Citizen Cindy Redburn asked for the commissioners’ thoughts July 7 on data centers potentially coming into Crawford County.

Presiding Commissioner Steve Black said that they don’t have any code or ordinances to be able to stop data centers from entering the county.

“There’s nothing to stop someone from coming in and offering 50 times what the property’s worth to some farmer,” Black said.

Redburn said that Camden County passed an ordinance that limited data centers if they entered the county, such as requiring them to provide their own electricity. She asked if the commissioners could look into similar codes and ordinances if they wanted to protect the county from data centers.

Two data centers are under contract in Montgomery County. During a conversation with one of its commissioners, Black learned each one is projected to bring $2.4 billion into the county over a 20-year period.

District 1 Associate Commissioner Mark Pfeiffer said that they probably won’t know the impact of a data center until they’re already operating within the county.

“These things are so new. They say that they’re so bad, but then they say they generate so much revenue, you know. Who knows that they even generate that much revenue? That’s just all a guess,” Pfeiffer said.

Associate Commissioner Jared Boast said that he is in favor of people doing whatever they want with their land because it is theirs.

“And again, we can talk about it all day, but I just have yet to really see this data,” Boast said. “I’m just saying, I’ve read the hype about it, and, but I’ve not seen one EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) or MDNR (Missouri Department of Natural Resources) guideline that says potential wellhead hazard…or anything like that.”

During discussion with a Crawford Electric board member, Black said that they won’t supply a data center.

“He told me that Crawford Electric has already made the decision that if this would happen in Crawford County, they would not supply the power….Whatever data center would have to supply their own,” Black said.

Pfeiffer said that allowing data centers into the county won’t be their decision. It’s going to be the landowners.

In other business, Black read a revised version of the new taxing board policy that commissioners presented during the July 30 meeting. Originally, the policy outlined that the taxing boards would cover advertising and promotional costs, but Crawford County Library District Director Amy England was concerned that it didn’t say anything about the actual appointment process, or board applications.

Two new sections were added to the policy. This included that the taxing boards could submit applicant recommendations to the commission, but the authority to appoint board members lies with the commission. The boards would also be required to issue a public notice when a board position opened.

Boast recommended that Black reach out to the other two taxing boards to get their input before signing the policy into effect.

“(The) library board’s been able to put in a substantial amount of input, so I think we should extend that,” Boast said.

No action was taken.