The Montgomery County Commission has dealt with issues that affected the county such as data centers, the mega-site industrial park, solar farms and the Senate Bill 190.

On March 17, the commissioners held a town hall meeting at the Montgomery County Middle School multipurpose room to discuss those issues. The event drew a big turnout as more than 150 people were in attendance.

When the starting time hit 6:30 p.m., more people filed into the room, which caused the event to be delayed for five minutes. There were more than 40 people standing.

Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston, 1st District Commissioner, 2nd District Commissioner Doug Lensing and Steve Etcher – a consultant for the Greater Montgomery County Economic Development Council – were the main speakers of the meeting, which lasted 103 minutes. They took many questions from the audience.

Two years ago, the GMCEDC and the county commission teamed up to make plans to create a mega-site industrial park in Montgomery County. The project will be constructed around the I-70 and Highway 19 intersection. That area was selected based on the county’s excellent highway connectivity, major rail line, access to utilities and the power availability from the substation in New Florence.

Etcher said the idea of having the mega-site park is to create more jobs for Montgomery County.

“The idea is not to transform the culture of Montgomery County,” Etcher said. “The idea is to compliment the culture of Montgomery County so there is a future for Montgomery County.”

Two open houses were held at the MCMS multipurpose room that talked about plans for the mega-site industrial park, one on Dec. 7, 2023 and the other on Sept. 5, 2024.

Etcher said his mission has always been trying to do what’s best for rural communities, including Montgomery County.

“I’ve been investing in this community for 40 years of my career,” said Etcher, who grew up in rural Iowa.

The county’s population has dropped within the last 15 years. Poston said one of the county’s goals is to get more young people to stay in the county.

“When I graduated in 1995, there were 105 kids in my class,” Poston said. “There are 14 of them. We didn’t retain 10 percent of them. I don’t know what that magic bullet number is, but we got to have a number.”

The data centers and the Senate Bill 190 issues in the county caused residents Michelle Ridenour and Phyllis Oliver to create petitions. Both were at the town hall meeting.

Ridenour started a petition called Stand For Our Land in November to get signatures from residents who oppose having 250,000-square foot server farms, also known as data centers, being constructed along State Road RB in Danville.

Oliver made a petition in February to get residents to agree on having a freeze on property tax rates for senior citizens in Montgomery County. Senate Bill 190 was introduced in 2023 for participating counties to provide relief for senior residents who are dealing with increasing taxes on their real estate property. Montgomery County doesn’t have the property tax measure for seniors.

Solar farms in the county were first discussed three years ago, when the Montgomery County Commission approved the rezoning of two different parcels of property from residential to agricultural during a meeting at the Knights of Columbus building in Montgomery City. Weeks before, the Planning and Zoning Board approved the rezoning of the two parcels of property, which are part of a proposed 1,100-acre solar farm that is being planned off Highway 161 in Montgomery County. Apex Clean Energy of Charlottesville, Va., was hired to build the solar panels. The solar farm will be called Wolf Creek Solar.