NAHUNTA — Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said he has seen nothing to the effect of Brantley County Development Partners, LLC selling property where a proposed landfill was to be erected.
“I’ve not seen anything in writing to that effect,” Cason said during an interview in his office Friday, January 9. “What I’m confirming is to the rumor there’s nothing I’ve seen concrete.
“What we (commissioners) have been told by the Development Partners’ attorney is there are multiple groups that have looked at the possibility of purchasing that land. We have been told, but we have not seen a list showing XYZ, ABC, GFH, companies.
“I can tell you, we have met with an individual (not named) who is interested in doing the data center. That individual said an offer on purchasing the land is in the works.
“At this date (Friday, January 9), our attorney has been in discussions with the landowners’ attorney and no formal offer has been made. Nothing’s on the table yet.”
Cason said commissioners are reviewing what is currently considered the best practices.
“We’ve (commission) received a copy of an ordinance from Spalding County which deals with data centers and our attorney is reviewing that right now. This group of commissioners is cautiously looking at whether this is a positive alternative for Brantley County.
“They will not make a haste decision. And, if we do move in that direction, it will be with very clear and concise guidelines of what’s allowable and what’s not allowable.”
Cason explained data centers require a huge amount of energy and water.
“They would create their power on site to run the data center and not require any major shift and drain on Okefenokee, EMC,” he said. “The commissioners will will not agree to doing something that would cause a huge power drain that would cost our taxpayers for their power bill to go up.
“Concerning the water, what has been proposed, is a recirculation model because of the amount of water needed (170,000 gallons a year) would put a strain on the aquifer.
“Georgia Pacific in Brunswick uses a pond. The pond would be lined and would be filled. It would be a self-sufficient recirculation system on site.
“The commissioners are not going to agree for something that would create a major issue with our underground aquifer system. Those items (own power, pond) are being written into the Land Use Ordinance.”
Another issue Cason said being addressed is noise concerns.
“An ordinance concerning noise has been looked at,” the county manager said. “The ordinance we’ve looked at has very clear levels of decibels which are allowable and are are reasonable. So whatever the commissioners put in place is not going to create a noise pollution issue for the surrounding properties.
“We’re definitely not looking at any bitcoin or crypto-currency mining, which tends to be the highest level decibel issues.”
Another gold nugget is the possibility of having natural gas come into the county.
“We’ve (commission) been told by the one individual his company, along with help from the state, can get natural gas into our county,” said Cason. “We currently do not have natural gas in the county.
