Episode 103
Commissioner Fincannon: Solar Farms and Community Buzz – What You Need to Know!
Episode 103:
Wichita County Commissioner Mickey Fincannon drops by to chat about the proposed solar farm near Burt Burnett, sparking a lively discussion on its potential impact. The episode dives into the nitty-gritty of the project, exploring what it could mean for local tax revenues and how it might influence the community's growth. They get into the nitty-gritty of neighborly concerns about aesthetics and environmental safety but also highlight the economic perks that could come with such a venture. There's a fair share of banter as they consider the balance between progress and preserving the charm of the area. With the promise of job creation and investment, this episode serves up a thoughtful take on the future of energy in the region, all while keeping things light and engaging.
Takeaways:
- In this episode, the hosts humorously acknowledge their missing co-host on a secret mission, showcasing a laid-back camaraderie that resonates with listeners.
- Wichita County Commissioner Mickey Fincannon discusses a proposed solar farm project, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of its environmental impact and community benefits.
- Listeners are encouraged to engage with the podcast on social media platforms, illustrating the hosts' commitment to building a community around their content.
- The conversation highlights the balance between local development and preserving the rural aesthetic, with guest Mickey advocating for property rights and responsible land use.
- A significant focus is placed on the economic potential of the solar farm project, with the commissioner explaining how it could benefit the local tax base and attract further investment.
- The hosts wrap up the episode by promoting local businesses and discussing the importance of supporting community-driven initiatives for economic growth.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Wichita County
- Burkburnett
- Fox Hill Restaurant
- John Hirschi
- Samsung
Transcript
You make this rather snappy, won't you?
Speaker A:I have some very heavy thinking to do before 10 o'.
Speaker A:Clock.
Speaker B:Hey, welcome to Get It Right Texoma.
Speaker B:Normally we got a trio here, but we're down one.
Speaker B:I'm Mike Hendren, Terry McAdams, Trace Rall is usually on the other end.
Speaker B:He's off on a super secret Secret Squirrel mission right now.
Speaker B:God only knows where.
Speaker B:We just hope that he's still makes it back upright and breathing and makes it back in one piece.
Speaker C:But we will have a guest here shortly.
Speaker B:We will.
Speaker B:Yes, we will have a.
Speaker B:We've got Wichita County Commissioner Mickey Fincannon joining us.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Interesting information he's going to bring.
Speaker B:Yes, he's the Precinct 2 commissioner.
Speaker B:Burt Burnett lies within Precinct 2.
Speaker B:And one of the things that we're going to cover that we're going to talk about is a proposed solar farm that will be just north of the city of Burt Burnett, outside the city limits of Burt Burnett, I think mostly outside the city limits of Burt Burnett for sure.
Speaker B:But Burke will be impacted by it.
Speaker B:And there's been a lot of back and forth, good and bad about this solar farm.
Speaker B:We're going to talk to him about what facts he has on it.
Speaker B:And he sent out a press release, an email a few weeks ago about this talking about it.
Speaker B:And I think we discussed it a little bit on the air, but we wanted to have him come in and tell you for himself what information he has, what facts he has on it.
Speaker B:And we'll let him explain all that coming up here in just a few minutes on Get It Right text.
Speaker B:Oh, now.
Speaker C:But now are we here because we have folks like this like Mickey come in and talk to us and we inform and entertain and all that good stuff.
Speaker C:Certainly maybe entertain a little bit maybe.
Speaker C:So we're corny probably most of the.
Speaker B:Time, but hey, but you can certainly, you know, follow us on Facebook.
Speaker B:We hope you'll do that.
Speaker B:Check out our website, get it right techsomen.com and obviously if you're watching the podcast you're watching on YouTube and if you haven't already done so, subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the little bell, get the alerts.
Speaker B:So you know when something new is posted and we've got, I think we're up to a hundred, 102 episodes right now somewhere in there, somewhere in that neighborhood.
Speaker B:Season three season, Season three is underway now.
Speaker C:There we go.
Speaker B:Now.
Speaker B:So anyway, be sure and log in like and share our Facebook page with all your social media friends and even people you're not friends with.
Speaker B:Still annoy people with it.
Speaker B:It's fun.
Speaker C:We are here, though, for you.
Speaker B:We are here for you.
Speaker B:And again, County Commissioner Mickey Hatch hitting the microphone, will be here with us.
Speaker B:Sorry about that.
Speaker C:Anyway, yeah, broadcast professional that you are.
Speaker B:I started yesterday or something.
Speaker B:Anyway, come.
Speaker B:Commissioner Fincannon will be with us shortly.
Speaker B:Each episode that we do of this show, we try to focus on a locally owned area restaurant.
Speaker B:And we're going to talk this time around about Fox Hill Restaurant.
Speaker C:Yes, it was the brainchild, if you will, of Mr. Hershey.
Speaker B:John Hershey.
Speaker C:John Hershey.
Speaker C:He's just recently passed away within the.
Speaker B:Last couple of months, I think.
Speaker C:One of his legacies, among others.
Speaker C:He's done a lot of good for the.
Speaker C:This town over the years since he's been here and in his businesses and everything.
Speaker C:But Fox Hill was something he started a number of years ago and he's actually had quite a number of challenges from opening up to begin with and then had a.
Speaker C:During a freeze, the big freeze, they had to pretty much start all over and gut that place again.
Speaker C:And then they got it back open and.
Speaker C:And so now I'm very familiar with Fox Hill in that I have been their IT guy here for the last few years and have helped them get.
Speaker C:Recover from, from all of that.
Speaker C:But we, but I've, I've gotten a sample, although I admit I have not had a chance to go there and actually eat in the restaurant, but I know a lot of people have it.
Speaker C:It's a great facility.
Speaker C:It's really nice.
Speaker C:The sound system's good because I know I designed it.
Speaker C:But anyway, so we, but yeah, go there, check it out.
Speaker C:I have eaten the food, though.
Speaker C:I've gotten the back behind the scenes samples of things and oh my gosh, it is really, really good.
Speaker C:And they take their time.
Speaker C:They, they grow a lot of the stuff there on site.
Speaker C:You know, they have a whole.
Speaker B:The concept is farm to table.
Speaker C:Farm to table, yes.
Speaker C:And so they've got, as you all, if you've driven by there, you see all that land that he has there on that old, nice old building.
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker C:That thing is an old house.
Speaker B:Yeah, they're at 800 Kemp Boulevard is the actual address.
Speaker B:And it's the house.
Speaker B:I know a little bit of background on this.
Speaker B: was a house that was built in: Speaker B:So it's over 100 years old.
Speaker B:And you do an IT work for them out there.
Speaker B:Old structures like that pose some special challenges when you're Doing any sort of upgrades, updates.
Speaker B:Basically they've taken a house and converted it into a restaurant.
Speaker B:That's a huge challenge in and of itself, just doing that.
Speaker B:Then you try to integrate all of the other IT stuff that you need because you need point of sale systems.
Speaker B:You got front of house, back of house stuff.
Speaker B:You got all this different stuff going on.
Speaker B:All this communication has to happen.
Speaker B:And so it poses its challenges.
Speaker B:But they did a really magnificent job with this place.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, one of the challenges on WI fi, for instance, and they first opened up, they didn't go in and redo any of, of the walls or whatever because the.
Speaker C:But it was plaster and that mesh in there.
Speaker C:And I'll tell you, WI Fi.
Speaker C:Oh my gosh.
Speaker B:It doesn't, it doesn't like that.
Speaker C:Yeah, that thing I had designed where we put WI fi in and everything on that.
Speaker C:But every room nearly.
Speaker C:But anyway, now.
Speaker C:But when they, they had the flood, which was interesting, they had to upgrade.
Speaker C:Not even just upgrade.
Speaker C:They had to install a fire suppression system.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Which involved pipes, these really thick pipes.
