Dave Casotti, Boone Mayor, September 22, 2026

Today, we're going to take time and visit with Mayor Dave Cassotti, who just happened to roll a note. He was coming here anyway. I've been here a couple of minutes. Just a little bit. Again, Mayor, another full council meeting, and a lot of different things. We'll go right to the one that where most of the conversation came, and that had to do with the possibility that LightEdge may select Boone as a site for one of their facilities. A lot of people just call it data centers, and then you ask the question, what do you mean by data center? Right. Are you talking big ones or anyway? So there's a lot of different variables in here, but you did have a number of people that wanted to talk about it, but you had both sides, those that supported it and those that were opposed. We did. Yep, it was about 50-50. And I'll just real quick clarify too, because there has been some conversation of people don't like them calling it a co-location center, because it is a data center. Well, it is a data center, but a co-location is a type of data center, and I won't go into the big details, but... It's semantics. Yeah, it is, but it is truly a co-location center, but it's a small data center. Basically, it's data storage. Right. It's not even a data center. Data storage. Right. Yep. Again, semantics. Here we go. Yep. So, but the bottom line is, yeah, you did have both sides, and the one thing you pointed out was really, counsel, not much they could say about it wasn't on your agenda. It wasn't. And we are not the experts. We don't have all the facts. We have some that, you know, we've heard, but it's, well, that's why we thought it'd be better to let the experts, you know, from a light and from light-edge answer the questions versus us trying to get through them. It'd be like me right now trying to explain the whole thing. It's, I know quite a bit right now, more than I knew. I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot recently. So, but yeah, we'd rather have the correct answer given out, and that's why we did it that way. So. I mean, a lot of different things kept getting brought up. And again, you had them explain some of the differences, like what, you know, most of what people think about are the mega things, the hundreds of acres, and a lot of resources are taken. Obviously, it takes power, but I don't know if you've had a chance to go tour of any of their things, but a lot of people have gone to visit El Tuna, the site down there. I got down there and walked through it. Yeah. Very nice facility. Again, been there 25 years. Yep. And like you and I, I don't know if you did, but I didn't even know it existed until this came up and said, would you like to come down and take a tour or so? Well, anyways, so they have not made a decision yet. That's the one thing we know. Correct. Yep. But Economic Growth, which is Boone County Economic Growth Corporation, and they are the ones that own the property and have made a proposal to them to sell it, which we definitely add to your taxes. That's a tax base. Yes. That's the big, the big plus that would come out of it. I mean, and I'll just tell you, Jim, I've, I've listened to them. I've looked at everything and I don't know everything yet, but from what I've seen and heard, I cannot find a negative. And I know for most people, the whole thing's a negative because they just don't want one, but you have to look at everything and, and for what they're going to do and for the tax base that they will contribute to, I'm not finding a negative. The water use is not an issue. The power is not an issue. The sound isn't an issue. They're very conscientious of what they're building and how they do it. This is not one that basically the city would look at using their storage services may, because you don't want them all in the same town. Right. I think that's one of the things people are learning, but you want those separated that data backed up other places and you do have other areas where you use. I mean, the city of Boone does, right? Yeah. Learning all this fun stuff. Yeah. People that do use them might use two of their locations because they want to back up just in case there's a natural disaster or something in one area, then they've still got it backed up elsewhere. So anyway, more yet to come. Now, I know one thing you and people wanted to know right away exactly when some sort of a public meeting was going to be held on this, obviously can't, you don't know. We don't have the date on that yet. It'll be in the next couple of weeks, I believe, but that will be, we'll get that out there. People know and we'll have it in a location where plenty of people can be there and attend. I'm guessing when it gets to a point where something might come to the council would be probably for site plan, I would venture to guess and because it would be built within the city and even if it is in the business park, it's zoned for it. Correct. We also know that probably if they do go with a minimum assessment, there would be a development agreement. They're not asking for anything. They're not asking for any incentives, no tax abatements, nothing. They're not asking for one thing from us to help them come in. So that's the other plus. That's another bonus. But we'll see what happens. Yeah. We've got a