Board of County Commissioners Meetings - Regular Meeting

Alrighty, we're starting off. So everybody squared away a little bit. So I'll call today's meeting to order for September 1st, 2026. Regular meeting. If I could have a roll call.

Commissioner Coates. Here. Commissioner Laird.

Present.

Commissioner Nick Lason?

Here.

Commissioner North?

Here.

Chairman Milne?

Here. Stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Pledge of Allegiance.

All righty. First up, I'm going to just make a quick statement right now, and then I'll probably do a little bit later again tonight when more people attend. Those of you watching, keep this in mind. Everybody, we appreciate the members of the public attending this meeting and we recognize that the information being presented tonight may be of significant interest and concern. Meeting tonight, however, on that information is not a public hearing and no decisions will be made during that meeting. Accordingly, public comment will not be taken during the agenda items other than for those hearings that we are having. Meeting will proceed in the order published, except for where Madam Clerk has asked for some time. Public comment will be available at the conclusion of the meeting. At that time, we welcome your concerns, thoughts, and comments. To allow as many people as possible the opportunity to speak, we respectfully ask that if a prior speaker has already made the same point or argument, That you refrain from repeating it instead of offering additional perspective, you may have that way. Everybody has a chance to talk and talk to us about their concerns with that. Very good. How are you today?

I'm doing good.

Are you sure?

Yeah. Okay. Yep. Good. Doing all right. Yeah? Yes, sir. All righty.

We can keep this up all day if you want. We can, yeah. Okay. I can do it. How are you today? Usually I'm pretty quick, so, you know.

Chairman, commissioners, thanks for having me in this afternoon. Yeah, maintenance has been doing all right. No major issues. No major flaws or issues that have come up in the last month since I've talked to you. You know, we had a few of those big rains where affected a few areas. Rain like that will really show your smaller leaks in any windows or doors or things like that. So there's a few items there to address, but nothing major. A few little HVAC issues, but mostly just Working on bigger projects. We're replacing one of the walk-in cooler head units at the morgue. We got the garage heater at the library swapped out and a new hot dog heater replaced. We're opening up an office for the DA on fourth floor, just removing one wall to conjoin two offices, make it a little bigger over there. And yeah. Oh, and then... Another good one that you might want to hear about is the ADA shower for the nursing at the detention center. It's got a smaller shower that's really not being used to its capability for that space, so we're putting in a much larger ADA shower for them and getting rid of a little three-foot soaker tub. That's about it.

Were you able to salvage those water fountains?

I was, yes, sir. Outstanding. Yep. Any questions for Garrett?

Thank you. Short and sweet.

Short and sweet. Every time. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Eileen? Or is it? Nope, it's Mike. She's going for it. I'll keep it to myself. How about that? Good afternoon. Afternoon. How are you today? I'm good.

Thank you. I'll start off with the Buffalo Creek gravel pit. I have really nothing more to add to that project. We're still awaiting some approvals from DEQ. Herb's Gravel Pit, we do the Notice of Award tonight, and they have moved out to the site, getting mobilized. Gray Reef Road had that 50-year storm out there a few weeks ago at the lake that took everything out, damaged a lot of stuff in the parks as well, and it went over my 50-year culverts that When we originally looked at putting those in, they were going to be 100-year culverts. It's gone over them three times. And I've got some extensive cleanup to do. I don't know if I'm going to have to rent back trucks, commercial back trucks or not yet. But I've got a lot of culverts that have material in them, and then we've got a lot of erosion in behind the Alcova Lake shop. Came across that boat parking area, pretty severe. And... then up above the boat club as well and a lot of the drainages into the lake are silted i think they had some problems with some of the boat docks as well so we're looking at that to do a cleanup uh squaw creek road is uh on time uh they they think they'll be paving possibly next week and uh they're ready to pay which matter but they will get the material moving along really well. The Badwater Bridge, don't have any more report on that still under engineering design. Gray Reef Road had to close it at the end up there by the Reds for the walk-in areas of BLM. We had to close our last campground due to a culvert failure, a large one, which was designed to be, or was going to be designed in that next project that YDOT, or that FLAP, excuse me, FLAP's doing. And that's a couple of years out yet. And the culvert's so deep that I don't know if there's any reason we would want to go after it right now. It's way down. And there's no culvert left. The road's going to cave in. It's just a matter of when. It's already starting to go down. So it's probably 30 feet deep if it does cave in. And so we close the road. And there's not much up in there. It's not up through a fair. You can't go anywhere. So any questions on that? Still working on some of the road acquisitions. Ponderosa and the gas hills. General maintenance. We've been blading a lot of roads, which I listed there. I won't read them all, but there's quite a few of them. And we acquired two more CM2 trucks, which we've already got placements for. We have to go through them this winter and do a little work on them, but we got them out of Evanston. They didn't want them anymore. So we went up there and hauled them back. The East Salt Creek Road. It washed out during a storm event where we put that bypass in. We fixed it, and they're trying to haul cattle out of there tomorrow. As well as up on the light plant road, right where our road ends, it went over a burn there by about five feet. And it's not ours to fix, thank God. Then the bridge replacement on 33 Mile, YDOT had engineers out there, they did some drilling. They're still in the design phases, so they were drilling the soils. And that project's still a few years out for construction. And then Spees Road, going into the fish hatchery, We had damage from that storm there. We have to clean up in the borrow pits and the culverts. And then we're going to start mag chloride. And we're going to try a new product that's a polymer. We're going to see how that works. It's a little cheaper. If it works, it might replace the mag. We'll see. And... And we worked on some paths on the mountain for parks and then we started striping all the highways, pavement. Some of that was for Evansville and some of that was for Mills as well.

Any questions?

Looks like one.

Sure, thanks. Talk to me a little bit about the mag chloride polymer alternative. I know a lot of people that drive on newly mag roads are a little frustrated. What's the polymer? You said it's going to cost a little less, so that sounds good. Have we used it before?

We haven't used it at all, and nobody that I know of has. They came up and gave us a spiel that we could do a half mile for free. So I took them up on it. It's an additive you put into our water trucks and we spray it down and it kind of looks like glycerin if you look at it in a bottle once you mix it. So it's got a heaviness to it. And it's supposed to intermix with the material that we grade up and then put back down and roll. And then they act like it would last two years. so i thought i'd try it on a short residential strip which is eight mile and uh see how it does uh it's not that long and it's not costing us anything to get the product uh in comparison and i won't know until we get all the numbers and we do this once but it's about maybe two thousand dollars less than mag is per mile so

Is there any detractors from that? I mean, like with the mag, it's slick and everything like that.

Is there anything that they're saying that was... You know, I don't think it will have any adverse properties to it for cars going over or anything. I mean, it won't be like mag at all because we spray the mag on the surface and then it has to dry in those first couple days depending on the... humidity in there. You may pick it up on your cars. This goes into the material that we blade up and is kind of homogenized and then turned under and rolled. I don't expect it to be wet very long. We don't know. We've never done it. That's why we're doing a short streak.

Any other questions? Appreciate it, sir. Thank you. Now Eileen. How are you?

Very good. How are you?

Been a day or two since you came here.

Husband, yes.

You're off traveling, gallivanting around, doing things.

On occasion. I submitted my report this morning. Hopefully you've had a chance to look at it. Are there any questions for me off the bat? What's of interest to you when it comes to IT? What would make these updates beneficial for everyone, meaningful?

For me, it'd be like updates, security updates, projects moving forward, upgrades potentially, things like that. Okay. Capacity as far as bandwidths and making sure that we're able to keep all the employees working. and not stalled out somewhere or anything like that. That would be kind of a general, just major reaction. And we did get your letter. I think Peter, I think it was Peter that responded. And I'm in agreement with Peter. I think it is good to have you guys here rather than the one-off type things. So.

Well, thanks for the consideration. On behalf of the other members, department heads, we do miss the opportunity to have more of a conversational back and forth when we're all around the table.

I understand that. Like Casey and I, we talk to Danielle all the time, you know, one-on-one. And so if you need something in any of the department heads, if you need... on one or whatever interaction any of us are more than happy to have that one on one or if you want to start setting up a team thing like what in case you do with danielle that that would be beneficial as well that we have a little bit more personalized attention but i think this is kind of needed as well okay well thank you for the options uh we will probably continue to hold our department head meetings monthly and kind

Of course, a commission or two, you're always welcome to join us. For those, let me know if you need the meeting invite.

But back to IT.

But back to IT. All right.

I think Dave's got some. I do.

You asked what would help. Yes, I did. And this is something that's been kind of, I don't know if the IT department actually looks at the different websites that we have attached. Like the parks, there was some stuff that was brought up that wasn't up to speed. Okay. Michael Brown can probably help you out more on that as far as what it was. But I know there's a few things on there that people ask about. And I'm not sure exactly what the best process would be. You know, whether it would be getting with the different... groups that you know that are represented by that and going over each of those locations to make sure that they're up to speed uh one of the things that was brought up and and it's not our issue but it's something that was brought up as far as the city told us that on a google search that it shows that the city is responsible for some of our Code enforcement, for whatever reason, which created a little consternation. So, I'm not sure if there's any way to correct that or not, but I know that's something that is like... The city got a phone call for something that was in the county. They went out, looked at it, and it's like, that's not really in your jurisdiction.

Not much we can do to control a Google search other than plainness. Yeah. or correct a phone number, which works pretty well. But regarding the content on the website, we do rely heavily on the departments to provide us their message and what they want for their content. However, one of my employees and I are working towards getting into our project list to schedule to go and visit.

and just to give them an opportunity to talk to us about what they would like on their website to do okay well i know hopefully things will slow down after the summer a little bit and everybody will have a little bit more breathing room than we have i know tracy's looking forward to after the first week in november where she has a little bit more breathing room

Yes.

So, but anyway, I just thought that that's something that might help out. Thank you. You know, and I know Sabrina, I've talked to her about some of the stuff and just making sure that what we have out there is actually not just the correct information, but also usable information. Absolutely. I agree. So, appreciate it.

I'll just do a high level overview of all the, or did you have something?

Hi. And then commissioner had his, I'm sorry. Commissioner. Light on her.

Oh, yeah, I'll ask her. Okay.

Um. So a couple of things. Sure. A lot of your department's work is way over our heads. And so I think if you can help the Commission know what the big issues are moving forward, how we can plan for the future, whether it's budgeting big ticket items, I think trying to keep John Potter, Those those things in front of us is going to help so that we're not reactive but we're more proactive on. John Potter, How often so going to the website I think it's real functional, but I think it needs to be, I think, as our our public and our citizens are using the website more and we want a better online experience, I think we're doing pretty well, but how often. John Potter, Do your department do the department heads and the other elected officials communicate, you know. either suggestions or other information or is it really just kind of an ad hoc, informal basis? I don't think we have a policy that department heads are required to get to you material changes and information within a week or something like that. That's correct.

It's ad hoc and informal.

How does that work? Is that good enough or is it sometimes?

I think there's room for improvement. I think that we could, as an IT department, we could be more proactive as our schedule permits to encourage time to visit the content. Is it enough? Well, it's brought to our attention when something is noticed, or there's a new event going on, or I reach out and say, what's going on in your department? We need some news. We need some content. So it's infrequent, I would say. A lot of it's pretty static information, too.

answering your question yes yeah yeah i think so i mean okay we have changes in some of our board um some of our boards Um, that then don't get it updated or we have some governing documents that, you know, don't get to the website as quickly as we'd like. And then that board, we have a meeting and, you know, people are trying to reference something that isn't in there yet. So, I think, um, hopefully people will continue to get you the information you and your team need to keep that as updated as possible. When was the last time we did an, an overall of our website?

We did a cosmetic refresh within the last year, but we have not done a content review in some time, probably in the last three to five years.

Okay. All right. That's it for now. Thank you.

Thank you.

Are you thinking that you should give, I'm saying this tongue in cheek, that you should, your office should give training to the commissioners and Maybe other county employees that want to know a little more about AI and how to operate it.

Yes, I think we should be a resource for that. How to achieve that, I guess, is up for discussion. AI can be a slippery slope when it comes to security, and it can be a road to efficiency, and there's a lot to it.

I think that's why we really need help on that.

We do. I have explored augmenting staff with experts in the field in the public sector and who have gone into agencies and kind of just gave them an uplift. This is what you should consider for a policy. This is what you consider for risk and review and reviewing how you're using the product. So do I have the staff and the experts to really do a big campaign on that? No, not at this time. Is it something that is desirable? Absolutely.

So do we need to hire somebody then?

Well, when you talk about big ticket items, I've been considering next budget to increase the staff. I mean, I think that the IT staff could benefit from some more employees. It's just a matter of where I would put them and what role they would play. There's so much going on with AI, with ADA governance, with data governance, with legislation coming down that sometimes it's hard to keep up with that and the day-to-day, plus just maintaining all of our systems and keeping them current and vulnerable free and et cetera. We did add a cybersecurity analyst. That's been helpful. that's been very helpful and our business application specialist position has been helpful but i could probably use one more we have a lot of applications that the departments could use some support with am i right when i think ai is going to be running a lot of this governmental i don't know that's a future very philosophical question and you can look at it in many different ways is it going to replace people i don't think so i don't think so I think it will help people be more efficient. I think it could be risky and we have to be defending how it can create more sophisticated attacks so that we need to be more resilient to that. Personally, I like AI. I think it can be a good tool. It's just understanding how to apply it within our environment is time consuming.

I had a guy tell me he dictated a book into his cell phone and used AI and wrote the book and he sent me a copy of this for sale on Amazon.

Yeah? Is it a good book?

I haven't got to read it yet. It's on my bed stand to be read.

Well, what do you think?

I think we ought to educate everybody that wants to be educated as soon as possible.

Okay.

Quite frankly, because I think it's, what I see is things are happening so fast that it's...

It is happening fast.

You're going to wake up and be back in the old west again, you know.

I would invite this commission to attend at Waco there's going to be an educational presentation. The Wyoming County IT Association will be co-moderating and they'll have a member on the panel. There'll also be a commissioner on the panel. We're hoping for a person from the courts and an attorney. And I think that that would be a very engaging conversation for the electeds to attend and we can continue that conversation. So I hope you can.

Thank you very much, Eileen. You're welcome.

Would you like me to go through projects of high level?

Second, before I forget. Sure. So as far as the security, okay. As far as the security and the different portions of that and AI and all that, are you working with DHS or anybody like that? Yes. Outside sources?

Absolutely. I'm the secretary for the Wyoming Cybersecurity Planning Committee. which is a group of federal, state, local, educational individuals who are working on the concept of a whole estate and supporting and uplifting all of our cities, towns, and counties. And Department of Homeland Security is a huge part of that. Also, work with CISA and the CARE team down in Cheyenne. They're going to be attending our conference, the County IT Conference here in September. We're going to have some discussions with Enterprise Technology Services on what they're doing for security. And those conversations are ongoing. And we're building good relationships with all those individuals.

Fantastic. Go ahead and let us know any projects. Okay.

Well, I'll just drag on to that just a little bit is that it's Cybersecurity Awareness Month is coming in October. And our cybersecurity analyst, Mandy, has been working hard on developing a incentivized program. And to that end, I am requesting from all of the elected officials and department heads if they would consider supporting one paid day off for one lucky employee who participates in three out of the four events, you'll have it in your email, you can read the details. And if it's, if you're supportive, please respond to the survey. So that's coming up. We also had a rationalization cybersecurity tool workshop. What that means, it's a fancy word for saying we sat down with some vendors and we looked at our landscape of our tools, looked for overlap, looked for areas where we can improve. So we look to bring forth some initiatives there. Let's see. We're working on internet failover, software maintenance and upgrades, a new online job application to work with governmentjobs.com. That way we'll be more consistent with the state and with the city, and that service looks pretty promising. I need to get that launched. Was the tax sale started today? working with the Sheriff's Department IT on technology share work sessions, where we share with one another what's happening on County IT, what's happening with Sheriff's IT, since we have a lot of diverse systems, so we can learn how to support one another and work together, some team building there. We're exploring some alternative software for permitting, licensing, code enforcement, and planning. There's some gaps in the software that we have now. There's some support issues with the software we have now. So we're looking at maybe considering a different product or going out to bid for a different product. Just to improve. Improve upon that. We're implementing a job tracking software from Mike Hagler in the Bridge Department. I had a meet and greet with Chief Odin from County Fire. So we support their computer systems and they in turn in kind, provide us with a room for disaster recovery hardware. I won't continue reading off of my report here. You'll have it handy. But if there are any other questions, I'm happy to answer. Nope. Well, I'll see you next month. Thank you.

Just add those to this when you're done signing. Sorry.

That's okay. Anything else?

