Board of Commissioners - Special Meeting

Everyone to the People's House.

Orangeboro Board of Commissioners regular meeting August the 4th, 2026. This time I'll ask the City Clerk, Beth Davis, to please call the roll.

Commissioner Jeff Sanford.

Here.

Commissioner Sherri Neesmith. Here. Mayor Tom Watson.

Here.

Commissioner Curtis Maglinger.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Bob Glenn.

Here. Thank you. This time we'll have the invocation and the pledge. Please stand if you're able and remove your lid. Heavenly Father, as we gather together today, we ask that you continue to share your wisdom of life, love, and liberty. There's so much going on in this world that's full of hate, and it would be so much easier if we could just decide to see what we both have in common rather than what we don't have in common. May the peace of God, which peth us all understanding, let us keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and the love of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ. And may the blessings of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be amongst us and remain with us always. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which with liberty and justice for all. Next item on the agenda is to consider the minutes. Dated July the 14th, I'll make a motion to approve these minutes. Could I have a second, please? Second. Any further discussion, deletions or additions? Hearing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Item 4B, consider these board appointments, please. Ambulance Contracting Authority of Port Tristan-Russelburg to fill the remainder of an unexpired term ending January 2nd, 2027 to replace Mike Staples. And Wesley and Shawnee Neighborhood Alliance appoint Kenneth Riley to a two-year term effective August 4th, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please?

Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion, additions or deletions? Hearing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Item five, ordinance, no vote. Ms. Davis.

Ordinance 16-2026, an ordinance approving and adopting text amendments to the Owensboro Metropolitan Zoning Ordinance for the cities of Owensboro and Whitesville in Davis County regarding revisions to Article 8 Schedule of Zones specifically regarding accessory dwelling units introduced and publicly read on first reading this fourth day of August 2026.

Thank you. City Manager? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Several months ago, the Planning Commission staff made a presentation at one of our meetings about accessory dwelling units, which are small secondary housing units on the same property or lot as a single-family home. Based on your feedback at that meeting, the planning staff have created regulations under which accessory dwelling units could be built in the city. This is first reading of an ordinance to adopt those regulations. Melissa Evans from the OMPC staff is here. and she will provide an overview of those regulations.

Hello, Ms. Evans.

Hello. Thank you for having me. So currently, accessory dwelling units are only permitted in our business industrial and professional zoning classifications, provided that they're accessory to the business or industrial use that is happening on the property. This text amendment would allow accessory dwelling units both attached and potentially detached with a conditional use permit in all of our residential zoning classifications as well. And so, like Nate said, they would be either detached structures that would be constructed in the rear or the side of a property, a garage or a standalone structure itself, or they could be attached to the primary dwelling unit such as an addition to a home or converting a basement or an upper floor or a side area of a home into an accessory dwelling unit. uh... there are certain regulations and conditions that would be involved with this like i said detached accessory dwelling units would be uh... only permitted as a conditional use permit that would be heard by the board of adjustment attached accessory dwelling units would be principally permitted uh... with both of these the current owner of the property must reside in either the primary dwelling or the accessory dwelling unit itself only one accessory dwelling unit will be allowed per parcel One additional on-site parking space shall be provided. So currently in our residential zoning classifications for a home, you're required to have two on-site parking spaces. This would require one additional parking space. The size of the accessory dwelling unit will be limited to 50% of the footprint of the primary dwelling unit. Attached accessory dwelling units will require the entrance to be located on either the side or the rear facade of the principal structure, and detached accessory dwelling units shall be located within either the rear or the side property of the parcel of land and following all of the setback requirements of the zoning ordinance. The structure shall meet all current Kentucky Building Code requirements. The property owner shall provide certification in writing that there are no private deed restrictions that would prohibit the use of accessory dwelling units on the property. And if the property is served by a septic system, the property owner shall also provide written approval from the health department that the septic system either can accommodate the accessory dwelling unit that's being added or that it needs to be expanded or a new septic system would need to be added to the property. The Planning Commission recommended approval of these proposed text amendments on July 9th, 2026, and found them in compliance with the community's adopted comprehensive plan. I'm here to answer any questions if you have them.

