Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

We have a two minute warning and we apologize for having some technical difficulty. So bear with us. Good evening and welcome to Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors Business Meeting. Today is Tuesday, May 19th, 2026, 7, 17 p.m. Board meeting room 39 Bank Street, Southeast Chatham, Virginia, 24531. Madam Clerk, call the roll.

Yes, sir. Mr. Bowman? Here. Mr. Brown? Here. Mr. Dalton? Here. Mr. Dudley? Present. Mr. Whittle? Here. Mr. Ingram? Here. Mr. Tucker? Here.

Would you all join me now in a moment of silence? Thank you. If you're physically able, would you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you so much. All right, that takes us down to agenda item five. Any items to be added to the agenda?

Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman, I do.

Yes, sir. Mr. Dean?

I'd like to make a motion to remove consent agenda item 7D from the agenda. And we will look at this at our next meeting. This was originally designed to honor Otis Hawker, one of our assistant county administrators and interim county administrator. And due to health reasons, him and his supporters could not be here. And also to add to the consent agenda as item 7D on the consent agenda to remove of the removal of Robert Story from the DSS board at his request and to appoint Tinker Burkhart as the DSS board member from the Stanton River District to complete Mr. Story's unfinished term. And to add, under new business, is item 12A, the consideration of authority for negotiation, execution, and delivery of a local performance agreement with Stack LLC Acquisition Company. And that is my motion, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ingram. Is there support for the motion?

I'll second the motion, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dudley. Madam Clerk, do you have that motion straight? OK, read it back to me.

We are removing 7D, recognition of Otis Hawker, and we're adding the DSS board. We're removing Robert Story and Attertinker Burkhart for the rest of the term. And we're also adding under new business, we are adding the LPA for SAC 3.

Thank you, ma'am. Any further discussion on the motion? If not, let's vote electronically, please.

Mr. Chairman, it's not showing, but it passed seven to zero. OK.

Thank you so much. Motion passes. All right. Let's see. That motion was to amend the agenda. I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make that motion. We approve the agenda with the withdrawal of those that Mr. Engel read off.

Thank you, Mr. Dudley. Support for the motion?

Second.

Thank you, Mr. Whittle. Move met with second. The agenda will be approved with the amendment. Any discussion? Hearing none, let's vote electronically, please. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. That brings us down to item number seven, the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion on the consent agenda.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda with the changes.

Thank you, Mr. Dalton.

I'll second.

Thank you, Mr. Brown. Movement was seconded that we approve the consent agenda with the changes. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, let's vote electronically, please. Thank you so much. Motion passes unanimously. All right. That takes us down to agenda item number eight, presentations. Board, let's move down to the floor, please. This part of our job is pretty enjoyable.

I'm like triple doodling tonight.

Look at you, I know you are.

It's with the cleanup, yeah.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

They're in, oh, they're, okay. All right. Okay. All right. Welcome, everybody. Good to see you tonight. I think we'll just keep you all here until the end of our meeting. How about that? Huh? No? No? It's been a long afternoon, I can assure you. And thank you for bearing with us to have a few extra minutes here so we can get ourselves together. So the first thing we're going to do tonight is recognize the Chatham High School girls basketball team. Are they here? Or a part of them, are they here? Come on down. And anybody with a school division, if you're here, come on down. I see a superintendent up there taking pictures. You can come on down. All right.

Yeah, come on. Come on.

Yeah, spread out. Y'all come on in. Push these guys to the back.

Come on.

Y'all don't. Y'all come on in here. Come on in here. Yeah, just come on in. Y'all tall enough to block some of these guys? All right, it's my honor and pleasure here to recognize the Chatham High School girls basketball team. This year, the girls varsity basketball team had an outstanding 25-26 season. Let's hear it. Yep. Yep. Finishing with an impressive overall record, 26 and 1. Who was the one?

Who was?

Oh, the last game. All right. Their only loss of the season came by a single point in the state quarterfinals. Throughout the season, the team demonstrated exceptional determination, teamwork, and sportsmanship while representing Chatham High School in Pennsylvania County with pride and excellence. Additionally, the team captured both the Dogwood District Championship and the Region 2C Championship, completing undefeated runs in district and regional play. The Lady Cavaliers also earned numerous district, regional, and state honors, recognizing the talent and dedication of both the players and coaching staff. The Chatham High School varsity school girls basketball team had a remarkable season, and the Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors expresses its deepest Congratulations and admiration for these extraordinary accomplishments and wishes the team continued success in future endeavors. Signed, Kenneth L. Bowman, Chatham-Blairs District, and Robert M. Tucker, Chairman, Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right, who wants this?

Absolutely.

Did you hear that? The family members, parents, and all of the kids, once we do the pictures here, you all come down, we'll get another picture.

Ready? Thank you. All right, let's see.

Certificate of appreciation. All right, we're going to do... Let's see. Okay.

All right, next we have, and I'll tell you what, this group has come a long ways in about two and a half years, is the Pennsylvania County Beautification Committee. And so tonight, and I know most everybody is here, tonight we would like to take a few minutes to thank the many groups and individuals who participated in the county's spring cleanup held during the week of April 20 through 25. Our over 200 citizens participated and collected approximately 200 bags of trash as well as many tires. This year, the beautification committee offered a $100 donation to any school or scout group of at least 10 participants that we would like to, that would like to sponsor any students to, all right, let me start over here. 10, yeah, a group of at least 10 participants and we would like the sponsors of any students to come forward to receive their checks from their representatives on the beautification committee and remain for a group photo at the end. So right now, a group representing Boy Scout Troop 346, Tim Craddock, if you'll come forward. And the check will be presented by Mark Gottlieb. Tom? Oh, I'm sorry. Is it Tim or Tom? Tom. OK. Tom Craddock. Come on, Tom. All right, and also Chatham High School Junior ROTC Sergeant Jamie Kurtz. Are you here? There we are. Okay. And that check will be presented by Sandra Orn and Evelyn Davis. And then there's Dan River High School Interact Club. You here? Yep. And that check will be presented by Ms. Phyllis Barker. And then the Dan River High School JROTC, you're here. And again, that's presented by Ms. Phyllis Barker. Good to see you. And then Tunstall Middle School Beta Club, presented by Chrissy Stowe. Now, are the slides working? Yeah, there you go. So if you all can look at those slides, you'll see some of the folks that are standing in front of you here. You'll see some of the work that they did during this spring cleanup. So time doesn't allow for me to call out the 200 individual names, but the slide presentation tonight does list those names as best as we could determine. We apologize if we missed anyone, but we thank you all again for your participation. However, you will be able to see your names listed in, this is a shameless plug, Brenda's blurbs. Okay, check it out in the Star Tribune column in the Star Tribune this week. We want to especially thank Keith Motley, Mayor of Gretna, the revitalization of Greater Gretna, and the Chatham Rotary Club for being a part of the cleanup in the towns and would ask that you come forward at this time to be part of our group photo. So if anybody is here from Gretna and from Rotary, and anyone else in the audience who participated in the cleanups, they all can come up for this. We would also thank VDOT for their continued efforts with the cleanups, and especially for providing vests and bags. And finally, before the photo, we'd like to thank Catherine Blair. We have her certificate. We'll send this to her. the representative of the Beautification Committee for her faithful representation of the Westover District for the past two years. Due to health reasons, Ms. Blair can no longer serve and is unable to attend tonight, but we have a certificate for her and we'll get that to her in short order. So folks, with that, let's give these folks a hand. And I guess you all have made the presentation with the checks already. Right? Everybody's got your checks? Okay. Congratulations again. So with that being said, let's have a photo. Let's get this thing out of the way and do a group photo.

We can get everybody in here.

Not trapped over here.

Did I have anything else?

All right, here's the certificate. We'll mail these. or give it to them or whatever. Put them with Kaylin's stuff and let her go ahead and do it. Because I think there's a couple that were missed. I've got Blair's up here, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Who?

I'll get back to you. Yeah, but I didn't know. You guys good? Yeah, we're good. You're good? Okay.

again. Good evening. And, uh, one of one of the things that I want to shout out our young people with their accomplishments from Chatham, uh, girls varsity basketball team. Wonderful, momentous season to all of these young people that have participated in our clean up day. Let's let's give them a All right, at this time we're going to recognize Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated. Come on up. You all look so lovely in your red.

Okay.

All right. Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors proclamation recognizing The 80th Charter Day of the Danville Alumni Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. Virginia, at the Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors business meeting on Tuesday, April 21st, 2026, the following proclamation was adopted. Whereas the Danville Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to public service since its chartering and whereas on april 18 2026 the danville alumni chapter proudly celebrated its 80th charter day making eight decades of impactful service and community leadership and whereas members of this distinguished organizations have donated themselves excuse me dedicated themselves to advance in educational excellence, fostering economic development, promoting civic engagement, and leading social action initiatives throughout Pennsylvania County and the surrounding areas. And whereas the Danville alumni chapter has enriched the lives of countless citizens through their programs, partnerships, and advocacy efforts that strengthen the fabric of our community. And whereas this milestone anniversary stands as a testament to the enduring legacy, vision, commitment of its members, past and present, who have worked tirelessly to uplift and empower others. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize and congratulate the Danville Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated on this occasion of its 80th Charter Day and extend sincere appreciation for its many contributions to citizens of Pennsylvania County and beyond. And be it further, proclaim that we encourage all citizens to join in in celebrating this remarkable milestone and commend the chapter for its continued dedication to service leadership and community advancement given under my hand this 21st day of April 2026. Yours truly, Robert M. Tucker, Jr., board chair, Kayla McCluster, board clerk. Let's get a picture.