Mr. Coates here. Yeah, and this is for Mike and Garrett and all the department heads, too. Remember, email went out a little bit ago. Start thinking about your projects for one cent and all that stuff. or did that come out yet? Oh, okay. Yeah. So start thinking about that stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

That's what I'm saying. Don't procrastinate. I won't. No, no graders for Mike though. Just all computers. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. And now we have Daniel Kruchek, because we don't want to see Ms. Kemper. Oh, never mind.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. And since I'm following IT and you guys want to talk about AI, I've got to bring up again iRobot. If you haven't seen it from 2004, watch it again.

September 29th, 2026. Skynet comes to wear.

Just saying. Sunny is real. And then I'll get into my report. I think Brad is out on inspections, but his report is in here. We have a couple of cases next week. For certain projects, we have been in contact with Dinosolar, still anticipate their extension request to come in this fall we have been in contact with Prometheus and have been discussing just some general things with them meeting with them to get an idea of the project what's going on with it and what we need what they need from us what we need from them kind of thing I'm nothing too deep yet but I anticipate we'll get there in the very near future One of the things we've been having a lot of issues with, and Ashley and I have discussed this lately, but we have a lot of easement road issues in the county where a road never had a proper dedication. They're all private roads. There's no legal easement access per state statute. Of course, you can't block access except that you might have to pay a fee or something. There might be some sort of exchange for this. One of the roads is Davis Way, which comes off of Garden Creek. There's probably 20 houses that this affects, 20 properties. There might be more than that. Most of them are the same way. We're trying to figure out what we can do legally. If there's something you guys can do that says, hey, this road we can prove has been used for X number of years, can we make it? you know dedicated to private public use whatever we're digging into that we i don't think we have questions or answers on that yet but it's been a real issue we've had several residents come in and have lost home sales because this has come up as an issue and you don't have legal access which the title has come out with and so the buyer of course wants to back out because they don't want issues It's more of a comment at this time. I don't know how to fix it right now, but we've had several people have this problem.

Ashley?

Yes, I've taken some look at it. I still don't think we have a really good way to fix this yet. Of course, there's a process where we can basically get people private easements and right-of-ways. But they have to exhaust all of their options and it goes through the courts and it's it's a big process. So it's not like a quick process. And a lot of these people, they want a quick. Solution, and we just haven't found 1. yes, but we are still looking still digging. See if there's something that we're missing, but so far we haven't come up with anything. real feasible right now. But that is one option is we can always do private or we can basically do the process where we give people private right of ways and accesses.

Questions?

I can read all of Brad's stuff if you want, but I'll bet you can do that yourselves as well.

I can't hear you. so the i.t question though she said there's some processes or some things going on with planning and permits that they're having a look at yeah our fraudulent stuff might be um

But we did have one of our cases coming next week. I called yesterday and said, oh, we got two invoices from you guys and we don't know which one to pay. They're completely fraudulent. That's still happening. It's really easy to go on our website and copy the logo and put it on what looks like an invoice. It does not look like our invoices at all. But they don't know that. We don't get that far and not get payment. So they've already paid everything they need to pay. But they're a big company. And so they're like, Oh, what do we need to pay so we can get our project approved, because they need to get moving on it. So they fall into these traps that you know that, you know, if they hadn't called if they hadn't received two invoices, they would have just paid it and it's a wire transfer. And it says wire transfer only and We've got that on our website that it's a scam. You know, we're looking at other processes we can do and put it in bright red letters on our application, something, I don't know, but we're gonna try and get that word out more. It's across the nation. It's been happening for a while, several years now, so.

Any other questions or any comments? Didn't even make any of us smile today.

I did with the iRobot thing.

i mean tracy left that's an accomplishment okay yes thank you how are you feeling oh i'm good worst time ever with school starting and football yeah good afternoon um so as you mentioned earlier chairman i've been meeting with you and casey monthly on some of my day to day duties. So I'll just highlight some of the big things we've got going on now that the primary election is over. We're going to get started again back on the policies. I've got to work with the clerk on her schedule, but we're going to look at doing two chapters at a time. And I think that's feasible if I can get the department heads in the room for an hour and a half to two hours at a time. We can get through two chapters at a time and we'll still be on schedule pending the November obvious election as well. So we should still be on track to get that done by December 31st. Health insurance, if you read your emails, you may have seen that we did a special open enrollment. It was a quick open enrollment. We found a clause in our plan document that stated if we had a significant increase with our health insurance premiums, we could allow employees to make changes to their health insurance. They could move to the high deductible health plan. They could drop the coverage altogether. They could drop like a spouse and go to individual coverage. So that took place for our employees. They will have the opportunity for open enrollment again. We typically do that November 1st through December 15th, and then they could make changes again during that time. With that, I reported last time that I was doing department updates for insurance changes and then also education on our high deductible health plan. I ended up meeting with several departments and out of that, I had 23 individual requests for employee meetings. Those took about 20 minutes a piece. So you can imagine that takes time to help them understand what benefits they have. And so they could better make decisions on if they're on the right plan for them and their family. GriffinRx is the prescription program that I have been telling you guys that we have partnered with. We have 18 employees enrolled, four employees pending. There's 83 currently eligible that they will be reaching out to. And for the month of July, there was a cost savings of $30,000 to our plan for partnering with them. for employees to get high prescription drugs. So that was a good partnership and I think it's working out well. Ashley and I will be attending in-person interviews at the University of Wyoming College of Law the afternoon of September 10th and possibly the morning of September 11th. We're trying to schedule the interviews with the coordinator of the hiring with the Department of Law or the education. program the law program and so so far we're looking at september 10th for sure the afternoon possibly the morning of the 11th um i worked with warm and they have confirmed coverage of medical malpractice with the million dollar limit per the governmental claim act so before before we did not believe that we had um medical malpractice liability coverage for the sheriff and the medical services that he provides at the detention center we have confirmed with them and we do have the coverage now With that, WARM, another thing with WARM, they have been working hard on subrogation reimbursements, and we've actually received over $4,000 in subrogation for property damage for citizens that have created property damage, and they've got their own insurance, and WARM has done all the legwork and subrogated for us. So that's good news. We've received some money back. One of them was from Progressive, so they're hard to get money back out of, so that was nice. Save the date, the Warm Risk Conference 2027 is April 14th and 15th here in Casper. That was a great conference a year ago, and so they're planning on doing this every two years. We got great feedback from the elected officials and department heads on different services that WARM provides. They're much more than just an insurance company. They're a pool that helps us mitigate our risk all around. So that was a good educational series that will be happening again. And other than that, I mean, I could go through the day-to-day workers' comp claims, FMLA's, I will say that we did receive four incident reports on slips, trips, and falls of citizens during early voting here at the courthouse. So unfortunately, we have people that they either trip over something or just standing there and faint. We actually had four of those incidents that happened. So we get called up and we make sure that they're taken care of. If we have to call an ambulance, we call an ambulance. We do what we need to do. I did not hear. Mine is not a worker's comp claim.

I mean, did you trip over something?

I didn't say where. I just said, did you trip over something? Good question.

Any questions for Daniel besides the foot? um are you going to hang out a little bit for exec yes okay i just i want to just making sure yeah i'll hang out okay thank you okay thanks this is way better crutches All righty, Ashley.

All right. Sorry. So last month, we did 52 Title 25s. So we're being kind of consistent in the 50s lately. uh for our on the agenda tonight we have the first resolution for the road establishment of gas hills road uh we'll have this the second resolution to you guys next meeting uh we already have the stuff back from the surveyor and everything so we're trying to get that done as quickly as we can um and i know that paul is working on the second road but we've hit a couple snags so that might take a little bit longer than we thought it would but um we're getting trying to get those road establishments done so that you know we can fix up some of these easements where the road and the easements aren't lining up additionally on the agenda tonight we have the second resolution for the road easement vacation there out and towards evansville um we have a public uh hearing set for october 20th for that uh so we're plugging away at those things Uh, additionally oil city news reached out to us, um, to me last week, they have now met all the criteria. So they can be used for public notices. Um, I will be working on that resolution and I'm trying to get that to you guys for next meeting as well. Um, since they've reached all that criteria, we just have to do that resolution.

Actually real quick on that resolution. What direction are you taking that? I mean, the amount of money we almost should do RFP for those publication services since we have competing options at this point.

So, I think the resolution just has to sit or right now just has to say that they qualify. Right. Um, but then, yes, we can do a, uh, RFP to, you know, just figure out which newspaper we want to use. Um, really there's only the 2, so we could actually, uh.

We can ask for bids from both of them to see what their costs are going to be.

Um, so, and then, as Danielle had mentioned, her, and I are going to be at the University of Wyoming college of law for interviews next week for the deputy attorney position. Um. I know we have a couple, I believe that we'll be interviewing there outside of those interviews. We haven't really had much interest in the position. um so hopefully this will kind of get us out a little bit more maybe get some more applicants as our goal additionally i am going to be meeting with robert uh olham on friday he has reached out he's expressed an interest in helping to cover title 25s when i am not available uh you know he comes highly recommended uh from several people And so I'm excited to kind of talk to him and see if he could help cover when I'm sick or on vacation or whatnot, because it has been quite a while since I've had any kind of backup. So we haven't had and we haven't had that issue. No, I was not out. Anytime that I have been sick, I've come in, done the Title 25s and then have left those few times, but we haven't really had a backup. So I think it's needed. We need to kind of have some kind of backup just in case something was to happen. you know, that is my biggest concern is, you know, something happening when I'm driving into work or something. So I'm going to be meeting with him to kind of discuss whether he's interested in doing it, you know, what it would kind of look like and stuff like that. But I know he is local. He was a public defender for many years, retired, and he's doing some contract work, I believe, with Teton County. But I know he's doing contract work with one of the counties. I believe it's Teton, but... Um, but yeah, that's pretty much the major updates for us. We still have several projects and we had the stuff that we were getting ready for for tomorrow. Um, so that's what we've been plugging away. Answering questions for departments everything's already for tomorrow. Yes. We, we have 6 separate tomorrow.

Dallas also knocked out by now. So we will have everybody besides Dallas here.

No, you're out of here at 1?

Okay. I'll be here from 9.30, 9.45 to 10.30.

1 o'clock, then I have a Wyoming Workforce Development Council meeting. Okay. So I'll be here mid to late morning. Okay. And you'll be here all day. I'm your rock chair.

okay so two of us will be here all day okay the rest of the slackers will be in and out as they want apparently uh right now i have it set for 40 minutes for each um but you know we might better get those done quicker so okay we'll just have to see who shows up sounds good any questions if you're gonna mr chairman if you're gonna interview down at the university of wyoming um those will be three l's won't they so they won't be actually licensed to practice until it best july well it depends if they graduate a semester early or i mean yeah yeah yeah so the earliest would be you know february march um but most of them would be uh yeah after july bar unfortunately we just haven't really had much interest interest so i It doesn't hurt for us to at least interview them.

Yeah, and depending upon their 3L schedule, maybe they'll have some time to intern essentially for you for the next whatever, six, nine months.

Yes, and I've also thought possibly if we find someone of interest, we could do what I did when I was studying for the bar, and that's where I kind of worked in the law firm pending my bar licensure. We can work at it.

So speaking of backup and whatnot for you, if something happens, have we reached out to anybody to not necessarily retain, but just kind of know that somebody is there possibly if something happens?

No, we had it and that's kind of why I'm like, okay, we really probably need to, especially since we just haven't had any interest in the deputy position and it's been what in December will be a year at that point.

Um, I mean.

I know next week I'll be doing possibly doing the title 25 virtually. I mean, everything's virtual anyways, so I'll be just being doing it remote. I should say. Um, and that's kind of been the backup is if I have to, we'll just, I'll do the time 25 remotely. Um, that's kind of been our backup, but it just hasn't become an issue yet.

i'm not i mean the title 25s take up a lot of your time right but i'm not talking just that um any thought process of how we can just have a a backup just in case you win the lottery um well that's one of the things i was going to talk to mr olham about too was seeing like if i'm not available for a commission meeting if he would be willing to come in and handle a commission

um you know for the most part we haven't ran into those issues because i've been kind of well i haven't taken a vacation or anything for a year but um you know i've been trying to schedule things around commission a lot uh doctor's appointments have been scheduled around And even some of the other, most of the departments, I tell, you know, if I'm missing one of their department head meeting or one of their meetings, I tell them, you know, if you need to call me, call me, I'm available online or by phone. If I'm not physically there, that's how we've been managing it. But I'm definitely whoever we can get to cover top 25. So I'd also ask if they would be willing to also, when I'm unavailable to kind of fill in for that as well.

With our luck so far for the, finding you some help. I think that needs to be priority is, if we can't find the help, we need to find somebody that can step in if you need to be off doing something. So, you know, God forbid something happened, like you win a lottery. But yeah, you know, just just in case.

i agree that's why i've you know i sent the email saying i would really like to start looking for someone um you know i think early on the hope was that we would be able to get a deputy fairly easily it's just not happening we're just not getting the interest and i really just need someone just in case something happens any other comments questions rationally all right thank you and peter you're going to follow up with whatever you

so all righty we are ahead of schedule by a little bit um heather casper are they here somewhere there's too many faces Madam clerk.

Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, it's been a while, it feels like so glad to see you all again. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the following for their continued work and support for the elections. process and procedures. Most people are unaware that the planning and execution of the election starts well in advance and well beyond the day you cast your ballot. The IT department has put in approximately 362 hours for election support that a few things that in those hours include our website updates we refreshed our web page and did a lot of informational updates for the website it includes a polling place locator Sample ballot publication so on and so forth also Precinct boundary updates which affect our address library system in our statewide voter registration system Also the electronic poll book That we use at a couple locations They are completely in charge of setting up and tearing those down complying with the MOU with this Secretary of State's office So they are a true Huge support system for the elections for the county clerk's office also run bridge 169 hours for delivery pickup and, um, delivery equipment, delivering pickup maintenance, eight hours for various tasks. Uh, the fairgrounds 60 hours for set up and tear down for elections. sheriff almost 30 hours for various tasks in addition to that approximately 250 election judges and finally the county clerk team there's a big difference between staff and team a staff is a list of names on a payroll sheet that follows procedures and checks off daily tasks a team is a group of people who choose to support collaborate and win together who adapts instantly to shifting tasks and deadlines and protects the integrity of the entire process together. My team did just that, and I am sincerely grateful and proud. As you can see, every single person's contribution is a vital piece of the larger puzzle. We did not just run an election. We served our community with excellence. Thank you all for your tireless dedication, late hours, and unmatched teamwork. I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all, as I only succeed through the shared commitment of the people and departments involved. Thank you.

Don't run away. Oh, you have a question? Maybe. I'll stand for any question. That's our prerogative since you want to talk.

Oh, okay. Yeah, go ahead.

Any questions or comments?

I have a comment.

All right.

Tracy, thank you for everything you guys did, the whole team, the staff. really, it's a really big lift. You guys do fantastic work. To that note, I think that it's important to say that I think you guys do that to the utmost best of your ability. And I think that you work very hard to ensure that our elections are full of integrity and that the process is done in the most ethical way you possibly can. And, you know, I know there are elements out there that are upset about how elections turned out, but it is entirely inappropriate to blame the results of an election on anyone who puts their time in to serve the community, either as staff or as a volunteer. So thank you for everything you do. It's truly underappreciated.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Tracy, just a quick question, and this is more for the record. How did the hand count go? How long did it take? Did it go as quickly or longer than you anticipated or as smoothly? Because I know that's something new that happened this year, and that's a question that we really need to look at.

Yes, Commissioner North, thank you. The hand count went wonderful. I could not ask for a better result or procedure. It took about six hours. It was about 890 ballots. Again, I had outstanding people that were conducting the hand count. I had six teams of four, so I had 24 people. Again, six hours. It went I couldn't ask for a better outcome considering we had never done it before. You know, we just kind of, I kept saying, let's just kind of wing it and see how it goes. But the teams really took the bull by the horns and got their own particular procedures in order. You know, I had the paperwork, a general idea on what we're going to do, but they all worked through, you know, what worked best for them as a team. And it was just, it was outstanding. And I, again, I couldn't ask for a better result.

Did you have any variation?

Not one variation.

Okay, that's good news. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Tracy, thank you for your great effort through this. I think you're in Autrona County, but you and your office in particular are a model for and elections being done right in the state of Wyoming. So I know you're a leader and well-respected in that regard. What are some of the challenges you faced and from a legislative or statutory perspective, what are some of the things that you'd like to see that make clerks' lives at elections even better across the state?

Thank you, Commissioner Nicolason. I think as things are brought to the table, more time to either put procedures or maybe put a pilot program into place or give us more time to nail down processes and procedures. I guess more time to prepare for certain things that are handed down through the legislative process. um more a better understanding of what the whole process the whole election process looks like from tip to tail not just what is portrayed on the news or in the media or on facebook because like i said you know it's it's a process there's more to this than meets the eye um so i just maybe more information more questions being asked. I mean, people don't like hearing that sometimes, but open communication. I think it's also a great deal to something great to have when you're when you're dealing with something of this magnitude. Just off the fly. I didn't prepare for that question. So sorry. I'm a little brain dead still. Sorry.

be a change of the leadership in the secretary of state's office and i think that'll um maybe be a good thing for clerks across state so hopefully things will become easier and harder thank you i shall learn i know how hard your people work all year round

not just the extra time like it's overtime for them for this election. You have a great staff, and you've been a great county clerk for a long time, and I hope you're here for a lot longer time. But I thank you and your staff.