Questions? Just a quick comment. So if an HOA in a neighborhood has an HOA, This does not override the HOA. The HOA, if they say no extra dwellings, it stays as is, correct?

That is correct.

Just for clarification.

If there are private deed restrictions listed in the deed of a property, this would not override those. That's why we're asking for that letter to provide that there are no private restrictions. Moving forward, they could... For instance, like a Jago or a Thompson could write that into their deeds to allow accessory dwelling units, but if there are current restrictions on a property, this would not override those.

Thank you.

Bob? So the question, I've got two questions. So one is, if we ever wanted there to permit tiny homes, we'd need a separate ordinance from the ADU ordinance, or is it subsumed within the ADU ordinance if you wanted to, quote, build a tiny home, you know?

So an accessory dwelling unit could potentially be a tiny home on a parcel of land that already has a principal structure. Um, but to allow tiny homes, um, I mean, tiny homes aren't prohibited now by the zoning ordinance. They're just not economically feasible necessarily to do given the current lot sizes, uh, minimum lot sizes that we have. So that would be a separate text amendment to potentially allow smaller lot sizes where it may be more feasible to do a tiny home development.

Okay. And if I decide I'm building an ADU on my property, can I then rent that out for a, a VRBO or an Airbnb, or is that prohibited?

The zoning ordinance does not address short-term rentals. Um, so that just like all, uh, VRBO and Airbnbs currently, uh, that would be permitted.

Thank you very much.

Could you explain conditional use permit, please? Yes.

So a conditional use permit is an application that goes before the Orangeboro Board of Adjustment. It's for uses that aren't principally permitted in certain zones, but that could be allowed given special conditions that would make sure that it could integrate into an area appropriately. There are a lot of instances of conditionally permitted uses in areas. A text amendment that you all heard last year was one for contractor shops and shops of special trade in a before general business zone where the Board of Adjustment can hear those on an individualized case-by-case basis and make certain conditions to make sure that it doesn't interrupt or disrupt the character of that area.

Thank you. I didn't mean to blindside you, but I always hear that. I didn't know what that was. Anything else? Mayor, can I add a couple things?

Yes, sure. So this is an attempt, I think, to address two different things. There's a housing shortage, both locally in our community and nationally as well. And then for many people, or probably most people, their home is their biggest asset. So this allows maybe to address both of those. People could maybe monetize some extra revenue while providing additional housing for the community. That's part of the rationale here. And one other thing that we're doing simultaneous to this is providing a list of pre-approved plans. So let's say you, Mayor Barber, decide you want to have one of these in your neighborhood. There's actually some plans you can go that will be pre-approved to make that easier and quicker for you to build one in your yard as well.

Okay. Anybody else? Thank you, Ms. Edmond. Appreciate you. Thank you. Okay, item 5A, please. This is the first reading of an ordinance. There will be no vote. Six. Six, I'm sorry. Municipal Order 6.

Municipal order 25 dash 2026 and municipal order authorizing and ratifying nun pro-tunk the submission of an application for a state Homeland security grant through the Kentucky office of Homeland security in the amount of $791,800 and 85 cents. The proceeds of which will be utilized by the Owensboro police department. to purchase new Motorola portable radios and associated equipment for all officers. No matches required by the city. Read for approval on one reading this fourth day of August 2026.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second.

City Manager? Yes. Many of the radios that the city utilizes for communication are at or near the end of their useful lives and need to be replaced. So accordingly, this municipal order authorizes a grant application for new portable radios for OPD. We have a lot of radios, both in OPD and in citywide as well. Many of our employees actually have two or more, so we do have a large radio replacement plan we'll be implementing. This grant application is for $701,800, and it has no match.

I like that no match thing. Anybody else? Okay. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. I'll oppose. Motion carries. Thank you.

