Please Mark Your Calendars for Ogle County Board Meeting: Tuesday August 18th

Good morning everyone.  

This is going to be a very simple update to remind you all to mark your calendars for the next full Ogle County Board Meeting:
Tuesday August 18th, 2026 @ 5:30pm
Historic Courthouse, 3rd Floor

This is a plea to all of you who have been following the data center saga in Ogle County: please attend and please consider speaking publicly.  Your time will be called 3 minutes, so please do your best to be concise and practiced.  It is, more than likely, that a draft will be presented; however, do not be discouraged to continue attending if it is punted down the road for next months Assessments, Planning, and Zoning meeting (always the second Tuesday of the month, so please consider attending  September 8th @ 10am).

Continue to engage.  Remain informed.  And carpool if you can.

Here are some to current data center-focused stories in the news:
Cowboy State Daily: Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System
Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspended taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a Meta contractor contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup. "It's a very, very unpleasant surprise,” said a city councilman.
Wall Street Journal: A New Foe Has Emerged for Data Centers: Farmers
AG Daily: Ranchers are watching the data center boom with growing concern.
Food and Water Watch: The AI Data Center Boom Is Coming for Farmers
For decades, industrial-scale farms and corporate monopolies have squeezed small and midsized farmers out of business. This system has made margins tighter than ever for farmers. Now, the median farmer income runs in the negatives.  For some developers, this is a golden opportunity. Some are offering wildly inflated sale prices that many farmers can’t refuse. For example, in Virginia, Amazon has paid $700 million for farm land valued at only $115 million. One farmer in Kentucky received an offer to sell his land to data center developers for $8 million — 3,500% more than what he paid decades ago. (He rejected the offer.)  Developers are also working to rezone land, which would change the permitted use from agricultural to industrial. For example, in Montour County, PA, Talen Energy proposed rezoning 800 acres, which would kick farmers off the land they leased from the company. But community members successfully pressured the County Commissioners to unanimously reject the rezoning proposal.  With another sneaky tactic, developers are also pursuing unincorporated rural land, which would allow them to bypass checks like rezoning and land-use reviews that would give the public opportunities to fight back.
Politico: Data centers have a politics problem — and industry knows it.
“The data center industry always kept everything kind of secret because it was a bit of a risk,” said Carrie Goetz, chief technology officer of the data center IT services company StrategITcom. “It was the course of action that the industry took for a while: just be quiet, don’t let anybody know.”
NPR: Data centers are a political issue crossing party lines, driving voters to candidates.
Fox 32 Chicago: Illinois data center boom raises questions about potential impact on honeybees.