Speaker C:And then the big freeze came along.
Speaker C:Then it flooded.
Speaker C:Oh my gosh.
Speaker C:And so they, they have to maintain that.
Speaker C:But they had to pull out all the walls nearly on every room and everything.
Speaker C:And so now it's just normal what we have in most of our homes.
Speaker C:So the WI fi has gotten better.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:Well, it's a.
Speaker C:But the food is even better.
Speaker B:The food is good.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:Are reservations required to dine there?
Speaker C:Believe it is, but they, I know.
Speaker B:They do some, they do some special events do require reservations.
Speaker C:Better.
Speaker C:You're better off definitely getting reservations.
Speaker C:I don't know for sure.
Speaker C:But Sean, basically, Sean Sheriff.
Speaker C:Sheriff is, he's the, the head chef and, and the manager of the place.
Speaker C:He's a really nice guy.
Speaker C:He's.
Speaker C:He, he.
Speaker C:He's done a phenomenal job over there and making sure everything's going.
Speaker C:And so then you have, I guess then you have Chef Anon.
Speaker C:And of course, you know, John Hershey was of course the, the creator of the thing, of the whole thing.
Speaker C:But anyway, yeah, just get over there, make reservations.
Speaker C:Call.
Speaker C:It is on the higher cost side.
Speaker C:Just keep that in mind.
Speaker C:But it is very good.
Speaker C:They've got little specials around.
Speaker C:I guess this week maybe they had a hamburger special and all that.
Speaker C:But everything I've been told has been awesome.
Speaker C:People love going there.
Speaker B:I would say this qualifies as a higher end, four star, perhaps five star restaurant.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:If you want, if you want to rate it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:That's that's how you would rate it, you know.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker C:So come.
Speaker C:Just tell them that we sent you.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Tell Sean especially.
Speaker C:Say, hey, Sean, Terry.
Speaker C:Of course, he may not.
Speaker C:Have you met Sean?
Speaker B:No, I haven't.
Speaker B:He won't know me.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, tell him Terry from MacTech.
Speaker B:Told you, you drop my name, you're just gonna get a blank.
Speaker B:Look, give him his name.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker B:800 Cat Boulevard, Foxhole Restaurant.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And they are on Facebook, of course, foxhill tx.com and then, of course, I said that that's their website.
Speaker C:And then the Facebook just searched for Fox Hill Restaurant, and they've got.
Speaker C:Yeah, they tell you everything that's going on.
Speaker B:And there's some of the plate.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, look at that.
Speaker C:That.
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker C:Somebody's got.
Speaker C:That looks good.
Speaker C:And then look at the.
Speaker C:I mean, everything's just made from scratch.
Speaker C:I mean, it is.
Speaker C:It is just local stuff.
Speaker C:Now, again, if they don't have it on site, they.
Speaker C:They source it locally when they can as well.
Speaker B:They got some Yardbird there.
Speaker C:Yeah, they had.
Speaker C:Yeah, they got a patio.
Speaker C:They got.
Speaker C:Man, they got all kinds of stuff out there, man.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's nice.
Speaker C:So go check it out.
Speaker B:Poultry on the hoof.
Speaker C:Oh.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:And then boom.
Speaker B:He was walking around 30 minutes ago.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:800 Kent Boulevard, Foxhole Restaurant.
Speaker B:Coming up here in just a few moments.
Speaker B:Wichita County Commissioner Mickey Fincannon is going to join us.
Speaker B:We're going to talk about a few things, but principally, we're going to talk about this solar farm that is proposed for Bourbonneau, Texas.
Speaker B:Not a definite yet.
Speaker B:It's a proposal at this point, but it is moving forward.
Speaker B:The process is moving forward.
Speaker B:And he's got some great information for us.
Speaker B:He'll tell us what he knows, share his insights on it when we come back here on Get It Right.
Speaker B:Textile.
Speaker B:Stay tuned.
Speaker B:Hey, welcome back to Get It Right Texoma with myself, Mike Hendren, Terry McAdams.
Speaker B:And our special guest, as we mentioned earlier, is Mickey Fincannon, the wichita County Precinct 2 Commissioner.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker B:How are you this morning?
Speaker A:Good.
Speaker B:Glad to have you here.
Speaker C:How many precincts are there?
Speaker A:There are four.
Speaker B:Four.
Speaker A:But in Wichita county, there are actually five.
Speaker A:Five is not.
Speaker A:Is not elected a position or nothing.
Speaker A:We just.
Speaker A:It's a budgetary item for some equipment.
Speaker A:Equipment we carry.
Speaker A:So if you ever hear in court that there's a Precinct 5, that's what it's about.
Speaker B:Oh, God.
Speaker A:It's a shared equipment, but there is a listed precinct.
Speaker C:Obviously there's Some technical reason you'll do this?
Speaker A:Well, there's some equipment.
Speaker A:There's some equipment in the county that are literally are very expensive equipment that we don't need to own individually.
Speaker A:So we keep it in one and share it.
Speaker A:Oh, just to save taxpayer money.
Speaker C:Okay, interesting.
Speaker B:It's a part of the legal structure of all the.
Speaker C:Oh, so you care about saving very much taxpayers money.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker C:Here we have that locally.
Speaker C:We actually have people locally to do that.
Speaker C:You're unfortunately, your national representatives do not.
Speaker B:Sometimes don't.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, they're working that way.
Speaker C:Well, we're trying to.
Speaker C:Trying down.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Fortunately you've been a county commissioner for how long now?
Speaker A: ent into office at the end of: Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A: At before the: Speaker B:So into your sixth year.
Speaker A:In my six year.
Speaker A:Good grief.
Speaker B:Where does time go?
Speaker A:It has flown by.
Speaker B:It's flowing for sure.
Speaker B:It has flown by.
Speaker A:Yes, it is.
Speaker A:It's busy.
Speaker A:It's always.
Speaker A:There's always something going on at the county.
Speaker B:Budgetary issues I'm guessing are probably the biggest things you all tackle.
Speaker A:It is budget takes numerous months throughout the year.
Speaker A:Once we start, we'll start in May.
Speaker A:Well, matter of fact right now we've already started putting together budgets for 26.
Speaker A:So by the time all those budget hearings go meet with every department, takes a long time to get them through.
Speaker A:Do all the public meetings, do all the input from all the different departments.
Speaker A:There's several.
Speaker A:There's a lot of meetings that go into it.
Speaker B:I was going to say it's not like it's something you can hash out in half an hour or so.
Speaker B:I mean it's months of wrangling and picking things apart and trying to decide, okay, well what do we need, what do we not need?
Speaker B:What can we.
Speaker B:You know, you have to, you try, you try to be a good steward of the taxpayers money.
Speaker B:And that requires a lot of examination of what's being done and what's being planned.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And at the county level, as I was explaining here earlier, there's so many things that are the county government primarily we're told what we have to do.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So we have to meet those minimum requirements that are required by the legislation.
Speaker A:You know, taking care of all the court systems, all the prosecution, all the defense.
Speaker A:But you got to think every department in the county is almost like a standalone little business that you're having to budget.
Speaker A:So whether that's veteran affairs or whether that's a, you know, the tag office, whatever it is, there's.
Speaker A:They're all separate by the way.
Speaker B:I want to comment on the county annex.
Speaker B:Man, was that remodel a long time coming.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:There was.
Speaker A:What was it, probably 60, 70 years since that place has been.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker B:You brought.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker B: anaged to bring it out of the: Speaker B:You really did.
Speaker B:I want to pause one moment here.
Speaker B:Does that mean anything to us?
Speaker C:That's a problem.
Speaker C:That's your drive.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:We can just go off of the.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:If you want.
Speaker B:Okay, we can do that.
Speaker C:We can troubleshoot that.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right, so we'll come back to that.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was the county annex building.