6B is Municipal Order 26-2026, a municipal order authorizing and ratifying non-pro-tunk the submission of an application for a Kentucky Office of Homeland Security grant in the amount of $131,649, the proceeds of which will be utilized by the City of Owensboro Fire Department for structural collapse training, no matches required by the city. Read for approval on one reading this fourth day of August 2026.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. As the clerk read, this municipal order approves a grant application for OFD to offer a structural collapse training course. As you might imagine, structural training is highly technical. If the grant is successful, the proceeds will be used to bring in an instructor to teach a class both for OFD and for other departments in the area.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Item 6C, please.

municipal order 27 dash 2026 and municipal order authorizing and ratifying non pro-tunk the execution of a Kentucky product development initiative grant agreement with the Kentucky cabinet for economic development and Davis county fiscal court to receive funds in the amount of $1 million. The proceeds of which will be utilized by the city of Owensboro for infrastructure improvements to the 121 acre Massey industrial site. A 20% match is required from the city. Read for approval on one reading this fourth day of August 2026.

I'll make a motion to approve. Do I have a second, please? Second. City Manager?

Thank you, sir. This municipal order approves a grant agreement between the city, the county, and the state economic development cabinet. As we've discussed, we have been awarded a $1 million grant for development of the Massey site. But because we own the property, we cannot be the beneficiary of the grant. The state doesn't allow you to both be the beneficiary and the administrator of the grant. Accordingly, then the county has agreed to administer the grant on our behalf, which is why they are a party to this grant agreement. The grant does have a 20% match, but we have an appropriation of additional funding from the General Assembly that was more than enough to satisfy our matching requirement.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries.

City manager items? Yes, Mayor, we have quite a few personal appointments this evening. including the following probationary full-time non civil service appointments of alec bennett firefighter with fire department effective august twenty fourth contingent upon successful completion of all post-offer pre-employment requirements jonathan garrett firefighter fire department effective august tenth kurt henson firefighter with fire department effective august twenty fourth contingent upon successful completion of all post-offer pre-employment requirements Sarah Jorgensen, clerk typist with the police department, effective August 24th, contingent upon successful completion of all post-offer pre-employment requirements. Jonah Carpenter, police officer with the police department, effective September 13th, contingent upon successful completion of all post-offer pre-employment requirements. McKinley Davis and Austin Butrusch, police officer with the police department effective september thirteen so those are all new hires uh... mayor those that have the contingent uh... uh... contingency attached to that is really just a matter of timing we do that fairly regularly just to keep the employees moving through the process We do have two promotionary full-time non-civil service appointments of Carrie Bodenheimer, the Director of Parks and Recreation, effective August 24th, and Courtney Yarrington, Major with the Police Department, effective August 10th. And then three regular full-time non-civil service appointments for those who have completed their probationary period. We have Hunter Hinton as Lieutenant with the Police Department, effective August 10th, Jeffrey Johnson, Refuge Truck Driver with the Sanitation Department, effective August 10th. And Tristan Russellburg, Major with the Police Department, effective August 10th.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. These could have a second, please. Second. Any further discussion? So I can't call Courtney LT anymore? No. Now you've got to call her Major. Major. Okay. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. City Manager, comments? No comments tonight, Mayor. Thank you. Comments from elected officials? Dr. Glenn, you're up.

Well, just real quickly, I attended the Dugan Best Gala last Saturday. It had been rain delayed, and so they did their make-up day. I thought it was a great event. There were a lot of people there, and what was shocking to me is the Bloodmobile was there, and usually they're a little light on customers. We were backed out the door because I was one of the customers. So it was a great event. I want to thank all the board there that made that happen. I think everybody had a good time, and it was well said. The other thing I'd always say as we enter a school year is the buses are out. The kids are out. Your eyes should be up and paying attention to those children and those buses and any other child walking to school in the next few days. I think we start Thursday. So please do so. Let's not have a tragedy out there. Put your phone down and focus on what's important, and that's the children and families that are attending school in the coming weeks.