ways to go. Yeah. You have to get picked first. We do. Yep. We'll see. Hey, some things you did get picked for and that was last night we did have a couple of different things that came up. First of all, the public hearing on the high-service pump improvements. This is part of the project going on with improvements down at the Water Works Northwestern Town to basically get water to town. So this again is all part of planned development work that's going on. We've got that going. Yeah. We've got that part done. And then a voluntary annexation of a portion of the industrial park. This started many years ago. Right. Way before me. This is just one that went in, I think mid-states. That area in particular is the one that's coming in this segment. Yep. Mid-states. And they've got graduated tax increases and stuff. Right. Correct. Yeah. So that's part of the agreements that worked out back then. Let's go with a few of the other things. We do have a contract now or we'll be having a contract for the painting of the Water Tower, the industrial park. And this is something that had been planned. Like if Wayland Andrews wanted to emphasize this is not part of DAISY, this is our regular maintenance. Correct. Yep. That was just going to say regular maintenance. And kind of the bummer part of it is we can't put a logo on it. We found out the FAA says, no, you can't put a logo on it. So it's still going to look the same. We were going to change the paint scheme, but and it is painted inside and out, which is interesting. But yeah, it'll look pretty much the same, only new or newer. New paint. New paint cleaned up and done that regular routine. Yeah. Well, if it wasn't like at the end of the runway kind of thing. That makes a difference. Yeah. What? People to see it there. Yeah. When you know that. Anyway, that's going on. One of the other things. You did sit in a little bit on the utility committee meeting and they do have some things that are going on with the Ground Story Reservoir and again, work is not quite completed, but it did pretty much you're hoping it is, I guess is a good way to say that. But you've got some leak and we don't know exactly where it's coming from or we got a spring that developed or something. Something yep. There's a little bit of bubbling coming up. So the contractors will go in and and try to figure that out. If it's something that they missed initially, then that's on them and they'll come back in and get that fixed. So yeah, there's more to be done out there, not a lot, but some I'll just give the quick heads up now that what happened this summer with brown water and so forth, that happened because of what they had to do with the Ground Water Reservoir. They drain all the water out of it and they may have to drain it again and if they do, we will make sure everyone knows when so that they can expect that it's probably not going to happen to the degree that it did or at least we hope it's not, but there's a good chance that could stir up some sediments again off the liners of the pipes. Every time you take off one of those, we're part of the pressure and the water flow is coming from and you make a change in direction, you get sediment get stirred up. You do. But we'll let everybody know if we're going to do that. Once we find out, once it gets dry enough that they can do something, so right now they have decided it is just too wet to even get started on. It is. So we'll see what happens with that one. A couple of other things that came up early on part of the meeting. I guess we'll just go along with the others and come back to the one I thought was really cool. I know you want to talk about that. That one is cool. But we do know that we got Citywide Cleanup is coming up and I'm guessing, let me look at my calendar here, but you will be here the first week of it. You'll be coming to visit with us beginning of October. So that Citywide Cleanup coming, I know Waylon Andrews mentioned that, but some of the street painting and everything got taken care of and got a few odds and ends to do there. Yeah. And Mother Nature, not cooperating. No. They've got to go back and hit some spots where there's a parked car and they can't paint, so they'll go back and hit those and, yeah, a few spots. Mike Cornelis did talk about the Park Board, did go ahead and approve a contract now for the hazardous tree removal. Yep. Big challenge. Again, only so many dollars and they try to get out as many as they can with the dollars they have available. Yep. About three dozen and they're usually pretty bad shape when they get it, go in and take them out. So just under $26,000 contract for that. We do have, what else? Oh, well, the Chief did talk about the Fire Chief Justin Adams about the fire yesterday morning. Oh, yeah. Had a lot of people stepped up to help out with that. One question that came up and was brought to the council and that was from Express Shipping and Marissa Wolfgram. They wanted to make a, put a sign up or use the digital electronic sign that's that fourth in story. Yep. And put in there about letters to Santa, drop off. Part of it is the requirements are nonprofits. Correct. Well, this would be a business and so the question was how would the council work with them on it? We came up with, we think it's a solution. Yeah. Because I think it's a neat