Thank you.

So would you come down here? Come on up here. We have one more certificate of appreciation and sincere recognition and appreciation of your outstanding participation in the Pittsburgh County Spring Cleanup Program and for your dedication to community service, environmental stewardship, and civic pride. Your willingness to volunteer your time, energy, and efforts to help clean and beautify our community reflects a strong commitment to making Pennsylvania County a cleaner, safer, and more welcoming place for all citizens. Through your service and teamwork, you have demonstrated leadership, responsibility, and a genuine spirit of community involvement that is deeply valued and appreciated. The Pittsburgh County Board of Supervisors extends its heartfelt gratitude for your contributions and for setting a positive example of service for others throughout our community. This is presented to this young lady.

What's your name?

Addison Stowe and the Tustle Middle School Beta Club on behalf of William V. Ingram, Tustle supervisor, the vice chairman, and Chairman Robert M. Tucker, Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors. Y'all give them a hand. Okay, that's a pretty good answer. All right, picture time. All right.

i think that's it

Tough times. Tough times.

Thank you to the board. This takes us down to agenda item 8b, data center industry economic impact presentation. Mr. Alex. Is that gotch stat? Good evening and welcome. And incidentally, this is the county administrator for Mecklenburg County to our east. Thank you for being with us.

Well, Mr. Chair, members of the board, thank you for your invitation to join you this evening and to speak about one of the most pressing public policy topics in local government today and to do so through a real life Southern Virginia example. So Mecklenburg County is home to one of the largest data center clusters, not only in Virginia, but frankly in the entire planet Earth. We are approaching year 20 now of our journey. and the data center industry of some form or fashion and over 15 years with what is known as the data center campus model. And so the campus model is similar to the proposals that have come before you recently. and contrast from some of the examples elsewhere, such as in Northern Virginia, which was done on a very building by building basis. The campus model, as you know, is the siting of multiple buildings on one campus, often on previously industrial sited land, as was the case in Mecklenburg County initially, and several buildings put onto that site. So today, Mecklenburg County has a fully built out data center campus with multiple buildings on it completed. We also have multiple other campuses that are in various stages of development. And so what has transpired for us is that we stand here before you tonight with the data center industry now representing 45% of our real estate tax base for the year that will commence on July the 1st, which is our tax year. We're on a fiscal year basis for that. Now I should say that 45% is on top of not subtracting from, not taking away from, not reallocating from our real estate base. We had a decent base prior to this, and now the data center industry has been placed on top. So it's been, in that respect, a complete net add to the Mecklenburg County fiscal situation. So what is 45% of our real estate base amount to? It provides us with $15 million of revenue this year just from the real estate tax alone. And that has empowered us to do a range of different activities in Mecklenburg County that has allowed us to build new school facilities from a high school, middle school complex down to a series of elementary schools. We've completed one. We're in the midst of one, and we have one to come. And we've been able to do all of those schools, both past and the next one, without having to resort to the 1% sales tax that was provided, thanks to the late Senator Ruff, to all of our counties here in Southern Virginia. Many of the other counties have had to resort to that in order to build their facilities. As I said, we have not and we never will. And that is because of the fiscal impact that the data centers have provided to Mecklenburg County. We've been able to do other items besides large capital projects as well. We've been able to onboard emergency medical services, which has transitioned in many areas, including our own, from a volunteer model to a career-based professional paid service. And we've been able to onboard 30 FTEs in that department, which is well over 10% of our total workforce in the county. without having to think about raising taxes, without having to figure out how we could handle that. We have just been able to say, yes, we can. And we are now about to add 11 more and pick up another service territory, again, without having to think about how we will fund this, because we know we have the revenues available to us. All of that has allowed us to reduce our real estate rate, to reduce now our personal property rate on vehicles, and to phase out our vehicle registration fee, and generally speaking, to ask less of the citizens of our county to have them contribute less and yet obtain more services from us. So in that respect, the data center industry's presence in Mecklenburg County has been, for us at the county level, a complete net win. Now you're thinking, well okay, you must have dedicated vast swaths of Mecklenburg County to this industry in order to generate a 45% return value. That simply is not the case. We have less than 1% of the total land mass of Mecklenburg County, and that's just the land mass. As you probably all know, we have significant water and land under the water as well. It doesn't discount that from the calculation. So less than 1% of just the land area has been devoted to the data center industry. And that is just the land that has been zoned and for an application that has been provided to us. That does not mean that all of that acreage is today built out, nor does it mean that all that acreage may be built out in the future because there is spacing and there's setbacks and there's buffering on a number of these sites. And so for all of that, less than 1% on the input side for 45% of our tax base for real estate tax base on the output side. And on top of that, most of those acres were previously identified as industrial sites. Now, much like is probably the case here in Pennsylvania, many of those sites had sat vacant and languishing for many years before this industry came to our doorstep. In the earliest case, we had an industrial site that dated back at that time to the 1990s. And in 2010, when we really went forward with the data centers, we led into it in 08, 09, and really took off in 10. there was no other prospects for that site. And in fact, had we not had the data center, there probably would never have been any other prospects for that site, even up until the relatively recent past, or even today. So we did what we set out to do. We took that land, We said we are setting this land aside for industrial development because we need revenue and we need job creation and we need more to come back from the economy that had left us in the early 2000s. Much like Pennsylvania, we were the home to substantive tobacco industry that suffered a serious decline as a result of a multitude of different issues in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Much like the rest of southern Virginia and many parts of North Carolina, we were home to a robust textile industry that walked out the door in that same period of time. We suffered from the housing decline after the global financial crisis in 2007 and 8. And so all of our resident large scale industries were no longer. And then the data center walked through the door. And that pretty much sustained Mecklenburg County in the 2010s and into the 2020s. So, we took those sites that we made a promise on, that we were going to do those things with it, and we found an industry, the only industry, mind you, that was at all looking to expand in that period of time and put it into that use. In total, that land area is fairly similar to the two data center proposals, the one you've already approved and the one that is sitting before you now. The land acreage is about the same for you all versus what is total in Mecklenburg County. So from that vantage point, I think it's fairly reasonable to expect similar outcomes from a revenue perspective as what we have seen. Although I will point out that because time has elapsed and conditions have changed, your personal property proposed tax rate on computer equipment peripherals is over a dollar more than ours is. So you'll probably do better on that front than So that's a credit to you all for reading what has happened in this space. So I've mentioned jobs a little bit in the preceded statement. And that's something that I feel is a little bit devalued when it comes to the data center industry. As we sit here today, in the midst of the data center development, obviously each site takes a long time to build out. And people often wave off those construction jobs as temporary, and in a sense they are. But when you have a campus model of development like we did where we saw building construction over 10, 12, 15 year period of time, for many of us that doesn't feel or act like it's temporary or transitory. I certainly know that in your space where you have four-year terms and county administrator space where the average tenure is five years for a county administrator, a 15-year project certainly sounds like it's a lot more than just a short-term project. And so we are having this influx of construction related jobs, but what that is doing is it is in fact bolstering our economy because right now if you go to South Hill tonight, tonight's a Tuesday night, you probably won't find a room if you pull off 85 and think you're gonna just stop because you can't make it to Richmond on your way. You're not going to find a room. Because in the hotel study that we recently commenced, over 90%, 90% of the rooms in the middle of the week were occupied in our market. That's unheard of. That is Virginia Beach in the middle of the summer levels of occupancy. And that is being driven by people who are staying there on a recurring basis. They'll check in on Sunday night or Monday morning, and last through Friday. And so that is really providing a tremendous economic value to our hotel industry. And the same is true on the rental side for many of our property owners. who are able to find another source of income. That is true for your farm community that often have an extra place to rent. There might be a building that once upon a time was used for farm hands to stay in, now is available. and can be rented, and that helps sustain a tremendous number of people in our population is that secondary source of income. That's not to say that that doesn't cause troubles or pitfalls for other people in our community, it does, and it's something that we need to address, but I think often that level of economic impact is lost in the conversation as well. But those are, at the end of the day, true transitory jobs. But what does the permanent occupations look like? Well, in the case of Mecklenburg, now that we have at least some campuses that are full-fledged operations, it's much more than you would imagine, especially when you're on a campus style. So today, the data center industry is our second largest permanent employer. Those are employees of the companies that are operating the data centers directly. It's not any third party. It's not the construction workers. The number two industry behind only our hospital center. And they'll pass the hospital fairly soon. That's incredible. For a community that has 62% of our business establishments that have zero to four employees having 30 to 50 jobs per building and that turns into several hundred jobs per campus and when you roll that all up to nearly somewhere between 750 and probably rapidly soon approaching 1,000 jobs for one industry is pretty consequential. Now, we will never have the employment level that a, in our case, a Burlington Industries had, which had many thousands of jobs once upon a time. But nevertheless, these jobs pay considerably higher than those of yesteryear. We had recently, and this was from 2023 data, but we recently were, provided a report of the actual average income of the workforce in the data center industry. And that was several multiples higher than what the total average wage in the county was. So these jobs definitely contribute to the well-being of our economy. And in many cases, they are jobs that locals can get upskilled through our community college system. and get employed on these campuses. And even better, it is jobs that our high school seniors can graduate and walk into a fairly lucrative career at a pretty easy rate. Now, of course, the application process takes a while, and obviously, you know, getting up-skilled is valuable, but you truly can get hired as an 18-year-old in this industry, and that is a real selling point for our local economy to try to maximize the CTE programs we have in our schools and to retain our local talent base at home and to give hope and opportunity to those students who have no desire or do not have the financial aptitude to go off somewhere else or to go to college or to go to Raleigh or to go wherever else there might be employment opportunities. So from that sense, the value add to the Mecklenburg County economy is again fairly considerable. But we also have been able to generate significant infrastructure investments in our county that would not have happened otherwise. And I'll give you a great example of that. At the end of May, we will have a bid opening for a new utility line. This utility line, I shouldn't say new, it's a new project, but it's a replacement of existing utilities. So right now, our water main line that serves the town of Clarksville and our water and sewer infrastructure that goes from the town of Clarksville back across the bridge to serve clients on the other side are all fairly dated. Our raw water intake line is from the original construction of the system, which is from 1952. And the two water and wastewater main lines going the other direction are from 1986. There was no plans to replace, rehab, do anything with those lines until the data center industry arrived in our county. And now, because there is a site that is needed to be served by those particular lines, we are about to have that bid opening. that will completely replace and upsize all three of those lines at zero cost to the county, zero cost to the town, zero cost to the utility system, and therefore zero cost to the rate payers. We have had many, many millions of infrastructure investments, some of which fairly clearly benefit the campus itself and not much else. And some of which, like those utilities, serve the general populace all while serving the data center campuses. So from that angle, it's again a pretty significant win for our local community and our local residents. And the list goes on. And I won't belabor that here. I'll certainly open it up if you all have any questions. I'm glad to answer them. But in summary, what this industry has provided us is a large-scale tax base, which has allowed us to invest in services that we needed to provide, to modernize our educational facilities, to start to think differently as a county to consider what our needs of the citizens are and how we can deliver them and how we can use the resources that are now available to us that never were available to us before to invest in ways that will provide for much more beyond just the data center industry in our county. We have gained a significant employer share, which sustained us through rough economic times in the 2010s and continues to provide for our citizens and our community in the 2020s and will continue to do so in the years to come. And it has unlocked significant infrastructure investments into our community at little to no expense for our governments, our towns, our people. And so from all of those aspects, and again, it's not entirely upstanding, 100% positive. There are things, there are challenges to work through with this industry, just like any other. But I have not seen locally, and there are very few other examples out there, of industries that provide quite the financial and economic and infrastructure return to a locality as this particular industry at relatively little cost to us from a government perspective.