And that's it. You don't have to take him out. I like seeing that little guy.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, I had a lot of exciting things the past month. We just came back. A city manager and I attended the D.C. fly-in and got to meet with all of our state representatives or federal representatives. representatives that was very very good then I got to attend the ribbon-cutting for the Maui Family Center the new place boy that's a great place for events for all ages not just for kids and and I did a ride along with our wonderful OPD went through the process on our website followed everything it was amazing officer Catlett was very informative it really good I encourage any citizen to get a chance to see the magic happen on our, uh, it's not in the paper, but no, that, that was amazing. Then, then real quick, uh, romp was very successful. I know, uh, uh, besides mother nature, it was very good. Thanks for all the volunteers. Uh, well, the 4th of July, that was amazing. Thanks to all of our special events and, and, uh, uh, public works and all of our safety people out there. And then the last thing was Habitat Humanity had a new ribbon cutting for Clemmie Wolf Commons development. Boy, that shows the collaboration between the hospital, Habitat Humanity, and the city of Owensboro. So that's all. That was a big month. Thank you, Mayor.

Commissioner Neesman.

Thank you, sir. Actually, I just want to say thank you to the persons on the city staff that are finding these grants. especially where we don't have to do the no match, because they enable us to help without having to dig into coffers from our tax monies. And as someone that's served on some boards, getting a grant is not as easy as just filling out some paperwork. It's a lot of hard work and a lot of investigation to find what those grants are. So I want to shout out to them. And then also, I'd like to shout out to our state representatives. that we're able to get the funding for the million dollars for the infrastructure that will help build roads and sewers and all those things that you need to bring somebody in that wants to build and bring in some new jobs to us. So I think sometimes we forget to say thank you to those people that are behind the scenes and are doing all that paperwork. So I just want to say thank you all and to people that supported them.

Well said. Commissioner Sanford? Thanks, Mayor. It's been a minute since we've been here, so I have a few things.

Uh-oh.

Oh, yeah. No, it's mostly positive. So I had family members in from out of town, and they live in Knoxville. So I did take them to Maui because they had little kids, and they were just really impressed with... with the facility and uh... the things that we we did with the mall and i was i want to thank the developers who uh... who did the project and also the taxpayers because it's without you guys uh... it the project in the path and so you know money came from local and state dollars to make that happen and it's really need to see families and young kids here in owensboro somewhere to go and stuff today and i think that's really important on that building our community for the future because these these these these kids that's most important thing we can do is look out for these children up here i think it's one of our uh... biggest responsibilities uh... i want to thank the staff uh... i called uh... leland last week about someone concerned on eleventh street uh... with uh... traffic be a little bit too fast and he immediately took care of it and uh... it's that kind of response that uh... that i'm very thankful for and i think all all the community should be thankful because our staff is second to none and you guys react quickly and uh... that helps us out immensely makes us look better than we are for sure but it's all due to you guys really being on the ball i appreciate that uh... I wanted to bring up a couple things. Scooters, I know we're working on it, but I keep seeing, I almost witnessed a really bad accident today. Someone pulled out right in front of a car. So I just wanted to let everybody know we are working on that. I don't know city manager when we will have something. for a presentation, I think, at our second meeting next month. Okay, very good, because somebody's going to get hurt and it's something that we need to get on top of really quick. Another thing I wanted to mention, we were in a meeting with some very, very good people and they brought up the situation of business licenses here in Owensboro and a lot of businesses doing business without a license, which you know, it's bringing, bringing this to the forefront, you know, and we're sitting there looking at it. And I think of all the businesses that, that, that follow the rules and get the business licenses and others are not. So, uh, you know, um, as a business owner, you know, we always have to, we were doing the right thing. We try to do the right thing. I know things get overlooked and our staff is, is, is, is spread pretty thin, but it's something I think we need to look at is really trying to implement something to make sure it's fair to everybody across the board. And lastly, and not least, I want to thank All the military in times like this, all the men and women who've given life and limb to allow us and allow these guys that showed up tonight to express themselves up here to us. I think it's something that's important to me is recognizing that our freedoms don't come free. It's at an expense. And I just want to say hats off to our military, and God bless them. That's all. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome.

Okay, open public forum. Members of the audience may address the Board of Commissioners on any matter of public concern that was not on the agenda. Comments are limited to issues within the scope and responsibility of the Commission. Commission meetings are held to conduct city business for the benefit of Orangeboro citizens and taxpayers. At this time, anyone who wishes to address the City Commission, please make their way to the podium to be recognized. Speakers must state their... accurate name and address for the clerk's record and limit the remarks to three minutes or less. Since the item is not on the agenda, no response is required from staff or the Board of Commissioners. We have a taker.