idea. They'll put, we'll have something, well, whatever we'll figure out how to do it, but the, or how, what exactly it'll say, but it'll, it'll be an advertisement for that for the letters for Santa, but it will give the address where to go. It just won't have their company name on it. Now obviously when they go there, they'll see the company, but, but we can't advertise not, if they're not a nonprofit, we can't advertise on there. So that's just one of the guidelines that cities got in place on that. Yep. And then of course the ever popular question, well, what do you do with the letters when you get? Give them to Santa. That was my answer, but I was sitting in the audience. That's right. That's right where they got to go. Yeah. He did have, and this, I know there were a couple other things that came up, but I did want, I know you want to talk about sleeping heavenly peace because those guys came in and everybody's kind of going, well, who are you and what do you want? Because mostly when people come to the council, it's, they want something and they didn't want anything. They just wanted to spread the word. Yep. And it was neat how they started out. It was almost like a shark tank presentation and yeah, very good guys and that, that program is fantastic where they build beds. I don't know if you wanted me to touch on that for you, but yeah, they build beds for, for kids. I believe they said from ages three to seven, I kind of couldn't hear real good. The first guy, but the second guy was really vocal. But I think beds from three to seven and it's not, they said it's not based on any type of an income or anything like that. It's if, if anyone out there knows of any kids that need a bed, let them know. They, you know, they weren't asking for anything from us. They just wanted us to help get the word out. So we're doing that right now and I know I'll take that brochure they gave us and take it to our church and say, hey, put this out. If kids need beds, they, there's a group of guys that do it and it's fantastic and they build quite a few beds a year. They do it for, I know these guys do it for Story and Boone County and they've done some for Boone and some for Ogden and it's just a great program. What they do, they provide the bed, the mattress, the sheets, the pillow, the pillowcases and a, and many, many times a blanket or a quilt. It's a quilt. Yeah. So, so, and for those quilt makers, a lot of them make it available to them too. So it's great. And what do they say, they really, for the Boone Story County area, Bob Olinger is kind of headed it up here locally, but he's from Ames and he just, it was one of those things he got involved with and they've done, what, 400 beds, I think they said. Yeah, something like that. That is. But it's, yeah, it's neat. I mean, what a great thing and, yeah. So, and everybody's kind of sitting there going, but we don't want any money. Yeah. Nothing at all. Let's get the word out. So, spread the word. Yeah. And that's another one I'm going on. Well, we did get our ordinance, first reading of an ordinance and this one is one that you, you also brought up some comments about, but had to, had people raising complaints again about e-scooters, electric bikes and those sorts of things. City did take a look at our public safety committee had actually gone ahead with this and got an ordinance that was basically brought forward by Chief Weebold. Basically the Ankeny ordinance that City Attorney Rafe Montague did modify to fit Boone. And bottom line is you get the ordinance in there, but you said the problem is what do we do with enforcement and how do we, how do we go ahead here? Are we going to be doing speed traps on kids on e-scooters or what's going to happen? I know that's the challenge and Chief Weebold emphasized it's all about public safety first. Yes. You put out a plea. Yeah. My parents. I'll do it again since I've got the microphone, but I'll put the parents and guardians teach your kids the rules of the road and we've got to keep them safe. The stop signs aren't just for cars, so they've just got to be conscientious of other traffic on the roads and the sidewalks and we don't want to give any children tickets. I know the police don't and they're not going to go out. I know that you're joking, but we're not going to set up speed traps, but they're not going to, you know, they're not just going to go looking for kids to give tickets to, but we've got to, we've got to enforce that and enforce their thought process that, you know, you've got to be safe and watch traffic. There are times when you get multiple, at least when the weather was nice in the summertime, you'd get three, four, the e-scooters going down the road at the same time and out on the traveled portion of the road. Some of them move at a pretty good rate of speed. So we've had a couple of accidents, fortunately nothing too serious. Right. We've had a few. We want to avoid the serious ones for sure. You are not the only city doing this by the way. No, there's a lot of them looking at it right now. Matt did their first one last night, first consideration on it last night as well. So I know one of the things, we did wrap up Pufferbilly, your first time mayor for Pufferbilly. So got to ride in the parade and everything. I ran out of candy. I apologized to all those kids