County moves board meeting to MFHC

LEE COUNTY – Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Lee County Supervisors has been moved to the Meller Family Health Center in Fort Madison in anticipation of higher attendance numbers as a result of developments on the Fort Madison data center project over the weekend.
Lee County Attorney Ross Braden issued a cease-and-desist order on any construction in earnest, which doesn’t include continued site preparation. That order isn’t on the agenda as a discussion item, but social media chatter over the weekend is encouraging people to attend the meeting.
Although Braden’s cease-and-desist is not on Tuesday’s agenda for discussion, supervisors will be considering a move to hire outside legal representation to assist the county with data center and nuclear power ordinances, and other economic development projects.
Braden’s order was part of a flurry of activity Friday and Saturday around a proposed data center that is planned to be built on county property on the east side of Fort Madison on what is known as Burlington Hill.
Braden reviewed Iowa court language and case citations to determine the project under development by Octopus Investments, LLC of Florida, owned by Dustin Wolgemuth, should be included in a moratorium supervisors passed on June 16 blocking any data center construction in the county.
At the time, since Wolgemuth had crews on site, supervisors said his project wouldn’t be impacted. However, community and county opposition to the project caused citizens in the area of the project, including former Fort Madison Mayor Brad Randolph, to investigate the decision further.
Randolph sent a letter to the county outlining additional Iowa case law that indicated site preparation isn’t paramount to construction. Braden, in his review, said Iowa is very much buyer beware in developing property.
Wolgemuth had sent a letter to Fort Madison City Manager Laura Liegois on Friday morning, prior to Braden’s order and unbeknownst to Braden, indicating he was considering a different site in Wisconsin and would be visiting that property this week. However, Wolgemuth did not copy the county on the email and told Pen City Current that Liegois had been his point of contact from the start. In a letter to the city last week, Wolgemuth said he has had conversations with Southeast Iowa Regional Planning at the outset, and county officials have indicated Wolgemuth did reach out to them with project ideas. Wolgemuth spoke to supervisors in June and suggested other solar powered bitcoin mining was already happening in Iowa, but wasn’t specific as to what his project entailed.
Now Wolgemuth indicated through his most recent letter that he may have to pivot on plans in Fort Madison and put them on hold if he moves to developing the Wisconsin property which has access to natural gas and pre-approved zoning for similar projects.
Lee County Supervisors have moved the public comment section of the meeting to the agenda, so people can speak right up until the adjournment at 10:30. Speakers are asked to keep their comments to two minutes or less to allow as many people to speak as possible.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.