After listening to an interview on Oct. 20 about Mayor Sky Huddleston’s proposal for a small power plant in Bourbon, citizens attended the Board of Aldermen meeting later that night to present opposition to the idea.

During a phone interview with KTUI on Oct. 20, Huddleston introduced a proposal for a municipal microgrid cooperative, which he planned to discuss at the board of aldermen meeting later that day.

He said that with more data centers and industrial activity emerging near Bourbon, they should prevent residences and businesses from competing with Google, Microsoft, AI, and other big companies for electricity.

“If it’s a bidding war for electricity, we’re gonna lose that,” Huddleston said.

He said he has contacted various unnamed experts, professionals and institutes that claim, if the city wanted to, there is a high chance it could construct a 10-plus-megawatt power plant. This would put the city on its own microgrid.

Advantages he listed were that, if the plant were built across from Bourbon High School, then it could be provided with free heating from the waste heat that the plant generates. Huddleston also mentioned possibly selling extra power to the Crawford County Cooperative at a discounted rate to create a needed revenue stream for the city to reinvest in things like fixing the infrastructure issues.

“We don’t have enough money to maintain the infrastructure, and so right now the maintenance crews are working an uphill battle,” Huddleston said. “The infrastructure is collapsing, falling apart and decaying faster than the maintenance crew can maintain it.”

The proposed location is 1505 Old Highway 66, which is a city-owned property across the road from the high school. Proximity to the school means that an insulated pipe to the school can direct waste heat from the turbines and engines to provide free heating.

It is also near the railroad, which he claims can ship fuel more efficiently and cost-effectively than trucks.

“A train is one-fourth the cost per ton mile. It’s more reliable (and) it reduces beating up the roads,” Huddleston said.

Trains are more reliable than trucks for shipping because they can operate even during severe weather conditions in Missouri, such as snow and ice, unlike trucks that are weather-dependent. This would also lessen the wear and tear and maintenance costs from heavy truck traffic.

Huddleston added that they could utilize a water-gas shift reaction, which produces hydrogen from water or steam while carbon monoxide is converted into carbon dioxide. The hydrogen could be sold as another separate revenue stream.

“Hydrogen’s worth a lot of money,” Huddleston said.

He said he is in contact with some unnamed fuel suppliers and that most or all of the plant’s construction could be funded that way. The trade-off is agreeing to buy fuel from them for an unspecified number of years.

“Everyone wins. Everyone gets a square deal,” Huddleston said.

Using the railroad would mean the city would have a rail siding, a short branch line connected to the main railway tracks, designed for operational needs without disrupting other passing trains. A transload facility can be added to allow local businesses to export and import products cheaper.

In the packet that he gave to the board for the first time at the Oct. 20 meeting, the first page is a proposed letter to the Crawford Electric Cooperative Board of Directors and Executive Leadership. It says that the goals are to lower electricity costs, have dependable service during outages and to boost local economic development.

The remaining portion of the packet provides details about the proposed power plant. The plant’s primary objective is to serve the Bourbon city limits, and the municipality would own the plant, municipal microgrid assets and the school heating connection. For fuel, based on comparable net output and reliability, Huddleston suggested comparing steam engines or turbines using acceptable waste wood and other suitable fuels, including coal, natural gas or blended fuels.

Resident Lori Terstriep, who lives by the proposed plant site, spoke at the meeting on behalf of the idea’s opposition.

“I’m here tonight regarding the local decision about a potential municipal biomass or wood waste utility project. While finding creative ways to use local sawmill waste to lower our city utility costs is an admirable goal, the specific lane layout being discussed, situating an industrial combustion site right along the train tracks, within maybe 10 feet of a municipal water tower, and within 250 feet of existing family homes, presents severe…risk to our neighborhoods,” Terstriep said.

She claimed it violates Bourbon zoning laws because Article Six, Section 405.210 of the city municipal code says any proposed manufacturing industrial district that resembles any of the listed special uses in the section must take neighboring properties into account regarding any potential disagreeable effects, including odors, dust, smoke, gas fumes, noise or vibrations.

“Second, it poses an immediate fire and public utility hazard. Placing a commercial boiler facility packed with dry wood waste within two feet of our municipal water tower creates an unacceptable risk to critical infrastructure,” Terstriep said.

As tensions rose, Ward 1 Alderman Margie Brine clarified that the mayor is a non-voting position unless there is a tie vote amongst the aldermen.

“We all have big dreams. I have big dreams. Just because it’s on paper, just because it was said on the radio, doesn’t make it a fact,” Brine said. “He doesn’t have the power to go do anything by himself.”

Since the aldermen only received the packet right before the meeting started, Ward 2 Alderman Mary Heywood said that those speaking against the plant were being “premature” because they had the chance to look at all the information.

Terstriep asked why the plant couldn’t be constructed in the industrial park instead, but Huddleston said it would be cheaper and better for the roads to place it near the railroads, so it wouldn’t increase truck traffic through town.

The audience was calling for the aldermen to vote the proposition down, but Brine said there is nothing to vote down at the moment since it is only a concept. City Attorney Sarah Messex said that if the aldermen wanted to take a vote on it, they would have to hold a public hearing first.

Terstriep added that if she had to, she would take legal action to stop the idea from coming to fruition.

“I don’t want to hear anything (Huddleston) has to say. You are going to ruin this town,” Terstriep said.