HILLSBORO, Texas (KXXV) — The Hill County Commissioners Court meeting took place and discussed data centers. One local resident said she still has concerns about a data center coming to her backyard.
- The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 30th at 8:30 a.m. at the Hillsboro Courthouse
- “The 12 people on the fire department can’t help them," said Melissa Awtry.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“The data centers are kind of a scary thing for rural communities," said Hill County resident Melissa Awtry.
Melissa Awtry is a regular at the Hill County Commissioners Court meetings week after week.
On Tuesday, she was there to hear what commissioners would decide regarding a fire marshal. She said hiring one will be key with the influx of data centers in our community.
Our 25 News reporter, Chantale Belefanti, recently told you about one volunteer fire agency in the county. The Abbott Volunteer Fire Department said during an interview that they don’t have the resources to fight a fire at a large data center, and Awtry agrees.
“The 12 people on the fire department can’t help them. When you have a volunteer fire department, there may only be a dozen firefighters, and you’re going…that would be like trying to fight a fire with a garden hose," said Awtry.
But as commissioners discussed hiring a fire marshal, two emergency service district commissioners stepped down from their duties and stated that harassment and false accusations were behind their decision to resign.
With ESD former president Gregory Brown and former ESD treasurer Chad Wilson gone, commissioners must now search for their replacements.
“I moved to Hill County because I wanted to serve my community. I have always believed that if something needs to get fixed, you step up and help," said former ESD president Gregory Brown.
With last Thursday's resignations of Vice President Jimmy Johnson, the ESD board no longer has a quorum — that's the minimum number of board members required to legally conduct business.
One of the remaining two ESD commissioners said that without a quorum, the board can't take any action.
“Not having a quorum affects our ability to pay the fire departments, and we pay the fire departments per run, and we have to have a vote of the board to approve those funds to be paid," said David Hesselbrock, the assistant treasurer of the ESD Commissioners Board.
Awtry said a fire Marshall and a fully staffed ESD Commissioners Board are both needed — especially with data centers coming to Hill County.
“There are the commissioners over the fire departments, so they're the ones that have to do the paperwork and figure out where they need to spend the money, the taxpayers' money, and if you don’t have a quorum you can’t make those decisions," said Awtry.
In the end, the commissioners took no action on the data centers, but Awtry is happy the decision of a fire marshal is on the table.