Thank you, Mr. Gastel. Any questions from the board? Hang on, Mr. Ingram.

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. Alex, thank you for taking time to be with us. I know you've had a long day. This mega park is in my district, so I have a lot of people asking me questions. I wrote down a list very briefly. When Microsoft came to town, did you guys have any opposition or did you have a parade for them?

There was no opposition at that particular time. As I mentioned, we were in a position where any industry that was looking to Mecklenburg County to locate was very desirous because we did not have many alternatives that were looking to Mecklenburg County at that particular time. And I would say since then, we also have not had a tremendous amount of industry that has come our way and said, that's the place we want to locate, but this one has.

So what's the general attitude of your citizens right now? Are they happy with the progression?

You know, obviously with any topic, you're going to get a spectrum of opinions. What I have found is that many of the people in our county have certainly been glad to have these shining educational facilities that they can show off. Obviously, as we work towards providing additional sources of tax relief to our citizens, that is welcomed. But what you are going to generally see with this or any other industry is the people that are most benefited have the least need to proclaim that. Most of the people are relatively in the middle and aren't impacted necessarily one way or the other, unless the case is made that this is in fact touching them. And then you have a segment who have an opposition to the particular industry and have the ability to project that comment. And so I would assess the vast majority of our citizens in the middle. And it depends on what they're looking for and what they're hearing.

In regards to your campus, how many buildings do you have now?

We have several dozen.

Okay, any idea on job count?

I would estimate that the direct job count for the industry is north of 750, and that does not include any of the contractors who are regularly on the site, nor does it include any of the construction labor, of which I don't have any precise estimates. But the workforce for any one building CERTAINLY IS IN THE HUNDREDS, MAYBE EVEN IN THE THOUSANDS ON A CAMPUS. AND EACH CONSTRUCTION IS A FAIRLY LONG TIME FRAME, I'D SAY. UP TO TWO YEARS IS PRETTY CUSTOMARY FOR THIS TYPE OF WORK. SO ON ONE CAMPUS AT ANY ONE TIME YOU CAN CERTAINLY SEE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AT ONCE.

SO WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT 5, 10, 15 PEOPLE PER BUILDING, CORRECT?

The permanent occupation numbers generally rest at 30 to 50 per building. That is what is seen both locally and in studies both at the Commonwealth and national levels, and I find that to be a fairly accurate estimate.

Okay. Have you seen the utility bills, electricity rates go up as far as your citizens?

Well, I think the electricity bills of everybody in the United States of America have gone up. for a variety of different reasons. We're not exempted from that. I will note, however, that on any electric system, whether it's a regulated utility of the largest scale or a cooperative, you have a lot of different contributors to that and especially when you're starting to talk about a regulated utility, Dominion in our case, I know there's at least ATCO provides for one particular area. Here what you will see is that rates are not assigned based on a county of origin. rates are for a system as a whole. And so, in our case, what we may be contributing to the system is an input, and it's a very minor input. contributed in many other places whether it's a solar facility whether it's a giant wind turbine off the coast of Virginia Beach whether it's labor costs going up whether it's a host of different factors they all go in to the calculation of a rate that's requested but our rate in Mecklenburg County wouldn't be no different than a rate in the city of Richmond in the city of Virginia Beach anywhere else the charges themselves are going to be static across the entire system. So yes, the bills have gone up in Mecklenburg, but they are not any different than the rates have gone up in any of elsewhere in Dominion's service territory. And I would say that if we've contributed anything to that, it's fairly minor and plenty of, if we didn't do it, somebody else would have.

But no direct correlation to the data center campus and individual residential homes, correct?

So, the data centers are charged at a different rate schedule. They often have to contribute significant sums towards building out utility infrastructure. So, I wouldn't be in a position to tell you affirmatively there is no relationship whatsoever, but the inputs are many on that, and the data centers also pay much more than your average person would pay.

Thank you, sir. Do you have any idea how much water Microsoft uses right now, average gallons per day?

I do not have that information presently available for a specific day, but what I would tell you is the overall water story. So right now, we have two different water treatment plants in the county. We have one in the east and one that just serves the town of Clarksville. I'm gonna focus on the one in the east, which is where almost all of our existing operational data centers campuses are running off of. That facility, before the data centers arrived, was built out to be about a four million gallon per day capacity plant. The data centers came in and said, we would like to have allocation from that plant, And we would like that facility to increase in size. And so they paid for a $25 million project. They paid a $25 million project to double the capacity of that plant. So now it's an over 8 million capacity plant. As of today, on an average day, we run about 1.7 million gallons. And that's for every single resident of the towns that are served by that facility. that is for every single business in the county that's served by it, and it's for the data centers, and it's for whoever else uses it. So 1.7 million out of the total capacity of 8.36 million is in fact used on an average day.

It's always fair to say that these data centers have not drained Bugs Island nor Lake Gaston. They're still both full of water.

Yes, and we still have an immense amount of recreational tourism that shows up to our waters every single day and probably a lot today on a day like we had.

And my final question is that I understood you to say that your seniors from high school walked off the stage of graduation into very lucrative jobs if they choose to do so at Microsoft.

It is absolutely possible. Thank you.

And that is my questions. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Bowman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Alex, thank you for coming in and making your presentation. You were here just a week or so ago at the institute, if I remember right.

That's correct.

Great presentation there. We were, some of us were in attendance at that. So, great information that was passed on during that. Really, the only thing that I want to ask you a couple questions here. When you travel 58 and you go past Boykins and before you get into South Hill, that power plant on the right, Dominion Power, is that part of the power structure for the data center that's located there in Boykins?

So we actually do not have a power plant in Mecklenburg County. There is a power plant in our neighbor to the east in Brunswick, and then there's a power plant in the county to the east of that in Greensville. There is no question that they must provide some portion of their power to assist in the data center usage. but both of those facilities were planned and built before the data center industry really became what it is today. So I don't think Dominion's decision to develop those had anything really to do with the data center industry.

Okay. I traveled that road for a number of years and if I remember right, the board of supervisors there back in the day when this was being presented to them, this was a a hand-wringing exercise. A lot of them, they didn't have any idea of what to do. They needed money, funds, if you will, in order to do some of their projects. And that was on the cutting edge of the data centers there. They had the task of building new high schools. And so it was, how do you pay for it? And I remember reading the South Hill paper and it came up with $50 million roughly to start, you know, to build the high school. And then it escalated to about, I think, 150 million. Is that about right?

Yes, the final construction cost for the, now, we did have a middle school, high school complex.

Right.

So we, in a way, we built two schools. But the total construction cost for that project did, in fact, end up being $154 million. That's correct.

Well, so what's the debt service on that high school now?