Speaker B:It just looked archaic for so long.
Speaker B:Everything looked like it was stuck in the 60s.
Speaker B:And now it looks very modern and very simple, and it seems to operate better.
Speaker A:It is definitely laid out better.
Speaker A:And the logistics part of that for citizens coming in and out has been a lot better, more streamlined.
Speaker A:We seem to get people in and out a lot faster, which.
Speaker A:And that's one of the.
Speaker A:One of the departments in the county that really deals with the public and really needs to have that good.
Speaker A:That good feel when you come in and out, because we are here to, you know, give service to the county residents.
Speaker A:So that's one of those right there.
Speaker A:That's very much public.
Speaker A:That needs to be done.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And Tommy.
Speaker A:Tommy over there does a great job.
Speaker A:Yeah, Tommy Smythe does a great job.
Speaker B:I know that the county, of course, the county jail facilities have now moved out closer to the edge of town.
Speaker B:And you've got.
Speaker B:You've got a new jail facility out there.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:The downtown courthouse and jail facilities there.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:Is it 30th District Court that just underwent a major remodel?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And today at one, I believe at one o', clock, they're doing their grand opening for the district court.
Speaker A:You want to go, Ben?
Speaker A:It would be worth stopping by and just going.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's amazing at what it looks like.
Speaker A:It does look nice.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:The last time I was by there, they were probably 75% finished with it, and it already looked a thousand times better than it did before.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:It's a shame that we had to do it for the reason we did it and move all that up.
Speaker A:But part of it.
Speaker A:It's also a blessing.
Speaker A:I mean, a lot of this remodel done in the county right now, you know, you go back to Covid, and when that stimulus money started coming out, that was given to counties and cities throughout the nation.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That money is really what has taken care of most of these remodels so it's not good.
Speaker A:I don't, I don't like any kind of government handouts, but if you're going to get it, we were able to spend it for something that really needed to be done and that took a burden off our taxpayers some point down the road because at some point we would have been paying for that.
Speaker A:We would have been paying for those remodels.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:But I know there are future plans for more work on the courthouse.
Speaker A:There are, and it'll be.
Speaker A:I'm really.
Speaker A:Several of the commissioners, I think, are, Are ready to wrap up most of this construction because we've had so many projects going on.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:And these went on at the same time.
Speaker A:You know, we had a flood in the courthouse from a contractor.
Speaker A:A lot of these projects that are going on that have gone on weren't necessarily designed to go on at that time.
Speaker A:We had to move them up and we had to do things, get it all going at one time because of circumstances that arose.
Speaker C:Can we.
Speaker C:I just want to make sure that before I, I think I hit the button, but it's made me think about it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:I'm telling you that we recorded our backup.
Speaker C:Sometimes we have technical crap going on.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:Well, one of the main things I wanted to talk about with you today, Commissioner, is this solar farm project that's been announced for Burt Burnett.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:This has been a little, I guess, a little controversial with some folks.
Speaker A:And I'll put one word, add that to what you said.
Speaker A:Possible.
Speaker B:Possible.
Speaker B:It's not, it's not 100%.
Speaker B:It's not guaranteed.
Speaker A:It's nowhere close to being a guarantee.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Right now, even as far along as we are in this project, we're probably only 55 to 60% chance that that'll actually come to groundbreaking and it.
Speaker A:And happen.
Speaker B:Well, give us a quick background on this.
Speaker B:On this solar farm for those that are not aware or don't know.
Speaker A:Probably.
Speaker A:And I didn't even bring the paperwork with me.
Speaker A:I should have for date lines.
Speaker A:But probably, probably in early 24 at that.
Speaker A:Probably in early to mid 24 is when the, when the solar project company, there's a Samsung and another company, it's Nympha or something.
Speaker A:I don't know that I'm pronouncing it correct, but that's it.
Speaker A:They actually have.
Speaker A:There's a solar farm side of that and then a consulting side of that firm, that consulting side of it.
Speaker A:I'm assuming they help them, you know, work on land leases, land development, land location.
Speaker A:But they also deal with those.
Speaker A:Is helping them as far as looking at any kind of tax incentives or anything like that.
Speaker A:They help that side of it anyway.
Speaker A:We were contacted by them in mid, mid 24 about a possible.
Speaker A:They had actually already acquired land.
Speaker A:They had worked out an agreement with the landowner there, had found property that would work, and they were wanting to talk to the county to let them know that in the future they might be wanting to file for a tax abatement because they were looking at a.
Speaker A:Possibly a very large investment into Wichita county at the time.
Speaker A:There wasn't any details.
Speaker A:They had a pretty much area they told us about where it was in the first maps I saw included part of that being in the city of Burke, part of it being in the county.
Speaker A:And the next time I.
Speaker A:And you realize when these come to the county, to the county judge, they don't necessarily.
Speaker A:We get notified as a commissioner, usually just because it's in our precinct, but the judge is the one that originally talks to them because at this time it's still kind of just a possibility out there in the air, right?
Speaker A:So nobody really acts on anything the further they get along.
Speaker A:The first thing we told them, the judge told them, is first and foremost, it can't adversely affect the city of Burke, Burnett, and it cannot adversely affect the Shepherd Air Force Base.
Speaker A:So before you can do anything, you really need to get it signed off on shepherd and you need to get it signed off on by the city of Burke.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:That's pretty much what they have to do because we can't affect Shepherd Air Force Base, number one.
Speaker A:Can't, can't do anything that.
Speaker A:That would ever affect the flights.
Speaker A:So in the city of Berg, they were also contacted.
Speaker A:I notified them and Samsung contacted them because they wanted to see if there was anything that they could or couldn't do, but ended up that that project moved right outside the city limits of Irk.
Speaker A:And that was one of the biggest things I had said right at the beginning is the original thoughts that I heard was that that was going to be along the I44 corridor all the way up to the road.
Speaker A:And I was like, no, you can't do that.
Speaker A:I mean, I've been.
Speaker A:I'm from Burke, I love Burke, it's my hometown.
Speaker A:But you can't.
Speaker A:You don't want to build that all the way up to the highway because that hinders Burke from developing that corridor, that I44 corridor that could have a. I mean, in the future, 50 years down the road, they could have a lot of businesses on that corridor that help, you know, stimulate the economy of Berks.
Speaker B:Sure, of course.
Speaker A:Anyway, the next plans I saw showed that solar farm quite a ways back off I44.
Speaker A:I mean, that's a.
Speaker A:That's a monstrous field there.
Speaker A:There's thousands of acres out there, but yes, that it pushes it further back toward the Red river off that corridor.
Speaker B:This is the number.
Speaker B:800 acres is something, I think the.
Speaker A:Actual solar farm probably in the 860.
Speaker A:860.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Or somewhere like that.
Speaker A:You know, they've.
Speaker A:They've discussed anywhere from 600 acres to 900 acres, but I think it's going to be around 860 the way it's looking.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:But you know, these are all still plans that are.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Being.
Speaker A:Everything's just weighed in balance whether or not it's going to be something that'll be worth building here.
Speaker B:Now, my understanding is.
Speaker B:Is the Department of Defense, Shepherd Air Force Base, they've already signed off on it, said we will not be adversely affected.
Speaker A:Is that they have to do.
Speaker A:Yes, they have to do a glare.
Speaker A:I forget the proper word for it, but basically it's a glare study to see if it affects the pilots.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And they signed off on everything.
Speaker A:They're good with it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:So no windmills around here.
Speaker A:These are.
Speaker A:It isn't in part of the flight path of some of the planes, but they said it's not an issue.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:They won't have any issue with it.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So they're.
Speaker B:They're in the process of clearing hurdles.
Speaker A:Right now, and that's.
Speaker B:See if it's viable.
Speaker A:Feasibility study.
Speaker B:Feasibility.
