The Preserve Montgomery County, LLC group held another meeting at the Montgomery City Public Library on April 1 to discuss concerns on the data center projects as well as give participants an opportunity to get their affidavits signed and notarized.

Two months ago, Preserve Montgomery filed a lawsuit against the county regarding the Amazon data center project. Plans are being made to have two large developments near the I-70 and Highway 19 interchange in New Florence. Recently, the county and the Missouri Department of Economic Development filed separate motions to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that the group does not have legal standing to file a petition under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.

Montgomery County resident Tammy Ridgley handled numerous affidavits during the one-hour meeting. She received the affidavits from the attorneys and got them updated.

Ridgley said the affidavits come from residents who are against the data centers being built in the county.
“With this lawsuit, they were saying that they weren’t citizens who were doing it. It was an LLC,” she said. “This (affidavit) is saying I’m a citizen. They’re not the LLC and they’re not the ones suing, but they are saying that they are concerned about what’s happening in our community. That’s exactly what it says. So there are a lot of people willing to say in writing that they are concerned about what’s happening in this community. I think that’s really important for our commissioners to understand.”

Sylvia Kueny, who was raised in Montgomery County, said the affidavits demonstrate that there are citizens who didn’t get to express an opinion on the data center issue.

“I don’t know how many people signed affidavits, but I think it’s enough that it makes a very real point that this is not frivolous,” Kueny said. “This is not somebody just wanting to be difficult. This is a genuine concern.”

Also at the meeting, county resident Tom Westhoff talked about going to the Missouri State Capitol on March 30 and testifying on House Bill 3362, which requires utility providers to establish pricing plans and contracts for large scale water and electrical users.

“Basically, it’s to put some safety guards in place on large consumers of resources about making sure they actually pay for their electrical usage and restricting how much water they can use in a day without getting additional permitting and oversight,” Kueny said.

Kueny then talked about her trip to Jefferson City on April 1 and heard people expressing their opinions on the data center.

“I think we made some real progress and I think the reality is these people are going to need to continue to be pushed,” Kueny said.

A sign-up list was made for anyone who was interested in going to the State Capitol on April 8 to express concerns about the data center. Four people signed up.

Preserve Montgomery County was formed on Dec. 27. Since then, it has held several meetings at the library to provide information about the data centers. It also held meetings at the Senior Center on March 27 and the Mid-Mo Shriners Club on March 12.

Westhoff said there are no set dates for meetings.

“We just move around and find one as needed,” he said.

Over 100 people attended the April 1 meeting. All of the other meetings that were held at the library (Feb. 5 and Feb. 17) have drawn huge crowds.

“When you look around the room, you have community members who have been here forever and ever and they are participating, they are wanting businesses, they are paying their taxes and they are trying to pay attention to what’s going on now because they don’t like the path that we’re going,” Ridgley said.

Kueny said she believes that the community should get an opportunity to vote on whether a data center should be constructed in the county.

“If a community decides that is what they want for their community and that is the economic development they want and they vote for that, I absolutely have no problem with the data center going there,” Kueny said. “But for it to be built in the community with zero input and having an overwhelming public being upset about it, that’s not appropriate.”