So the debt service, we did have to raise money for that through debt financing at the time because it was built before we really had the data center industry in full-fledged operational status. What we did as a financing tool for that was to increase our real estate rate by two cents and to increase our personal property rate by 10 cents. What has actually happened now in reality is we went from increase in that two cents to 42 cents at the time. Today, we're now at 31. So we've gone the opposite direction. We have repealed the 10 cent increase that was adopted to fund on the personal property side. And when it comes to vehicles in the upcoming fiscal year, we will have an 80 cent reduction in our vehicle rate, all while being able to service debt from that facility and to fund the elementary school that we have is about to complete its first year of operations and to fund without raising a single penny the elementary school that is currently in construction okay good Thank You Alex appreciate it very much Thank You mr. chair Thank You anyone else if not Alex thank you so much for being here this evening and sharing with us Yeah, if you have any other questions, let me know, and I'll be happy to talk to you all. We'll be glad to stay in touch. OK. Thank you. Great. Thanks again.

Also, before I move to the next item, I want to recognize Delegate Madison Whittle just stepped in to grace our presence. So thank you for being here this evening. We move now to agenda item number nine, which is hearing of the citizens. Each person addressed to the board on the hearing of the citizens shall be a resident or land owner of the county or the registered agent of such resident or land owner. Each person shall step up, give his or her name and district in an audible tone of voice for the record. And unless further time is granted by the chairman, shall limit his or her address to three minutes. No person shall be permitted to address the board more than once during the hearing of the citizens. All remarks shall be addressed to the board as a body and not to any individual member thereof. Hearing of the citizens shall last for a maximum of 45 minutes. Any individual that is Sign up to speak during the said section. Who does not get the opportunity to do so because of the aforementioned time limit shall be given speaking priority at the next board meeting. Absent chairman's approval, no person shall be able to speak who has not signed up to speak. Madam Clerk, we have anyone signed up?

We do. John Owen.

Mr. Owen, come on down, sir. Thank you for being here and welcome.

Good evening, gentlemen. My name is John Owen of the Calhoun's Gretna District. If you would forgive me, I do have a head cold. And I would like to thank you all for having that gentleman here. It was very informative, what he said. So I appreciate that. I just want to clarify a couple of items tonight. First, I spoke a few months ago on the ethics And it seems I may have made the impression I was condemning the whole board for the actions of one. This was not my intention. If it seems so, I apologize. I commend the board for the actions it took on the matter, as distasteful as I can imagine these actions were. As for the rest of the board, I believe you understand my feelings on ethics. Next, I would like to address a comment made last month by a member of the board. I am not, quote, trying to score political points. I have no intention of running for political office, for any political office, especially for a seat on the board. I feel that the representation calendar for the district has on the board is the best it could possibly be. And I will do everything I can to assist our supervisor, as I will the whole board. All I'm asking is a board that is totally honest, whether you are campaigning or serving. As I have said before, a person's word is their bond. Also, the board needs to be completely open about industrial development incentives and stop hiding behind non-disclosure agreements. Let the citizens know how much of their money you're giving away. The development announced in the past two and a half years, if taxed at $0.62, will generate 24.8 million dollars per year will the county see into that money probably not because it was dealt away under the table and non-disclosure agreement was covered but that's a lot of money you were elected to represent the citizens of pennsylvania county not to see them As soon as I have the time to do all the math, I'll get back with you on how much each job created actually cost. We're not making money on these jobs we create. We're losing money. And I can prove it. If you have any problems with my math, I'll give it to Ms. Van de Hout. If she can prove I'm wrong, I'll come up here and apologize to everybody. But I don't think she can. I'd like to thank everybody for their time. and appreciate everything y'all do. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Mr. Owens. Madam Clerk, who's our next speaker? That's all. That's it?

All right.

That moves us down to agenda item 10A, rezoning public hearings. Pursuing to Article 5, Division 6 of the Pennsylvania County Zoning Ordinance, the Board of Supervisors have been empowered to hear and decide specific zoning issues in zoning map changes in support of said ordinance. In accordance with this important task board is responsible for promoting the health, safety, general public welfare of the citizens of Pennsylvania County. The board must ensure that all of its decisions and regulations be directed to these goals and that each be consistent with the environment, the comprehensive plan, and in the best interest of Pennsylvania County, its citizens, and its posterity. All right. Case R-26-011, Ms. Smith.

Good evening. First case tonight is R26-011. LaShawn D. Hall has petitioned to rezone 3.589 acres located on State Road 666, Yates Store Road in the Bannister Election District from R1, Residential Suburban Subdivision District, to A1, Agricultural District, to allow the property to be used for agricultural uses. On May 5th, 2026, the planning commission recommended by a four to one vote with opposition that the petitioner's request be granted with the following conditions. Number one, the property owner must maintain a fence slash tree line to a home must be placed on the property within six to 12 months. The staff summary and planning commission recommendation are included in the board packet. Ms. Hall has also submitted a proffer statement, which is included as well. And Ms. Hall is here to represent the petition.

All right. It's 826. We open the public hearing on case R-26-011. Ms. Hall, anything to add? Nothing to add. Anyone else sign up to speak?

We do.

Yes, ma'am.

Emily Ragsdale.

Ms. Ragsdale, good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Would you mind reading the proffers that were offered by the applicant?

Ms. Smith, can you read those proffers again, please?

Holly's going to read them, but they are consistent with the recommendations from the Planning Commission that they maintain the fence and tree line and that a home be placed on the property within six to 12 months.

Does that satisfy your question, Ms. Ragsdale?

It does. That was our main concern, that this property, the applicant could have had incidental agriculture as a by-right use as long as a home was placed on the property with the current zoning, they never would have met the five acre threshold. So there really was no need to rezone this property. And so our concern was that there would not be someone living on the property. There was no way to ensure that someone was living on the property to care for the animals and make sure that things were done in a proper manner. So as long, we've met with the applicant, so as long as he is proffering that he is gonna live on the property, we're okay with the rezoning.

So you're good. Anyone else signed up to speak?

Wanda Ragsdale.

Ms. Ragsdale? Nothing to add, Ms. Ragsdale? Thank you all. Any additional?

That's it.

All right. It is now 828, closed public hearing in case R-26-011. I'll make the motion from the chair that this petition be granted.

I'll second your motion.

Thank you, Mr Dudley, for the support. Any discussion? All right. Vote electronically, please. All right. The motion carries unanimously. Your property's been rezoned. All right. In case R-26-014, Michael Strange. Ms. Smith.

Case R-26-014, Michael Strange, has petitioned to rezone 5.9 acres located on State Road 622 Cascade Road in the Tunstall Election District from R1 Residential Suburban Subdivision District to A1 Agricultural District to allow the property to have two single-family dwellings. Once the property is rezoned to a one, all uses listed under section 35 dash 1 78 are permitted on April 7th, 2026. The planning commission recommended six to zero with no opposition that the petitioner's request to be granted the staff summary and planning commission recommendations are included in the board packet. And I believe Mr. Strange is here to represent the petition. Should you have any questions?

All right, in case R-26-014, we open the public hearing at 8.30. All right, let's see, anyone to represent? Mr. Strange, anything to add? Come on down and speak into the mic for us, sir. good evening welcome and thank you for being here good evening board of supervisors and good good evening community yes i'm just here in person okay for your vote nothing nothing to add no nothing to add yes sir thank you so much thank you just couldn't hear you from way back there yes no problem thank you all right madam clerk anything to add yes sir no speakers All right, we closed the case at 831 on R-26-014. Mr. Ingram.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, in case R-26-014, make a motion to approve the rezoning of 5.90 acres from R-1 residential suburban subdivision district to A-1 agricultural district to allow for two single-family dwellings on the property. That is my motion, sir.

Thank you, sir. Support.

I'll second it.

Thank you, Mr Dalton. Any discussion? If not, please vote electronically. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Your property has been rezoned. In case R-26-015, David F. Gillespie. Ms. Smith.

Case R-26-015, David Gillespie has positioned to rezone 9.79 acres located on State Road 642 Marina Drive in the Tunstall Election District from R1 Residential Suburban Subdivision District to A1 Agricultural District to allow for agricultural uses. Once the property is rezoned to a one, all uses listed under section 35 dash 1 78 are permitted on April 7th, 2026. The planning commission recommended six to zero vote with no opposition that the petitioner's request be granted the staff summary and the planning commission's recommendation are included in your board packet. And I believe Mr. Gillespie is here to represent the petition. Should you have any questions?

Thank you, ma'am. It is now. 832. In case R-26-015, David Gillespie. Anyone sign up to speak? Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Madam Clerk? No, sir. Okay. All right. It's 833, and we close the public hearing on... Uh, R dash 26 dash 0 1 5. Mr. Dudley.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I'll make the motion in case R dash 26 dash 0 1 5. Make a motion to approve the rezoning of 9.7, nine acres from R one residential suburban subdivision district to a one agricultural district to allow for agricultural uses on the property. As chairman, that is my motion.

Thank you, sir.

I'll second that.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman. All right. Any discussion? Gentlemen, vote electronically, please. Here we go. All right. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Your property has been rezoned. All right, in case R-26-016, Samuel Payne, Ms. Smith.

Case R26-016, Samuel Payne, on behalf of Susan Lasek, has petitioned to rezone 76.06 acres located on State Road 802, Hodnett's Mill Road, in the Callens-Gretna Election District from R1, Residential Suburban Subdivision District, and M1, Industrial District Light Industry, to A1, Agricultural District, to allow for agricultural uses. Once the property is rezoned to A1, all uses listed under section 35-178 are permitted. On April 7th, 2026, the Planning Commission recommended six to zero with no opposition that the petitioner's request be granted. The staff summary and Planning Commission recommendation are included in the board packet, and I believe Mr. Payne is here to represent the petition should you have any questions.