Speaker A:So basically what it all boils down to.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Now, how.
Speaker B:How would this benefit Wichita county and the city of Burke, specifically, How do we.
Speaker B:How do we benefit?
Speaker B:Because I'm a Burke resident, too.
Speaker B:So how do we benefit from this?
Speaker A:I'm a Burke resident and I'm not a.
Speaker A:And I'm not a pro.
Speaker A:I'm not a green energy person.
Speaker A:I'm not a pro solar.
Speaker A:I'm not a pro windmill.
Speaker C:I mean, you're not anti.
Speaker C:Necessarily.
Speaker A:I'm not necessarily anti.
Speaker A:But what we do need in the state of Texas, I am involved in a lot of.
Speaker A:A lot of meetings, whether they be here, whether they be in Austin, whether conferences I go to.
Speaker A:One of the biggest things that's brought up in Texas is energy.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:We have, you know, we have a thousand people a day moving to Texas.
Speaker B:We do.
Speaker A:And we need energy, whether it be solar, whether it be wind, whether it be nuclear and we have our own grid.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:For the most part, except for El Paso.
Speaker A:And, you know, I mean, people can say what they want.
Speaker A:And a lot of people think that the government's just handing out money to these solar farms, and that's not the case.
Speaker A:They're not paying for these farms to be built.
Speaker A:These are private investors that are putting this money up and that are doing this now, just like here.
Speaker A:If they're going to invest, they're looking at investing 190 to 200 million dollars on a solar farm.
Speaker A:If you're going to invest 190 million dollars in our county, then I would go to our county court and ask for a tax abatement.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:Because that could save me some money down the road.
Speaker A:And I'm sure they will also ask.
Speaker A:I'm sure there are federal tax breaks if they're creating energy.
Speaker A:No different than they would if they were creating a nuclear energy or whatever kind of energy you're producing.
Speaker A:There's tax breaks out there to help you if you're helping.
Speaker A:If you're producing energy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I don't, I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea.
Speaker A:What I'm, I'm not, I'm not a person that advocates for handing out money to gov.
Speaker A:To anybody.
Speaker A:Not as a handout, but if the tax abatements, how that all works and something that people need to realize.
Speaker A:If a company came here and built a solar farm or a wind farm outside the city limits.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Built it in the county with.
Speaker A:There was no regulations, really.
Speaker A:If they didn't ask for a tax abatement, then we couldn't get anything.
Speaker A:They could just go out there and build it, never tell us.
Speaker A:And we couldn't make sure that they're doing it, this.
Speaker A:Doing it the way it should be done.
Speaker A:But at least if they ask for tax abatements, we have some teeth and we can negotiate what needs to be done in the placement of that solar farm.
Speaker A:Like right now, that solar farm is looking at.
Speaker A:It's going to be in the ETJ of Burke Burnett and it will affect their, their fire department.
Speaker A:They have a, you know, a paid and a volunteer fire department that will have to.
Speaker A:They would be the first call if there was a fire out there.
Speaker A:And if there's a fire out there on a battery facility, they need to be trained how to do it.
Speaker A:They might have to have some specialized equipment.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't know what's required.
Speaker A:But we will find all that out.
Speaker A:But what I'm getting at Is that's all stuff that we can put in an abatement agreement that we can make them basically prepare for, help the city of Burke prepare for it.
Speaker A:If we didn't have that tax agreement, we wouldn't have.
Speaker A:We couldn't do anything.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So there is some.
Speaker A:There's some claw back there to make sure that we can negotiate a deal properly.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:You get some benefit that benefits the whole community from maybe an increased safe.
Speaker C:I say safety capability, but.
Speaker C:But the, the fire department having even a better capability to do other things.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker C:That maybe all are deficient now.
Speaker C:You can kind of work that in potentially.
Speaker A:And, and something people, a lot of people don't realize.
Speaker A:And this is why everybody's like, well, that won't help the city of Burkin because it's not in the city of Burke right now.
Speaker A:That same.
Speaker A:That one piece of property brings in $1,020 a year in taxes.
Speaker A:One piece of property, $1,020.
Speaker A:Even if this company were to get a full tax abatement, what they're asking for, the county would probably still make 2 to $300,000 a year at year one off that same piece of property.
Speaker A:And it would go up from there.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So it has the potential to make millions of dollars in taxes over 10 years instead of 10,000, $10,000 in 10 years.
Speaker A:So if you don't, you have to realize anything that we do to build up our business tax base.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Takes tax base pressure off of households, period, in the county.
Speaker A:That's the way it works.
Speaker A:Your budget, you have so much money that you have to have to create the budget.
Speaker A:If more of that money comes in off businesses, then less comes in off household.
Speaker C:Well, it's the same talk we've had with Ron Kitchens about some of these server farm server facilities hosting facilities that we're looking at.
Speaker C:And those are a huge amount.
Speaker C:There's a very high density of value in a small.
Speaker A:In one building.
Speaker C:In one building.
Speaker A:So that right there gives in those.
Speaker A:Those proposed server farms that we're looking at could double the tax base of Wichita county in a couple of years.
Speaker A:One, you know, a couple of big projects like that could do.
Speaker A:And a lot of people are like, well, how can so and so have such a low tax rate?
Speaker A:You know, in the metroplex and the booming, booming area that costs more to live in, why is there taxes less?
Speaker A:And that's why.
Speaker A:Because they have those businesses that are being built and bringing in that tax base to that community.
Speaker B:They're able to spread that burden out over a wider area.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Because there's more, simple as that.
Speaker C:There's more equipment in that because you're, you're, I don't know, making up stuff.
Speaker C:But your vehicle in your garage at home is not being taxed, whereas the vehicles at a business.
Speaker C:So, so that's that property tax business.
Speaker B:Property taxes and so forth.
Speaker C:So yeah, so different.
Speaker B:So yeah, so.
Speaker B:So it's, it's.
Speaker B:And there's a huge economic benefit over a period of time that I just think if everybody would recognize that, hey, this, this can, this can benefit us all.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:We can all win from this.
Speaker A:And there's other benefits too, also that.
Speaker A:I mean, this is something I was me and you were talking about earlier, but bringing a name like Samsung in to build a project in Wichita county really and truly is a, that's a, that's a wake up call to other businesses.
Speaker A:Yeah, other parts of the, I mean, other.
Speaker A:There's tons of businesses coming to Texas right now.
Speaker A:They're all looking for places to go.
Speaker A:Luckily right now in Wichita County, Wichita county, well, Barger county, this area, we're in a great location because the way the grid's laid out, the power lines, we have actually electricity available here that they don't have in the Metroplex, they don't have in Austin, they don't have in San Antonio.
Speaker A:So a lot of those businesses that are needing power are looking more and more to north central and West Texas to get into those areas because they have the power infrastructure, the grid ability there to tie into.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Those.
Speaker A:If you bring a name like Samsung in, though, other companies that are looking at where to go in Texas to build new things, to build manufacturing plants, to build investment, they look at, well, Wichita county.
Speaker A:They, you know, the city there, the county's there, the workforce there really worked with this company.
Speaker A:You bring those big names in, it draws other big names, right?
Speaker C:Well, yeah, even if, even, even if the company would come here anyway, they may not even look at us because we didn't have a Samsung or whatever.
Speaker C:You know, they may not even.
Speaker C:That we may not even popped up on the radar, but now we're on the radar.
Speaker C:Oh, now they're gonna at least come.
Speaker C:Like now we have a chance, you.
Speaker A:Know, no different than, you know, Ron Kitchens talking about bringing Amazon here.
Speaker A:We're getting Amazon Warehouse here.
Speaker A:It's not as large as some of them.
Speaker A:It's a smaller facility, but once you have one here, it's a lot easier to justify bringing another one here.
Speaker A:You have those names here.