Thank you, Commissioner Laird. I just wanted everyone to be aware it's not just my office. It's a lot bigger picture. So thank you.

no i thought i was done i know but no now you're done i am done thank you seriously you and your staff and eileen and everybody that was behind there fantastic job and truly there's nothing more i can say that these guys haven't i just want to give you my personal thank you thank you i appreciate all of your support tracy

You basically keep us in line on a lot of stuff. And we appreciate that. You know, whether it's the budget stuff, all the stuff you go through, your staff, not just you, but your staff, the elections and everything else. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that people have absolutely no clue what the clerk's office really does and what they're responsible for. and i do i just want to say the same thing that we appreciate everything that your office does because without that the county would not run nearly as smooth as it does so and i know we have hiccups from time to time but it'd be a lot worse if if you guys weren't doing what you're doing so appreciate it thank you i appreciate that and you know i we may not all just agree at the

at the same time but i do value every working relationship i have with everyone that i come in contact with um it is very important to me so again thank you for your support thank you to everyone that made this election this election um a success thank you thanks michelle did you want to say something you were saying you want might as well if we're breaking a little bit we're still early

So there's the one set letter since we have a couple minutes. There's the one set letter that has to go to the elected officials, the county departments and then the outside boards. I just wanted you guys to review it and let me know if there's any changes that you have before I put it on the letter and then I send it out. And the resolution that's on the back is just giving you an idea what we'll do in October.

Right.

Okay.

Do you make any changes since you sent that email out? Okay. So I'm good with it.

Okay. So we'll go ahead and I'll get this out tomorrow.

Everybody else had a chance to read it.

Mr. Chairman, if I may real quick for the one cent. So, um, The project, the timeline would be all the requests would be in by the end of September and then we're going to have a very short window for the board to look at the projects and approve a list before the last October meeting. Um, as, you know, because it goes on the ballot in November, so we're a real tight timeline. I will ask that you all.

that unavailable sure be available at a moment's notice well and as what we've done in the past is as the requests come in to me i'll just start adding them to the spreadsheet and then then when the time comes tracy will go through the numbers and then you guys can wheel and deal and do whatever you guys got to do to make the resolution look pretty okay and we also has anyone seen any results of the survey that was the other question i had i

Right, thank you.

Okay, so on your board tracker sheet, um, just there is, like, 20, I want to say there's, um, like, 20 commissioner appointments that we'll have to address in January. So just so that 1 is kind of fresh. And then this just shows all of them. The ones in the blue, that one is firefighters in Natrona County. Last time Hagler handled those. So I was hoping that we'd have the same structure. And then the green, there's four of them. One, two, three. There's three of them. Those ones are joint appointments. So I didn't know what your guys' schedule was. So if you could kind of start thinking and then we can meet up. We can talk about it again on the 15th. That way I can square some dates away with the city because it would be nice if we could just interview for all those boards. Yeah, there is four of them. The Economic Development Hall of Justice Detention Center. and amico if we could just do all the interviews at one time since it will be a joint that would kind of be since we are zooming up on the end of the year and so then you'll see we're on the 28th all the boards got notified the website got done um all that good stuff is there anything else that you guys need from me on this one anybody anything show on this no I like your idea of doing all the joint interviews at the same time that's a good idea so if you guys can and then I will email Jackie to see if she can find out who it will be and then they can throw out like two or three dates and we can present both of them on the 15th that way stuff can get narrowed down oh that'd be great and then but and that's depending on you know what applications we get and when do you guys want to have the deadline right now it's just to be determined Did we want to set a deadline?

Yeah, that would give us a little bit of time, but also have it set a deadline. Yeah. What do you all think? 31st, October?

Are we going to do interviews in November?

Yeah.

okay so if you guys will start looking at your calendars i'll get i'll email jackie in the morning to get three or four dates the first part of november okay awesome thank you guys you need anything else from us yes sir

Maybe later, here in a little bit. I'd like to get through the the one and then then we can do it is heather here somewhere you'd have come up to the table that'd be great I didn't think you'd have this big of an audience. They're all here for you.

I know, it's very intimidating. So, I'm Heather Jurgensen, and I've taken over as the staff liaison with Compete Casper. And we just were here to thank you guys for your contribution to our mission last year. Being new, um, I brought Tiffany funk. She's our treasurer with us. Um. And we just wanted to share our some of the economic impact that we had last year. Through compete Casper, which is previously proud to host the best. Um.

So we had another successful year. We had about $30 million in total economic impact. We saw 35,000 overnight stays due to the tournaments. or I'm sorry, 35 attendees and 39,000 room nights. So local taxes, 416,000 and then calculated about 10,000 jobs supported. So we're moving into our next five year agreement, which was approved by Russia last year. And again, we just want to thank you for your continued support. And if you have any questions. We're here to answer them.

Do we have any questions? Need a little bit more?

The handout that Heather provided has pretty much the same information. It breaks out the tournaments, the dates, and the individual impact of each one.

Of each of the eight state tournaments that are hosted here in Casper.

So it takes about roughly 277,000 dollars to bring those tournaments into town. And that doesn't include all of the in kind donations that we receive from the restaurants and other donors to cover hospitality rooms and food.

And volunteer time yes.

I mean, we're seeing some positives here, a lot of positives on your handout. It's awesome to see that the community's benefiting from it. Has there been any detractors that you've noticed so far of anything?

You know, we haven't, we really haven't had anything, um, you know, we're, we're always, we always need more volunteers. We always, um, you know, costs continue to rise. So that that's always going to be things that we, we come up against, but, um, the hotel years and all the restaurant partners, you know, really step it up and make sure that they continue to give what they can to ensure that they continue to come back.

And how are you getting the call out for volunteers from the community?

So usually it's through Facebook and then we have like a, um, a link, a link to sign up for volunteers. Yeah.

And so if you're using Facebook and emails, I guess emails and Facebook.

Yeah. So your demographics are older people then we have also the link on our website, Instagram and all that stuff too. Yeah. Okay.

Any other questions or a bunch of new words today? I studied Twitter.

Mr. chairman, um, you know, we, we hear from you earlier in the year, um, about the impact and I just want to. Um, reiterate what I'm, I'm seeing here. We put in 25,000 dollars as the county. you had about $277,000 from basically hosting and there's a $31 million impact. Okay.

It's quite significant.

Yeah. Great. That's pretty good ROI.

Exactly. Thank you. We think so.

Is there anything you're looking at moving forward into the future, expanding or anything bright and shiny out there?

You know, we... We're, we're just really trying to ensure that we keep it, um.

In Casper trying to make sure that we keep the tournaments. In Casper, so we do have the 4 year. Um, bid, which will go through 20. 29, I believe, um, so that's. Good, but every 4 years we do come up for bid. So. As good as we can do it through those 4 years, hopefully that will ensure that we keep it. And we've also discussed opening up scholarships, maybe with some of the funds to open to some of the student athletes. So we've talked about some different things that we could use our money for.

In terms of growth, we did bid for tennis, which we weren't awarded. So we'll continue to do that kind of growth as we can. Unfortunately, I don't know that Washa is willing to give us more because everybody else gets upset about it.

Any further? Really do appreciate everything you guys do for our community. Really do. Thank you for all the hard work. and uh yeah yeah awesome just wanted to thank you also i don't know what i just know i need to do the registration or waco the laramie one okay So if you're going to go Dallas, you don't need to worry about this apparently. Wow. But make sure you register, please. I need to look at my dates. I don't know. All right.

Casey? Yes. Dave?

Dave said he'll be there. Okay.

So I just have two lingering.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I've got to look at certain dates. Dallas is just Dallas. So, you know, Dallas.

Thank you, guys.

All right. With that, we're going to take five-minute recess. to let everybody kind of cycle in here. There's a few chairs here in this. Watch the TV though. The bench here, there's a couple. If somebody is standing that shouldn't be standing, please make use of the bench or the chairs. But five minute break.

It's. Sure.

right we're back in session uh we need to make sure that the doorway stays clear so please uh do what you need to do to the doorways need to stay clear all righty next up is uh glenn is he here somewhere this is all for you yes it'd be really bad if everyone starts booing

This is your gentleman that runs the airport, ladies and gentlemen.

I draw a crowd.

Yeah, there you go. Thanks for coming, Glenn. What do you got for us?

So, Mr. Chairman, today I have before you a grant agreement, which will be $9.5 million. This is the federal funding for the air traffic control tower. So the grant structure is similar to what you've seen in the past, similar to the one that we did for the design, I think, a couple weeks ago. So I'd be happy to answer any questions, and certainly we appreciate your support for the funding.

Did you all get a chance to take a look at that yet? Any questions for Glenn on it? It was pretty straightforward and everything, just like the last one. Yes, sir. Dave has a question.

No, I have a statement. Congratulations on the groundbreaking. Thank you. I think that was a really good event, and I know there's a lot of people that are excited about that.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. Just a real quick update. We did sign contracts with SAMHSA and issued a notice to proceed. So that starts a 30-day period of time before the clock officially starts on the project. So we're working on mobilization, construction trailers, and so forth. So we're hoping we'll start some official, real groundbreaking here in the next couple weeks.

Outstanding. That's nice. You had a question for him?

Would you tell everybody here how long you've been managing the airport?

I'll be 20 years in November.

And I know you're feverishly working to maybe get another airline. We don't have one yet, but I always get asked that question. So anything, comment you'd like to make about that while you're here?

So we are always working on additional air service opportunities, whether it's with United, the existing carrier, larger airplanes, new destinations. It doesn't have to be serviced into Denver. It could be serviced into Chicago, Houston. So we're working on that. Other network carriers obviously would be Delta and American. So we have conversations with them as well as what we would call the less than one frequency per day, the allegiance, the breeze types of carriers that would go to, you know, You know, 2 times per week type of thing to Phoenix or to Las Vegas down to Florida. So we have those conversations. The reason why people don't hear about this in the news media and so forth. So that's probably the quickest way to be able to kill air services to start talking about who you're talking to publicly. um so literally when we hear somebody said that they want to make an announcement usually it's public a couple days later so we have those ongoing conversations certainly anything that supports employment i mean the airlines want butts in the seats they want business activity um so anything to that regard that grows the the economy um grows the population is what is going to draw additional service not saying we don't have the demand for this but that's the type of thing that the carriers are looking for

Well, you're doing a great job, and you have a great board, and I see Kermit sitting right back behind you. And ladies and gentlemen, that guy, Kermit, served on the airport board for 20 years. He gave service for 20 years. Thank you, Kermit. Thank you.

And Kermit was one of the board members who hired me. Yes.

Well, and he's only 30.

All right, any other questions, comments? Then we'll do that here shortly. Thank you. Thank you for coming. All righty, for the next guest, I'm going to make a statement. I already made it once. I'm going to make it again. We appreciate members of the public attending this meeting and recognize that the information being presented may be of significant interest and concern. This meeting is not a public hearing, however, and no decisions will be made during the meeting. Accordingly, public comment will not be taken during this agenda item. The meeting will proceed in the order published. So public comment will be available at the conclusion of this meeting. At that time, we welcome your concerns, thoughts, and comments. To allow as many people the opportunity to speak, we respectfully ask that if a prior speaker has already made the same point or argument that you wish to make, please refrain from repeating it. And instead, offer any additional perspective that you may have so that we can get through as many people as possible with their comments, concerns. OK? So with that, if Eric with Prometheus would come up after their presentation.

Oh, cool.

Welcome. Nice to see you all. Thank you for having us. Thank you for coming and trying to inform and give us some information on your project and what you want to do and where we're going from here.

Absolutely, it sounds like IT's coming to fix the slides, so.

Oh, did we jump the gun, I guess? Sort of, not really? Yeah, maybe a little bit. Is there anything you can tell us that you don't know?

Absolutely, yeah, we'll get started. Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Eric Schlitt. I was raised here in Casper. I went to school here, then went down to Laramie for my degree, and then came back to Casper to raise my family. That last part, coming home to raise my family, is a part fewer and fewer people can say. I'm here today with Prometheus Hyperscale as the director of Build Wyoming. We want to share with you guys directly about the proposed Prometheus Hyperscale project data center campus here and the opportunity that I and Prometheus believe it will bring to Toronto County. For as long as I can remember, Casper has asked for the same town everyone in Wyoming is asked for. Jobs to pay, investment that stays here, and a reason for their kids to build their lives here as opposed to somewhere else. I pulled the numbers on our county and they didn't say what I expected, honestly. Casper is not a dying town. Natrona County had 66,533 people in the year 2000 and roughly 80,400 today. That's a gain of about 23%. But the problem is really beneath that headline. We're not losing people. We're losing younger ones. And as much as I hate to admit and would not think that I am, the reality is that we're all aging fast. Statewide, Wyoming loses roughly 70% of its young people by the time they turn 30. Now, Toronto County is the second largest county in the state, and we still can't keep people here. You see it in the schools. District enrollment has fallen for a decade down to about 12,300 students, close to 1,000 empty seats. Four schools have been closed. And that base that used to fill those seats, the mineral and energy industry, has thinned. The argument isn't that Casper is desperate. We've done real work attracting and growing local businesses, and that deserves credit. The argument is that we're one commodity cycle away from giving everything back that we've gained, and nothing currently in the pipeline is large enough to change the lives of people here who stay here or who want to come back. That's why a project of this scale deserves a serious look and should be held to a high standard, which is exactly why I want to walk you through this opportunity.

We have that up. Look at that.

So what Prometheus Hyperscale is proposing is a phased data center campus here in Natrona County. While we do not exactly have all of our plans in the exact location finalized, what you'll see on the map is a generalized area of where we envision the site. Some of you may not understand what a data center is. Think of a data center as a giant library, except instead of books, it stores information. And it delivers that information instantly. Every time you Google something, scroll social media, stream a show, ask ChatGPT a question, your request goes to one of these libraries, gets answered by a computer, and it comes back to your screen in seconds. Some of you may not know what it looks like. On the left is an example of one rendering of what some of them do look like. This project would be phased. This is not one building that just appears instantly. It's a long-term project built in stages over years. Why does this matter? It means sustained economic investments, sustained job growth, and it means you get to watch how we operate before it comes to full scale. It also means jobs. At Peak Construction, we estimate that approximately 3,000 temporary construction jobs, electricians, iron workers, pipe fitters, operating engineers, fiber techs, surveyors, 8-track techs, et cetera. Once operational, the campus will support about 150 long-term jobs. Those are skilled, well-paying, permanent jobs. faculty technicians, network data center operations, mechanical, electrical maintenance, security, site management, and administrative support. And there's a multiplier. According to a PWC study, for every direct job, there's an estimated six jobs that are supported in a broader industry. Restaurants, retail, housing, real estate, healthcare, schools, hospitality, and services. Those are the type of jobs that will pay for the opportunities to compete with Denver and Salt Lake. The type of opportunities that bring our young people or keep them here. Prometheus, through our Build Wyoming framework, is committed to hiring locally whenever possible and to partnering with those Wyoming firms and Wyoming colleges and universities. Many of those conversations are already underway, and we look forward to sharing and continuing to grow those. We also are committed to investing in the community, workforce training, education, and supporting infrastructure. Prometheus would pay both sales and property tax, the majority of which stays here in Natrona County. To give you a sense of how impactful this project would be for the county, I'll walk through some of the preliminary estimates, which again, these are estimates. We don't have all the answers right now, but we're doing our best we can. We look at $100 to $150 million in one-time sales tax during that build, $80 to $115 million in new recurring property tax, which is recurring, not one time. That's roughly a 70% increase to the county's property tax base and additional county revenue that goes to those fire districts, roads, public safety, county and county government. So that's about $150 to $225 million per year in state tax revenue. So here's a case study of Loudoun County, Virginia. What does this kind of look like in other places? In Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers generated 875 million in tax revenue in fiscal year 2024. which is $35 million more than the county's entire general operations budget. So what did that buy them? That was nine consecutive years of property tax rate cuts, an increase of $111.8 million in funding for Loudoun County public school systems, an average raise of 8% for all sheriff's deputies, 240 new county positions across 30 departments, So here's how the Loudoun County Administrator put it while presenting the county budget. We can accommodate this largely because of the increased revenues associated with the data center industry, which now generate 38% of all general fund revenues. Now we realize that Loudoun County is not CASPER and the results in one county are not a guarantee here, but we wanted to show this as an example here of what data center revenue can do to a county. I understand that there are many questions here that people may have about the Prometheus Project. I'm going to hand it off to the founder of Prometheus, Trenton Thorinock, to address some of those more common questions.

