Howard County opens portal for comments through Aug. 17

This article is brought to you by Jeff Lipinski Howard County Commissioner District 1.

Howard County residents have been in a lather over the possibility of a data center or a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) coming to the community. Already, one BESS project has been turned away by the Planning Commission, and rumors have mounted about a data center being slated for an industrial park established by the City of Kokomo earlier this year.

The Howard County Board of Commissioners are taking action on both matters. They announced at the Aug. 3 meeting that they are officially accepting input from the community about BESS projects now through Aug. 17 via a portal on the county’s website https://www.in.gov/counties/howard/

Near the conclusion of their meeting Commissioner Jeff Lipinski addressed the issues, revealing the portal and the commissioners’ plans.

“I know there’s probably people wondering about the moratorium on the data center and the ordinance on the BESS,” said Lipinski. “We opened a portal today, trying to give people a timeframe to make comments. We’re working diligently on the BESS with a lot of different things.”

Lipinski stated that the commissioners intend to consider a proposed BESS ordinance at their Sept. 4 meeting. The meeting is set for a Friday rather than the traditional Monday meeting day due to the Labor Day holiday.

Commissioner Jack Dodd urged citizens to submit their comments through the portal so that they may be heard.

“You get two weeks to make comments on our website on the portal, and it will be closed down after that,” said Dodd. “If you want to make the comments, please do so. Yes, we do read those. Yes, we do consider those. So please do that.”

Stan Oyler, fire chief of the Greentown Volunteer Fire Department, asked for clarification on the portal and whether the commissioners intend on putting together a subcommittee to study the data center issue. Lipinski stated that there would be no subcommittee for the consideration of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). The portal for public comment will serve that issue.

However, Lipinski confirmed that the commissioners will form a study committee during the planned moratorium to consider regulations for data centers.

The portal for submitting comment concerning BESS regulations can be found on the front page of Howard County’s website. The direct link to the portal is https://in.accessgov.com/howard-county/Forms/Page/howard-county/fcffac0b-1bf6-4026-8868-5ba472d04d9d/74817ed0-c550-4b82-b3f6-75c71f1052b0/1