out there. It's a skill knowing how to pace yourself with that, isn't it? Yeah. You get so, you get so busy right away in the beginning. Yep. You kind of forget it's a long parade. That's exactly what happened. And I didn't have enough that I don't think anyways, but I'll know next year. He's ready this time. That's right. But again, weather challenge, but still, even with during Supernations, weather challenges, we've had a lot of them. The heat of Farm Progress show, but all the city staff personnel seem to do as much as they could. Yep. Yep. I think everything went well. I mean, it was drizzly Saturday night down there. Sunday was just dreary, or Sunday, Friday, when I went down to the car show and I didn't make it out tart in the park. My wife did, but I don't think it rained then either. My aunt might have rained early, but missed in Dresel. Yeah. So, you know, Mother Nature didn't cooperate quite as well, but at least it was cool. It wasn't. It wasn't 100 degrees, so the triple digit heat index or anything, so we had that going on. One of the other comments, and I did want to bring this up because I know you've been keeping track of it too, but during the public comment time and you had actually gotten a letter from one of the residents of town, but the public comment was to make public comment. Well, one of his comments or his comments, specifically looking at the projects that are going on now associated with Daisy, the size of them, knew that they were going to be expensive and estimates from four, three, four years ago, obviously a lot different than what we're running into on the bids right now and stuff. I think even Wayland Andrews brought it up, getting water meters. The water meters that the city gets now, now you've got to cover the cost of the tariff and all the things that are associated with that. So again, a lot of these costs are going up a lot higher than originally expected. They are. I know you weren't involved in all the early stuff of it, but those got to raise some concerns. Yeah, I get in on the end of it, the fun part where the prices go up, which yeah, it's not, I mean, but we have to do it and it's not like I don't, we're not being price gouged. It's just things go up and they've gone up a lot. A lot and it's just, our hands are kind of tied. We've got to get this all done and it's not all just for Daisy. It's also for the other housing developments that we've got going up and for more houses and so forth. So there are challenges, there are, there are definitely challenges, but we'll get through it. We'll get it done and part of it as you're getting into that time of the year now, this will be the first one where you really get to sit down and be part of overall budget preparation. Right. So, again, the question is, you know, like first street, we had an engineering kerfuffle, you like that snafu, whatever, but we had an engineering issue, but now they're on pace to have their project up this year. Still have that money. Yeah. I mean, you have the money for it. Yeah. See what the bids come in like. Right. But at the same time, you're starting to take a look at the very next project because usually it's been every other year that looked at road projects. I know everybody would love to, they don't want to pay the property taxes to do it, but they would all love to have a lot of road stuff. Right. Yep. There's, somehow we have to pay for them. That's the weird part. Well, we use a state fund or dollars that we get. Right. We only get so many dollars a year. Right. Yep. So, and then if they want to limit the gas tax, which is another thing, do we want to do that to reduce the gas prices and then not have the money to do road projects? Right, man. Yeah. Yeah. We've got to get the roads done. And it's, yeah. Prioritized. Prioritized. Yep. That's the big challenge. Yep. Can't do them all. Nope. I wish we could, but. Coming up, obviously Citywide Cleanup is going to be the next one. I'm pretty sure someone's going to come along sooner or later and ask you when's Halloween or trick or treating. Right. Yeah. I'll talk to you very quickly, but yeah, I haven't even thought about Halloween yet. That's a long ways away. He's got so many other. Yeah. We got a lot of other things in between. Yeah. In the meantime, really, because some committee meetings coming up, but we made it through basically your month of September. So next regular council meeting coming up on the 5th. Yeah. And if I could real quick, just with the end here, I want to, I want to thank everybody again that was involved with Puffer Billy Days, the Chamber for, you know, they're the ones that run it. But all the volunteers. I know there's a ton of volunteers. It's, it was similar to Raghbri. They had a ton of volunteers and we couldn't do it without them. So a huge thank you to all the volunteers and everyone involved. So got that. I'm just getting rid of something. Nevermind. Oh, okay. No, good. Yeah. And obviously if we could have had sunny weather, I would have done that. Right. I was not in my purview. Yeah. I thought you were in charge of that this year. Well, all I know is the middle of Saturday, hand car racing thing, it got a little steamy out there when that sun came out. Yeah. Yeah. It was a challenge. Anyway, thanks for taking time to come in today. Thank you, Jim.