Thank you. It is now 835. We open a public hearing on case R-26-016. Anyone signed up to speak? Yes, sir. Are the Paynes here to represent? Nothing to add. Thank you so much. It is 835. closed public hearing on said case, R-26-016. Let's see, that's Mr. Dalton.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Yes, sir. In case R-26-016, I make a motion to approve the rezoning of the 76.06 acres from all one residential suburban subdivision district and the M-1 industrial district light industry to A1 District, Agriculture District, to allow for agriculture uses, cutting hay and farming. Thank you.

Thank you. You support for the motion? I'll second it. Thank you, Mr. Ingram. All right. And we've met with second on case R-26-016. Hearing no discussion, let's vote electronically, please. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Case R dash 26 dash 0 1 7.

Holly Walker, Ms. Smith case are 26 dash 0 1 7. Holly Walker has petitioned to rezone 8.85 acres located on state road, 6 22 cascade road in the Tunstall election district from our one residential suburban subdivision district to a one agricultural district to allow for a dog kennel with a special use permit once the property is rezoned to a1 all uses under section 35-178 are permitted i will note that should this rezoning be approved this evening ms walker does intend to submit that special use permit application for the dog kennel that would be required On April 7th, 2026, the Planning Commission recommended six to zero with no opposition, that the petitioner's request be granted. Staff summary and the Planning Commission recommendations are included in your board packet, and Holly Walker is here to represent the petition should you have any questions.

Thank you. All right. In case R dash 26 dash 017, we open the public hearing at 8 38. Uh, let's see anyone here to represent other walkers here.

Yes, ma'am.

Anything to add? Come. Let's speak into the mic, please. Sorry. Thank you for being here this evening.

Thank you for seeing me and hearing me. I've been working really hard to make sure that I follow all of the rules. And anything that's asked of me in the special use permit, I'm going to make sure that I adhere to it and do what I'm supposed to do. So that's all that I have to say. And I hope I get approved.

Thank you. All right. Anyone else signed up to speak? No, sir. Thank you so much, ma'am. I appreciate you. all right in case r-26-017 public hearing is closed at 8 39 Mr. Ingram.

Mr. Chairman, in case R26-017, I make a motion to approve the rezoning of 8.85 acres from R1 residential suburban subdivision district to A1 agricultural district to allow the property to be petitioned for a special use permit to have a dog kennel on the property. And that is my motion. Thank you so much. Mr. Chairman, I'll second that.

Thank you, Mr. Dudley. All right. Any discussions? Hearing none, would you vote electronically, please? Motion passes unanimously. Your property has been rezoned. Thank you so much. All right, we move to agenda item number 11, any unfinished business? No unfinished business. All right, item number 12, we have new business. And we have, what is this, item 12. Madam Clerk, read that to me. Resolution for stat.

I have a motion.

I have that. You have the motion? Oh, you do?

Just before you make your motion, I'm going to invite Mr. Rowe, our economic director, up. And he's going to give us some remarks on stacked infrastructure.