Renee Kegel, 2140 Tamarack Road.

I've seen your name before.

As you know, the construction of a 545 megawatt power plant was announced for the old Elmer Smith property. While OMU and the developer initially focused their public messaging on regional grid reliability and only the use of 30 acres, investigative reporting and local property records show that the parent entities backing the project have quietly secured large options on adjacent land. The power plant developer Green River East Genco is legally linked to Green River East Load Co. They are both shell companies for ETX Upstream, a firm that manages land and power assets for megalode electricity users. ETX threw their shell companies for the past year. have assembled transmission rights, easement, and control or contingent control over border-sharing land totaling 260 acres in East Davis County inside the Owensboro city limits. These properties include OMU Elmer Smith's 100 acres, Senator Gary Boswell's 130 acres, TNN Wheat Farms' 30 acres, all to be owned or controlled by ETX Upstream. OMU leadership has stated we won't have 100 percent control of their operations. Because the developer is spending the money to build, they ultimately have the right to sign power purchase agreements with tech companies. The proposed power plant could easily bypass the MESO grid and feed power directly to the data center through an arrangement known as the behind-the-meter power agreement. In fact, local public records reveal that potential data center development is exactly why the power plant was proposed to begin with. So now is the time. Time to continue asking for and implementing ordinances discussed with the Kentucky Resource Council. What does the Council believe is the best option for putting the brakes on this sneaky underhanded project? That's what we want you to do. Don't just sit and wait for the moratorium to expire. Set regulations and zoning restrictions that will make ETX not want to come here. The City Commission has proven it has the power. You very quickly bypassed the county's halt on rezoning the Massey property. The City of Owensboro used its power to put strict indoor-outdoor smoking bans in place, which I approve of. You stopped the building of a casino because of those smoking bans. We don't want to breathe smog air, listen to the noise, drink the polluted water, or lose our local wildlife and ecosystem because of a rush to build bigger and more powerful. show you still care about the citizens of this county's health and well-being zone them out both city and county should work together to make this happen and just for hand first-hand knowledge two weeks ago i drove to memphis tennessee and went and saw the xai colossus one data center I'm going to run out of time. Anyway, I've got the noise from that data center from about a half a mile away, and it is not pretty. The noise is deafening. It's in very poor communities, and these communities can't fight back. I've got all the statistics for this information from going to Memphis and how it compares to Hawesville's plant that's coming and the one that might possibly become or the one that I believe is coming here. I'll see you in two weeks to update you on what progress you've made. Thank you.

Jeff Kegel, 2140 Tamarack Road. Pete Lynch teaches politics at the University of Kentucky. He has given suggestions for ordinances for the local commissions to deter data centers in Lexington. These ordinances and regulations will address concerns over energy use, water use, environmental damage, and the sounds data centers make. One, require a 1,500 feet buffer zone, separating data centers from all homes, schools, hospitals, and livestock farms to require tech developers to prepay a hundred percent of all grid water and other infrastructure upgrade costs through strict public permit process. Three require Air cooling combined with the strict 45 decibel nighttime noise limit forcing companies to use their air fans to save our drinking water while keeping the fans quiet enough for our neighbors to sleep at night creates a technical trap that AI infrastructure cannot survive. Four, ban the use of continuous on-site generators and gas turbines to destroy AI data center business models. When put together, these regulations would make it impossible for AI data centers to be built in Owensboro or Davis County. Also, I am asking you to continue conversations with the Kentucky Resource Council and add as many ordinances and regulations as they suggest to nip this entire AI Data Center nightmare in the bud. Do nothing in your legacies as Owensboro Mayor and Commissioners will forever be the ones that let AI Data Center come to town, harming the citizens and town that you are empowered and entrusted to run. or your legacies can be the ones that made our riverfront beautiful, welcoming, took consideration of the health and well-being of our citizens, enforcing public smoking bans, building an indoor sports arena for thousands of sports enthusiasts, and love of nature with all our parks and trails. It won't and can't be both if you do nothing and allow a data center to be built here You will forever be remembered as the forum who sold us out.

