Good morning.
I am a Lincoln County resident. I served on the executive board of West Central Nebraska Development District: three years as Vice President and was twice elected President. In that time, I worked with mayors, city planners, and engineers across 18 counties in Midwest Nebraska.
During my time in the Navy, I was solely responsible for networks on three US military bases. I have 30 years of IT experience building network infrastructure, including designing and building a private multi-state data center.
I understand the benefits this new technology may offer Lincoln County. I want our community to prosper. But not at the expense of the businesses and people who already reside here.
I am speaking in strong support of Resolution No. 2026-21, and ask that my full written comments and all supporting exhibits be entered into the public record. I am providing this discussion, all further meeting notes, and several public-records requests to various organizations in order to provide our voters with the ability to clearly see how this process is handled. It will be available at upstreamof.me.
According to The North Platte Bulletin, the energy developer Tenaska is already in contact with landowners in southern Lincoln County about a natural-gas-fueled power plant tied to a potential data center. Chamber CEO Gary Person has been publicly quoted saying more than half a dozen companies are looking at central and southern Lincoln County. And on June 1, this Board met in closed session for more than an hour with Dawson Public Power, Nebraska Public Power, and Mr. Person before considering this resolution.
Governor Pillen has signed LB 1261, encouraging large private energy projects and the extraordinary electrical demand associated with hyperscale data centers. That new state framework takes effect July 17 — weeks from now.
What most here may not know is that Nebraska Revised Statute 23-114.01 states if a developer files a complete application, this county faces mandatory deadlines. If the Board does not act within 90 days, the permit can be deemed granted by operation of law — the developer wins without a single yes vote.
Presently, our code requires no water-use disclosure, aquifer impact analysis, binding road-use agreement, funded emergency-response plan, or decommissioning bond. This potentially puts Lincoln County on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in expenses beyond the scope of private development.
If an application were to be submitted tomorrow, or any time before this county rewrites its zoning rules, this Board would be forced to judge a billion-dollar industrial complex under standards designed for a county warehouse.
Without explicit language, any refused application risks triggering multi-million-dollar, multi-year legal challenges we cannot afford.
Today may be the only opportunity for this commission to provide Judy Clark's team the time to write the explicit performance standards necessary to protect Lincoln County.
My question to Chairman Woodruff, Commissioner Weems, and Commissioner Bruns — the three who voted against even a 90-day pause on June 1 — is this:
If no application is currently pending, what is the harm of a temporary moratorium?
If a developer files an application tomorrow, are you willing to be accountable for the long-term results of standards that were not written in time?
As our elected county commission, I encourage and trust that each of you will vote yes on Resolution No. 2026-21.