Thanks, Eric. Good afternoon. I'm Trenton Thornock. I'm the founder of Prometheus Hyperscale. My family has been in the Bear River Valley for over 150 years. We have six generations on land that my brother still ranches and works. So before I say anything about megawatts, I want you to know that I consider Wyoming home. It's not a place I came looking for a site. I started Prometheus after looking at the land that my family has had for generations and seeing an opportunity to bring a generational investment to a community and a state that I and my family have long been a part of. There are a lot of questions and a lot of misinformation about data centers. While the specifics of this project are still not entirely finalized, Prometheus' approach to data centers is rooted in our commitment to responsible operations and to minimizing any negative impacts on the communities where we build. So let's start with water. Water is a top concern in Wyoming, and it should be. Our campus is designed to use approximately the same amount of water annually as about 15 homes. That's the entire campus. That's not per building. It's the whole site. We use closed-loop cooling. The cooling system recirculates internally. It does not draw from or discharge to city or county water supplies. We do not use any evaporative cooling, which makes us very different from the data centers that were built only a couple of years ago. We use our wells for domestic use only. Any onsite wells serve the office buildings and the bathrooms and the break room, not the data halls. We have, again, zero county water. We have zero discharge. We have zero demand on municipal supply and zero wastewater discharge to any local systems. Water rights and water supply are foundational to this county. Our design was built around that reality from day one. It's not a footnote. It's a core design requirement. And it was that way for my family's land as it will be for the project we're envisioning here. So what is closed-loop cooling? Want to make sure that what a closed-loop cooling system is clear because it's the foundation of our water commitment. So everybody can see this diagram up here. You can think of it as a car radiator, but for computers. So we have a sealed loop that circulates cooling fluid that carries heat away from the hottest part of the servers, which are on the right, usually the chips, and we release that heat outside, which is on the left. So the upside down pyramid looking things are dry coolers. They're radiator fans. The piece of equipment that's below those two units is a chiller plant because on the hottest months of the year we may need to turn on a chiller. This is the same kind of cooling plant that you'll find in a school or a large church or hospital. So that's what releases the heat outside. The fluid never leaves the loop until we change it out. So again, I want to reiterate, nothing is discharged to the ground or to any local water source. And this is what makes it fundamentally different from the older data centers that use evaporative cooling towers. Those are essentially giant humidifiers and we don't use that technology. Our system consumes zero gallons of ongoing water for cooling and it's proven Liquid cooling has been used in high-performance computing for years and is increasingly standard for modern data centers. The physics are sound and the engineering is established. And in the case of Uintah County, the planning department wanted to go see one of these in operation, and I was able to get them into the NOVA data center in West Jordan, Utah. We'd be happy to try to arrange that again for you if you're interested. The next question is always, how is this going to impact my power bill? So here's the answer. Prometheus intends to generate its own power on site and operate independent of the public grid. That's the grid that you draw your power from and what's keeping the lights on in here. So we do not have a grid connection. That means residential electric rates are not affected. Natrona County residents would not pay for any part of our operation, including the power generation. We are not competing with you for grid capacity. We're going to build our own. We have onsite generation in the form of high efficiency natural gas engines and turbines, providing reliable power for the campus. The most important thing here is that Wyoming value stays home. Wyoming produces significantly more energy than it consumes, and we are converting that Wyoming energy into Wyoming jobs and Wyoming tax revenue. The value stays here. It doesn't go to California or Utah or Nevada. Other folks are very concerned about noise, light, and traffic. We have a couple of neighbors in Uintah County. The closest one is the Evanston Silver Eagle Refinery. So we had to do a baseline survey to determine the base level of noise in that area, and we're planning to do the same thing here. So mitigation is designed in from the ground up. It's not added on afterward. Noise is engineered into the facility design and generator placement, and we have acoustic plans that will be reviewed before construction begins. On the lighting, all exterior lighting will be shielded and directed downward. We're not going to light up the night sky So in that case, we won't be like a lot of plants. Again, that's an engineering requirement that's built into the design. And in our conditional use permit that was granted by the county commissioners, we included a dark sky standard. That's an engineering standard that we will build to. On traffic, the construction traffic will be coordinated with the local government. Once we're operational, traffic resembles a small business. Shift workers rotate in and out like they do from any plant. Maintenance crews, we have occasional equipment delivery. It's not a retail facility with constant public traffic. We've designed our project around the things that matter most to Wyoming communities. Water, power reliability, quiet, and the night sky. and we plan to be here and part of this community for a long time. There have been a lot of questions also about permitting. We are intending to seek an industrial park designation as a planned unit development that would allow us to seek an exemption from cumbersome and time-consuming state industrial siting processes without removing any applicable environmental or regulatory requirements. The state regulatory bodies, such as the DEQ, the Department of Environmental Quality, cover air, waste, and water. YDOT covers transportation. The state engineer will cover any onsite water wells. And we coordinate with Wyoming Game and Fish. So all these state agencies still have oversight and authority over their respective aspects of the project. The State Industrial Siding Division only has three employees. dedicated to permitting processes for all Wyoming industrial projects, and the Industrial Siding Council only meets quarterly. I think Prometheus has seven employees here today. Local control, in my opinion, is much better than state siding oversight. You, the county commissioners and local officials, know your community and their needs better than a state siding council. And I can't even name the folks who are on that council. I know who appoints them, but I don't know their names. Industrial siding is a formal process that makes participation difficult for members of the public. So the council gets to vote, but the public doesn't get to participate that often. The county permitting process allows a broad and convenient public participation, including public hearings, planning and zoning reviews, neighborhood meetings that we will hold and organize, and commissioner meetings, which are open record and provide community members the opportunity to be engaged and heard directly. Counties can negotiate directly with developers for specific community funding such as road maintenance, infrastructure, amenities, and other improvements which allow local officials to address immediate local needs without waiting for the state mandated impact formulas to determine what their needs are in Cheyenne and who benefits from the funds received from the developer. And unlike the industrial siting process, Prometheus, the developer pays, not the taxpayer. We want to build this project alongside this commission and this community to ensure the project delivers lasting benefits for Natrona County and the surrounding communities. And so now I will turn this back to Eric to outline our commitment to Natrona County.

Thank you, Trenton. Our commitment to Wyoming and the Toronto County goes beyond the data center campus. To restate what we've committed to, it's Wyoming first hiring and direct investment into the workforce development and training. Those long-term economic investments through tax revenue and support of local organizations and initiatives. responsible operations through self-supplied on-site power no impact to those residential rates minimal water use that closed loop cooling no municipal draw or and no discharge the noise light and traffic mitigation built in from the start a transparent partnership which we uh we're incredibly proud of working openly and collaboratively with this community frequent updates and independent reporting Wyoming has a bumper sticker about asking for one more boom and promising not to waste it. The honest answer for Casper is a little bit narrower than that. We don't need a boom. We need something big enough and permanent enough to change who stays in this county. When an opportunity like this finally shows up, we owe it to each other and the next generation to take it seriously. The alternative is another decade of a county that grows on paper while schools consolidate, our median age, it climbs, and 25-year-olds and 30-year-olds load up the truck for Denver or Salt Lake. Commissioners, we're not asking for you to approve an entire project today. We've discussed that. we're asking for your support to help us move forward with the conductor in industrial park and the formal county-led permitting process where the design can be reviewed where the studies can be published the community can stay engaged and every commitment that we've made can be a part of the public record so with that in mind we we ask you guys to severely to seriously consider this thank you so much for your time god bless america and god bless wyoming thank you

Do we have any questions for these gentlemen?

I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate all the effort that's gone into this. I think the sound is not something that I'm concerned about because when you can drive down through the front area and they mitigate that sound then i'm not not concerned about that one of the questions that people have asked me though is you're looking at five and a half million gallons of liquid to basically fill your system said i'm going by the 17 acre feet so What do you do on the back end of that? What is that? How are you going to transfer that safely and what are you gonna do with it? Because that is something obviously people are concerned about.

Right, so propylene glycol is gonna be very familiar to anybody in the oil and gas space. It's used on a regular basis to prevent freezing at the wellhead. The propylene glycol itself is not toxic. It's in food additives. It's in makeup. It's in a lot of things that touch us every day and no one notices. So what we do is we mix up 75 percent water, 25 percent propylene glycol in batches. We would buy that from somebody like Coastal Chemical or DuPont and have that delivered to the site in tanker trucks. It will stay in the system for five to six years, and at the end, the supplier will take it back to their facility for proper treatment and bring out a fresh batch.

Okay. Thank you. I have a question kind of following up along the same lines as that as far as the fluids go.

know it's kind of early in the process to be thinking about this but urgency responses or how are you going to handle unplanned large release of that fluid so computers don't like water and these facilities are engineered to stay up more than 99.9 percent of the time so they can't fail we have spaces engineered into the buildings that are catchment for any fluid that gets loose. And as you saw on the previous slide, going to have separate systems for each data hall so it's not all one big system it's chopped up into smaller pieces that are more manageable and those pieces have to operate at what we call in the industry n plus one so there's usually a redundant part to the system to make sure that it never comes offline and

some of my reading into different things. Basically, if you do have a release of magnitude or anything, the ability itself acts as secondary containment, basically, correct?

Yes. And I spent a good portion of the morning last Tuesday with Honeywell and with the Uintah County Fire and with the City of Evanston Fire talking about specific risks. They're most concerned, and rightly so, about any lithium batteries that we have on the site. And so there are specific protocols around how to handle those. Because we don't back up all of our compute, our tenant is asking us only to back up the networking portion. We don't have that many backup generators. And because the compute's not backed up, we don't have a bunch of power shelves with lithium in them. We might have a few, but compared to older facilities, we wouldn't have very many at all.

So my concern is what kind of neighbor you would be and what kind of community benefit that Prometheus would bring to the Natrona County area. You know, I appreciate you guys reaching out to Summit, who just opened their new ER. Can you maybe elaborate on some of how Prometheus would be a partner with this community and help it in any number of ways?

Absolutely, Chairman and Commissioner. That's kind of up to the community. Prometheus wants to be a good partner and find where there is need. So where there is determined need, if an organization, if the commissioners, if the elected officials have a specific determined need for what they are looking for, that's where Prometheus is looking to kind of work. Again, this isn't a hammer. We're trying to make sure that this is the fit for Natrona County. This is a fit for Casper, Evansville, Parnon, and Mills. So making sure that we can work with community and provide the most impact and the most benefits. So it's kind of a choose-your-own-adventure sort of look.

Yeah, my thoughts are this would be a real impact, not something that we would have to collectively as, you know, municipalities or local governments, you know, come up with some dream of an impact that industrial siding would have to say, yes or no, you're not impacted. This would be something that we say we're impacted. And Prometheus would say, you certainly are. And then that's how that model would work.

Again, that's that's going to be something that we'll have to have to discuss as we kind of dive into those community benefit agreements. It's. It's not, uh, I don't I don't want to say it's not built yet, but it's kind of not built yet because we have to, we have to determine the impact that the commissioners in the county and the municipalities determine.

Commissioner to follow on if I may, um. The way it worked in you in a county is that the county commissioners and planning and zoning department were able to negotiate with us conditions. So these are the kind of the good neighbor things that. Have very specific conditions around how we have to operate our facility, both during the construction phase later on. And then the community benefits come later, and that's where we and our tenant would sit down with community leaders and figure out how to address some of the critical needs in the community. And those would be two separate things. So you have the stick, at least from where we sit, which is the conditions that go on the conditional use permit. And then we get to work with the community to figure out how to

improve the lives of the people here far beyond the increased property taxes commissioner nicholas thank you mr chairman thank you gentlemen for being here today i know that the public appreciates the opportunity to learn a little bit more about about your project. I want to ask you about that last point you just made, which to me sounded like you're proposing the community benefit agreement is negotiated and agreed to after this thing is fully permitted. Is that your intention?

That's correct. And there's a reason, Commissioner, we want to do that. In Uintah County, we were accused of bribery because we were still going through the community through the permitting process when we started the community benefits discussion so we halted those and we'll resume those once the permits are finalized

Mr. I appreciate that and don't want to be accused of bribery and I know nobody on this board wants to be any public elected official at the same time. It seems that the county loses a significant part of its leverage in those negotiations. If things been fully permitted. and so i would refer that those things work in tandem go through the permitting process but also be moving forward and making progress on the community benefit agreement because ultimately i think everybody in this room would recognize this would be a substantial material change to the landscape of this part of neutron county and potentially neutron county in general so We want to make sure that it's appropriate for the location and for the community. I think those benefits are a significant part of that. I want to go to a couple other follow-ups. Mr. Schlitt, you talked about Loudoun County. I don't know if I'd be It's called the data center capital of the world. They have 200 data centers or over 200, have a moratorium now because of the data center problem. They're, in fact, talking about reversing their decision for allowing things to move forward that they had previously permitted. It's that bad. So we want to avoid all of whatever pitfalls and mistakes. So I think that that might not be the analogy that is best suited for Casper and Natrona County, Wyoming. Are you committing to a off-grid electrical solution for all phases and not just the first phase?

We can't commit for all time. So the first phase is certainly going to be off grid. And of course, our former commissioner of the Wyoming Public Service Commission is behind me. Unlike the presidential proclamation that was made about not impacting ratepayers, Wyoming already has laws on books. So to the extent there is a future connection with Rocky Mountain Power, who is the local regulated utility, we would have to follow the law.

It would seem that our conditional use permit conditions could include that this be off grid for all phases though. It seems that we would have the legal power if we had the will to do it, we could impose that as a condition. Do you agree with that?

I think you can impose any condition you'd like as long as it doesn't violate the Constitution.

um with regard to natural gas uh my understanding is that the natural gas is coming through a tall grass pipeline or a uh is it black hills currently envisioned to be black hills because it already transits the property is there going to be any impact on any for any of these phases on rate payers because black hills is a regulated utility i believe

would be a good question for black hills we do work with the natural gas producers themselves i was with ty harrison who's president of pure west energy the largest natural gas producer in the state by volume they've recently high graded their drilling inventory they have over 20 years of rig days of inventory that they can Develop and about 25 trillion cubic feet of gas and reserve.

Good. Well, I think most of the people in this room have not only an electrical bill, but they have a gas bill too. And I think that there would be maybe a similar. Concerned that their gas bills don't go up. So it's not a good question for me or for black Hills, but it might be a good question for you to inquire on. The access is 1 of the biggest issues and I think that. Having lived out on the had 6 road for over 10 years and our family still operates a farm out there. That is a under. Underdeveloped, it's not a good highway. It's not a good state highway. and so we have communicated with you um a preference or at least i've communicated with you a preference that an i-25 interchange be constructed and there's already uh the single lane overpass um just over the county line in converse county at big muddy um what are what are your intentions with regard to access

The primary access is intended to be the interstate because it has the highest volume capacity.

And is that for both construction and operation?

Yes.

Go ahead.

And we also need a secondary access for emergency purposes, and that would be envisioned to be at six. And so if one of the conditions is that we and our tenant have to pay for upgrades to that highway, we can consider that.

And it's not just upgrades to the highway, the Hatch 6 road, but also for putting in an interstate change. Is your company willing to do that?

Yes.

I don't have any other questions at this point.

Anybody else, Dave? This will be an easy one. You and the county had a large number of stipulations. Would you be willing, how many stipulations did they actually put on Prometheus down there?

Well, it depends on which permit we're talking about, because there are 2, there's 1 for the data center and there's 1 for the, uh, our generation part of the project. And so, uh, if you would like, we'd be happy to provide you with copies of those.

Fairly extensive, I will, I would like a copy of those and I, and I know. I guess the main thing that I'm looking for is the fact that you agreed to those stipulations. And that's something that it's not just what Prometheus wants or what the county wants. It's something that it's a mutual to make sure that it is beneficial for the community. And that's kind of what I was... going after there. So, okay.

If you could actually provide those to Michelle and then she'll distribute them to us. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. We'll do that.

Commissioner Laird, I know you've been holding on. Well, I've been holding on.

I mean, you know, I, I, um, gentlemen, I represent the people in Toronto County and, um, Yes, they like me doing it. I made it through the primary and I was born and raised here and I probably know 80% of the people in here. So usually I'm a little more long-winded than I'm going to be tonight. But as a lawyer, I know we'll all get this in writing at some point and we'll make our agreements. Now, I have a question, two questions really. and it's directed at the people in Natrona County. So if you gentlemen would stand up and take a look at the people in Natrona County with me, I'm gonna ask the questions. Ladies and gentlemen, I want all the people in favor of their project to raise their hand. thank you i want all the people that aren't in favor of the project to raise their hand and those that don't know well we're not i'm not going to count them i just i get a feeling i like to get a feeling because i i talk to a lot of people every day who come by my office down here on center street next to the bluebird And they come in and they ask me questions and I'm there to talk to them. I've talked to these two gentlemen. I know this gentleman's father. He was a doctor here in town.

And this gentleman here, I've heard about him.

