During Monday, July 6’s Mount Vernon City Council meeting, three citizens brought up issues for the council to consider.

Citizen Nathan Wolter asked the council to reconsider their action on May 4 on not setting an ordinance pertaining to data centers.

Wolter said with the county moratorium on data centers, that developers could continue to try and find a way to place a data center in communities without one.

“I urge you to reconsider and start the conversations on setting up an ordinance now,” Wolter said.

“By the time these developers are making something public, then you have no where to go.”

Rep. Cindy Golding, who was attending the council meeting as well, urged that action as well.

Golding had made a bill on data centers to highlight transparency on water and electric resources used by the facilities to be public with any project. It passed out of the committee unanimously, but lobbyists from NextEra and Google effectively killed the bill.

Google has stepped aside from the county’s restriction by trying to place one data center near Palo city limits.

Golding said she has had multiple Zoom calls on this issue, and is encouraging communities to write and ordinance before they face these issues.

City administrator Chris Nosbisch said that staff would not recommend extending services to data centers wanting to be built near the community, that is something the city still controls for stopping these projects moving forward.

“I have zero desire to put any infrastructure out for centers that will not pay for themselves,” Nosbisch said. “We’re able to also weigh in on projects and not give staff approval to things developed in the community, especially with the square footage of many of these programs.

Nosbisch said he is reticent with ordinances in this issue, as it is something to have to continually adapt and stay on top of, while the lawyers for these corporations look at ways to get around said ordinances.

Sonja Cooklin asked about maybe hosting a monthly meeting with mayor or city council members for the public to have ideas presented from outside the box thinkers.

Mayor Tom Wieseler said he hosts a quarterly morning with the mayor listening post at different locations in Mount Vernon to talk about issues in the community. The next is slated for Saturday, Aug. 15.

Harold Goodrich, a resident along Country Club Drive, was asking for the condition of that road to be looked at, as well as the removal of weeds in the ditches to be completed.
Nosbisch said the city does not mow ditches along the road right of way, and that is not in the city code of responsibilities.

“We’ll take a look at the joints and address crack sealing along the road,” Nosbisch said. “We maintain trees within the right-of-way and some of the maintenance to ditches along Business 30 for public safety, but not along others.”

Rep. Golding talks with MV council about issues

Rep. Cindy Golding visited with the Mount Vernon City Council about issues the council or city is facing.

One bill that Golding was looking for more feedback on was the property tax relief bill that was passed in the past legislative session.

“The bill we originally proposed was to simplify property tax,” Golding said. “That didn’t happen. The bill proposed was awful, but I was able to work to get some changes to the bill passed.”

Golding was asking for items in the bill that may need reworking or rethinking ahead of the next legislative session.

City administrator Chris Nosbisch said one possible unintended consequence in this current bill was that the bill put a cap of 2 percent not just on the amount of growth a city could see, but also capped Tax Increment Financing funds at that same 2 percent.

“That has essentially killed TIF as a tool for development,” Nosbisch said. “I wouldn’t be able to make deals for things like the two subdivisions we have in the community or something like KwikStar coming to town with a 2 percent cap on that fund. Both those projects will help bring in new residents, infrastructure and business to our community and help this community grow. This TIF bill gives zero incentive at the moment.”

Nosbisch said that the city of Mount Vernon’s levy rate has only increased $0.50 in the past 20 years, and the city has used zero debt services in the 10 years he has been in the community as city administrator.

“That’s likely going to change next year on debt services, as we’ll need to se that for the water and sewer project,” Nosbisch said.

Nosbisch said the biggest issue for citizens has to be the valuation and rollback areas of property tax, and the current bill pushes valuations to happen every three years instead.

Golding was looking for feedback on the bill on the property tax relief by September, to allow her to draft responses in November and work on an update to the bill for the next legislative session.

Mayor Tom Wieseler said that the 2 percent cap on the budget is limiting to the city, that it may lead to having to pick and choose what services are provided.