Thank you Can pay

There we go. I think it's back on.

Sorry. You're fine. Okay.

Much better. All right. My name is Jason Putz. My address is 9821 State Route 2830 Maceo. So over the past three or four years, a hobby of mine has resulted in me spending a whole lot of time on the streets, roads, and sidewalks all over our city and county. Now some of the issues I want to talk about are in the county, so I'm going there too. There's exceptions to this, but for the most part, from the perspective of a person with mobility limitations like myself, our sidewalks are pretty terrible. So whatever processes we have in place already to ensure that we have good sidewalks, frankly, I just, in my opinion, I don't think they're working. So as you can see, I use a wheelchair. I have for more than 35 years now. By the grace of God, I'm able to get around pretty well. So I'm not necessarily here for myself. I am here for other wheelchair users who struggle more than I do with mobility. I'm here for people who use walkers, canes, crutches to get around. I'm here for those, Mayor, with lower limb prostheses. I'm here for those with neuropathic diseases in their legs and feet. I'm here for elderly folks who just don't have the balance that they used to have. So there's thousands of people who live right here that depend on good sidewalks. I'm here for them. The issues with our sidewalks, they're thankfully just an inconvenience for me. But for people like the ones I mentioned here, these issues are limiting at best and in some cases quite dangerous at worst. So a lot of our problems with sidewalks are design issues. These are things like streets that simply don't have a sidewalk, streets that have a sidewalk walk along one side and then the other that require crossing back and forth, streets with a sidewalk that suddenly ends and then may or may not begin a few blocks later. Some of the problems are maintenance issues, grass growing out on the sides of the sidewalk, making it much too narrow for somebody, especially my size in a wheelchair this wide. Trees are signs that overhang the sidewalk requiring you to duck down and sections of the sidewalk being popped up. So the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, it does address sidewalks, requirements for sidewalks. I encourage you to look into it more deeply than I can talk about in three minutes. But it does require wider sidewalks than a lot of ours, and it requires addressing the numerous pop-ups that have happened on our sidewalks from tree limbs, or I'm sorry, roots, and then from freezing and thawing that happened over the winter. So I just ask that you take a more proactive and less of a reactive approach to this issue. I ask that you assign as much as possible some resources, some staff time to review the design and maintenance of our sidewalks and to try to do that from the perspective of a person like me, somebody with mobility limitations. So they should ask themselves, if I had to get from here to there on a sidewalk, can I do that safely? And I'll just end with this. I know that maintaining and improving our existing infrastructure is kind of a boring subject. It's not as exciting as some of the other things that we have going on. But on behalf of the folks who live here 365 days a year, pay taxes here 365 days a year, I do ask that you take a look at that and appreciate you letting me speak tonight.

Thank you.

Jake Westerman, 2918 Yosemite Drive. I'm going to piggyback on some of the points made about data centers. The information that I have that I'll be reading from right now is from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. It's from an article called Data Drain by John Gorey. First of all, midsize data centers can consume as much water as a small town, while larger ones can consume up to 5 million gallons a day, which is as much as a city of 50,000. Traditional data centers, which would be like cloud storage and things like that, and I really want to make this point because I don't think people know the difference between a data center and a hyperscale data center. Traditional ones, which could be located in like an office building where you would basically store your Facebook pictures, things like that, that's what they have. They do a fraction of what these hyperscale data centers, which is what everyone's talking about. These midsize data centers, though, or these hyperscale ones can consume as much water as a small town. The cloud storage ones consume as much electricity as 10,000 to 25,000 households. That's your traditional ones. AI data centers can consume up to 100,000 households or more worth of electricity per Meta's Hyperion data center in Louisiana is set to draw more than twice the power of New Orleans once it is complete. In 2023, U.S. data centers consumed 176,000 terawatt hours of electricity. This is roughly the equivalent of the country of Ireland. This is expected to double or triple by 2028. Jobs when it comes to these data centers are mostly temporary construction based and not in the ongoing operation of data centers. You're going to be lucky to maybe have a dozen jobs if a data center is to come here. Diesel generators will possibly and most likely run constantly creating air quality issues. In Northern Virginia already they are having issues because generators the size of rail cars are constantly running. They've had to get allotments to keep them running. Let's see, a study from the Advanced Research Center or HART, the University of Houston found data centers in Texas will use 49 billion gallons of water in 2025, which has passed and did happen, as much as $399 billion by 2030. This is equal to drawing down the largest reservoir in the U.S., the 157,000-acre Lake Mead, by more than 16 feet a year. This is water that is not returning. I don't have time to get through the rest of my points. However, I will say that Mr. Glenn impressed upon us the importance of children, which I would agree. Mayor Watson beseeched no less than God for us to look and see what we have in common. Well, what we all have in common is the need for clean air and clean water. What most of us have in common in the city is we don't want a data center here.