Speaker A:You show that growth here and it spurs other businesses.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And that's something that we've been struggling with for years around here, is attracting those big names here, getting them here.
Speaker B:But I think the stage is being set now for it.
Speaker B:I think, like you said.
Speaker B:Well, with the, with the power, with the way the grid's laid out and the fact that we do have surplus power that we could, we could sell and they could utilize.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:It's, you know, now there's a win, win situation setting itself up here for those companies and for us.
Speaker A:And as a elected official, I've always been very pro business.
Speaker A:I'm, I'm super pro business.
Speaker A:But it's not like we as elected officials, unlike Ron Kitchens, we're not out.
Speaker A:We're not out soliciting people to come here.
Speaker A:We don't usually find out about them until after they've already made an agreement.
Speaker A:But we want to be that face, that a positive face when they do come to town.
Speaker A:We're trying to work with them.
Speaker A:I don't ever want us to be known as a county and a county commissioner's court that doesn't want to attract business here.
Speaker A:We don't want to have that reputation.
Speaker A:We want to be open and work with them however we can.
Speaker B:Well, there has been this perception for a long time that Wichita Falls was not business friendly.
Speaker A:That's true.
Speaker A:I've said it myself.
Speaker B:I mean, you're a business owner and you, You've dealt with the.
Speaker A:And I've been involved a lot in the construction side of businesses coming to Wichita Falls with the different businesses that I own.
Speaker A:And I've talked to lots of contractors that don't want to come back here and build anything because they had such a hard time.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But we have, I believe we gradually started changing that, that reputation.
Speaker A:And there's been a good.
Speaker A:There's been a good change, I think, at City hall to try to work toward being.
Speaker A:Becoming more of a customer service oriented and try to help businesses rather than to just tell them no.
Speaker B:We've had that conversation with Mayor Tim Short, with the previous mayor, Steven Santiano.
Speaker B:We've had that conversation with numerous county or city officials in Wichita Falls.
Speaker B:That seems to be the core of the problem.
Speaker B:It's a customer service issue.
Speaker A:It is a customer service issue.
Speaker C:It's perception.
Speaker C:It's a lot of perception in that, too.
Speaker A:There's some perception, but boils down to customer service instead of.
Speaker C:But what I mean by that is, is that I think I don't Think there's a.
Speaker C:Maybe there is a few employees or whatever that, that are in the city or that work with people trying to get this business going.
Speaker C:But what I'm saying is I don't think there's.
Speaker C:There very many people within the government that don't care about what they do and they don't.
Speaker C:It's not that they don't want to do a good job necessarily, it's just that they don't.
Speaker C:The emphasis at leadership level up above is not hey take care but the attitude, the perception that you care even if you don't.
Speaker C:You know, it's just like in business.
Speaker C:I mean when you welcome a customer in your business, you go out of your way, hey, thanks for coming in.
Speaker C:And you know, because I wouldn't have a job without you.
Speaker A:If I met.
Speaker A:If I'm at my business welcoming people in, it's usually a lot different than one of my employees welcoming somebody in.
Speaker A:You, you have a.
Speaker A:You have more skin in the game and you're gonna be a lot nicer.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:In what you're saying about that government deal, it is a top down deal, having the proper attitude.
Speaker A:But there is.
Speaker A:And the problem was there was a lot of people in areas of city government that dealt with people one on one that really didn't care.
Speaker A:And that's the problem.
Speaker A:If you have people there that don't care and you're.
Speaker A:If you're one of the higher ups in the city and you start hearing stuff like that, then you need to take action to correct that.
Speaker C:Well and you need to hire for people that care about.
Speaker C:What is that?
Speaker C:I don't.
Speaker C:I.
Speaker C:You can have the best technical skill in the world and you come in here and ask for a job.
Speaker C:If you don't, if you don't have a good attitude and care about taking care of people, you may, there may be a better job somewhere else.
Speaker C:I'll train somebody before with that.
Speaker C:I can take something like that.
Speaker C:I can.
Speaker C:So anyway, one, one quick thing about the back on the solar thing.
Speaker C:What have been the opposition, the reasons for opposition for this?
Speaker C:What have been the concerns?
Speaker A:And there's most, I mean there's been concerns as far as the safety of those.
Speaker A:What kind of negative impacts there are to the environment and the consulting company that came to the court and talked and its own.
Speaker A:You can go back and look at our minutes of the court and watch the video of it.
Speaker A:Very knowledgeable information and.
Speaker A:And report they gave to us.
Speaker A:How everything is nowadays really and truly.
Speaker A:The only thing that in my Opinion what I was looking at, you know, there's going to be battery storage facilities there with it too.
Speaker A:Those battery storage facility are basically like a Conex that's, you know, they store, they store energy in those battery backs, but they are built in nowadays with all the safety features that are in them.
Speaker A:I mean, they have, they shut down if anything's overheating, they can lock it down.
Speaker A:They have fire suppression built into them.
Speaker A:They got, they got fans in them that open up to clear out any heat and then they'll seal up after the heat's gone and fire suppression.
Speaker A:So really they're pretty safe.
Speaker C:Is it lithium ion?
Speaker A:They're lithium ion.
Speaker C:And we actually have a whole battery safety program just for little batteries that are in your phone and your computer.
Speaker C:And we have to be careful.
Speaker C:And there's a lot to that.
Speaker C:It out gases, it can cause headaches and all this other stuff, but it's really temporary.
Speaker C:But I can imagine that.
Speaker C:I mean, we've seen Tesla's, you know, fire lately too.
Speaker A:And that's one of the things I even said during the last city council meeting I was at in Burke is having this, this battery pack out there on a.
Speaker A:In a field with all the fire suppression and safety built into it, to me is probably safer than having a Tesla driving down the road and getting.
Speaker C:In some ways.
Speaker C:Yeah, in some ways.
Speaker A:And we, I mean, they're driving everywhere, all over town.
Speaker A:So there's, there's.
Speaker A:I can see some issues and some things that would worry me, but along with any technology, any energy source, there's always a danger.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:I mean, you're creating an energy that you're trying to harness.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So whatever it is.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And the, the next biggest.
Speaker A:To answer your question, probably the next biggest thing when it all boils down to it, is people don't like the look of, of it and they don't want to.
Speaker A:They would rather have a green field out there than a solar farm.
Speaker A:And I don't disagree with that.
Speaker A:And the neighbors that have land there, I 100% agree with them.
Speaker A:You know, I happen to live southwest of Burke in the county.
Speaker A:I have a farm and there's.
Speaker A:I love to be able to go out my back door and look at a wheat.
Speaker C:I live out in Clay County.
Speaker A:It's not green all year, but I bought it so I could look at it.
Speaker A:So, you know, you can't really.
Speaker A:Why should it be the citizens of Burke deciding what an individual does with his farm?
Speaker A:That gets back to that property rights deal.
Speaker A:And that deal was Agreed upon, worked out and rented before I ever found out about it, before the county ever found out, before the city ever found out.
Speaker A:And I think it's, I don't know that it's a good thing to step on the rights of a landowner if he's wanting to do something with his business.
Speaker A:I've had lots of calls through the years, putting up billboards on my property, antennas on my property, solar farms on my property.
Speaker A:Those companies send out letters to everybody that owns property along a path that they're interested in.
Speaker A:And if somebody sends them a letter back saying, yeah, we might be interested in it, let us know.
Speaker A:That's how they do that.
Speaker A:They don't.
Speaker A:They have to find somebody willing to sell or rent their property before they can do anything.
Speaker C:So is this what this is, is a rental deal?
Speaker A:I think it's a long term lease.
Speaker A:Now, in this tax abatement, something that wasn't brought up a while ago, that something's always worried me.
Speaker A:These solar farms and these windmill locations, you know, after 10, 20, 30 years, however long they're there, who is required to pull all that out of the ground when it's done?
