Vermillion County Commissioners meeting halted before big topic

With close to 100 residents already in attendance for the Vermillion County Commissioners meeting Monday, things took an odd turn that resulted in the meeting being shut down and plans to schedule it for a later date. 

The crowd turned out to hear discussion about a proposed data center at the Vermillion Rise Mega Park and a proposed ordinance drafted by the Rise Board and given to the Commissioners.The proposed ordinance would have created a data center overlay district in Vermillion County. 

According to Vermillion County Commissioner RJ Dunavan, the commissioners already knew a large crowd would attend.

"On Wednesday, the Rise asked to be added to the agenda, and the Commissioners agreed. We added them to the bottom of the agenda, not to bury it, but because the other agenda items were already submitted, and I didn't think it was right to move them down and put this item at the top. After that, our agenda was published as a revised agenda, which caused significant discussion about people attending the meeting. With that, I saw the potential that our Commissioners Courtroom, which holds 60 people, would not have enough room. Our local fire department and Sheriff's Department got involved and said the meeting room size is 60 people and we couldn't have more than that. I suggested to the Board of Commissioners that we, potentially, move it to the auditorium in the Courthouse because it could hold a lot more people. Upon discussions with them, they decided to keep it in the Commissioners Courtroom. I had a good idea we would have more than 60 people show up," Dunavan told GIANT fm WAXI and The Parke County Post. 

And, more than 60 residents did show up, prompting a discussion again with local emergency officials. 

"We met with the fire department and they said we need to move it to the auditorium because there wasn't enough room in the Commissioners Courtroom. The Commissioners agreed, but then we encountered the problem of needing IT upgrades. You have to livestream for the public, so we kicked around using an iPhone or iPad, but there are no microphones downstairs, and you won't be able to hear. We weighed the pros and cons: the public being angry if they couldn't hear the livestream, versus the public here being angry because they couldn't get into the room. We ultimately decided it would be best to livestream in the Commissioners courtroom, which led us to our next problem: the IT not working. We started the meeting and people in the room said they couldn't hear. We called IT and couldn't resolve the issue. We then looked at the agenda and the action items, decided to complete those, and push this discussion to another date. We couldn't help that the technology went down. We are looking at upgrading the IT in the auditorium or moving the meeting to a school because we anticipate another large crowd," he said. 

In addition, there was the fact the Vermillion County Commissioners received an email asking for the Rise's resolution and ordinance to be placed on the Monday agenda days before that didn't sit well with Dunavan. 

"Last Wednesday, the Commissioners received an email asking for it to be placed on the agenda with the resolution and ordinance. I am of the opinion that less than seven days before, I am not able to carve it out, provide comment, but I did take some time Friday and Saturday to dive through it and I came to the resolution that there was no way I would vote to send that on as written," Dunavan said.

Dunavan said he felt there were too many loopholes and through all the listening sessions he had during the summer, a constant theme came up -- residents want protections. 

"I am not saying we need 100 of these things, but water and power are your top two things. You have to have protections there. The commissioners signed a resolution saying we designate the Rise Mega Park for industrial development, a data center, anything because it is a 7,000 acre facility, and I think it is the prime location, but that doesn't mean you write a blank check and let development go unchecked. You have to regulate growth, that is the bottom line," Dunavan said. 

As of Tuesday morning, there was not a new date or location for the meeting.