I'm going to make mine quick. I don't like data centers either. But Tom Watson said as long as he was in that chair, there would be no data center here. I believe him. And I assume you're going to be here for a little while. Jamie Souders, Hayden Bridge Road, 42301, by the way. The only thing I really wanted to say tonight was I also attended the meeting that several of the commissioners attended. I wanted to thank everybody for showing up. We had county and city officials there, as well as candidates running for office, to kind of give the workforce side of our community a chance to hear their plans and what they thought and the direction that they wanted to move. We did discuss the responsible bidder ordinance that I brought up. I think we had really good conversations. I hope I was able to answer anybody's questions that had them. And like I said, I just want to thank you guys for coming and listening to what we had to say and considering the impact of what we were bringing to you. So, I look forward to possibly hearing a first reading on something here soon.

Thank you. Thank you.

Cliff Carlock, 9140, State Route 405, Maceo, Kentucky.

Every single day on the news, I see corruption on the federal level, state level, and local level. Do you have me to believe that the Orangeboro government is the golden child of government and politics and is corruption-free? You are corrupt, you are corrupt, you most definitely are corrupt. You are corrupt, you are corrupt, and you are corrupt. That little stunt that y'all play... yeah shut up that little stunt that y'all played last time to have the chief of popo up here trying to intimidate me by coming up here and setting off this mic and uh you know i lost all fear of man or beast the day that my son became a marine in 2024 and uh Y'all have the letter, I'm sure, from the Attorney General. Y'all trying everything you can to try to hide these records. And another thing, I'm nobody, but I know some somebodies. Somebody has contacted me through the chain of the U.S. Postal Service that says that there is a concerted effort to try to keep my paperwork from reaching Frankfurt. If that's the case, And I find out, or the federal authorities find out who it is, it's going to be bad for everyone involved. So y'all opened up a Pandora's box. And, yeah.