Please, sir. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and board members. Good evening. Good evening. Before I jump into that, I really wanted to just tell Mr. Owens how much I appreciate his comments. It's very rare where you have a citizen that's really taken that initiative to look at those agreements. And my offer to you, Mr. Owens, is that if there's any specific agreements, all of these incentive agreements are approved, and so they're public. And so any documents that you want to have regarding those incentives, just let us know. You can easily have them. Um, there's a lot of misinformation that comes out of those types of agreements. I mean, for example, I've heard for, this is a good segue into this discussion here for the mega site, but you know, micro porous getting full rebates, for example, that's a misnomer that goes throughout the community. The fact is, is that micro porous received a 70% tax rebate for 12 years. They're actually out on site right now doing construction. We'll have a big celebratory event, I think on Friday of this week. Um, but, uh, with even with that 70% tax rebate, they would be paying roughly $2.1 million per year, which would make them the largest taxpayer in Pennsylvania County. So over that 15 year period, for example, you're looking at $38.1 million. And so again, they would be the largest taxpayer in the county until stack infrastructure comes to town. So let's kind of jump into the stack infrastructure project. You know, my goal here through this presentation tonight is to make sure that the citizens, such as Mr. Owens and many others, are fully aware of the actual details that are within that performance agreement. Again, these agreements are public documents. And to, again, go through what it is that we have personally seen. Again, people can choose to believe what it is that they would like to. And again, I'm not trying to change minds. But again, this is just, again, from what we've actually seen and the facts that we've actually been able to gather from being inside the various meetings and being involved in the project from the beginning. So again, as was revealed recently, the total investment for the project is $100 billion, and that's over a 30-year period. And then the jobs, you're looking at 2,500 full-time badge employees planned over a 20-year period. The average wage is around $80,500, and that, again, you're going to see cost of living adjustments associated with that. As has been cited by the JLARC study, which is an unbiased study through the state, there's a significant multiplier effect. I applaud the RFAA board members for being able to negotiate one of the highest per acre, you know, purchases outside of what they call zone one for data centers, which is Prince William, loud in Fairfax County. So again, we're not giving the land away. We're actually selling it for $238,000 per gross acre. And I think the key thing and again, I think that Mr Owens in particular will be very happy about this is that the project is receiving no discretionary monetary incentives from Danville at Pennsylvania County. So again, the property isn't an enterprise zone. So because of that, we do have to provide a $1,000 per job payment. And we have to waive the development fees when it comes to like a building permit or a land development permit. But again, we have to do that in order to maintain our enterprise zone status. We have the letter of intent and purchase to sales agreement executed. And again, yesterday, the Regional Industrial Facility Authority approved the actual local performance agreement. And on top of that, we're also working on a community benefits plan that we'll hopefully be able to share some additional information over the coming weeks. I don't think folks understand just the magnitude of what this project represents. So this project represents one of the largest single site investments ever in the US. It is the largest single site investment ever since Virginia has been doing its recordation since 1990 for economic development. It also represents the second largest jobs project when it comes to manufacturing data centers. So again, not office or office relocation, only behind the Micron facility in Manassas, which was announced in August of 1995. This project also represents, and again, you can kind of look at your various data sources. From what we've seen, it's in the top five for industrial announcements ever made thus far for the U.S. Its peers would include, for example, TSMC in Arizona, which is a $165 billion semiconductor project. Project Jupiter, which is OpenAI in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, also part of the stack. projects, $165 billion campus, Stargate Abilene, $100 billion data campus, and then Micron's announced facility in Clay, New York, $100 billion facility. This facility is entirely dependent upon the state honoring its commitments to existing agreements, including the state's current data center sales and use tax exemption expiration date. And the reason for that is that these servers are constantly being refreshed And so every time they're being refreshed, they're being subject to or would be subject to the data center sales and use tax, which honestly results in a significant amount of money for a project over this span. And so again, there's over 30 states currently that exempt that tax, and Virginia currently is one of them. And so again, it would actually cause Virginia to be at a significant competitive advantage when it comes to the viability of this project. The actual local performance agreement business points themselves, again, just we have to hammer it home. There are no discretionary incentives being provided. The required metrics for performance, so again, right, if the company hits these metrics, everybody says you've met your performance. It's $73 billion of investment in 2050 full-time equivalent positions with average wages of $80,500 per year. Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors would establish a separate data center equipment tax rate of $1.62 per 100 of value. I think as you heard Alex say previously, this is a very aggressive rate, but it's due to the quality of the site. It's due to the ecosystem that you've built here. And so again, I think kudos to you, the city, and the community for doing that. This tax rate shall be static for the project to provide long-term certainty as long as the company is performing and meeting the stated requirements. And the tax rate will not be subject to an accelerated depreciation schedule. So again, this tax rate would follow the same exact depreciation tax rate that our citizens and small businesses follow when it comes to their business personal property assets. And so again, that's very, very important. Job creation requirements are clearly defined and enforceable. So again, they're enforceable with required monetary and payments should they not meet them. We do have minimum tax payments, which are guaranteed for the first 1,000 acres. The company will be required to pay taxes of at least $16.25 million per year. And then for every acre purchased beyond the initial 1,000 acres, an additional $16,250 payment per acre shall be applied towards that minimum tax payment. So again, once all 2,990 acres are purchased, the company will have a minimum required tax payment of roughly $48.5 million a year. So that's if they just buy the property and do absolutely nothing with it, they have to pay that in order to be in good graces with the agreement. And should the company default with the provisions of the local performance agreement, the Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors shall have the right to increase, modify the data center equipment tax rate, which effectively would cause obviously significant harm to the company, and that's the nuclear option. So again, it's a very strongly worded, very strongly secured agreement. So let's talk about actual facts when it comes to revenue, job creation, water sewer use, power rates, sound and light impacts. I think Alex did a great job, again, telling you what they're actually seeing in Mecklenburg County. Local revenue potential. So again, this is based upon conservative financial modeling as far as being run by financial experts. The total estimated local revenue is between $2.5 billion and $3.3 billion over a 20-year period, and that includes the land sale. This is not being generated as far as these projections or the modeling by the company. This was done in-house by both the city and county financial teams. So there is no bias to this. This would represent one of the most lucrative single economic development projects realized in the US for a host locale. So how does this project's estimated revenue compare to other mega-site projects? Again, I think this gets back to what Mr. Owens was hinting at. So again, in 2024, for an EV battery facility, it was about $4.1 billion investment. In order for the state and for the locality to even be competitive in the project, you were having to offer a 70% tax rebate for 25 years. And so over that 25-year period, it was generating $143 million for the community. 2022, you know, 2022 EV battery facility, 3.5 billion investment. Again, over a 20-year period, we were having to offer 70% tax rebate. That would have generated $114.3 million over the period for the community. 2022 car plant and EV battery facility, about $11.8 billion investment. This was a name brand company. And of course, you know, that was extremely competitive. And, you know, in order for us to make it to the finals, we were looking at an 80% tax rebate for 30 years for the OEM facility. And we were looking at over that 30 year period, a $190.3 million revenue, you know, coming to the community. 2021, a semiconductor facility. Again, the announced amount was $40 billion of investment. We were having to do a 90% tax rebate for 30 years And the state that won it actually came and pretty much just dumped $2 billion on the table day one. And so even with that 90% tax rebate, the community was looking at generating $474.2 million per year. And again, just for comparison, Stack Infrastructure Campus, $100 billion investment. And on the low end there, again, right, This is no rebates, and we're selling the property for a significant amount of money. We're looking at about $2.2 billion of revenue over that 20-year period. I've also heard a lot of comments about, well, the mega site was developed for a car plant. And so why are we changing course and so on and so forth? And so again, these are actual real numbers coming from car plants. And so how does this compare to other well-known manufacturing projects? These manufacturing projects have been in existence now for over a decade to 15 plus years. So they're mature projects. So the Toyota assembly facility in Blue Springs, Mississippi, 2,400 jobs. Average wage is a little over $50,000. Again, $1.3 billion investment. The Volvo Assembly Facility in Ridgeville, South Carolina. Anybody that goes to Charleston, down 26. You see this facility on your left-hand side, heading to the beach. 2,500 employees, average wage of $56,000, and a capital investment of $2 billion. Kia Motors, been in West Point, Georgia for quite some time. 2,700 employees, average wage of $55,000. And then you see Stack Infrastructure's campus here at the Southern Junior Megasite. 2,500 jobs, the average wage $80,500 per year. hundred billion dollar investment. So again, you can see that it's a pretty robust project. I think that Alex did a great job, you know, speaking, you know, truth on what he's actually seeing in the, you know, for real in the community here, uh, when it comes to these types of jobs. And so again, cloud data centers, which is, I was talking to Alex, he's like, you know, the majority probably of those Microsoft facilities are cloud. Um, you know, they're averaging around as he, you heard him say around 50, uh, full-time employees per building. The AI data centers, which again, we anticipate being the majority of development here at the Megasite. You're typically seeing somewhere around 150 full-time employees per building. And then the AI training facilities, such as the Stargates and other large campuses, can employ upwards of 1,500 plus full-time employees. The Megasite can accommodate multiple such facilities. So those job numbers add up quickly. Continuing on the data center jobs, again, the Microsoft Cloud Data Center campus in Boynton, as you heard Alex say, now that number is over 750 employees at that facility. That's about a 4.6 million square foot single story facility. Again, the projects targeted for the Southern Virginia Megasite are AI facilities. An example of scale, again, is that recently announced Stargate projects, which can employ over 1,000 persons per campus. We can, again, host multiple facilities. And it's important to note a badged employee includes direct stacked infrastructure employees and tenant employees, security, and non-construction contractors that report to the site and the facility daily. Because again, it's a very large ecosystem that is on site on a daily basis. They do not include construction workers. So again, from the construction side, you're looking at 12 to 15 plus years of development You're going to see for many, many years between 2,000 to 4,000 plus construction workers on site at the Abilene Stargate facility. There's been notes as far as having over 5,000 construction workers on site for an extended period of time. Construction will require utilization of the region's trades and contractor base and resources from outside the region. So again, they're going to gobble up every single trades person in our area There's no place in the country that has the amount of tradespeople that are needed for construction sites of this size. So yes, they are going to bring in other construction firms from outside the area in addition to hiring local folks here. And they have to do it out of necessity. Water availability and use. I think it's very important to note that any and all water used at the Megasite for Data Centers will be from municipal sources, which, right, they're coming from existing surface water intakes from the Dan River. meaning that there is no impact of groundwater or neighboring wells, right? They're coming from municipal plants. The mega site has infrastructure that can provide 7 million gallons per day of municipal water. Doesn't mean we have to use it all, but that infrastructure is already in place. The City of Eden, North Carolina is the wholesale provider and the Danville Utilities is the distributor. The City of Eden, North Carolina has over 13 million gallons per day of excess water capacity due to the closure of Miller Coors Brewing. So they're looking for a large customer. As of May 17, 2026, during a severe drought, the Dan River at the city of Danville has a daily flow of 331 million gallons per day. And again, the normal flow rate is around 1.3 billion gallons per day. The source for that is the USGS. It's the government. So again, these are not biased sources. The majority of facilities use closed-loop cooling systems, which reduce water use. Recharge typically occurs every 10 years. So again, when they recharge it, that's what's known as the blow down. We'll talk about that shortly. Most data centers in Virginia use about the same amount of water or less as an average large office building. So again, that's around 83% of all data centers in Virginia. And that's per the actual state's JLOC report, which is an independent, unbiased study team. just have to say no use that the mega site would equal historic withdrawals from the dan river from the city of eden or the city of danville between the height of industry in eden and the height of industry at dan river and again a lot of that river was just fun you know like right it was just going through the plant and going right back into the river but you're also losing quite a bit due to steam uh through that process uh you know they were utilizing between 25 to 30 million gallons a day uh coming out of the out of those sources What has been the expected water use of other projects? So again, if it's not a data center, if it's a car plant, if it's a battery plant, what does that water use look like? We know because we're always competing for these projects. Car plants, you're looking at around 1.5 million gallons per day. The water use is higher just because of the fact that they have the painting operations, and that's a water-intensive process. EV battery plants, again, around 4-plus million gallons per day. We've seen some EV battery plants get up to actually 7 to 8 million gallons. Semiconductor plants or water hogs. Again, they typically are using 10 million plus gallons per day. And then again, the microporous project in the park is around 150 to 300,000 gallons per day. And so it's important to note, just due to the size of the infrastructure that we have out there, a new storage tank, all of the piping, so on and so forth, water sitting in pipes is not a good situation. It becomes static. You have to flush it. And so we actually really do need a large water user of some sort just to be able to maintain those pipes so we can avoid flushing lines. Wastewater, again, all uses at the Southern Virginia Mega Site are served by municipal sewer. So 4 million gallons capacity available to serve the park and can be further increased. Again, these are infrastructure assets that are on site. They don't have to be extended. The City of Eden, North Carolina has over 10 million gallons per day of wastewater capacity in a very robust treatment plant. Again, they're an industrial community just like us. And since the site is served by municipal sewer, there is no potential risk for groundwater or surface water contamination. A lot of times you'll see kind of misinformation or disinformation when it comes to blowdown going into wells. Again, I can't say whether or not that has occurred or not occurred, but I can tell you as far as when you have municipal sewer like this, right at the end of the day, that quote-unquote blowdown, which is when they're actually refreshing closed-loop system or the circulation system, it's going to the municipal wastewater plant. And it's going to typically have a little extra salt because it's already in the water. And then you have a little probably glycol, which is a chemical, you know, to keep things cool. And so, again, these closed loop systems are just like a radiator in your car. They're just continuing to circulate that water. Power considerations. Stack infrastructure will enter into an electric service agreement with Appalachian Power Company. Any and all costs associated with providing power to the campus will be paid by STAC infrastructure. The mega-site was accepted into Appalachian Power's service territory in the mid-2010s. It was originally in the Danville Utility Service territory. This means that the site's surrounding properties are still in the Danville Utility Service territory. And this project cannot have any impact on their respective rates, positive or negative. And it's just like Alex said. That doesn't mean that rates can't rise just due to outside costs of fuel increasing or just decisions of electric utility companies raising rates. But this company is paying its own way. And then again, I just have to reiterate the fact that we need the continued generation of base load generation in southern Virginia. We need to generate as many electrons as possible in southern Virginia, not just for this project, but also for additional industries. Sound and light considerations. This is also a topic you typically see. These new designs for cloud and AI data center facilities have significantly reduced sound levels to less than standard industrial operations. We have visited numerous facilities, both as guests and unannounced. We've seen good and we've seen bad. Crypto mining is horrible. It is extremely loud. I will tell you the majority of the Facebook posts that I've seen that show the noise are crypto mining facilities, and that is not occurring at the mega site. Again, we've visited many data centers and again, we've heard some obnoxious sounds really from one in particular near the Memphis, Tennessee area. All of the other facilities have had very little to no sound. Emergency generators are tested once a month for a short period of time. Again, when we were actually touring one of the stack infrastructure facilities, they showed us kind of what a generator looks like and we, you know, being nosy, checked out what the actual runtime was on that generator. Again, it had a detailed log on the side of it. It was installed in 2023, and it only had 59 hours of runtime as of April 2026. So that's roughly two hours per month. Again, it's extremely expensive for them to run those generators. It's not in their best interest. And construction sound, which would be associated with any large industrial build-out, may be noticeable at times as generators are tested. Equipment is commissioned and earthwork is being completed. It's a heavy industrial site. You're going to hear trucks. You're going to hear earthworking equipment. You're going to hear the machinery being started up and commissioned just as if it were a car plant, semiconductor plant, battery plant, you name it. Sound and light considerations continued here. Dark skies principles would be followed to minimize light impacts. New data center facilities generate very little lighting impacts compared to other industrial uses. So in this picture here, I'll show you a picture of what it looks like from a drone video. This is oftentimes highlighted as one of the problem areas, and it's a good piece to show how residences are close to data centers. But in this picture here, you can see a home that's right here front on this cul-de-sac with the data center in the background. That was one visit to this particular cul-de-sac. This is another visit right after Christmas, and as you can see, the actual Christmas lights from the neighborhood are brighter than that of the data center behind it. Hopefully this works. So this is a picture of, you know, from the air. This drone photo is typically used by groups that are opposed to data centers, which again is fine. They're crafting their message. It looks ominous with the data center overlooking the homes. This is what it actually sounds like. This was a warm night. It was 90 degrees during the day. The facility was running. Hopefully this actually will work. Scott, you got the sound on, so let's try it. So what you hear is you hear the roadway in the background of cars going down it, but you don't hear any of the fans from the units. And again, that is bad planning. There's no other way to get around that. So again, there's no situation at the mega site where you would have that proximity to homes. But again, it shows you that these newer facilities are much quieter. This is another problematic area that's been highlighted in the past. So again, on this screen here, you can see where we actually took this video. Again, this is at like a 1030 at night. This is when it's really quiet, warm night, the units are running. And so again, we could sit there and throw a baseball on top of the roof from this location.

