Mitchell County official refutes charges made by group opposing rezoning of land to be purchased by energy giant

In its coverage of the group in Mitchell County opposing the rezoning of land in the northern sector of the county from Agriculture to Industrial so that it may be utilized by NextEra Energy to build a power plant, The Albany Herald reached out to a number of Mitchell County officials in an effort to get that group’s side of the story. After the newspaper’s deadline, Mitchell Economic Development Commission Executive Director James Eubanks responded to The Herald’s request for comment. Since the deadline had already passed and Eubanks’ comments could not be included in the original story, those comments are included here.

CAMILLA – James Eubanks does not attempt to take shots at the group that is opposing development of a power plant in northern Mitchell County. He does refute some of the group’s claims, but he says there has been miscommunication in the group’s efforts.

And the primary concern, according to Eubanks, is the group’s claim that NextEra plans to build an energy- and water-consuming data center at the site that once was the location of the coal-fired Plant Mitchell.

“At no time has NextEra mentioned a data center,” Eubanks said of negotiations with the world’s largest electric utility holding company. “They are building a power plant at the site of a former power plant that still has infrastructure in place that will be beneficial to the new plant. There is a gas line that runs to the former plant that will save them lots of money.

“Now, that doesn’t mean that NextEra may not use some of the energy produced at the new plant for a data center or for facilities in California or anywhere else. Once energy is released to the grid, it can be used anywhere. But we never talked with NextEra about a data center. Yes, we’ve had conversations – just like pretty much all the other 158 counties in Georgia – with groups interested in bringing a data center here, but no one has approached us.”

Eubanks said he’s a little confused by the local group’s attempts to collect signatures on a recall petition that would remove members of the Mitchell County Board of Commissioners, especially when some members of that body are up for re-election in the Nov. 3 General Election.

“The recall process, I think they’re discovering, doesn’t take place overnight,” he said. “I’m surprised they’re not focusing on the election in November. There are members of the board up for re-election then.”

Eubanks said emails obtained by the group through an Open Records request that the group says is an indication of county officials trying to “hide” their plans from the public were misconstrued.

“Yes, there was an email that said (news of the rezoning attempt) should not be spread widely because, even though there was no NDA, spreading the word about a proposed project like this before it happens is just not good business,” he said..

“We didn’t need to talk about NextEra building a power plant on land in Mitchell County before everything was approved for them to purchase the land. Once the rezoning request was approved, of course we talked about the project. NextEra has said they want to have an open house to share their plans, so we’ve been waiting for that.”

Eubanks also said the county commission did everything it was supposed to do to let the community know about the rezoning request.

“We had signs on the property; we advertised in the local newspaper,” he said. “The issue was discussed by the Planning and Zoning Board at their meeting, and I believe no one showed up. When people showed up at the commission meeting (during which the rezoning vote was taken), they did not have a lot of information. They definitely did not have the facts.”

Eubanks said that in his role as director of the development authority, he and other officials involved made a good-faith effort to not only keep county residents informed but to bring a potential new tax provider to the county.

“This project can move forward now,” he said. “No one’s tried to hide the facts surrounding this proposed project; our plans have been in the public all along. What many people seem to be forgetting is that this is one of the best new investments to come into Mitchell County in a long time.”