DANVILLE, W.Va. — Former state Senator Ron Stollings has many questions about a proposed data center in Boone County.
The data center is planned on the old Hobet Mine property located near Danville. A piece in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, published over the weekend, revealed that the state approved certification for Texas-based LM Core Energy Services without allowing public comment on the matter.
Stollings, who previously served as chairman of the Corridor G Regional Economic Development Authority Board of Directors, said there have always been high hopes for that area. He said Hobet, just like many other post-mine land sites, were considered for development into the future.
Stollings said that there were plans to extend Route 3, funded by the federal government, into a ‘southern Charleston bypass’ but then-governor Jim Justice pulled the plug on the funding.
Stollings described the Hobet property as a “nice, big, flat area.” He said he’s taken his ATV on the new bridge on the property. He believes there’s strong economic development potential there.
“We had always hoped that that first area there, where you pop up top, would be more things like multi-use retail, hotels, gas stations, things like that,” Stollings said on MetroNews “Midday” on Monday. “Getting people out of the floodplain.”
Stollings expressed frustration with House Bill 2014, a controversial piece of legislation passed by the state legislature last year. He said that it’s really handcuffed the ability for counties to benefit from such economic development.
“Takes a lot of the tax and puts it into the state’s general revenue fund instead of letting the county, which Boone County has fallen off the face of the earth since the downturn in southern West Virginia coal,” Stollings said. “I was hoping that we’d get a good tax base, a lot of good jobs, factories, kind of a more diversified portfolio up top there if you would.”
The area itself is about 17 miles, Stollings said. He’s not against the data center development, he said, he just wondered whether there was a better way of going about this. Stollings noted that there’s room for everyone.
“If you put the data centers back kind of away from the ‘primo’ property, if you would,” Stollings said, “let the companies, whoever they are, they’re going to put the data centers up there, help with the infrastructure, the water, sewer, et cetera; it could be a win-win situation.”
Stollings said that H.B. 2014 lowers income tax, “which benefits the rich,” not Boone or even Lincoln counties. He pointed out that the Hobet property spills into Lincoln County.
“I was hoping for a tax base, something to help the future of Boone County,” Stollings said. “Because as you all know, Boone County has paid incredible amounts of coal severance tax. When I first went in there, it was 93 cents on the dollar went to the state’s general revenue fund. We got to keep seven cents.”
“Okay, why is Boone County streets not paid with gold?” Stollings continued. “Well, that’s the reason we send all our money to the state. Unfortunately, (that) sounds like it’s going to be a very similar issue.”