you were walking or something I think around but yeah that was a nice evening out there pretty they chose a good night to have it was a little windy was yeah windy that night went to the uh Kansas American a African-American Affairs Congressional Commission District 2 town hall meeting on um Saturday. Um they had about 40 to 50 people there and they had um some presenters there as well. They did a a survey then and a community type survey that and then talked about different um different things in our community and um concerns with voting and and just different different things. Um, I suggested I I thought that was it was a good turnout and I think it's

always good you when you have that town's people together to to visit and talk about things like that because, you know, they they were uh, you know, wanting to know, you know, how how they could find out more about things going on and, you know, why this or that. And um you know I think one of us have said you know just the importance of attending meetings you know because we have you know when you're running for something they say well you just show up when you run but we're here and when we have town halls nobody shows up. So um you know if there's a good way other you know how to how to do that I don't know but anyway we I thought it was very productive meeting. I'll look forward to another one. Um and then actually um I attended the Rock of Stages um musical at the opera house and um that that was really good. I enjoyed that. Um a lot of people there and that was on Saturday. So that was that the third time it had been on but there was it was it was it was pretty much a full house again.

Yeah, there was lot the week before. I haven't been to one that I haven't enjoyed. And I was sitting behind some people from Wakefield and I said, you know, and they said, "We come to these all the time, too." So, you know, that's it was a good deal. But that was a fun time. But that's a great talent. Yeah. Yeah. So, are you ready, Keith, or you go ahead.

Oh, I just had a couple things. Um I uh I went to the after hours, too. I thought that was um nice. I I I've been up there lately, but I mean it's still always so pretty to go out to Rock Springs. But um at a bus um they had some pretty interesting stats. U ridership on the K18 connector since January has went up 113%. Um I did ask um you know was it for people going shopping or was it for jobs and they said most of the the um full buses are in the morning and the evening. So that indicates that it's for jobs. People are taking them back and forth for jobs. Um they have increased their employees to 47 employees and based on the the wrership this year, they think that they're going to have a 5 to 10% increase in writership over last year, but it had been down last year. So um and then the Junction City Fort Riley um route um is up 16%. So people here who work on Fort Riley, it's been up 16%. Wow. So yeah.

So where are we at on the trying to be on Fort Riley with their route? They they take people on Fort Riley now. They do now. Yeah. It's up 16%. Oh, I did not know they got that approved. Okay. Did I understand is um are they no longer serving the school district? They didn't mention that. Well, the school district said they were looking at not uh funding funding for next year for next school year. Yeah. And they didn't mention that.

Okay. I will um say that in May we are um hosting the joint meeting. So if we have any topics which ATA bus did request to be put on the agenda um if you have anything too that we need to be bring up um let me know. Um and I will let Tina know. But again we're going to be hosting it for May. So anything else? Oh. Um, so yeah, um, I handed you a copy of the public building commission meeting from last week. Um, and, um, we're still collecting money. Uh, I think, well, you don't need to port through all of it, but we have roughly about $3.8 an $8 million left off out of that $20 million bond um to be expended. And uh probably there's a lot of big things coming that'll eat that up, but uh it it should be probably expended by a a year from now. probably and um then our deferred maintenance bond is it'll be uh done. I mean, but we're still getting money from accounts receivable and um that's a good thing. Now, how long we hang in there, I don't know. But um

what about the the detention center uh feasibility state? Where are they at with that? We That's a million dollar question. I don't know where we're at. Okay. Um uh the other one was um we had our uh Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting in Manhattan and and Deser were there too. But um basically um I think the biggest takeaway I mean we approved some technical stuff but there there's talk about and you probably got the email today um from the city manager about this DEP grant coming up. So there was discussion about algeness put in for it as well and do you combine the two and get a better outcome because you're connecting both inferences. Um, so I don't know what your guys's thoughts are, but I know Riley County the commissioner is the chair, he was like, I don't know why we wouldn't do it, you know, and all or both city and Ogden combined and write that grant.

Yeah, it would seem like that would make sense. But see, we were ahead of them originally. Now they've kind of caught up because we've been after it for two two plus years. Um and why did it I forget what was the reason why? Man, there was just little verbiages in it that um Well, I thought it was um that something about Fort Riley though that that really it was kind of like that was a lot of work if you would have told us up front, you know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's what is it 75 pages of documentation?

Yeah, it seems like it was after the fact and I can't I can't caught up now and I don't know how she feels about it, but it would seem like if you're um it's always things get done greater in those cases it would seem. Well, I think originally the it was a contention like who's going to go first? Are we competing? Um but now I think the the idea is hey let's just join forces and well I know that we were close to the really close

to the amount so I don't know how that would work. I know we need a lot a lot of work and in the change of structure whatever that's has an effect on it too. So yeah, and things have only went up since last year, right? So that would be my concern. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So anyway, that

Okay. Okay. If there is nothing else, uh then we will Oh, did this Junction City Brigade CB marketing grant? Um so um last year we um uh gave the Berkeley $10,000 and they're asking for that again this year. Um I I our return on investment from that I think is extremely good. Um and it is, you know, an ongoing thing all summer that brings people into our community. So I I would uh make a motion that we go ahead and approve that. And is this coming out of CBB?