Yeah, it sounds like Pennsylvania County with the trees though.

So again, just ambient background noise of the highway, no real noticeable noise from the facilities. When you talk about lighting, again, for those individuals that are really wanting a car plant, battery plant, whatever the case may be, And again, just other industrial uses. I have to reiterate again, this is probably one of the least intensive uses when it comes to lighting. And so again, if you were to get a car plant, for example, car plants have really large lots where they put the finished cars. They're not going to sit them out there in the park and have them be vandalized. And so again, you have really tall light poles of light that is shining all over the place. Same with battery projects. So again, you know, out of the industrial uses that could be out there, this is going to have some of the lower light impacts. So how does this compare our mega site now with other mega sites across the country that have been deemed quote unquote successful? So again, this is a large chart here. And so again, what we wanted to show is this payroll and equivalent job creation. So you can see these projects, right? Hyundai, 8,100 jobs all the way down throughout the southeast here. And what you see is when you put microporous with the stack project, we're looking at 4,332 jobs, and our average wage is $72,717. Well, that's an average payroll of over $315 million a year. So if you were, for example, to compare that to a Hyundai a car plant job or a Scout Motors job or whatever the case may be, let's just take Scout Motors there, the third one down. That is equal to 5,431 of those automotive jobs. We actually are going to have a larger payroll, which again is what is being sloshed around in the community, than the Toyota facility in Greensboro, Randolph County, North Carolina mega-site. So again, It's important to create jobs, but it's equally important to create jobs that are paying well. Next slide here is again just kind of showing how all of this lines up. And so what you see here, the average for all mega sites across the country investment wise is right around 7.9 billion. The average jobs for these mega sites is 3,503 and the average wage is around 66,000. You have to understand that when you're going for these car plants, when you're going for these semiconductor projects, these battery projects, They're taking down the entire site. So again, if we had landed, for example, the Scout Motors project that would end up going to Blythewood, South Carolina, due to the existing relationships there, that would have been a $2 billion investment with 4,000 direct jobs and average wage. would have been right around $58,000 to $56,000. We're looking at higher job numbers than that. We're looking at higher averages than that. So again, when you look at our metrics here, what you see is that for these mega sites, we are number one in the nation with over $101.3 billion of direct investment, $100 billion of which we didn't even have to incentivize. All right, we're number five in the nation for jobs, and we still have additional property on which we can add several hundred additional jobs. And we're number three in the nation when it comes to average wages. The only projects that we're behind are Intel and Micron, which are semiconductor projects. So again, that's important. And my final slide here is, again, whether you're for growth, against growth, at the end of the day, the past 18 months have been truly, I think, transformational or will be transformational for Southern Virginia. And the fact that, you know, in November of 2024, we announced MicroPORS, $1.35 billion facility, 1,832 full-time jobs, around $61,000 per year wages. Then, of course, way up in the northern part of the county, Avio USA with its solid rocket motor facility in February 2026, $537 million investment, over 1,540 jobs, really good wages, over $81,000. The Stack Infrastructure Project, which of course approved by the Riffle Board yesterday, May 26, you know, you're looking at $100 billion direct to capital investment, 2,500 full-time jobs, good salaries. And so when you add these salaries and these jobs up, These three projects represent over $101.8 billion in Pennsylvania County. They're physically located in the county. Most communities work for 20 years to get a billion dollar asset. You guys are landing three and four within 18 months. And you're looking at 5,878 direct jobs from these three projects alone. The contributing annual payroll of over $439 million per year being pumped into your economy. and the average wage of $74,720 per year. So I'll stop there and just say, and again, this is my sincere belief, for far too long, Northern Virginia and the Golden Crescent have done much better than Southern Virginia. We've been left behind. If you look back in the history books when the mills were running at the highest, Southern Virginia at one point in time was one of the wealthiest places in the state. And so our current average wage in Pennsylvania County is around $49,000. The current state average is around 69,000. It's about time that we go ahead and step up to the plate. And now we're getting that wealth back. We're positioning our residents for these types of jobs. And I don't accept the defeatist attitude of, well, these jobs are not going to be for our local people. I have a lot more faith in our people that our people can be trained. These jobs are going to go to individuals that are currently in elementary school, middle school. And so again, we're creating this opportunity. This board is creating this opportunity. And it is, I think, my personal desire that our residents step up and take advantage of it. It's great to see these young people here tonight, and I'm really proud to know that they have these opportunities ahead of them.

Mr. Rowe, thank you so much. Great presentation. While you're there, let me kind of love on you a little bit. Matt is carrying a full load in terms of economic development, not only for this county, but also the city of Danville right through here. The IDA and also the RIFA board, we certainly appreciate it. And these three programs companies or industries that we are about to button up here are directly attributed to your talent, your skill, and your dedication, along with our new county administrator. And I've said to him quite often, you know, This is one of the reasons that I've supported you is some of these things he had initiated and I didn't want to change horses in midstream. I want him to be able to run through the table with his hands in the air in terms of victory. Let me give credit to the leadership of our RIFA board, Mr. Ingram. We signed yesterday a local performance agreement which this resolution basically mirrors We're you know, this is colossal. This is monumental. This is transformational. This is what your grandmother prayed for 20 years ago. to be able to put an industry in that mega park uh that's going to net us somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 500 jobs uh 2 500 permanent jobs we'll call them the construction and the build out 12 to 15 years and i mean and a lot of those people are going to start their career there and they're going to retire in this county just working out there in that park i mean Really, kudos to the staff to be able to negotiate 1.62 cents on the tax rate when that is significantly higher than most localities in Virginia. I mean, we have a strong economic team here in the county, so I salute that. Being able to bring this $100 billion investment into this county without offering any incentives at all i mean that is almost unfathomable it's unheard of so again that is a testament to the vision of our leadership in this county it's the testament to the wonderful work solid work that our team is doing and going forward It allows us to plan for a very viable future when you know that annually, you're going to be looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $48 million annually in terms of tax revenue. You can actually solve a lot of issues. and I'm just excited. So I'm gonna vote for the prosperity. This is what I told the river board yesterday. I've deliberated. I've listened to pros cons all of that. I'm gonna support and I'm gonna back our future in this county. We would not be very smart to let this opportunity pass us by. I mean that window opens for a period, and then it closes. So now we just, you know, the door's been opened for us, all we have to do is walk through it, and you know, you guys and girls are superstars, the staff that works for this county. I'm gonna defer to Ms. Dingley.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. I'm going to spin off of what you said. I'm going to love on Matt, but I'm going to love on Mitch Short as well, because you two guys and the staff and the team are absolutely remarkable. I came on the riffle board seven years ago, and I saw the good, bad, and different projects come before us, and some near misses, and one that we won that was pulled away from us. But you know, there's an old saying, there's good things come to those who wait. And we've waited, sometimes not quite so patiently, but we've waited. and we've used all the the big words we can think of transformational life-changing historic but that's the truth and in just a moment i'm going to read this motion and it will sort of amplify what the chairman and i have been trying to say and our words are so inadequate because and i've said this so many times My colleagues get mad at me when I say it, but it's the hard work of people like Matt and Vince and others. We're the politicians. We get to look good. Not saying we don't work for it, but you know what I'm trying to say. But I do want to give credit where credit is due. And one thing about the gentlemen of the Stack Corporation that was so impressive, and again, we've seen many of them come and go. But these guys came to town as kind and polite and as professional as anybody I've ever seen. And this is what they said that I'll never forget. It was, what can we do for you and your county, your community, not what can you do for us? So it was their decision to come here and to be good corporate community neighbors. And for that, I cannot be any more grateful. And this mega park is truly in my backyard. And you saw on the slide, the dog was louder than the traffic in the background. Back in January, Myself and some other colleagues, we toured six data sites in Northern Virginia. We saw some good ones. We saw some bad ones. But the ones that we saw that were good were stack data centers and digital infrastructure campuses. I apologize for that. And I walked away thinking, You know, if this gift comes to our county, it would be one of the greatest things that ever happened. And I thought back in time, and I grieved how we lost tobacco and how we lost textile and the state of Goodyear. My brother-in-law retired from Corning. We lost Corning. My daddy used to work at Distin years ago. We lost Distin. So we've lost so much. But this day and time, we have so much to gain. And it's all about the future. It's all about our children. And it's all about our grandchildren. And for those that get mad at us because of all the propaganda on social media, we're still willing to talk and reconcile. But this is a much bigger project, and it's a much bigger vision than most of us could possibly imagine. So having said that, I am ready to read this motion. Yes, sir. So Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to authorize and approve the negotiation, execution, and delivery of a local performance agreement, LPA, between Pennsylvania County, the Danville, Pennsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority, and Stack 3 Acquisition Company, Incorporated, a Delaware limited liability company, Stack 3, whereby under the LPA, Stack 3 would agree to a minimum to make certain capital investments at the Southern Virginia Megasite in Pennsylvania County, Virginia, of at least $100 billion over a 30-year performance period and the creation of at least 2,500 full-time equivalent new jobs over a 20-year performance period with a full-time equivalent annual compensation of at least $80,500, subject to a cost of living adjustment during the performance period with such other terms as negotiated and subject to legal review. Mr. Chairman, with great delight, I make that motion.