He's an honorable man. Now, saying that, as a lawyer, I remember an old TV program. It was called Dragnet, and that tells you how old I am. And the main officer, Joe Friday, would go in and people would start talking to him. He says, just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Opinions are different than facts. And agreements, in my opinion, if they aren't in writing, they don't mean anything.

So we're going to take a really hard look at this.

We have to start off, I think, by making a zone change. And we'll vote on that here, not right now, but at some point. And so I really appreciate it when the people of Natrona County come in here. Because I represent all of you, and I listen to all of you. Thank you very much.

Mr. Chairman, thank you again. Can you bring up the map, Mr. Schlitt? So is that the map on the right?

It is, yes.

And where is the project shown on that map?

sure it's not shown on the map uh we're currently envisioned to build everything at this point uh south of the interstate on the falls ranch and we have representatives here uh from the falls ranch if you'd like to talk to them and so south of i-25 and then big muddy creek runs through that's the primary drainage through there right it's called big muddy creek

And so the infrastructure would be built primarily the buildings, the data halls and the generation facility would be built on the west side of Big Muddy Creek?

That's correct.

And how many acres are envisioned to be part of the zone change application?

So for the IPP, our partner requested 300 acres for the power generation piece. If we replicate what we have in Evanston, it'll be approximately a section including buffer zones for the data center projects.

So 640 acres? Yes, sir. Okay. Maybe I didn't hear you, Mr. Thornock, and I apologize if I misheard something. So 300 plus 640 or 640 all in?

Thank you.

And the last question for now is, do you have any baseline studies? You know, people are talking about noise and people are talking about wildlife. Do you have anything yet? And I know the Industrial Siding Act requires under the Section 109 permitting process to provide extensive studies, both of baseline and forecasted, predicted Do you have anything? And if not, at what point are we in the public going to see some baseline studies for what

Yes, so 1 of the conditions in our conditional use permit for the data center and you in a county. Is that we take a baseline study, an acoustic study. To figure out what the sound profile is prior to beginning construction. We have completed that we received the draft report, which I haven't read fully because I was on a plane last night yesterday. We would plan on doing kind of the same thing here and that gives you a baseline. We were also stipulated to stay under a specific. A decimal number for data center operations, and we're going to give you a copy of the conditional use permit that stipulates that. And you in a county, we were subject to NEPA. because some of our infrastructure crosses Bureau of Land Management. And my family are the surface lessees of those Bureau of Land Management sections, but we still had to go through the entire NEPA process. And that includes looking at wildlife. We paid for a $25,000 botanical study to look for a plant that wasn't there. So, the federal government required us to do a lot of things that, in my opinion, didn't make sense. The bottom line, though, is that we cleared that NEPA process with flying colors. It's publicly accessible out on the internet on the Department of the Interior's website, and we would be prepared to go through similar studies in order to get the conditional use permit here.

what's your what's your time frame can you tell the public and give the public an idea of what your um hopeful time frame is from um coming all in to the You know, date of your application for zone change through, you know, when you get a break ground on this thing, if that's what, you know, ultimately is permitted.

Sure. Thank you. So I'll be completely transparent here. Tenant is not going to make a commitment until they have a clear line of sight on the ability to permit the project. If they see that there is. It's more likely than not that they're not going to get permitted. They're going to go somewhere else. Prometheus currently has sites in Reeves County, Texas, near Pecos. We also have a site outside of Dallas in Coffman County. And at that point, the tenant is going to go somewhere else.

Thank you.

any further questions.

I've got one last one for you real quick, just kind of popped up. So we're south of the interstate and west of Muddy. About how far off, what's your setbacks looking for that section?

So we haven't set them precisely, but for the power generation would be closest to the interstate and we'd want to set back that is large enough that we can put in an earthen berm if we need to to block the noise.

Thank you. Any further questions? Dallas, your lights on. Do you have a question?

This is a good county. And you've got a lot of questions and I appreciate you coming here and answering them by what I think are truthful answers. And I can tell you one thing from understanding our budgetary processes here and where our county is money wise. Financially, if what you tell us is going to happen, it'll be a very good thing for this county. As long as it doesn't hurt any of my residents. I'll be happy about it. We'll find out about all that as we move down the line here with our processing of the zoning and what we have to do once the commissioners take this under advisement and we find out how everybody's going to vote. I think you'll know pretty soon. Peter?

Anything else? Okay. Well, gentlemen, Went over time for you guys, but I think it's well worth it. I do highly appreciate it. I know all of us appreciate you coming here and giving us some information, more information, keeping those lines of communication open. I want to let, again, reiterate to everybody, this is not a public hearing. We're not taking public comment at this point in time. So if that's all, I do appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Ashley?

I already gave legal updates. I don't know why I was on the twice.

Okay, so with that, do I have any motions for execs?

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to go into an executive session for purposes of litigation and personnel and is it real estate acquisition or is that one?

That may be discussed as well. All right.

That's my motion.

Second.

Moved and seconded. We're in. Exec, we will be back once everything is done. No. No vote.

you Thank you.

Mr. Chairman? Go ahead. Make a motion to amend the agenda to discuss one cent funding for the parks and the mountain. Second.

We have a motion and a second to discuss some one cent reserve. Those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Mr. Coates?

Mr. Chairman, the Parks Board has been working on shelters up on Bear Trap and making some pretty substantial progress. They've applied for a grant and are waiting to receive funding on that. In the interim, they would like to be able to get concrete poured and then some of the shelter parts ordered. The total amount would be not to exceed $130,000 to be reimbursed by the collaborative grant. So I guess the motion in this would be to allow Parks Board to expend up to $130,000 of one cent fund not to exceed to be reimbursed. Motion? Yes.

Do I have a second? I was just going to provide discussion for clarification.

I'll second, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, moved and seconded. Discussion? I just wanted to let everybody know that this is not something that is all one cent money, that it will be reimbursed, and that's part of the grant request. But it's a reimbursable grant, and that's reasonable. We're needing that funding for the parks right now so we can do all the work and then get reimbursed and put that money right back in one cent as it comes in. Any further discussion?

It's been a project that's been long ongoing. It's time it gets finished. So thank you, Mr. North.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Discussion finished.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed?

Ayes have it. Okay. So did you want to bring that up for WBI first or not? Okay. Okay.

Alrighty.

So consent agenda or the motion for consent agenda.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. Any discussion? Those in favor? Aye. Opposed? And this consent agenda has passed. Contracts, agreements, and resolutions. Bid award for Phase 2 of the Hearst Gravel Pit Project. need a report on that or just a motion there boss that's entirely up to you you had said to put it on the regular agenda so right we had kind of a straw poll yeah okay so i need a motion for approval of the bid award mr chairman i'd make a motion for the approval of the bid award motion and a second or a third it sounds like so any discussion about a fourth and a fifth No discussion. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. So the bid award for Phase 2 of the Hearst Gravel Pit project goes to Rams Horton Construction.

Public hearings.

Where's staff? Staff's hiding somewhere. All right. I've got some language here somewhere.

Sir chairman and commissioners.

Hold on just. Language. Somewhere. Hold on. There we go. She has it out here where I can see it and life is good. I'm not confused. Yeah. That works too. All righty. So I now declare a public hearing open for consideration of CUP 26-04 Morando cell tower. The hearing will be conducted in accordance with state statutes, rules of the joint account commissioners. It's too late for that. And other applicable laws. May we have a report for the staff?

Mr. Chairman and commissioners. Tonight we have two cases. The major subdivision application was postponed, so it'll just be the conditional use permit invariance. Our first case tonight is a conditional use permit. As part of the rip and replace program required by the FCC, SEC Wireless is submitting on behalf of Union Telephone Company a conditional use application. This application is for a new 80-foot monopole tower next to their existing 65-foot tower. The existing tower cannot withstand the structural load of the proposed equipment upgrade, nor is it suitable for future equipment loading. Therefore, Union Wireless proposes a new 80-foot monopole tower designed to support Union equipment and that of up to two additional co-locators. The property is located at 700 Murado Drive at the junction of Coliseum Way and Murado Drive off of East 2nd Street. It is zoned urban agriculture with a minimum lot size of 10 acres. Currently, the land is being used for a 65-foot cell tower located on the property. The criteria for conditional use permit standards have been met. In the case of CUP 26-04, Staff Finds Union Wireless has provided the following summary for the telecommunications tower. One 80-foot monopole tower, which was in your packet. One ice bridge. One new antenna, 11 feet by 20 feet. Electronic equipment and related cables. Their lease area is being expanded by 25 feet. They propose to keep their existing 65-foot tower, propane tank, and related equipment buildings. The tower will be structurally capable of supporting unit equipment and two additional co-locators. Staff received the following comments. The Natrona County Health Department stated they had no concerns. County Fire District had no problem with the application. GIS Department had no concerns. Assessor Mappings stated they had no issues with the application. The Natrona County Conservation District had no comments. Natrona County Road and Bridge had no concerns. And Natrona County Records had no issues with the application. Staff sent notices to 59 surrounding neighbors. As of the date of this report, staff has received two letters of opposition and then one resident emailed us today new photos of the existing tower, which I think were sent to you as well. Staff finds the application for a conditional use permit complete and that the request is in compliance with the approval criteria. The Planning and Zoning Commission forwarded a due pass recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. Staff proposed that the Board of County Commissioners enter a motion and vote to recommend approval or denial of the requested conditional use permit. Should the Board of County Commissioners vote to approve the requested conditional use permit, staff have no additional conditions for this project. Staff also recommend that the motion incorporate by reference all findings of facts set forth. Do you have any questions for staff? We also have the applicant here if you have questions for them.

Any questions?

Go ahead. With regard to the existing 65-foot tower, I thought they were required to get rid of that under the rip and replace program.

Yes. So the Planning and Zoning Commission did recommend part of the conditions for approval would be they remove that within 12 months of the new tower being constructed.

Has the applicant... indicated assent to that or that they'd be okay with that?

Yes. Any further questions? Thank you. All right, at this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of CUP 26-04 to approach the lectern.

Good evening to the board. My name is Chris Schlax. I am with SAC Wireless on behalf of Union Wireless, and I am the applicant for this project. As mentioned, this is part of the FCC Rip and Replace program. We had a similar project on a different tower a couple months back, but there is some Chinese-made equipment that is deployed out in the network that's been deemed a national security threat by the FCC, and so they're funding to replace it. The existing tower that's there today, 65 foot, is not structurally capable of supporting the new equipment, which is a bit of an upgrade. So we're proposing an 80 foot tower at this location, which would provide better coverage, as well as the addition of a third future co-locator at that location. we had a community meeting back on august 6th where we had two community members and one letter to respond to as part of that we did agree that we would remove the old tower as a condition we did ask if we could leave the existing tower up for one year in order to allow the network to be transferred over to the newly built tower and ensure everything is good and then that would be replaced and the expectation is that would be managed through the building permit process Outside of that, there is a variance here as well. We can talk about that in the next section, but essentially that's based on the lease space expansion and working between or trying to fit it in the middle of the two parcel lines. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Any questions?

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

And at this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of CUP 26-04, approach the lectern. At this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of CUP 26-04, approach the lectern. Seeing nobody else approach the lectern, this time I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of CUP 26-04 to approach the lectern. Go ahead, sir. Name and address, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Lyle Conkle. I live in Park Ridge Village Estate, and my location specifically is on Verde Court, Murado. I'm probably... quarter of a mile away. I'm also on the board for Parkridge Village. And earlier this morning, I sent some pictures that I think are in your packet. And one of the things we see every time you drive into Parkridge Village is a picture in your packet. It's this one right here. It's an eyesore. If this tower isn't the ugliest tower in Wyoming, I'm sure it's competing for first place. Not only that, if you also look through your packet, directly across the street is our common area. And we take very good care of that. We spend $28,000 a year maintaining that upkeep, water, et cetera. And this particular location and the tower in specific is real eyesore. And at the very least, I'd like these people, Union Wireless, to clean the place up. If you look at the pictures, the sidewalks are overgrown. The weeds are up to your waist on the site. There's sagebrush growing over the sidewalks. And secondly, it would be really, really nice if they could put up a visual barrier fence closer to the road so when you pull in off Coliseum to Muratto, you don't see all the buildings. And all the junk down below, um. And I can't say I speak for all the homeowners. I don't, but I'm on the board. And none of us like this proposal the way it is right now. I think. A good trade-off would be providing some type of barrier so we don't see the site as trashy as it is. Obviously, Union Wireless doesn't care about that because it is what it is. If you look at it, these pictures were taken yesterday. So I just ask you to think long and hard before approving it.

Any questions?

Mr. Chairman?

Go ahead, sir.

What kind of screening or buffering would you ask union to put that concerns?

I'm really not an expert in that. All I'm thinking is if the buffer would be closer up the topography of this site is, as, you know, if you've seen it, it slopes down and the buildings are down below you pull in to the street. And like I said, pulling into our subdivision, this is the very first thing you see. This was literally taken at the stop sign. So if the barrier was up closer to the road instead of way down below where there's an existing chain link fence, the barrier would at least cover the buildings and it'd be more visually appealing.

Have you talked to unions or their representative about your concerns?

No, I wasn't available at the last meeting. I know 1 of our. 1 of the homeowners in the village was here, spoke to him. And I think that's where the tearing the tower down after a year came from.

I don't I don't know if they have the legal right to. Put any structures closer to your street and I don't know that they have any obligation to mow those weeds. Kind of depends on what their footprint is for the land that they lease, but maybe they could put in a taller fence, at least on that East side.

Well, those are good questions. Honestly, I don't either. All I'm asking is they look into that to see if they could do that. It'd be really helpful and I'm certain the homeowners would appreciate it if we didn't have to look at that. You know, the other Fremont Motors, Jetta, Volkswagen dealership, they take really good care of their properties. They're visually really appealing. And this thing, and once you put up another tower, this is gonna start looking like an industrial site. We already have high power lines that go through the subdivision and adding another big tower is not gonna be good. So that's our position.

Any further questions?

So I'd like to know from the gentleman who spoke on behalf of the tower to tell us if they can clean that up. I see him back there. I'd like to know, since he's heard this, if he can help you get that done.

If you want to address, that's fine. If you don't want to right now, that's fine as well, sir. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

yeah so just a couple comments based on um feedback there so to the the point that was made from the board um I think the challenge with a fence closer to the road is that our lease space is what the the current fence surrounds so we would not have the ability to do that I think we could certainly pass along the feedback of the the mowing and trying to keep that up but I think that's outside of of unions um right there or responsibility. The other point regarding the taller fence, that's something we could potentially look into, although there is equipment outside the fence. It looks like some electrical boxes that would be accessed from the power company. So I don't think it solves the issue fully if you do have a privacy fence there.

Thank you.

Go ahead. Sorry. He said he may not have the ability to move the fence, but really, as the rules stand now, they don't have the ability to build a tower unless they get a variance. Why can't they do the same thing with a fence?

He doesn't have the ability to build fence on non-lease property. He has that footprint, right? And so he just said that he may be able to extend the one fence.

I see. So the footprint isn't like it's circled. It doesn't go all the way up to Murado?

It's what they've got. It's out and around their building. That's what they've got.

Well, how do they know the landowner would allow them to do it? It wouldn't be a... We wouldn't hurt to ask.

I think maybe you might want to address this to the landowner correctly. If there is a landowner that's, because I know they lease these properties to put those things up, and so the landowners are getting paid. Right.

Well, then let me ask you this, or ask the representative for union, if we talk with the landowner and they agree to that, would they be willing to do it?

Well, you'd have to go ask them. I'm talking about union. Would they be willing to do it? I can't speak for them, sir. I just can't do that. But you could look into it from the standpoint of the owner and let him know how you're all feeling. I like to see people in neighborhoods work this stuff out between themselves because it's sometimes impossible for us to do anything.

I get that. I understand. But those are our issues, and it really doesn't look very nice.

I would want the same thing. But that's why I ask, who owns it? I would start with the owner and see if they'll do it. Well, I know who the owner is. He may live out there. Who knows?

Right. Well, I don't know where he lives, but I know who the owner is. But I'm going to approach that, and maybe I can get his contact information and talk with him.

Yeah, just ask him. I appreciate that. Yeah, just ask him. He'll probably give it to you.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you.

You're welcome.

And once again, at this time, I'd ask those individuals who speak in opposition of consideration of CUP 26-04 to approach the lectern. Final call. At this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of CUP 26-04 to approach the lectern. There being no others to speak for or against consideration of CUP 26-04, I now declare the public hearing closed.

Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion to approve CUP 26-04 with the incorporating the terms and conditions set forth by Planning and Zoning Commission

I have a motion. A second. A second. Those in favor? Opposed? Ayes have it. Passed. Moving on to the next one. Now declare the public hearing open for consideration of VC26-01, Miranda Ocelta Tower setback variance. The hearing will be conducted in accordance with state statutes, rules of the New China County Commission and other applicable laws. May we have a report from staff?

