The Local Industrial Development Authority of Irwin County on August 18, 2026, apparently for the first time. Supposedly there are nine members, but they were not all present.

They didn’t say anything until the very end about datacenters, which was why this board was formed. This meeting was entirely about attorney, officers, bylaws, training required by the state, and next meeting: 8 AM, Tuesday, September 8, 2026.

Local Development Authority of Irwin County 2026-08-22, Apparently its first meeting, Maybe appointed July 6

This Authority was approved by the Irwin County Commission on June 3, 2026.

As near as I can tell, the members were appointed at the July 6 County Commission meeting. I cannot find any agenda nor minutes on the Irwin County website for that July meeting.

Will Spicer sent this report and video from the August 18 meeting. My edits are marked with [square brackets].

The video:

https://youtu.be/_6cc70LBtFE

The report:

All,

I went to the inaugural meeting of the Development Authority of Irwin County tonight. It was held in a small board room in a building about 1 block from the hospital. I gather this space belongs to the Hospital Authority and it is used for hospital board meetings.

In attendance were [7 of 9 of the new board’s members. Clockwise from the end of the table: Vince Thompson, Chair of the Irwin County Commission; Walter Hudson, chair of the Hospital Board; Warren Manley, Pharmacist; Ken Woodwards, tractor salesman; ? Middlebrooks, retired from USDA; DW Harper, local businesman; Scott Hudson, farmer in town, recently elected to Board of Education.] Of the 2 absent members, I only caught Paige Wynn as the name.

Guests included [Lydia Cook, Ponderosa Road, Irwinville; Will Spicer; Suzanne Estes, Hospital Board; Becky Cook, Finance Committee; Blake Robinson; and Kevin Sackenheim]. Before the meeting I asked Suzanne if this was the “new” industrial authority or the “old” one. She said it was the “new” one and it was responsible for development projects in unincorporated areas of Irwin County. That means everything outside of Ocilla. She said the other authority still exists.

The attorney from the law firm in Macon who represents the county was in attendance by phone. His name sounded like “James Banter”.

[Yes, James Banter of James, Bates, Brannan, Groover of Macon, GA, is the Irwin County Attorney.]

Kevin videoed the meeting.

The 3 agenda items were adoption of an attorney, adoption of the bylaws and election of the officers.

The bylaws are said to be “boilerplate”. I have a copy and I will scan them sometime this week and share. The attorney answered several questions about how the authority would operate, what in-service/education requirements are required for board members and advised the members to go ahead and choose a lawyer (seemingly, him) so that any further questions at the meeting would be considered advice by the authority’s legal counsel. The members voted to make his firm the authority’s counsel.

The members adopted the bylaws.

The members tabled a decision on election of officers until Tuesday, September [8]th, so that all member could be there. Mr Thompson said that at this Sept meeting they could begin to discuss how to proceed with the “big deal”.

The called for community comment and I asked Mr Thompson if the “big deal” was the DC. He said yes and that the discussion would be a general one on how to set the parameters on how this and any other future industrial developments might be approached.

The meeting adjourned.

I will figure out how to transfer the video to John. He said he will put the video on the WWALS webpage.

I am going to try to be at the next meeting, too.

Will

Here’s the notice of this meeting that was in a popup on the county’s website:

PUBLIC NOTICE OF CALLED MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the Development Authority of Irwin County will hold a called meeting as follows:

Date Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Time 6:00 p.m.

Location 602 North Irwin Avenue, Ocilla, Georgia 31774

Purpose To consider and vote on the Authority’s bylaws

The meeting is open to the public.

They have old agendas here:

https://irwincounty-ga.gov/county-commission-meetings/

But no minutes that I have found.

Irwin County BOCC: Paul McIntyre (1), Chris Paulk (4), Vince Thompson (Chair), Aldene Tyson (3), Don Hickey (2 on the phone), 2026-05-20 –jsq for WWALS, plus County Attorney James Banter, end of table

For much more about datacenters, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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