NYE COUNTY (KTNV) — The Nye County Board of Commissioners voted to ban data centers in the Pahrump area and Water Basin 162 during its meeting Tuesday night.
WATCH | Ryan Ketcham explains all that happened at the hours-long meeting:
The board will also meet Sept. 14 to discuss a development agreement for anyone trying to build a data center outside of the banned area. That will happen during a special meeting.
However, the board did not approve a special election to put a vote up for the people to decide themselves. That topic died without a motion.
That decision came nine hours into a county commission meeting Tuesday, where more than 100 people turned out, mainly voicing strong opposition to data centers in the area.
The meeting, which began at 10 a.m. and lasted more than nine hours, was a continuation of a previous meeting from earlier this month that had been delayed.
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Pahrump resident Toni Hoverman was removed from the meeting after making a comment directed at the board.
"This data center goes in and there's going to be an automatic 30,000 people pissed, and I don't know how many of them carry. I'm just letting y'all know that," Hoverman said.
The outburst prompted a response from Nye County chairman Ron Boskovich.
"Is that a threat, ma'am? You can leave now, goodbye. Another threat. Sheriff, please keep track of these folks that are making threats," said Boskovich. "What the hell is wrong with you people?"
The board was set to discuss and possibly vote on three data center-related items: a proposal to ban data centers outright, a measure to put the future of data centers before voters in a special election, and to develop rules and regulations for developers who attempt to build a data center in the future.
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Hundreds of people attended in person and over the phone to share their opposition to data centers in the county. Pahrump resident Kelly Stillwell summed up the sentiment of many in the crowd.
"If we do the data center thing, we're all going to be moving," Stillwell said.
Not everyone at the meeting was against data centers, though. William Grubel pushed back on the idea that opposition was universal.
"When they stand up here and say nobody wants it, I'm here to tell you that's not true," Grubel said. "There are a lot of people scared away from this meeting."
We will continue to follow all new developments regarding Nye County data centers and any decisions that come associated with them.
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