Mr. Chairman and commissioners, our next case, VC26-01, is on the same property as the proposed CUP. As part of the Rep and Replace program required by the FCC, SEC Wireless is submitting on behalf of Union Telephone Company a conditional use application as well as this variance application. The variance is to waive the 98 foot setback requirement as their southwest property line is 14 feet short and their eastern property line is 1.5 feet short. The location of the property again is at 700 Moretto Drive. The minimum front side and rear setback is 98 feet. The variant standard criteria have been met for this application. In the case of VC26-01, a request for zoning variance, the lot size being 9.56 acres, due to the footprint of the existing 60-foot cell tower and the limited area provided in Union Telephone Company's expanded lease, waiving the setback requirements would allow the proposed 80-foot monopole to be built close to the existing tower and all utility buildings already on the property. The applicant is requesting a variance to construct the new tower roughly another 20 feet further away from the eastern closest edge of the property bordering Murado Drive, providing a total setback from the property line of approximately 96.5 feet. This is roughly 1.5 feet below the required 98-foot setback. The existing 60-foot cell tower is roughly 65 feet back from the eastern property line and roughly 88 feet back from Rado Drive. The western property line setback of the proposed 80-foot cell tower is roughly 84.5 feet, which is approximately 14 feet below the minimum setback requirements. Staff received the following comments. The Natrona County Assessor Mapping stated they had no comment. Natrona County Road and Bridge had no comment. Conservation District stated they had no comment. County Fire had no problem with the application. The attorney county records had no comment. County GIS stated they had no concerns with the application. And the health department stated they had no concerns with the application. Staff sent notices to 59 surrounding neighbors. As of the date of this report, staff has received one written letter of opposition to the variance specifically. Staff finds the application for variance complete and that the request is in compliance with items one through seven of the approval criteria in your packet. With all items in conformance with the current zoning resolution and all additional conditions met, staff finds VC26-01 to be complete and in compliance and acceptable. The Planning and Zoning Commission forwarded a due past recommendation for the Board of County Commissioners. Should the Planning and Zoning, sorry, should the County Commissioners vote to approve the requested variance, staff has no additional conditions for this project. Staff also recommends that the motion incorporate by reference all findings of that set forth. Any questions for staff or our applicant?

you any questions i do have a question uh that shorter distance 84.6 or six inches to the southwest what that property line what's on the other side of that property line so to the south is urban agriculture and then um to the west is going to be general business which is a casper zoning designation okay so you're actually it's actually being pushed back there you go so it's actually being pushed back more toward the vacant land correct okay thank you any further questions

Is that the same type of construction as the current bolt, or is it a collapsible? I mean, a lot of these that we look at actually have collapsible towers.

I believe for the last conversation, it was a lattice tower. Um, which would have a collapse point in the middle. So it would fall over just straight.

And if the representative wants to come up and answer any questions, he's.

Yeah, I can ask him. Come on.

He would know better.

Give us more detail on the, on the poll design itself.

Yeah, so Critchlax SAC Wireless. The proposed monopole at 80 feet would be designed to have a break point in the middle in the event of a collapse, which would be rare. But what you would see is it would collapse over Potentially on itself, but realistically, you'd have to be aware of, like, a 40 foot fall radius in the event of a failure there. So it'd be designed to break in the middle as a 1st failure point.

Okay. That's what I needed to know. Because I know a lot of the lot of the towers that we looked at over the last several years. they're moving to that direction because it reduces the offset and everything else.

So she had mentioned a lattice tower, which is your self-support like four-legged tower that can actually collapse down on itself almost into a zero fall radius. In this case, we've got the monopole to kind of match what's out there today, although it won't have the wood paneling, it'll just be a standard monopole. That one, because it'll be built in two pieces, the top would fall down as the first failure point.

So basically with what you're telling us, with the offset that it's got, we're going to be at almost two of what the collapsible tower length would be. Correct. Okay. That's what I needed to know.

All righty. This time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of UC2001 to approach the lecture. Should have just stayed open.

Up next, to the board, Chris Schlax, 988 Gilpin Circle, Erie, Colorado. I am with SAC Wireless on behalf of Union Wireless, and I'm the applicant for this. Reason for the variance here is we are proposing an 80-foot tower. That added height is going to get better coverage, especially to the east. There is a coverage map that's provided, and it will allow for a third co-locator or future co-locator to go on this tower. I guess the specifics for the variance here, as you can see on the map, because of the lease space expansion, we've got to kind of fit the tower between the two parcels. As mentioned, we are a little bit closer to the southwestern side there, and there's currently nothing there, and it kind of goes off a little bit of a hill. The tower itself is 80 feet tall. The top end of the equipment would be at 84 feet. So even in the event of a full tower collapse, we're still just within that distance to the parcel line, although we do not meet the setback requirements, which adds 10 feet and I think 10% per the zoning code there. So we're a little bit short on both ends there, but we did try to fit it in between the two parcel lines as best we can. And as mentioned, in the event of a failure, it will be designed to break in half to further cut down that fall zone radius. MR.

It does that sometimes. Any questions? Thank you. All right. At this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of ECE 26-01 to approach the lectern. And final time, at this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of VC26-01 to approach the lectern. Moving on, at this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of VC26-01 to approach the lectern. At this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of VC26-01 to approach the lectern. And final call, at this time I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of VC26-01 to approach the lectern. There being no others to speak for or against consideration of VC26-01, I now declare the public hearing closed. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, considering all Relevant factors including but not limited to those set forth in the 2022 zoning resolution of Natrona County. I find the variance meets the general standards required. On that basis, I move to approve BC 2601 with all staff findings of fact incorporated. I'll second that.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? We see 26-01 has passed. So, moving on. I am once again going to reiterate. I'm going to leave the doorways open so people can come and go. This is public comment. We've had a lot of discussion and whatnot. But... THIS PUBLIC COMMENT, WE TRULY DO WELCOME YOUR CONCERNS, ANY THOUGHTS, CONSIDERATE COMMENTS, ANYTHING LIKE THAT, BUT WE'D ASK YOU TO BE RESPECTFUL OF OTHERS. IF A PRIOR PERSON HAS MADE THOSE STATEMENTS, THOSE ARGUMENTS, THOSE THOUGHTS THAT YOU WERE WANTING TO SAY, WE'VE HEARD THEM. Be mindful of the others that need to speak or wish to speak other points. If you have additional perspectives, please give them. We want to hear them. But if everybody in here talks, everybody takes five minutes, which we are going to strictly enforce, we're going to be here all night. So with that in mind, if somebody says a point before you do, take it that you've already made your point at that point. How many more times can I say point? So with that, public comment will be open. If anybody is here to speak on anything other than the Prometheus data center stuff, I'd like to hear from you first. So is there anybody here to talk to us about any other topic than the data center? Okay. Anybody who wishes to make a public statement or comment, ma'am, come on up.

I have a couple questions.

This is towards the council and then also towards Prometheus. My name is Katie. I live in Casper. I'm over on South Jackson. Do you need any other information?

Yeah, we need your first and last name.

Sure. First name is Catherine Dvorak. D as in dog, V as in Victor, O-R-A-K. I live on South Jackson Street.

Okay.

So just a couple of questions I have. I know that you say that this is not going to be using water from the aquifer, except for the initial charge or initial mixture, correct?

I just want to clarify.

Okay, so my question is, if you're doing, what, 5 million gallons, you have to mix 75% of that whole mixture of the 5 million gallons of glycol plus water, and it's coming from the local aquifer, how is that going to affect the local stock water wells and local domestic wells in that area for that initial mix? fill on top of that my next question is how is it going to affect the area if you add 15 more homes if that is the standing so after that initial failure you're done whatever now you have 15 homes that they're stating that these buildings are going to represent how is that going to affect those stock water wells and those domestic those existing domestic wells over there as well my next question and something to consider is how is this going to affect our access to state lands now if we want this on falls ranch falls falls ranch has a lot of land over on hat six foot road this would also be a high security data center it has to you have to have a lot of security on these things so how is it going to affect my ability to get on or around on state land because you have to have a buffer zone on these things That's just my general question. How's that going to affect that? Other thing, also... They're planning on partnering with Mesa, which was, it was just discussed in Oil City in order to supply liquid natural gas for the energy for this data center. And then also somehow involved in that is gonna be carbon sequestration, which is a scam in general, and kind of just a way to siphon off tax dollars, but whatever. My question for that is, how is, the heat generated from this going to affect the local environment because it's essentially building a heat island in an area that's already pretty much baked. We've had a very terrible summer this summer. It's a we're going to have another one that's even worse next year. We're just going to see fire seasons extending as they are. And so to add an area where you have an increased amount of heat generated is going to make that area even more prone to fire. And so how are they going to mitigate that? How are and are they going to call on our resources to fight those those wildlands fires? are just some of the questions that i have that may have been answered kind of but i would like to see a more in-depth answer on some of these things also um the reason why we do nipa is because of effigy mounds so if anyone's really confused as to why the federal government requires you to do nipa take a look at what happened to effigy mounds and then you'll understand why the federal government requires you to do NEPA. Because when people just start bulldozing over basically burial grounds and then removing skeletons and keeping them in people's garages, there are problems. So anyways, those are my thoughts and then my questions. But yeah, thank you.

Appreciate your time. So the representatives are still here. And they're taking notes, I see. So I'd expect possibly some answers to those questions coming up. But again, this is not a debate. This is not a question and answer portion of this meeting. It is public comment. And we'll go forward from there, okay? So anybody else for public comment, ma'am? First and last name and where you live.

excuse me we don't bite so take your time my name is sherry johnson i'm 59 years old i've been a resident of casper my entire life with the exception of the time i served in the marine corps and i came to this meeting because i've been hearing a lot of stuff about data centers throughout the country and they're very concerning to me And I sat in the back and I watched a lot of people stand up saying they're for this data center. There was a lot of people way in the back that were against. And when you asked for people that were against, I stood up and raised my hand. The biggest thing that I would like to ask of all the people that were sitting here that are for this, please drive out drive out to Hat 6 and take a look at this area. These gentlemen said, first it was, what, 400 acres. Then as they continued to talk, then it's 600 acres. Then with their buffer, we're looking at 1,000 acres. Please go take a look at that land because you people need to understand, once you allow that behemoth, our landscape will never look the same. Take a look at Du Bois. The mountain will never look the same in my life because of the fires. When we allow this and we allow these zone changes to put buildings on our mountains, we're stripping Wyoming. We're talking, what, 150 jobs? It's not worth our landscape. We can't get it back. Once it's gone, it's gone. Most of us that live here came here because of this place and the beauty that it provides. Please don't take it. Please don't take it. It's too important and we can't get it back. please go drive that area and just look. Because once you allow this, it's gone forever. It will never look the same. And I guarantee you, they say a thousand acres, it's gonna grow from there. It's not gonna stop. And then we're not gonna have that area. And I heard the gal talking about how the fire risk, we lost that end of the mountain to a fire already. We had the hottest summer we've ever had. So the fire risk is going to be greater and evacuation in that area is gonna be terrible if there is a fire. And my understanding is they're gonna need a lot of security personnel. They don't even have enough people in this town that will work security at the hospital. They have two security guards on Friday and Saturday. How are they gonna staff this place with security guards? But my biggest question is please take a field trip, because if you gentlemen and ladies agree to this, that end of the mountain is gone. So please consider that. Every one of you that wants to sign off on this for 150 jobs, you've given up our land, and you won't get it back. This is us. Thank you for hearing me.

Anybody else she kind of stood up for her. She stood up 1st. Got to be quick on the draw. If you'd say your 1st and last name and where you live, please.

My name is Erica cook and I live at 11 Selma lane Evansville Wyoming. I am a home and land owner downwind and downstream from the proposed data center site. My husband, myself, and our three small children moved to Wyoming in 2022. We chose Wyoming for its conservative values, clear skies, and small population. Our home is in the rural area between Evansville and Glen Rock. We currently have an unobstructed view of Casper Mountain where cattle graze, antelope roam, and the only noise right now is the wind. If this project continues, we will be faced with industrial noise, vibrations, interrupted views, pollution from generators, potential contamination of our water, and impacted wildlife. We did not move to the countryside To be next door to an industrial compound proposed to encompass 500 plus acres. Now, the data center is only 1 aspect of this project. I'd like to draw to your attention the more concerning component that Mr. and. Mr. did not cover in their presentation. the power plant. As of yesterday, Prometheus announced that it will partner with Mesa Power Solutions to build the natural gas generators needed to power the data center. Originally, Prometheus stated that they would use J620 Genbacher generators. These original generators would burn 31 to 33 billion cubic feet of natural gas every year from Black Hills. That's more than twice the amount used by all of the homes in Wyoming in one year combined. This would release roughly 1.7 to 1.9 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. CO2 engines like these also emit air pollutants, including smog-forming nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, and fine particulate matter. Additionally, the audible noise that engines like this produce is in the 20 to 40 hertz range, which is a deep, persistent rumble vibration that travels much farther than ordinary noise. and passes through windows and walls and is not able to be blocked by standard sound barriers. Prometheus can minimize the profile of their data center, but there is no minimizing the acoustic, vibrational, and thermal footprint that the generators needed to power a 1.5 gigawatt facility produce. gas generators on this scale would turn our rural prairie into a polluted industrial nightmare no longer would we see eagles flying overhead or antelope grazing in our backyard we would hear and feel the noise from this power facility 24 7 365 days a year in our home this is not what we bargained for when we invested our life savings in our peaceful family home Recent polls show that I am not alone in my concerns. Over 70% of Americans oppose data centers. So why should Casper allow its land to be used for an industry that most of our citizens oppose? And like she mentioned, there were a bunch of us standing out in the hall that are also opposed to this that you didn't see. Wyoming heralds its outdoor lifestyle, and much of our revenue comes from outdoor recreation. Not only will data centers mar the landscape, but they will drive away visitors and the hardworking residents and the young people that he was talking about he wanted to bring to Wyoming. In the short term, the center may create jobs and income, but studies show that within five years' time, data centers will be able to be run entirely automatically using non-human workforce. And when the short-term lease is over, which I have heard is only supposed to last 15 years, and the center becomes obsolete, the people of Wyoming will be responsible to reclaim those 500 acres or face a permanent abandoned industrial eyesore. Data centers do not belong on our beautiful plains. The short-term benefits do not outweigh the long-term repercussions. Please think of your constituents. The families who would be forced to give up their open spaces for industry, please advocate for us and keep mega scale industry from replacing our Wyoming land.

Thank you.

Sir, stand up looking up. Yeah, you got it. All right.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Fred Fitchner. I'm the chief operations officer for Mesa Power Solutions. I currently live in Cheyenne. Mesa recently made a significant investment in Natrona County because we believe in the future of this community. Our experience has shown us that major projects require vision, collaboration, and willingness to look beyond immediate challenges to the long-term opportunities they create. We appreciate the careful consideration being given to this project. Responsible development requires thoughtful review, community input, and a clear understanding of both the benefits and the challenges. Those conversations are important. From our perspective, however, the discussion is also about opportunity. Projects of this scale can create demand for local contractors, suppliers, skilled trades, transportation providers, and service business throughout the region. Companies such as Mesa may also be positioned to supply power generation equipment and related energy infrastructure related to support large-scale data center operations. More broadly, Wyoming businesses should have the opportunity to compete for and participate in investments of this magnitude. Mesa has seen firsthand how one major investment can create momentum for additional growth. New infrastructure supports future development. New business activity creates opportunities for other employers. Ultimately, we believe thoughtful due diligence and economic growth go hand in hand. We encourage the Commission to continue evaluating this project carefully while also considering long-term opportunities. it may create for Neutrona County businesses, workers and residents. Thank you for your time and your service, sir.

1st last name.

My name is Dan Holman. I live at 2 Pierce Court Evansville, Wyoming. I was just down the road from the last lady that spoke. We're actually in the same subdivision. There's a few things I'd like to state and a couple things I'd like to clear up. 1st of all, when this project 1st. Became public Prometheus did reach out to us. As a group of homeowners asked myself and my wife to reach out to people within the. Surrounding neighborhood, we reached out to a couple in our. little subdivision there and a couple in adjacent properties and they took us to lunch. They gave us a very open look at what they were proposing. They listed concerns and sent us all on our way. We have since, at least myself, have had an open line of communication with Prometheus. Questions have been answered along the way as I've come up with them. They've addressed concerns that we've had. One of the initial concerns was that the project was going to be on our side of the interstate, which would have been much closer. Now I understand it's been moved to the south side of the interstate. My best guesstimation is that the Power plant would be roughly 2 to 3 miles away from our place. We've lived there for 18 years. We've raised 5 kids there. We're still raising kids there. And on any given night, I can stand on my deck. I can hear interstate highway traffic. I can hear traffic from highway 2026. We still have antelope in our yard and deer getting run over on the highway crossing forth and back and forth with all that stuff. The project that was stated earlier would be up on the tail end of the mountain and ruin the mountain. It's not gonna be on the mountain. It's not gonna be anywhere near the mountain. It's not gonna restrict access to BLM land. It's all on private land. And what I would like you guys to really consider whether Prometheus is part of this or not is that this is private ground and private money. This is not a public ground situation. This is Russell Gordy's place and the Falls Ranch and Mr. Gordy's hired people have always been great neighbors to us. So, for whatever that's worth, I think everybody needs to make sure they get all the details and have accurate information before they get out speaking on some of this. Thank you.