Thank you, Mr. Ingram.

I second.

Thank you, Mr. Whittle. I appreciate your second. All right, I think I got third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. All right, any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, gentlemen cast your votes electronically. That motion passes unanimously. Let's celebrate that motion.

Mr. Chairman, I forgot to add our attorney, Matt Evans. You do a fabulous job, sir. And our RIF attorney, Michael Guanzon, as well as other colleagues and staff. And it truly is a team effort. And I'm so grateful for you guys. Thank you.

Well, let me kind of hitchhike on your coattails. As you see these gentlemen moving throughout the community, Every now and then, just stop, shake a hand, and thank them for their hard work and dedication. That means a lot. Just encourage them as they are grinding this thing out. All right. Let's see. Any matters from the work session, Mr. Evans?

No, sir.

All right. Reports from the board member, Mr. Whittle.

Yeah, thank you, Stan. Everybody put y'all do appreciate. Keep me straight there, Holly. Thank you. And one thing. Mr. Shorter, Mr. Evans, what y'all do? Thank you much and appreciate the board man. And thanks for the people that come out every week. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wood, Mr. Don.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Yeah, I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight. All the citizens think all our staff that does all the workforce, even the staff is another here. I want to make sure all the staff gets a thank you. Um, Had a couple things at the ODAC. We had a bovine emergency response planning training. I know the Farm Bureau was behind it. The Extension Office had about 38 first responders. They said it turned out to be a great training program. Then we had our youth livestock show at the ODAC. Great, great program. I went by to see the kids, didn't get to stay very long. But I encourage you, anytime that's going on, they are just wonderful kids. It's a great program, so I support all of that. And with that, everybody be safe on the way home. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dillon. Mr. Ingram?

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. You know, this is National EMS Week, so when you see somebody serving in emergency medical services, make sure you tell them thank you. Last week was National Police Week, where we honored the living police officers that are serving us. But the 15th was National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and on that day we remember and mourn the loss of the officers that have made that ultimate sacrifice. And here locally, we're up to 11, unfortunately. And on the 17th, I remember my dear friend Frankie Betterton, who was murdered 24 years ago this past Friday. uh so again please remember his his family and your prayers um and just by way of um letting you guys know when we honored trooper kyle underwood this past january for saving the life of miss jeanette german uh in uh working with our sheriff's office miss uh german died this past sunday and the family specifically uh wanted to meet the trooper and to thank us for what what little bit we did by recognition. And finally, this coming Sunday is Memorial Day, and there's several veterans up here. That day is not about us. It's about the men and women that went to serve this country and had died in their service. Veterans Day is for us. Memorial Day is for those that gave their lives in service to this country. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good meeting, sir. Thank you, sir. Mr. Dudley?

Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much. I want to thank your board for all the hard work they've done. I feel pretty good about that last motion and what's going on. Matt Rowe, thank you. I believe I can put you up against anybody and does a wonderful job. I'm still trying to get the vision of you crossing the finish line with your hands up, Mr. Shorter, but you do a wonderful job. And, Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. DeLay. Mr. Bowman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was good. I still like to see that also, so I'll be there taking that picture. So a few things, and I really don't want to belabor this because it's been a long day, great meeting, great resolution there that we just voted on. I attended the real estate forum out at Motley's Mill earlier this month. Great seeing a lot of the realtors out there. that attended that, it was about a three hour meeting. But what was just presented by Matt and the opportunities that are here for this area, I hope the realtors are paying attention as to what the needs are gonna be. They should already be getting together and figuring out what they're gonna have to do here or what we need to do here in order to accommodate these folks that are gonna be coming into this area here. Also attended the grand opening of the Danville Riverfront Park. Congratulations to the city of Danville. Great facility there. If you haven't had the opportunity, go down there and check that out. It's been every day that I've been through there, which has been about three this past week, it's been packed. People are down there just really having a great time. So kudos to the city of Danville for pulling that together. Again, what Vic said there about the annual law enforcement, they had a ceremony here in Chatham at the Chatham Baptist Church this past week. The sheriff did an outstanding job. The folks that were memorialized there, it's every year, but great attendance and well done by all those that participated. I want to thank the board for reappointing the beautification committee folks. They're just a year terms. But everybody wanted to be reappointed on that beautification committee. So congratulations to all those folks. You're doing a great job, as was seen by the turnout tonight and what they've been able to pull together. And also, I want to give a shout out again to Sid Allgood, the chairman of the airport commission, and to Mark Edelman. He's the director out there on giving our presentation here. I've been going to those meetings regularly for the past few months. And it is something that's going to be impact in this area, especially economic development. When we start seeing some of those flights coming in there to once this projects start taking off, coming in to visit these sites. So they're going to start ramping up some activity out there. And I like what they're doing as far as they're building new hangars. The only thing that really has come up that's going to be limiting is the parking. They're running out of space out there. So that's going to be something they're going to have to contend with here in the next probably couple of years is where to put the cars. I want to also thank everybody and remind, and this will be my last one, remind everybody that we had a challenge, a 250 challenge for all the elected officials.

That includes the school board, constitutional officers, and the board of supervisors.

And a lot of us have already participated in that. So if you haven't, it's $250. I know you've got it because we just got a pay raise. So write your checks to Pennsylvania County and give them to Mr. Shorter there. He'll be glad to take those. And with that being said, that's all I got, Mr. Chairman. And congratulations again, Matt, and to everybody on the RIFA team and Danville and Pennsylvania County for pulling this together. Thank you. That's all I got.

Thank you, Mr Bowman, Mr Brown.

Yeah, I'd like to thank everybody as well. They got me going last. These guys have done a good job covering it all, but such a exciting time, you know, for Pennsylvania County and what we got to do tonight and all the breaking news. Matt, as usual, does a great job of Washington, do several presentations and every time He does when it's different and more informative than the one before. And it's unreal how talented people we've got working in this county. And it sounds like, and after listening to the presentation tonight, Mecklenburg, they've got some pretty intelligent fellows over there too. And it's good to see Southern Virginia. Coming back and just the amount of influx of revenue that's coming for the next several decades is incredible to be ranked in the nation. So thanks to all the staff. We had a great night. I'm like you. Thanks for the beautification committee and all the hard work they did this month. Have a great week.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Let me just conclude. I've said enough, but I am wanting to express how eminently proud I am of Pennsylvania County, its staff, the direction that we're going in, this project being the largest announcement in the state of Virginia.

third largest in the nation so i mean that is super impressive so kudos to the entire team uh mr short thank you mr chairman and thank you i'd like to take a moment to thank the board for allowing and giving me blessing me with this opportunity to serve during this time these are truly historic times for this county that we're all participating in And for all the staff that you see and the ones you don't see, which are far outnumber the ones you do see, are the ones that make us all proud every day. They work very, very hard for this county. They love this county. They make us all look good. And without them, we would not be in a good place. I tell you, Mr. Bowman, you don't want to see that. It wouldn't be a pretty sight of me running in any capacity, but I'd be willing to give it a try. But also, I think I'd be amiss if I didn't recognize you all. And you guys are impactful to me and make my job easier in ways that you're not aware of. I have been in interviews as well as Mr. Arnold, I know he has, where prospective employees that were evaluating whether or not to share their gifts and talents of working with Pennsylvania County mentioned in the interviewing process that they watched our board meetings. And they watched what type of board they were gonna be coming to work for. And they did not wanna come into, in their words, and I may not be quoting exactly verbatim, but a dysfunctional board. They didn't want to come into chaos. They have seen that in so many localities with so many local governments. And I have to say that in my lifetime as being a a native of Pennsylvania County, I've never experienced a time where a board in this county has been more deliberate, more collaborative, and the decorum of the board. You guys are not a unibrain. You don't all think the same, but you treat each other with respect and collaborate with one another and respectfully share ideas and decisions. And then you vote how your conscience dictates. But you guys have no idea the companies that are watching these board meetings, the prospective employees that are going to come to this county and share their talents and gifts, the impact you all are having on them. I just want you to know that we hear those things. You guys don't hear them, but you're having an effect on a lot of things in this county. And I appreciate each of you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Shorter, Mr. Evans.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The future is bright. Let's get to work.

Yes, sir. Thank you. And with that, we stand adjourned.