Yes. And the reason why um it's coming here first is because we didn't have a meeting last month, but it would have had to come to us anyway based on the amount. So I just said we'll just do it without having to those are CBP funds. So yes,

I I would second that motion. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to approve the marking grant for the um Junction City Brigade. All those in favor? I think you is there anything else I missed out on? Okay, we'll move into discussions about um data centers and um solar and wind and oh let me go sorry I had this from the uh Gary Community Schools Foundation. It's a letter in regard to the celebration of teaching event uh for the Gary Community Schools Foundation. And I understand that um this is something that we've given a donation for.

Didn't we do $100 last year? I think so. I thought we did. Okay. Do you commissioners? Right. Right. Okay. I I would make a motion that we do that again. Okay. Second. It's been moved and seconded to pay $100 out of the commission budget to support the celebration of teaching event for the Gary County Schools Foundation. All those in favor? Okay. Great. this to you then.

Okay. So, does anybody want to start the discussion on data centers? I did talk um uh briefly with the counselor and I think you know we um we need to meet with P planning and zoning um to have some conversation about that. um you know if placing a moratorum again to me um it it would seem like the right thing to do to allow us time to do our due diligence and to u because it doesn't necessarily um hold you down. You could change the moratorum at any time. Is that right counselor to you know if we find out in two years that we could lift the moratorum because we're comfortable with um with where we're at with it then u it's just a legal type of thing

granted that way that can be lifted if that but that's only commission

I think um you know we have the data center ones Harvey County also did ones uh did a separate one on the battery energy storage systems. Um the battery energy storage systems or they sometimes refer to them as best. Those are a lot of times complimentary to the data center. They don't generally produce enough to offset the energy that the local community would have to you know give. Uh you know I think uh Mr. P talked a little bit about uh water. I think that there's a lot of environmental concerns with water. Uh there was a Senate bill 400 that was uh I think the committee on utilities um and they were going to require it didn't go anywhere but they were going to require a closed loop system and then there could be no fluid that was being cooled or heated that would go into they called it the ambient and atmosphere. Uh these things just produce a lot of heat and so I think that that this bill attempted to deal with the heat. I think a lot of times they try to put the heat into the ground um which obviously would heat the ground and have an effect on adjacent land owners. Um our zoning right now is set up in a way that we have agg and we have

uh basically single family or suburban residential and that's really all that there is um in the uninorporated areas of the county. Um if you want to do anything else you have to apply for a conditional use permit. Um there's nothing in our current reds that addresses anything on data centers. Um there's nothing that addresses anything on battery system centers. There is a kind of negligible amount on article 15105 on when which mainly just deals with setbacks. Um there's nothing really about solar. Um and so you know if you wanted to do any of those projects you would have to apply for a conditional use will go before the planning commission and then it would eventually they would put their recommendation to county commissioners but there's nothing specific. So, I mean, some of the moratoriums like have been really short, but some of the Kansas counties have gone like 90 days. Um, some of them have been a couple years et within a resolution or whatever for the county, then you would have to set set up specific parameters to allow them to build here. I think that, you know, if that's not what we're wanting, then um I think that need to or they need to make sure that they're checking all those avenues because, you know, of course, there's no water out in the rural areas

per se along with um infrastructure and plus any who whomever would want to have one on their property. So, I think there's a lot of factors that go goes into that, but again, um I just want to would it just be Troy or who who would be involved in that? just the planning uh Troy and

well I mean if we were going to amend so the moratoriums as I read them that other counties have done have uh been to allow for further study and development of zoning regulations that individual counties want to um adopt. So I think that through, you know, your zoning rights is how you set forth parameters and how to study what works in our county. Yeah, I I um have, you know, went and kind of did research back and forth on some of these other counties and I I I haven't had anybody say anything good about that data center besides, you know, even, you know, when they they might employee uh employ people to build a center, but then after that then they might just be down to one or two employees that work remotely. So, you know, again, it doesn't add necessarily anything to your economy necessarily. So, what would be the other purpose of having

I agree. Um, so I guess my thought is I would mirror it off of Swain County and do a three-year because you can always back off. Right. Right. But I think you need to have a starting point and that would be my thought is have a starting point of do a threeyear moratorum because I think there's so much unknown. Right. Right. Yeah. Um now that's just we're talking strictly data centers. um

like those five five counties instead of recreating will as well then maybe we could get a hold of some of their information and to see how we could draft something that uh and look at So I think you're buying time I mean you're not putting it on the MPC you know to construct something in terms of zoning and verbage and all But keep in mind for the public to know it's only unincorporated areas the city could do what they want.