Thank you. Let's hold applause to the minimum, please, so we can get people through. Ma'am.

Thank you for your time, Commissioners. My name is Samantha Fowler. I am an Antrona County resident over on Pay It Forward Drive. I came here today to try to understand the project about data centers, and honestly, some of the answers made me sort of concerned. Prometheus admitted it cannot promise that the entire project will remain off-grid, just the first phase. It said that that's the only phase that's certain. So that leaves me to question. What's the plan for the next phases? Will they need our power grid or not? They also long night tonight. They also said that their exact plans and local baseline studies have not been finished yet. That's a little concerned. They said the tenant is not committed and that they can basically go somewhere else. I don't know if that was underhand tongue in cheek. We can leave if you guys don't want us, but that was kind of. interesting um what concerned me most was that hearing that prometheus wants the industrial park designation that could be exempt and it wants to be exempt from the state industrial siting process we've had that protection for a very long time in wyoming um so community benefit you know they say that the agreements can be made after the permits i think the community should get to know what it's in for and the benefits that they'd offer before we sign anything not after um Basically, it sounds like we're being asked to move the project first and receive protection later. And then we have no leverage. Our county has no leverage. Nobody has leverage. We can't do anything once it's been signed, once it's been sealed, delivered. We're stuck with it. So I'm just asking that before we change the zoning, we need studies. Science. I like science. I'm an empirical person. I see studies. I change my mind. That's just how it is. Um, I want to see, I'm sure we all do you guys us as people have final plans, not the stuff we don't need to know about the mechanics. We need to know their safety plans. Who's going to be involved? How much money is going to be left for people holding the problems? If this company doesn't work out, who's going to clean it up? The person that owns the property, the private owner. us the company what happens if the company goes bankrupt there's a lot of these questions personally i'm not against new jobs or new opportunities i think they're great but i think that we should do them correctly um i'm against being asked to trust the evidence before anything has even happened um basically once approval is given as i said we can't protect ourselves um it does become emotional when people are talking about home and that's a That's a big doozy and I wish that company owners like Prometheus and other companies would actually get involved with the community and seeing that they were kind of shut out a little bit. They said that they weren't talking to the public right now. Maybe I misheard that. Um. They need to come talk to the public. We need to be able to ask our questions directly. Not just through you guys, but through them as well. Um, town halls, all those kinds of things. That would be great. And if we could get those, um. Economic promises are not evidence. They're promising jobs, 150 jobs. It's not worth it. Where are they coming from? Probably California, somewhere else. I know none of us here are AI data center experts. Are we going to get a job there? Probably not. I would go to school. That's cool. How long is that going to take? 68 years to get an expert? Then what do we do? We're going to bring in other people from other states to build this, to do this. And the people who get the local construction jobs, they get it once, and then it's gone. Once again, I'm just asking you to consider not changing the zoning first. Let's ask the hard questions now, not later. I want, you know, as we all do, to require the studies have an independent financial analysis, a utility impact answer sheet completely for everybody that has questions, infrastructure commitments before we do the permitting process, and let's not get rid of the industrial siting process because that's very important. Thank you for your time.

that's not that next sir first and last name where you live uh mr chairman commissioners good evening my name is keegan fox i'm a resident of the city of casper at 2221 begonia street i support responsible economic development in the toronto county and i support moving the prometheus project forward This project has potential to bring significant private investment and taxable value into our community. It also has the potential to support Wyoming businesses and Wyoming workers, as we're already seeing with the recently announced partnership with Mesa. I want Natrona County to be a place where companies want to invest. Across Wyoming, there has been considerable discussion about data centers. And in some cases, I think conclusions have gotten ahead of the facts. There are legitimate questions about water, power, noise, infrastructure, taxation, and impacts on neighboring properties. We should ask those questions. But concerns are not by themselves evidence that a project is harmful. Likewise, projected economic benefits should not simply be accepted because they sound good. We should make decisions based on information we can verify. Prometheus has publicly stated that transparency is essential to being a good neighbor. I welcome that commitment, and I think we should expect that standard in the Toronto County. We have the benefit of seeing how Uinta County has approached this. In Uinta County, Prometheus accepted measurable conditions addressing water consumption, noise, county roads, environmental compliance, and county services. Those are meaningful provisions and they give Natrona County a useful starting point. Fiscally, I believe private development should pay its own way. If additional infrastructure or public services are required primarily because of this development, we should understand those costs and who will bear them. If Prometheus is willing to invest private capital here, operate under reasonable and predictable requirements, bear the costs associated with its development, and provide meaningful economic value to Natrona County, the government should not unnecessarily stand in its way. A responsible yes doesn't ignore legitimate concerns, and it doesn't allow speculation to become a substitute for evidence. We can ask reasonable questions, establish the facts, and address identified impacts. I believe this process can get us to a responsible yes. And I encourage the Toronto County to continue moving this project forward. Thank you. Thank you. And easy next.

Sir, 1st, and the last name where you live.

Brad Eisner. I live at 12 Pierce Court. Like some of the other people that have spoke, I live in the shadow of this project. I have read a lot, seen a lot, had a meeting with one of their people at Six Truck Stop. Why we had a meeting there, I can't tell you. I ask a lot of questions. I reminded that gentleman tonight, he hasn't answered one. When you're gonna spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a project, I cannot conceive of not having answers to our questions. When they tell us, well, once we get on the ground, we'll let you know it's too late. We can't have a say in how that's gonna happen. When they say, I'm sorry, here. Your permits been approved. We get 45 days. They've had two years to plan knowing what they were going to do. We haven't got that opportunity. We'll have an opportunity. So small. We're in our concerns, you know, we've talked about the water consumption, the traffic. I live right on 2026. The construction traffic alone on 2026 will be intolerable. I won't be able to get out of my driveway. I mean, Oh, another little thing. They're going to have these people that are building it. Where are they going to live? Well, they're going to put a little campus there for them to live in. We didn't mention that tonight, did we? We didn't mention how much it's going to cost. We didn't mention who's going to take care of it when those construction workers leave. They're going to drop that in our lap and say, we're done. You can have it. Who's going to pay for the extra? Police? Fire? Sewers? All the things that that... development that those temporary employees are going to reside in. We didn't talk about that either. There's lots of things we don't talk about because they're not too, yay, we're going to bring all this money to town. I say the same thing I've always said. When you want to know the real reason, you drill down to the bottom. Who's going to get rich here? It's not Casper. It's not us. My property value has already taken a hit because I live close to where they're talking about building. If they complete it, I'm going to lose my retirement that I invested in my home because of what they're building. There's only 15 of us on Pierce Court. They don't care. Their attorneys are bigger than our attorneys. They've got a lot more money than I do.

So if I'm a statistic, they don't care.

And I think that's the point that we're missing. They're the big boys, they got the big attorneys, they got the big bucks, they're gonna roll into town, they're gonna do what they want. And so far they've bought their way into what they want. I don't think that's the way government's supposed to work. I hope, I pray that you people on our council will tell them, not so fast, we need to see some numbers. Oh, we'll have that impact once we're on the ground. No, we need it before they start, not after. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else?

I just have a couple of quick comments. I'm Mickey Mason. I live on 10, 300 hat six road, the end of hat six road. lived out there for over 33 years before any of the subdivisions that were out there now are out there now. There's a ton of traffic right now. There was not traffic out there 25 years ago, 20 years ago. The traffic, you say it's going to take 15, enough water to house 15 houses. There's triple that out there right now, or quadruple of the houses that are out there now because of the subdivisions. We have traffic issues. We have housing issues that wasn't out there when we were out there so it's what it's a private landowner that owns this it's not if you're talking about taking out your public rights to go on land you're not going to access that land anyway it's public it's privately owned so those are my concerns thank you

Brought my glasses. Tasma Powers, resident of Natrona County. And I am here not on behalf of Prometheus. I'm not even here on behalf of data centers. I am here on behalf of Natrona County business and asking if we really mean business. Natrona County has historically been the business capital of Wyoming. It is proudly blue collar mixed with some pink white collar. And we should continue to be that way. We should be open-minded, respectful, ask the questions that we need asked and get the answers that we deserve. We have built major projects here, industrial energy and business complexes. They are all around us. In the middle of our city is a refinery that stands as a testament to what we can do when we as a community come together and recover from pollution. Do we need to do that in this case here today? We do not. We don't have to get that far. What we need to ask is if we have the potential as a community to welcome business development, handle it locally, Or do we want to let Cheyenne determine our fate and the impacts and be in charge of the money that comes back to this community? Because that's what industrial siting does. We are the second largest county in Wyoming, the business capital of the state. You are well equipped to ask all of the questions through the permitting process that our community has. Many of them we have heard tonight. There are more. Prometheus will have to answer all of those questions. Any business that wants to come here needs to answer your questions through that process. We don't need to go to Cheyenne to do it. And I hope that that is not something that you are considering. We deserve to be in charge of this process and we are well equipped to do so. Once projects are able to make it through the very rigorous process that I am sure that you and your staff will put them through, including all of the studies, then the local body that is responsible for that can decide and determine the appropriateness and the restrictions and conditions that should be put on the business, and then the business can decide if it still wants to do business here. But in the meantime, We need to treat our neighbors as neighbors. And these are truly our neighbors. They're not from California. Their jeans are worn. They didn't just buy them. We need to be open minded, respectful, ask questions and get answers. And I hope that you're willing to take this on for our community. Thank you.

Yeah, it's your turn. Definitely your turn.

speech um my name is brad stall i live in cheyenne i hope that doesn't uh disqualify me i know i'm sorry i want to be transparent um we have a lot of data centers in cheyenne quite a bit and i live on rural property nine acres south of town and i now have um microsoft and Meta and soon Google all within about six miles of my property. I have a comment about some of the points that were made earlier about Loudoun County not being a good or shouldn't be a good analogy and it isn't a good analogy. 200 data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia, have been built out over decades, not in the last couple of years. Old technology, high water consumption, cooling towers, less than ideal latest technology in the power generation, the reliance on utilities, driving utility costs up for the residents in Virginia. That's why they put a moratorium on data centers. In Cheyenne, we have the same concerns from our citizens about what The impacts are on air emissions, water, et cetera. And we have some data centers there, the three that I named, that are doing things the right way. They're using the latest technology. They are considerate of our requirements in Cheyenne for protection of our aquifer. our air emissions. My biggest pet peeve is there's now a traffic light on South Greeley Highway that I have to pass through all the time and I don't like it, but that's very little impact to myself and my family and my neighbors. All of the questions that I have asked preliminarily to Prometheus, they've answered for me. They are using world-class technology. Their designs are state of the art. So I have very little fears about how they're going about this project. They've been very respectful. And just as previous comment had made, this is sixth generation Wyoming family. They respect our culture, our ways. They're doing things the right way. And I respect that very, very much. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Even though you're from Cheyenne, whatever. Any more comments? Sir.

Hi, good evening. My name is Ahivan Anchin. I live on 5200 Blackmoor, Natrona County. I am for the data center projects and I'm very familiar with data centers globally as well as nationally across the board. I just have one question. I believe in facts and one is that the primary source for this data center which has been recommended, energy source, is going to be natural gas. My recommendation or my advice to the commissioners is look at a backup source also. For example, we as a state are highly blessed with clean, beautiful coal. That is an option because natural gas can have ups and downs when the winter weather is extreme. And that's why having coal, which is all seasonal and which is a revenue source for the state, be something to consider. But I'll let... the commissioners work on this and work with the vendor itself. But overall, I support the initiative and the questions which Commissioner Laird and Commissioner Nicolason raised are valid and I think they should be complied at 100% rate. For example, off the grid for all phases. Community engagement all through the process, not later on, not after the fact. I think those are very critical aspects so that our questions as a community is answered, then we can proceed. And you're informed as a board. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Good evening. My name is Joanne True, and I'm a Natrona County resident. My comments are not specific to this project either, but more about the anti-business environment we continue to find ourselves in. We are an energy state. Everybody in this room knows we were built on oil and gas and mining. Natrona County is home to oil and gas production. In fact, the big muddy oil field runs just east of this area. There is a refinery to the west of the project. There's production, gas plants, pipelines. et cetera, all extending east well into the Powder River Basin into Converse County. But again, that's not news to anyone in this room. I'm a geologist and I've worked on some of these projects. I just think it's a good reminder that we do have industrial projects around us. This is not anything new. It's just a little bit different. different flavor. I think the bigger point that I always try to make on all of this is that we all in this room again are trying to retain our youth. We want our kids to stay here. I always say I want my kids here. I want your kids here. 60% of our kids leave this state. They need to have good paying jobs. They need to have a reason to be here. They need to have a reason to stay and raise our kids and grandkids. I'm trying to cut through this a little bit because folks have already touched on this. The big concern is that we continue to have this NIMBY attitude. I never in my life thought that I would be arguing for Natrona County to be more pro-business, more pro-industry. We know how to do this. Natrona County knows how to do this. Those comments have already been made, but we need to be in control of this project. Natrona County needs to be in control of this project. Any project, including the one being proposed, needs to comply with all regulations. It needs to be thoroughly vetted. But we need to be in control of this and not give Cheyenne the ability to continue to have control over us. Those are my comments. Thank you for your time this evening.

Thank you. Ma'am, in the back. You've been patiently waiting. Thank you.

I'm Joyce Angeles and I live in Dempsey Acres on Sam Hill Road. And I'm not totally against data centers because I use data, but I would support small data centers that would have less of an impact on the environment and blend into the community. There are already some small data centers in Natrona County, and you wouldn't even really realize where they are. And I'm wondering, if adding more smaller data centers would employ more people long term than a hyperscale center that would have more of a drain on the resources and infrastructure. I don't want you to sell our quality of life that we have here based on promises. I know that the Casper Wind Farm was agreed to by the Natrona County commissioners, and it operated for 10 years of 17. And it will take through 2029 for the 880 affected acres to be remediated. And this will not be total restoration. The wind turbines I feel have been more of an eyesore than a benefit. I want this project to not be another eyesore. I would appeal to the board to think of the long-term impact of a hyperscale data center on the residents and also the tourists because people move to the prairie and they come to visit us to get away from big developments. um building bigger is not always the best um if the project fails or ends I'm wondering who will pay for the reclamation and a large data center could be a target for people with ill intent so I would support smaller data centers and I don't know if you've looked into the number of people, maybe more people would be employed by several smaller data centers than a hyperscale data center. Thank you.

Thank you. While we all take five seconds, check our phones are on vibrate or silent, please. Dallas, how's your phone? Okay. That's surprising, but okay. All right.

everybody it's just not a meeting i know it feel a little sad but anybody else for public comment the podium is open ma'am first name last name where you live at mary schmidt i live in casper um i just want to know the timeline several of you are not running for reelection or not up do you have new positions coming so what is your timeline on voting for this will you start this permitting process with them and then have the other the new uh county commissioners take the vote so what is your timeline what is who will be actually making the vote that i think is a little bit more important and will that vote occur before november 3rd or will it occur after thank you thank you say what

If you want to say so, go ahead.

So this commission is in business until December 31st of this year, period. One of the commissioners is probably going to get elected. He was sitting here. He may have left by now. I can't see him. But the first thing that has to happen is if we pass – an industrial zoning matter so that it can be handled by us. Now, just before you all leave, I can tell you what I think. I think we ought to handle our own business and not let it fall into the hands of the state. I agree with this lady as to what she said. But these commissioners are going to be here as you see them, until January 1st. Now, what the time limit on this is is hard to say because this has to go through our zoning board first, and they have to decide whether it's something we should be doing. And then we have to have another meeting where you all come down and we hear from people again, and then we make a vote. Then what happens is that they still don't have a permit. Then they come back, they apply for a permit, and then they have to go through all this permitting process, which earlier, it's quite a permitting process because they have to comply with environmental issues and everything known to man they have to comply with. So to try to give you a good time, I would be afraid to do it. And I can tell you, a lot of things are very slow in politics. And so this isn't something you're even going to see a building for for a couple of years, I wouldn't think. If it's a past, it passes if it's allowed to happen. So there may be two different commissioners that come on. I have no idea what their opinions are about this whole thing. so uh and what you may want to hear the last thing we do tonight is commissioner's comments you may want to hear a couple of the commissioner's comments on this because we have we that's why i asked how everybody stood if it was my way i would i would put it up for a vote for the people in trona county all right

One other thing that kicks everything off is even just putting the application in. So we have to wait for them as well. Do you want to make a comment? All right, so back to public comment, not commissioner comment. Ma'am, first last name and where you live at.