Speaker A:Because that's something that really bothers me.
Speaker A:In this agreement, in this tax payment, we're requiring them to put up a bond that says when they're done, if they leave there, everything has to go.
Speaker A:The cement, the ground, all the steel, all the structures, it has to be taken back down to farmland.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Just like it was before they got there.
Speaker A:And if they came in and built that outside of the, if they came in and did that without a tax abatement, we have no way to make that happen.
Speaker A:You know, they could go bankrupt in five years and walk away from it and just leave that track.
Speaker C:You have leverage in this to have a platform to discuss.
Speaker A:That's, it's, it's not a really a, it's a straight up negotiation.
Speaker A:I mean, they won't get it if they can't abide by her what we want.
Speaker C:Right, right, exactly.
Speaker C:But if they decided, no, we're not, we'll just forego it.
Speaker C:They could.
Speaker C:You're saying that for the most part that as long as they meet environmental and other requirements by law, then they could just do whatever they want.
Speaker B:Well, you would kind of expect that if that company, if they're serious about being environmentally friendly, they would not disagree with returning the land to its original state.
Speaker B:Once the lifespan of this solar farm is done, or once they've done all they can do with it and it's time to move it somewhere else or they can no longer expand or grow there.
Speaker B:You know, they can't acquire more land to grow it.
Speaker B:If they need to grow it, they need to go to a larger area, whatever their reasons for not being there anymore.
Speaker A:But it has to go back.
Speaker B:But it has to go back to the original state.
Speaker A:That's in part of our agreements also that, that has to happen.
Speaker A:Which to me that's a huge thing.
Speaker A:Oh yeah.
Speaker A:You know, a lot of these solar farms, they have concrete and not solar.
Speaker A:The wind generator farms have a concrete structure that's underground that's so massive that you can't get it out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So yeah, I'm real big on being able to take it back down.
Speaker B:I know I've talked to numerous people that, on both sides of the wind farm issue.
Speaker B:And the one thing that they do both agree on is for the most part is that when those wind farms are decommissioned or whatever they call it, you know, when they finally, when their lifespan is over, the one thing you're left with is all that concrete in the ground that would cost millions of dollars to get removed.
Speaker B:If you could ever remove it all.
Speaker A:If you, I mean I'm sure that technology, we could get it all out, but it would take, it would take a lot, a lot more work than what any.
Speaker B:It would be very, very costly and it would take a long time to do it.
Speaker B:It's literally thousands of tens of thousands of tons of concrete in the ground to support that structure.
Speaker B:And so it's, it's a.
Speaker B:The solar farm plan sounds a lot more basic, a lot more straightforward to me in terms of what happens when you have to go remove this stuff.
Speaker A:And I don't know, I don't know all the technical side of it.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:Solar farm produces them a much electricity as a wind generation.
Speaker A:I don't think it does, but because either way 24 7.
Speaker A:Well, it can't run 24 7.
Speaker A:But I don't think a solar farm will actually work either if you don't use battery storage.
Speaker A:I think you have to have that battery storage to be able to produce electricity and sell it when you need to sell it at.
Speaker C:Well, I mean obviously California has been doing this for a long time before even battery technology was cost effective, but now it's cost effective to where it literally is down in price so that we can store.
Speaker C:That's one of the whole things.
Speaker C:And, and that's why if you're going to get a solar system at your house, that's one of the things you really ought to consider is storing it, because that's the whole thing is that.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's only good for that period.
Speaker C:But you're probably producing more electricity during the day than you're going to use.
Speaker C:And so storing it is definitely.
Speaker A:Well, the way go in.
Speaker A:The way it was introduced to us is these storage facilities, unlike your house, they store because they produce all day.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But they store it and sell it when peak times are, when they need.
Speaker A:When.
Speaker A:Because the rates fluctuate all day long.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:In the electrical industry.
Speaker A:So you might be able to produce it and save it for two hours after dark and then sell it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because the energy prices go up different hours of the day.
Speaker A:So they're selling it at the peak time.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And they're.
Speaker C:And they're probably storing it excess.
Speaker C:They're planning to have excess so that they can do that.
Speaker C:They're optimizing the land and the facilities and batteries and everything to do that.
Speaker A:And that's one thing that's also looked at Wichita county several times is just these storage facilities because they buy electricity at lower times of the day.
Speaker A:When it's lower, they store it and then resell it when it's higher.
Speaker A:And that's all that battery center does.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:I haven't thought about that.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's an interesting business model right there.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's a lot of companies.
Speaker A:I mean, there's a lot of companies doing that, and there's several in Wichita county that have looked at this county for that reason.
Speaker A:And there's still some on the horizon that might come.
Speaker A:But as of right now, I don't believe there's any.
Speaker B:Well, buy low, sell high.
Speaker B:I mean, it's a commodity just like anything else.
Speaker B:If you want to make money with a commodity, that's how you got to do it.
Speaker B:You buy low, sell high.
Speaker C:It's basically.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's deferred.
Speaker C:It's deferring that because you can produce it.
Speaker C:But the whole grid, though.
Speaker C:Ha.
Speaker C:You can't just.
Speaker C:The grid doesn't have built in without these facilities a way to store it.
Speaker C:So they.
Speaker C:It's on demand.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker C:They turn on and off these windmills as they need more power.
Speaker C:They're just switched in on the whole thing.
Speaker C:And then that's what the solar farm during the day, if.
Speaker C:If, you know, if they need more electricity, then they can switch it in.
Speaker C:But just.
Speaker C:But they're wasting time and money and wind and all of that.
Speaker B:Well, I can see where our area would be an attractive place for this.
Speaker B:I mean, we do have a lot of sunny days.
Speaker B:It's one of the reasons we have Shepherd Air Force Base here is we have a lot of good flying weather.
Speaker B:And so, you know, for.
Speaker B:From June through, you know, August, September, we have a lot of really nice sunny, sometimes very hot days that, you know that this stuff could work.
Speaker B:So I can see where the benefit is.
Speaker B:I'm not a huge fan.
Speaker B:I'm like you.
Speaker B:I'm not a huge fan.
Speaker B:I'm not.
Speaker B:Not a green energy proponent in that way.
Speaker B:I'm not some kind of a nut out here going, yeah, we got to reduce our carbon footprint.
Speaker B:No drill, baby, drill.
Speaker A:But I'm not against.
Speaker B:I'm not against it.
Speaker A:I probably wouldn't be up.
Speaker A:And there's some talk right now, you know, lots of these mini nuclear plants being built.
Speaker A:They seem to be a lot safer.
Speaker A:There's ton.
Speaker A:There's a tremendous amount of them out there and there's a lot of them looking at Texas right now.
Speaker A:Well, that's.
Speaker B:It ain't Three Mile island or Chernobyl.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:It's a different, different technology.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's just like back in the day, cell phones.
Speaker C:I don't know if everybody knows this, but you had one or two or minimal number of towers that tried to service a lot of area.
Speaker C:But then as technology and our requirements, our needs have gone up, we go down to these smaller microcells around as well.
Speaker C:And so that's when you're getting super fast speed on your phone.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Like a gig or 500 meg.
Speaker C:You're probably on a microcell that doesn't have the distance.
Speaker C:And that's what the mini nuclear thing, you're spreading out the around.
Speaker C:And it's also more efficient because you're closer to the source of the electricity.
Speaker C:Because the longer you have to transmit that across and they have lost.
Speaker A:They build them on mini grids.
Speaker A:So you'd build one to take care of a city or take care of a city and a Air Force base.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You know, one could probably take care of our whole county.
Speaker A:So it all depending on what you're building.
Speaker A:But they say the waste in them and.
Speaker A:But there we go.
Speaker A:We're talking about technology that not is not here yet.
Speaker A:We're talking about technology that's coming.
Speaker A:No different than, you know, people are complaining about these solar farms the way they look.