Hi, my name's Tatum Helm, 1122 Booth Avenue. Starting off, I want to say I'm glad that you have some type of hope, but NDAs are a thing, and big chance any of them have signed it and they're not allowed to say anything at all. So I have no hope that a data center is not coming here, and I hope you guys figure it out, put things in place to really protect us, because the people of Owensboro have told you, and I promise you will get elected out if you bring a data center here, point blank period. I also want to touch on the fact that the Dustbowl, 53rd Annual Dustbowl, happened the last couple of weeks, an amazing community event here in Owensboro. But there was a little bit of a tragedy that happened a couple of streets over on 9th Street. And I'd like to mention if we're going to worry about children with scooters, we should equally worry about children with guns because it is a large problem. Mayor Watson, in 2024 at the Rooster Booster event, you said that you did not know that this was an escalating problem. here in our community, which is a lie. I'm 27. I have been facing this problem and overdoses in my community since I was in high school in 2016 and 2017. Just in March, the Owensboro Human Relations Committee came here. They had a public forum. You guys had an opportunity to maybe figure out some funding to put back into the community to help with community safety. June rolls around. Nothing in your budget was geared towards community safety and really giving back and putting implemented stuff in that's going to help the youth here. I mean, there's absolutely nothing. We have these nonprofits, but you guys don't give any support to them at all. I've gone through the funding. I also took the time to actually reach out to some other communities, and I do plan to come back. Knoxville 10XC does an amazing thing where they have really implemented some city-funded things that are helping that violence within the youth. So I just, it feels weird to hear about scooters. and all of these things, but there's not really a lot for kids to enjoy here. The Maui theme park thing, yeah, great, but it's really expensive. At the end of the day, you know, my sister has six kids and she cannot take all her six kids there. So, you know, what resources do we really have that we're giving back to this youth, that we're giving back to the community? I can think of Beverly's hearty sighs, breaking the cycle, but funding is hard. And when a city isn't supporting those things and they're not really backing them and giving into them, it's really hard to see the growth. So all I'm asking is that, you know, Maybe meet up with that Owensboro Humans Relations Committee and board again and really come up with implementing something next June that's within the budget to really, really give back to our kids. Because if we want to be this place that is family oriented and this safe spot that people want to come back to because when I went to college, most of my friends have not come home. So a lot of that has to do with there being nothing here, there being safety, family, it really goes deep. And for you guys, it might be safe. You guys might not see these issues, but they are happening. And coming from someone who has lived here her entire life, I have continued to see them happening with no rate of slowing. And just so we're clear, from 2024 to 2025, homicide increased 300%. And right now for 2026, we are tracking at two fatalities and eight non-fatal deaths by handgun. Majority of them are by youth.

Trish Baggerly, 3991 Brookside Court, Owensboro, Kentucky. And I want you all just to maybe even close your eyes. This was in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was a half a mile away. from a data center. Can you imagine hearing that and having the vibration going 24-7? They don't build these in rich neighborhoods. They build it in the poor neighborhoods. And when they talk about how the water's gonna be recirculated, it gets recirculated, yeah, but then there's sludge in it. And the sludge will either go in the Ohio River, and Hawesville's is gonna come right, Lewisport's gonna come right down the river to us when they clean theirs out with the sludge. Or they'll put it right through our sewer system, and then the sludge is gonna mess up our sewer system. So think long and hard. and know that we don't want it. Thank you.

Thank you, Commission, for giving us the time tonight. I didn't plan to speak tonight, but there was an item 6C on the agenda that raised a question for me, and I don't want to speak to the details of the agenda item.

Please state your name and address for the record. Sorry.

I live in a senior moment. Jim Ronnie, 5248 West Fifth Street Road. Thank you. I'm not speaking to the item of the bond itself, or the million dollar grant, rather, but it covers infrastructure, so I didn't know if the city manager or maybe a representative from Public Works would know without a lot of detail what that covers. I've worked for decades in land development, so I understand what that cost would and would not do. Everything from site grading to streets, transportation, and then you get down to lights, and communication and water and sewer, sanitary sewer and storm sewer. But this particular site has two ditches on it that contain the nemesis of Owensboro. And for any of you city commission members that have not had their boots muddy to be out on construction sites to see running sand, you need to get yourself out there and see what it does. There were news articles back in the turn of the century, a little after, where a downtown intersection collapsed because of the running sand. We fought an issue at 12th and Locust during my term. Saw a house chimney pulling away from the structure. Running sand can be bad. But nonetheless, and I'll give you an example. There was a young engineer who came to this community, worked here his career, and I mentioned running sand to him. Well, he came from Indianapolis, and I'm not going to mention names. but he was up in the karst topography. He'd never heard of running sand. I took him out here to the ditch on the Massey farm to show the sand boils that come up from the running sand. It almost looks like places where fish spawn, but there weren't that type of fish there, these minnows. That drainage ditch out there is above grade, and you need to deal with it. There was another project, a commercial-type project, developed out there, and evidently it was a design flaw. They didn't address it correctly, and now the stormwater detention that's out there doesn't function as designed because they didn't understand what they were looking at. So I don't know. Does this million-dollar grant, bottom line, does it cover drainage at this point in time, or is it more of a generalized grant? That's all I got. Just a question.

Thank you. Nobody else? Okay, then. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Could I have a second, please?

Second.

All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed?

We are adjourned.