{"id":25957,"date":"2026-07-29T09:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=25957"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:51:40","slug":"videos-data-center-session-lcc-2026-07-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2026\/07\/videos-data-center-session-lcc-2026-07-28.html","title":{"rendered":"Videos: Data Center Session @ LCC 2026-07-28"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nCongratulations to Lowndes County for the astonishingly forthcoming\r\n\r\nData Center Considerations session<\/a>\r\nafter the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session on July 28, 2026.\r\nThey covered many topics of general concern, including water and power usage, zoning, and land use.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Videos:<\/a>\r\n
Videos: Data Center Session @ LCC 2026-07-28, Lowndes County Manager Paige Dukes, Questions filtered by: Dr. Michael Noll, Verbal Moratorium: Chairman Bill Slaughter<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLowndes County Manager Paige Dukes conducted the session.\r\nShe revealed that the Commissioners have directed staff to draft a datacenter ordinance by around September, or in about six weeks, as Chairman Bill Slaughter told me afterwards.\r\n

\r\nShe said the public would get to see the draft ordinance before the Commissioners approved it.\r\nShe did not say anyone would get to see it before it appeared on an agenda for approval, which is how you’ve seen the Commissioners handle the recent Alcohol Ordinance and the Comprehensive Plan.\r\n

\r\nMore clever than I had anticipated, she said that same afternoon she had asked\r\nDr. Michael Noll to take question cards from the audience and pick questions to relay.\r\nSo the head of Lowndes County Against Datacenters (LCAD) thus became the Lowndes County Commission filter for public questions.\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Dr.<\/a>\r\n
Dr. Michael Noll and Questions, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe first question he relayed was from me, “What if a datacenter comes in before a county ordinance or moratorium?”\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[What<\/a>\r\n
What if a datacenter comes in before a county ordinance or moratorium?, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\nThis is related to U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10: “No state shall… pass any … ex post facto law….”\r\n

\r\nDr. Noll tried to refer the question to County Attorney G. Walter Elliott,\r\nbut the County Manager quickly said it wasn’t for him, the Commissioners decide.\r\n

\r\nThe Chairman said that, “We are not going to move forward with a datacenter in Lowndes County until we have an ordinance in place before we will even consider one.”\r\nAlso, “We are not going to allow a datacenter until we have everything in place to regulate a datacenter here in this community.”\r\nHowever, he would not commit to putting that in writing for the Commissioners to vote on.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Chairman<\/a>\r\n
Chairman Bill Slaughter, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n
\r\nVideo: \r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XHqF0q1-eTw&list=PLP7bvYMxVlM8&index=3&pp=iAQBsAgC<\/a>\r\n

\r\nI’d like to know in what open meeting of the Lowndes County Commission was this unwritten moratorium decided upon?\r\n

\r\nIf there was no such meeting, then it seems to me either the Commissioners are in violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act or they are just expressing personal opinions, which have no binding effect on the Lowndes County government.\r\n

\r\nThe Chairman also said it could be years before any actual datacenter application comes in.\r\nAfterwards I pointed out that’s not what happened in Irwin County.\r\n

\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/wwals.net\/issues\/datacenters#irwinco<\/a>\r\n

\r\nThere was discussion in which the Commissioners indicated they thought datacenters were only going near major infrastructure, such as I-75.\r\nWell, Irwin County and Early County are nowhere near I-75.\r\nIrwin County is on a major Georgia Power power line, as I confirmed\r\nwith Georgia Power Southwest Regional Director Joe Brownlee before he left, but not on a major highway.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Georgia<\/a>\r\n
Georgia Power Southwest Regional Director Joe Brownlee, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCommissioner Demarcus Marshall said that in the many presentations and meetings the Commissioners and Staff had attended, a main theme was transparency.\r\nI applaud the county for this step towards transparency.\r\nThere is, nonetheless, room for improvement.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Commissioner<\/a>\r\n
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCommissioner Scottie Orenstein talked about how they were all trying to do the best for the community.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Commissioner<\/a>\r\n
Commissioner Scott Orenstein, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCommissioner Michael Smith and the Chairman noted that of the counties around here, Lowndes is the most capable to deal with something like datacenters.\r\nMaybe, but why have Brooks and Cook Counties, the City of Adel, and Madison County, Florida, already passed datacenter moratoriums, while Lowndes County still has no moratorium or ordinance a year after the site was rezoned?\r\n

\r\nAnd while Lowndes County looks big and capable next to its neighbors,\r\nit is a gnat compared to any of the big trillion-dollar AI companies.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Commissioner<\/a>\r\n
Commissioner Michael Smith, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCommissioner Mark Wisenbaker asserted that he would never do anything to harm Lowndes County, and noted that his family had been here since the beginning.\r\nIn case you didn’t know, when the county seat moved from Troupville to Valdosta,\r\nthey bought the land from Mark’s Wisenbaker ancestor.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Commissioner<\/a>\r\n
Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker, 2026-07-28 –jsq for LAKE<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCommissioner Joyce Evans did not say anything, probably because she has difficulty with public speaking due to her medical condition, which, fortunately, is gradually improving. Get better, soon, Joyce.\r\n

\r\nNow I believe them all when they say they’re trying to do the best for the county as they see it.\r\nBut I still remember when this County Commission (including some of the same Commissioners),\r\nless than a year after passing a resolution opposing the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline,\r\naccepted money for an easement on county-owned land,\r\ncalling it “a good business decision”<\/a>.\r\nOnly Commissioner Demarcus Marshall voted no on easement.\r\n

\r\nIt is also not clear to me that the Commissioners understand the industry they are dealing with.\r\nDC BLOX and landowner Pope Langdale do not know who the end-user AI customer wil be: Microsoft, Google, Apple, or somebody else.\r\nAny of those companies has a larger market cap than the state of Georgia,\r\nwith CEOs beholden to nobody and nothing but the financial interests of their executives and shareholders.\r\nThey have repeatedly stated in public that they aim to replace workers with AI.\r\nHow that benefits Lowndes County is not clear to me, and it is clear to me that making billionaires richer is not to our advantage.\r\n

\r\nFortunately, many businesses that laid off workers and replace them with AI\r\nare having second thoughts now that the AI companies are charging.\r\nThe AI bubble is likely to pop, for that reason, and because Chinese companies\r\nare rapidly leapfrogging U.S. companies with less expensive methods, witness the stock market yesterday.\r\nIf we’re all lucky, it will pop before datacenters are built in south Georgia or \r\nnorth Florida.\r\n

\r\nFor once, the County Manager’s slides were on the county website before everyone left the room.\r\nLook on lowndescounty.com, Government, Departments, Planning, Data Center Considerations Presentation:\r\n

\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/lowndescounty.com\/DocumentCenter\/View\/4631\/Data-Center-Considerations-Presentation;<\/a>\r\n

\r\nI thanked her for that during her presentation and she acknowledged that.\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\nHere is the LAKE video playlist of the presentation.\r\nI took the video in one long take, but the camera split it into three for size.\r\n(LAKE videos of the Regular Session will follow.)\r\n
\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLP7bvYMxVlM8&si=I8FDLHsoBmncgHNx<\/a>\r\n

\r\n