Speaker A:I'm sure Burke Burnett didn't look great back when there was a thousand oil derricks either.
Speaker B:I was going to say, yeah.
Speaker A:I mean I've seen pictures of it.
Speaker A:It's just not a pretty city, it's not a pretty town.
Speaker A:So we go through different stages.
Speaker A:I mean, we're all old enough to realize that technology changes, things change.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:In 30 years, that solar farm probably won't be there.
Speaker A:We just need to make sure that we're.
Speaker A:That we're doing what's the best, making the best decisions for us at this.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker C:Mean, you just got to take advantage of what's available.
Speaker C:But on technology, what are there any.
Speaker C:Where are we at?
Speaker C:And maybe you're not involved in this part of it, but trying to get the Internet out to all the different rural areas.
Speaker C:Where are we at in that?
Speaker C:Because, you know, there was this initiative within the last two or three years.
Speaker A:Federal funding, and I still think, you know, that was originally, that was supposed to be part of arpa.
Speaker A:We were supposed to spend money on infrastructure technology for that.
Speaker A:But then right after that, the federal government was talking about how they were looking at doing a, you know, a broadband Internet funding throughout the country.
Speaker A:I'm not, how can I say this nicely?
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:I'm not necessarily a big proponent the way they were trying to do it at first because what you had is you had every county in every city basically putting in their own broadband and they don't attach to no other city or county.
Speaker A:I would have rather that been stopped right there and backed up.
Speaker A:And if you're going to do it, let's do it statewide.
Speaker A:Let's have a state plan to do it throughout the whole state where they all link together and tie in together.
Speaker A:I think us going in there and building towers in a county or a certain little small region like that that's not integrated with any other region is a portion not spending money properly.
Speaker A:Well, that's like building your own little power grid here and not tied into where anybody else can get it.
Speaker A:Because if you lose it, you can't.
Speaker A:You have no redundancy in it at all.
Speaker B:And you may be building something that cannot be connected later on to the.
Speaker A:And that's why I would rather there be.
Speaker A:If we're going to do it and the federal government's wanting to pay for that and they're wanting to push it then.
Speaker A:Then create a plan, use smart enough people that can tie in a whole country and put it all together on one kind of plane.
Speaker C:Well, what they.
Speaker A:What, what.
Speaker C:The way it has my understanding and my experience so far is because I'm out in Clay county and Spectrum got the contract from the federal government to fund Putting it out in our rural area.
Speaker C:And so each of the companies there's here we have Centrio.
Speaker C:Now we have of course AT and T. We got comcell, I think out of Windthorse, we've got.
Speaker C:I said Spectrum.
Speaker C:I don't know if I said them again.
Speaker C:But anyway, we've got several companies that the larger.
Speaker C:A lot of the larger companies, some are local, some are not.
Speaker C:Centrio's local.
Speaker C:Winthor Comm.
Speaker C:Sells local.
Speaker C:But then obviously Spectrum is a big national company and they're dependent depending where they're at, they're either self funding or they've gotten some dollars from the federal grant.
Speaker C:But I think it was really designed ultimately that the bigger companies got it.
Speaker C:And so it.
Speaker C:But it is by area, by area and maybe it is related to the county or whatever.
Speaker A:And that's one of the things that scares me.
Speaker A:If you have all these separate companies putting it in, are they going to work together?
Speaker A:Because why would you want to have a company right here in your county?
Speaker A:Let's say Wichita Falls, we had big infrastructure built up right here and Lakeside City couldn't even use it.
Speaker A:That seems a poor design.
Speaker A:You need to have something that everybody can link in together.
Speaker C:And I understand it from an infrastructure standpoint.
Speaker C:I'm not in that business, but I also understand how the Internet's all set up.
Speaker C:So ultimately, as long as you have access, that is the primary thing.
Speaker C:But what I don't like is, is getting locked into a particular company because sometimes they, they suck and you know, or that particular area sucks.
Speaker C:And that's where I think in Florida, my sister lives in Panama City.
Speaker C:The, those, the coax cables for that are cable.
Speaker C:That brought the TV and the Internet.
Speaker C:They went and deregulated like electricity.
Speaker C:They said, well, there's one company is going to be responsible for the lines, but you can pick any Internet company.
Speaker C:I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker C:But if a company's investing like AT&T years ago, that's the reason AT&T had the pretty much the whole country for years and years.
Speaker C:But of course over time with the technology they were able to it, you know, because they were maintaining those lines.
Speaker C:They were losing money over here, but making money.
Speaker C:And the government, federal government guaranteed AT&T essentially that hey, you're going to be there and have it for a while.
Speaker C:So anyway, that in some ways that's good, but that's why we have the electricity.
Speaker B:Wichita County Commissioner Mickey Finn, He's a Precinct 2 commissioner here in Wichita County.
Speaker B:He's been our guest Today.
Speaker B:Is there anything going on county wise that we've not talked about that you'd like to toss in today?
Speaker A:Not really.
Speaker A:We're, we're, like I said before, we're coming up on budget season.
Speaker A:There's, there's still several.
Speaker A:And we talked about it a little bit there.
Speaker A:There's several businesses right now that are still looking at Wichita County.
Speaker A:Yes, there's a.
Speaker A:Well, I would say there's a lot of businesses looking at Wichita County.
Speaker A:I think right now Wichita county is probably as close as I've ever seen it to some real financial growth in investment, outside investment coming to Wichita County.
Speaker A:And I'm going to continue pushing that.
Speaker A:I mean I love living in the country and I love having my farmland, but I'm also all about Wichita county needs to grow.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:I mean if we can grow, we get infrastructure people spending money here, businesses spending money here.
Speaker A:It draws people here, it draws a better workforce here.
Speaker A:It brings higher paying jobs to the people that are already here.
Speaker B:And that's ultimately that's how you grow your economy.
Speaker B:You bring new dollars into the economy and the way you do that is attracting other is outside investment.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And you gotta.
Speaker A:And not only outside but inside investment.
Speaker A:I mean you have a, you have a lot of people here that are entrepreneurs that have great businesses.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:That are, that are willing to work and when they see that investment by other people too, it makes them a little bit more freely to want to invest back in their business and keep business here and invest more money.
Speaker B:Well, it creates more opportunity for the small business person.
Speaker C:As long as it's the right type of business business.
Speaker C:Because there are some businesses and I'm, you know, pick on Walmart.
Speaker C:I know Walmart gives us a lot of jobs but they, and it cost.
Speaker A:Us a lot of jobs.
Speaker C:But you know, but I.
Speaker A:That back to that fair.
Speaker A:I mean just whoever has the best service will get the business.
Speaker B:Yeah, sure.
Speaker A:If Walmart's not the best service, then they won't have the best business.
Speaker A:I mean there's always somebody else that'll do it better.
Speaker C:Well, I differentiate ourselves because you can buy an iPad or whatever cheaper at some places.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:But your service.
Speaker C:Yeah, where we.
Speaker C:But you don't find anybody that knows.
Speaker A:I mean, and I have retail storefronts too.
Speaker A:And I can't compete with the Internet.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I'm not trying.
Speaker A:I can't always.
Speaker A:I can't compete with it.
Speaker A:But you can't go into the Internet store here in town and lay your hands on it and look at it.
Speaker A:And see what it's like or take it over to my gun range and shoot it in the gun range.
Speaker A:I mean so there's.
Speaker C:So you're, there's pros and cons and I tell customers all the time I said, you know, depends on.
Speaker C:I'm not.
Speaker C:I don't begrudge you for looking for a deal.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Necessarily.
Speaker C:But keep in mind if, if, if what I offer is not of value to you.
Speaker C:Okay, I get it.
Speaker C:And that's fine.
Speaker C:And you can, don't dismiss them because you can all.