Right. Yes. Right. And I I believe that's on their agenda maybe tomorrow. I didn't see it on the agenda tomorrow.

Didn't see it. I talked to Commissioner Yesowski Saturday and she asked us and I said we're we're not taking any action. Yeah. you know, and that's what, you know, speculation always, you know, gets around in the community and next thing you know, there's going to be one build out south of town here that uh nonetheless, I to me, we just need to quelch any public perception that we want any data centers at this time. We're just merely being proactive and and getting together a with the planning commission to set up a moratorum to allow us time to

so we didn't need to go through the planning commission we could just do it. Yes sir. Right. the the more like if someone applied and wanted to put a data center in and we had that application right now, they wouldn't be able to do that even with our current regs until it went through the planning commission and then would have to be approved by this body because it's not something that's really if it's not a single family house or it's not a we don't allow it in the unincorporated areas of Perry County. um without a special permit

without a conditional use permit. Uh and data centers are not a listed conditional use. Um not everything has to be a listed conditional use to be considered, but most of them are. Um but you don't need the planning commission to do a moratorum. I mean, that would be county commissioning decision. And I guess you guys might want to decide,

are you going to do the battery ones? Do you want to do it all together? You want those to be separate more aquariums? Do you just want to do data centers and not talk about Harvey County did two separate ones, one on data center and one on the battery energy storage system. I think they they should be separate because they are two separate um things. Battery and yeah battery and solar the the in wind are different than your data centers I think or something. Do you feel that way? I just asked for the solar and wind because we did talk about that when we approved that small uh solar because I do want to put something in place that if we do a solar I don't think that we should it should it should only be beneficial to our community.

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. And I think we I don't know whether we need a policy on that, but I think that's kind of been the consensus all along. Yeah. But you never know who's going to use Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that could be a prohibitive use. Yeah. Well, I I just feel like as small as Gary County is landwise, we need to be very picky on what we let people put. Sure. you know, because we don't have the farmland that other that other counties have. Now,

what do we want to do? We want to talk about real talk about the energy. I don't think anybody's here for that, but Well, you never know. When I I I don't know if I told you guys when I was at the um the uh American Defense Committee, they are wanting to put a micro they want they want to put micro nuclear plants all over the United States. They're not the big ones. They're tiny ones like little tiny nuclear reactors.

Boy, without knowing any more information that I'd rather have that than a data center. Well, I don't I don't disagree with that. Course that could be a conditional use. They're opening Three Mile Island back up.

Um I started to say, "So at our PBC meeting the other day, um Mr. Moyer is on the NBC and he said, "Hey, we're sending you something." Which was a chicken thing. Um, but I said, "Well, we're going to send you something to think in the road about some of this." And I said, "Don't you remember that we we put in place a ban on wind farms way back when? You can't find it. Troy can't find it. Louisa said it is here somewhere in this building.

Circle. What year do you think that was? Pardon? What year do you think that you were on? Oh, I was on NPC. This was back in the early 2000s. Okay. And she thinks it was in this room. She redid all these files. I threw up on it. I know. So, there is a file. Was it a resolution, do you think? Pardon? It was a resolution.

Yeah. And the commission the the MPC was tasked by the commission back then to come up with a whatever a recommendation about wind farms. And we did. And we we talked to Riley County, we talked to other counties and we our recommendation was no wind farms in Gary County. It wasn't too much longer after that when Governor Cibilius put a statewide but only in the Flint Hills.

Flint Hills. Yeah. And so there's a document somewhere around here that I don't know it is I think we already have some in place on wind farms. Oh gosh. Because I mean the zoning rags talk a little bit about wind farms. So we need to change those if there's been a ban on them. Okay. Well, we will. So, what what are we doing then on data center?

We are going to um hold out to get some more information and then or we going to do it by resolution then? We would need to pass a resolution. Are you going to be working on maybe getting something together to do that here in the next month? Sure, too. Yes, ma'am. I I don't know how long uh Mr. Livingston's going to be gone. I think he's out of time right now, but um I I want some input from the zoning administrator. Okay. But is he gone now? What is Troy gone now?

I'm not exactly sure. I think he's going to be gone at some point. Oh, I think he is gone because I because they want him on the agenda next week.

Um, it seems like when we uh did that late approval, I don't think it was for any lengthy amount of time. So, I would imagine you I was just saying that probably won't be next week. Sure. But I think maybe like the week after other things I know that you're working on. So um yeah just uh but we need to get it done. So okay is that it on that then? Okay. Okay then we will move into executive session. Does somebody want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion to go into executive session for legal matters pertaining to contracts. Is that correct, Betsy? Interlocal agreements. Yes. Interlocal agreements. I'm sorry. And contracts. Yeah. And for 30 minutes. Okay. Second move and seconded to go into executive session to discuss legal matters pertaining to interlocal agreements and contracts. All those in favor? Are you standing?