Jennifer Hopkins and I live in Barnum. So I just wanted to get a couple of things straight, some misconceptions. And we're talking a lot about our youth and our schools. And I just want to set it straight that putting really any business or any large business is not going to save probably our schools. And the reason being is because our population is dropping so drastically that we're probably generations from even recovering that. And so I just don't think anyone should think that somehow this is gonna save that. Now, if you have 150 jobs, we can't guarantee that those people are gonna bring their families and live here and go to our schools. You know, like even with the oil business, My husband worked for oil for 20 years, and he had to be flown, drive nine, 10 hours, go to other countries to work. So we can't guarantee that 150 jobs are going to save our population decline here. Another thing, and I think, That's where it's used to, this boom and bust. And one thing it probably better serve everyone is financial lit. And I think that's taught in the schools. So on how to deal with those things. And we can't say that this is not a boom and bust. I mean, they're going up all over the place. And not only that, is that the technology is moving so quickly. We don't even know where it's going to stop. It's not going to stop. so we could build these buildings and then they're gone. I mean, you know, and because all this could be up in space, all this technology, and we don't need these buildings down here. So I'm just talking about statements, you know, not misconceptions. We can't say that we're gonna keep our youth here because even our older youth, because they want to explore. And when they have families, then they want to settle down in a place that is safe. And the cities are not always, you know, the best place to raise a child. My family came back here. We're five, six generations in Wyoming. And I can say that I always wanted to leave. I grew up in the city. I always wanted to leave Casper when I got here and I ended up raising all my kids here. And so it's a great place. I love Casper and sometimes I kind of wish that we had a smaller town. But anyways, I just want to set some things straight that this, if this goes up and this happens, doesn't mean we're going to fix all of our problems but thank you for letting me speak thank you anyone else wish to make public comment sir first last name where are you from

Hello, my name is Colton Dillion. I live off Hatsix Road. This is literally going to go up in my backyard. And I do support the invitation to prove that they can build what they need to build within the standards that the community sets. One thing that stuck out to me in the last discussion was that this is not the end-all, be-all of will people think that Casper is a business-friendly place, but it is an indicator. We already saw earlier this year that when a nuclear company tried to come to bar none, They decided that it was better to build in Tennessee. If we scare away this project, that's another large project that could have come to the Toronto County area and, you know, change the business landscape. And so when people think about moving to Natrona, they look at these things. That's part of why I moved here. I myself am trying to build in quantum computing and bring advanced technology to Wyoming, because I do believe that the business environment in this state is advancing in such a way to be beneficial for this kind of development. There are several projects going up around the state. There's a large helium mine. There's one of the largest rare earth metal mines in the world going up in Wheatland. You know, we already have a lot of uranium processing and uranium mining going on within Wyoming. And all of these things are components that are very important to the next cycle in technology. And so I really do believe that the state is very well positioned to benefit from all of the changes in technology. But that does mean that there has to be some give and take in terms of working with these businesses to make a home here. One thing that I would ask people who are against the data center is what kind of businesses would be preferable to a data center? Would you prefer that somebody comes in and builds a steel-smelting factory? Would you prefer that there was large-scale manufacturing of automobiles? Would these things be more desirable in terms of how much water they use, how much energy they use, how much oil and gas they might use, how much coal they might use, how much space they might use? In reality, data centers are very efficient businesses in terms of space, in terms of noise, in terms of external negative externalities of pollution, et cetera. And so I would really invite you to think about what is the alternative and what are these other opportunities that we could give to our children? My son was born two years ago in Casper, and I hope that he does get to stay. And I expect a daughter in January. And so I do hope that people give consideration that this is not potentially their job, but it is potentially the thing that inspires somebody else to bring another job here, which my children may benefit from.

Thank you.

How are you guys? Michelle Slate, Natrona. I moved here in 2008. I didn't move here because it was going to build data centers, solar, wind. I moved here because I'd never been here. I can move anywhere I wanted in the United States, even to another country. I chose Wyoming. I had to fight a solar farm. We won. There are other things besides wind, solar, nuclear, and even what they're doing in Wheatland. They're digging a hole in the ground and bringing out the radium that would be filled in. When they're tearing down these turbines in Evansville, the concrete's still going to be in the ground. I've read they are going to use the components. from those wind turbines? Well, I watched a video. What's left? What's it did this to the ground? What's left? Anything? I know what I did. Can you hear me?

Speak up louder. Okay. It'll come back on probably.

Okay. So, and I watched a lot of businesses come here and then also leave. And I myself, is that one on? Okay. Started a business. Casper is a place that either makes you or breaks you. Businesses come out back just close like that. Famous names gone. These are just restaurants. The small jobs for people that just graduate high school, they go for those jobs. They try to, you know, live a life here and these try to buy a home. They can't afford to pay rent. We're going to build a Hilton in downtown Casper. And I, somebody did the math and said, the average person working at the Hilton will make 31,000 a year. What are the prices of homes in Casper? You're not going to buy a house at $31,000 a year. I read in their brochure that was on a table back there that they're going to use turbines. So we're going to put up more turbines after fighting to take the ones down in Evansville. Is there going to be a bond set? They didn't do an application yet. I guess I'm not understanding the process from like before, went front of zoning and then you guys, and now it's kind of just seeing who wants it and who doesn't, and then go based on they can fill out an application. I guess I'm not understanding that part. I mean. Is that how, is that what I'm understanding? They still have to do an application and then turn it into zoning and then it'd be available to the public. Okay. Because I was under the impression, even it was, the meeting was going to start at 5 30 and I get here, everybody's lined up outside. And then you guys took a vote who wants it and who don't. Well, I don't want it. There's another gentleman back here that don't want it, but we were out in the hallway.

so there's sounds it looks like we're having issues with the sound system a little bit uh no application yet um some stuff out on so not correct obviously as you found out, because there is no vote, right? The straw poll that you saw that Dallas had done, that was strictly on his own. It doesn't affect anything. We have to have an application service. The is trying to on even pursuing this, if it's just gonna be shut down, moving forward like solar. So what they're doing is trying to make sure that they actually have a fair seat at the table rather than not. So that's where we're at. There is no application at this point. Anything at this point. It has to go before and do the process like it should.

Okay. So we just now Wait and see if they put in an application pretty much get out of time. Thank you.

Michelle, what's going on with? OK, anybody speak? Yeah, let's do that. We're going to take a short break. But. Just turns it off and turns it on and hopefully it resets. All right, bathroom break. Three minutes. There's two stalls down over there. Start throwing some elbows.

Testing, yep.

Thank you.

All right, we're back on.

We're back on. And after a coach three minutes, we're back in. Does anybody want to pursue the public comment podium? Any further people want to make a comment? We lost some people, I think. Starting to get a little late Dallas's burritos cold at this point. All right well, if you're sure you don't want to make a comment, we're going to move on to the commissioner's comments and and we do really do appreciate all the comments that were given to us the feedback concerns thoughts. We'll move forward with Dave. You want to start us off? Yeah.

Number one, I appreciate everybody coming in, whether you're for this project or against this project. And not just that, but... This is a starting point. This is not a hearing. All this was was for information tonight. To start out, I'll give you a little bit more detail about what the process would be. We would have to move forward with doing the zoning, which takes a minimum of 45 days of public comment that's opened up before we change any zoning and do things. So that's going to extend the meeting time before it even comes to the planning zoning. After the planning zoning, if they pass it, then it comes back to the commission, which is when we would have a hearing specifically. and it would only be on the zoning portion of it. That does not include the permitting portion of it. That's a totally different process that takes a lot of time and there's a lot of hard questions that we've been asking and we will continue asking and a lot of those questions were brought up tonight a lot of the questions that were brought up were questions that we have already asked and um you know and we probably have a lot more information on different things than the general public does. But that also means that we're informed in what we're talking about and what we're looking forward to. But that doesn't mean we have all the answers right now. And before it comes before the Commission, those questions are going to have to be answered. That's the way that works. So just for that information, I just wanted to put that out that this is not This is only the first part of it. This is only the information of it. And we have been asking Prometheus to come in and to give us information for a long time. And they've come before us several times, and they've asked us questions, and we said we're not ready because we don't have enough information yet. There was a lot of stuff. I mean, originally, this project was on both sides of the county line. Some of it was in Commerce County, some of it was in the Toronto County. And when I first heard about it, it was all going to be in Commerce County. And this slowly migrated to different locations. And this is the place that it ended up landing. So there's still a lot of information out there that we need. A lot of state agencies have to be involved in this. The state engineer is the one that takes care of the water. That is not our responsibility. That's not our job. That is up to the state. The DEQ takes care of a lot of stuff. That's their job. That is not our job. If we have somebody or we have something that we need to get taken care of, Prometheus will have to pay for that consultant or that agency or that group to do that information to get that for us. So it's not going to be just our opinion and we're the ones that are going to choose who those people are. It is not going to come from the company. So I just want to lay that out there right now that there's a lot of things out there that need to be taken care of. So far, Mathias has been willing to do that. That's the reason why I ask about the different stipulations that you in a county placed on them. That's not necessarily going to be the same ones we do, but it gives us a starting point to look at things and where we need to move. Enough of that. The next thing, we have been working with the state The Parks Board did get a grant this year from Outdoor Rec. And through the trust that they have, I'm proud to say that we're moving forward on getting shelters built up in Bear Trap. And that's part of what we did tonight. It's a reimbursable grant. The one cent money that these gentlemen so graciously put aside for us will be reimbursed as that money comes back in. So it's not that we're going to be using the one cent money long term, but it's just going to be a filler so that we can get the shelters built in a timely manner. And we're trying right now to beat the weather, to get the concrete in before it gets any colder. A lot of the stuff we can do up there after that, but for right now, that's kind of where we're working. So that's all.

Mr. Nick Lason.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It was great to see the turnout tonight. I appreciate everybody showing up. It's usually a pretty controversial deal. Last one. Regarded something on the other side of, uh, of the city. Um, and it was a couple of years ago, but I think that everybody here tonight behaved themselves. Pretty well, um, and, uh, I just like to say that. I have spent. At least 4 years and with these most of these commissioners, and I know they're all going to look at this closely and carefully and protect the. The people of the county to the best of their ability at the same time. I'm also very convinced that we as a body and we as individuals are very much pro personal property and the ability of somebody to do what they want to do on their land as long as it's legal. so really it's a balancing act i've talked about it before and what we need to make sure of is that the impacts to the community uh to this landscape um and especially to the folks that are most closely um you know living closest to this uh proposed development aren't Um, negatively impacted and to the extent that they are that those impacts are mitigated to the extent that's reasonable. I think this is a, a great opportunity for the county if it's done. Right and and potentially for future generations, if it's done right and I look for the discussions with the developer. And and their representatives in. in trying to see if there's a good place to meet in the middle to um have this thing move forward for for the public benefit but also the protection of the public thank you commissioner so I was born and raised here my parents were born and raised here my grandparents came here in 1902 uh and I chose to stay here

My two sons left for various reasons. There's a sad thing that happens in Wyoming these days, and that's two out of three children born in Wyoming leave Wyoming. So I look first at the fact that Mr. Nicolason alluded to that a man can do with his property whatever he wants to in Wyoming as long as he doesn't put a burden on other people. The big thing that's been hitting me lately is, and I mentioned it to the gentleman in the back, because I get these texts, and I'm getting texts tonight of people telling me they're watching this, telling me what they're thinking. And one of them that hit me was, and Trump has said it too, he says, we have a war going on with China and Russia over... who's gonna take over with this AI business? And that's what this data center is all about. It's the cloud that you refer to where everything goes, it's the cloud. And my buddies who are on top of it out in Washington, DC, and I've got a couple of buddies that have been lawyers for data centers and lawyers for counties. And they say, you know, the biggest problem that worries them Do you want China running your AI or Russia running your AI or do you want Petronas County commissioners and the state of Wyoming and America running AI? And a lot of people don't think about that. It never hit them right. And then all this stuff that's being said about these companies, some of it's true from the old companies, the way they did stuff and used all the water and used all the electricity. and it costs us all money. This isn't gonna cost us any money. That's what they're telling me. Now, it isn't in writing, but before we'd ever give a permit to anybody to do anything, we want some things in writing. That's the protection for the state, but we have to hear legal requests. These people aren't criminals. They're business people. Some of them live here in Wyoming themselves. And so I feel like a juggler sometime. I'm juggling about what should be done in a situation. And what is the best thing for the people of Wyoming? What's the best thing for the people of the United States? I don't want China running our stuff. We turned down a big solar farm because all of the equipment came from China. That wasn't the reason. We turned down the radiation deal because they wanted to bring radiation materials from other states and bury it out there and bar none, we turned that down. And so now I'm looking at this and it's something we all use even. All my stuff goes into a cloud. You guys got a cell phone? I used to say, well, what is it? I asked this one guy, what does a data center do? He said, you watch Netflix? I said, yeah. He says, that comes from a data center. Make a credit card purchase? Comes from a data center. Now, here we're looking at that. Here in Casper, Wyoming. I don't know how many booms and busts I've been through, but I've been through a few here. I really liked the boom. I didn't much care for the bust. I don't know what this is going to do to the overall program, but if that man does what he says, I don't think it's going to hurt anybody. that's gonna be out on this Gordy Ranch. That man has a right to do with his ranch what he wants to. They moved it because we didn't want it. It was at the end of Mr. Nicolason's ranch. He didn't want it there. A lot of people didn't want it there. Ladies were crying in here because it was obstructing their view. They wouldn't see the antelope. And we said, we don't wanna put it there. And now they've come up with a different solution. And I don't know what they're gonna end up agreeing to in the long run, but right now, all this is has been a discussion, and here they are. Maybe they need to answer more of your questions. But I don't want China running this deal. And that isn't laughable. That's what Trump is saying. So here I am. If I had a crystal ball, boy, would I be good. But I can tell you one thing I respect the people in the Toronto County.

So, I think it's really important when we start talking about business opportunities and individuals leaving the county to recognize that. We have to create our own opportunities in our own prosperity. That's what this country is founded upon is. you know, exceptionalism, being great. So, you know, when I hear that, you know, these business opportunities that base in Natrona County don't give equal opportunity to be great, you know, I don't buy it completely. You may not know, but my wife and I were recently offered fantastic jobs outside of state. We seriously looked at them. While I don't consider myself extremely young, I'm much younger than all these guys, much, much younger. But the importance. Someday. But the important part of that is, you know, we chose to stay partially because contracts didn't work out, but also because, you know, we have, I have deep roots here. My grandfather homesteaded here, or my great-grandfather, I should say. And, you know, Wyoming is a great place. Natrona County is a special place. We are faced continuously by challenges on the land use side that we didn't anticipate. We had a gravel pit at one time that we were facing. It's at the Supreme Court. We'll see how that works out. That's right in my backyard. If it happens, it happens. I'm there for the long haul. We're not leaving. That's just something that we'll just have to learn to live with. It's not great, but it's just the reality of life. On this other side of town, we're looking at a data center. and it's private land. And yes, there's questions to ask and there's questions to answer. But I'm reminded the things I was told quite a while ago that when we ask for the protection of the government, we really ought to be careful because government at times can be overreaching and those protections that we ask for can be overly applied to ourselves. So I would be very cautious, and I would really ask the people for this and against this to really look at why we're for it, why we're against it. Are we going down the path of moral panic, which is something that Commissioner Laird and I talked about? Are we taking a moral stance on something that really doesn't have a moral basis? Do we not like something because of what it is? Or do we have real impacts? If we have real impacts, let's address those. Let's move on. If we're moral grandstanding, you know what, let's move past that and let's get down to business and do the county's business and do what we can to make this a better place and continue making Natrona County more and more special and a better place for kids and families to live and people to retire to. So thank you.

I'm not going to be very verbose on this stuff. Everybody's pretty much made comments that I can relate to. I do want to thank everybody that came out tonight. It was fantastic to actually see people in the gallery. We don't have this that often, so it's really nice to see some people participating with their electeds and being part of the process. It really is good to see that.

With that said,

It's not going to come as any surprise to anybody, my stance on private property and its rights. I've always maintained the same thing. If it's private property, it's not going to affect or harm, negatively impact people. Do what you want with it. It's just how it is. You own it. You should be able to deal with it as long as you aren't affecting negatively your neighbors. There are questions that neighbors have. Those need to be addressed. There's questions that we have. Those need to be addressed. When we get that information, when we know that they are not going to be severely negatively impacted, Life is a lot better for everybody. Those questions do need to be asked. Those questions do need to be answered. But once they're answered, and if it's found that, and we need to approach it with an open mind, when those questions have been answered, and it is negative, then we move on from there. We mitigate or eliminate those problems. and potentially the project can move forward. If there's no negatives to the questions, and life is good, and there's minimal impact, then we move on with the project. We allow the landowner and the private industry to do what they do. So right now, open mind. Need to hear the information. They presented quite a bit of good information tonight. Let's hear the answers to some of the questions that they had. And then let's move forward.