Speaker C:You may win them over in time, but I'll just say that, that the time they need that help and they bought it on the Internet and they come to you, you.
Speaker C:You have an opportunity to win them back.
Speaker C:You're not a jerk.
Speaker B:And I'll.
Speaker B:And I'll just throw a pro because you mentioned the gun range.
Speaker B:High caliber gun range.
Speaker B:I44 bacon switch.
Speaker B:And you take the bacon switch road exit.
Speaker B:Outstanding.
Speaker B:Indoor gun range.
Speaker B:Outstanding.
Speaker B:Very, very top notch.
Speaker C:Very nice air cleaning system.
Speaker C:And everything is just a nice.
Speaker B:It's a great place to shoot and it doesn't matter what the weather's doing outside.
Speaker A:That's correct.
Speaker B:You got a climate controlled place to go shoot and it's great.
Speaker A:It's fun.
Speaker A:I hate the mosquitoes and the gnats.
Speaker A:Much better than that.
Speaker B:It's a whole lot better than that.
Speaker B:Wichita County Precinct to Commissioner Mickey Fincannon has been our guest.
Speaker B:Commissioner, thanks for being with us.
Speaker B:We appreciate it very much.
Speaker B:Look forward to having you back.
Speaker B:And it's a lot of good information.
Speaker B:Lots of information.
Speaker B:Thank you very much, guys.
Speaker B:Stay tuned.
Speaker B:We'll be back and wrap it up here on Get It Right Tech Selma in just a moment.
Speaker B:All right guys, welcome back to Get It Right Texoma with the duo.
Speaker B:Yes, normally the trio.
Speaker B:That's just a Duke Trey will be back with us in a couple of weeks or something.
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker C:But anyway, that great information from Commissioner.
Speaker B:Yes, yes, very much so.
Speaker B:And obviously if you, if you want to reach out to him, you need to do so through the county website.
Speaker B:You can reach him that way.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker B:You just search for Mickey Fin can.
Speaker B:Which are county commissioner and it'll take you.
Speaker B:You'll find his email.
Speaker B:He is, you know, again, like he said, you know, we're 55, 60% there.
Speaker B:It's not, it's not.
Speaker B:It's not a guaranteed deal yet.
Speaker B:Yeah, not yet.
Speaker B:There's still, there's still some hurdles to clear.
Speaker B:But it does sound like something that particularly from A tax based perspective has the potential to really benefit Wichita County.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And more specifically Burke Burnett.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Oh yeah, just the peel.
Speaker C:Although it's probably not a high main.
Speaker C:I mean there's not gonna be a lot of staff, small staff to maintain.
Speaker C:But tax base will help from all the way Burke all the way down the entire county.
Speaker B:The whole county will benefit from it.
Speaker C:And then it's also part of infrastructure which then will benefit in the long term for businesses coming into town.
Speaker B:We want to thank you for joining us again.
Speaker B:Our website get itrighttechsona.com be sure to check out our Facebook page like and share that.
Speaker B:And if you haven't again, if you have not subscribed to our YouTube channel, you need to do that.
Speaker B:So make sure you do that.
Speaker C:And if you, if you're into the audio podcast.
Speaker C:Sorry.
Speaker C:Or if you just don't have, I mean driving and watching YouTube probably not the best thing.
Speaker C:So you can do the audio part just by going to Apple Podcasts as probably a lot of people are going to have.
Speaker C:But if you go to our website, get it right techsoma.com you're going to see have all the different links for the various MP3 or not MP3 but the podcast platforms as well as the link to the YouTube channel.
Speaker C:So you can share that page and, and let people know those are MP4s.
Speaker C:The MP.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:MPEG4.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Video.
Speaker C:Well it's actually, well the, it's really a kind of proprietary format on, on YouTube.
Speaker A:But yeah.
Speaker C:Oh you know, sorry.
Speaker C:But yes, YouTube is where we're at.
Speaker C:And then now I am actually trying to look into Rumble trying to figure out.
Speaker C:I have, I, I've not researched in a while but some reason I was trying to figure out why we.
Speaker C:What's so hard about it.
Speaker C:But it's not just like you go to YouTube you can just start publishing.
Speaker C:But on Rumble there's a process.
Speaker C:I don't know what it is a little more complicated handshake, secret handshake.
Speaker C:I don't know yet.
Speaker C:I'm still working on that.
Speaker B:Oh gosh.
Speaker B: downtown Wichita Falls since: Speaker B:You know, if you're looking for side by sides they sell Hustler mowers.
Speaker A:Oh yeah.
Speaker C:I've got mine, got mine from there.
Speaker B:They got, they've got their new.
Speaker B:I don't, I can't remember the name of the Robomower.
Speaker C:Yeah, I forget the brand.
Speaker C:Yeah but he's working on that.
Speaker C:Yes, that'd be cool.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:But my.
Speaker C:I don't know if it would work real well for my large land.
Speaker C:Although it could.
Speaker B:I just want.
Speaker B:Can it detect the cow patties?
Speaker C:Oh well, I don't have any cattle myself but it falls in the big holes that are put by some critter out there.
Speaker C:Yeah, I don't know but.
Speaker C:But those guys will know.
Speaker C:So go see them.
Speaker B:Full details on their whole whole inventory.
Speaker B:Every line they carried.
Speaker B: olutions podcast studios were: Speaker B:Maktech Solutions, your Apple authorized service provider.
Speaker C:And small business technology expert.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:So if you're looking for a business to business relationship you need technology in your business.
Speaker B:You need to upgrade, you need to.
Speaker C:Update, you need to phones, Windows, Macs, iPads, iPhones, whatever you need help with, we do it right here.
Speaker B: MacTech Solutions: Speaker B:For those of you local area it's still called that the sign still up there.
Speaker B:Anyway so anyway and they're open Monday through Friday 10am to 6pm Monday through Friday.
Speaker B:Maktech-solutions.com also brought to you by Lollipop Sweet Shop your online bakery lmp lp suite.com the website and on Facebook Lolli and Pop Sweet Shop L O L L I E and Pops Sweet Shop.
Speaker B:And you can also find our products now also at Country Blooms and Gifts and boutique.
Speaker C:Here's their website.
Speaker B:There it is right there.
Speaker C:And then you can go and learn a little bit about it.
Speaker C:But they probably have a lot more information going on the their Facebook page.
Speaker C:Just go there and check it out.
Speaker C:They looks like they keep it up to date.
Speaker C:So yeah go check them out and get your.
Speaker C:If you want a sample and and see what's going on.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:We've got.
Speaker B:We've got our famous chocolate chip cookies there.
Speaker B:Our pecan pie by the slice is available there as well.
Speaker B:King cakes when we can get them done.
Speaker B:I mean that's, that's been a.
Speaker B:We've been busy with king cakes and hard to keep up with them but we do do king cake slices occasionally as well.
Speaker B:Also they've been stocking the cinnamon sugar King cake which has been really popular.
Speaker B:That's been the most popular flavor.
Speaker B:Can't keep them in stock.
Speaker B: address real real quick here: Speaker C:Oh or it's otherwise known as Daniels Road.
Speaker A:Or.
Speaker B:No, I'm sorry.
Speaker B:1971 Daniels Road is the official address.
Speaker B:It's at the corner of Highway 240 and Daniels.
Speaker B:So if you go down 240 past Shepherd Air Force Base, headed toward Burke Burnett, when you get to Daniels, it's right there in front of you.
Speaker B:You can't miss it.
Speaker B:You can't miss it.
Speaker B:And we appreciate their partnership with Lollie and Pop Sweet Shop as well.
Speaker B:Guys, thank you for joining us.
Speaker B:Again, get a right techsoma.com and on Facebook, get a right Texoma.
Speaker B:Be sure and like and share this podcast with everybody you know.
Speaker B:Until next time, you guys take care.
Speaker B:We shall see you on the road.
