Lincoln County Commissioner Teri Bowers stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Monday, September 22. Commissioner Bowers discussed impact funding that is beginning to enter Lincoln County and municipalities and also the creation of the Lincoln Star Improvement and Service District.

(0:00) Joining me live in studio this morning is Lincoln County Commissioner Terry Bowers with the monthly (0:04) report from the commission. Good morning, Commissioner Bowers. How are you today? (0:08) I’m great.

Thank you, Duke. (0:09) I appreciate your time as always for coming in studio. And you know, there’s every time we (0:13) talk to the commission, there’s about 500 million things we could discuss always a lot going on.

(0:18) But I noticed in the in the last commission meeting, there was a lot of talk about impact (0:23) funding. And I know that’s something that’s been in the works for a while. Sounds like it might (0:26) kind of be finalized.

Just start from the beginning. Tell us what this impact funding is. (0:32) For projects in the past 18 months, TerraPower, two Toronto plants, (0:38) Dry Creek and Project West, and currently Dry Piney by LaBarge.

First, the first three (0:44) projects have already secured over 21 million in impact assistance to Lincoln County and its (0:49) municipalities. The county just received the first of 60 payments for 180,000 from the TerraPower (0:56) impact. Additionally, TerraPower will be paying over 5 million a year for the next five years (1:02) in sales tax that all the municipalities and the county get to share based on population.

(1:08) This is a this is good for everyone in Lincoln County. Dry Creek will begin in December of 2026 (1:15) and Project West will begin in December of 2025. So that is when we can expect to start receiving (1:21) impact assistance for these projects.

The current project, Dry Piney Helium Plant by LaBarge, (1:28) will finish impact assistance the end of October and could bring another 11 million to Lincoln (1:34) County and impacted municipalities starting in April of 2026. Okay, so it’s some significant (1:40) funding. That sounds like it’s going to be spread out for quite some time.

Yes. (1:46) Does this money have to be used for anything specific or where does it go? (1:51) Well, it’s going to go to like to help the municipalities and so forth like (1:56) public utilities, roads, medical services, fire and law enforcement, things like that. (2:02) Okay, so that’s kind of go for infrastructure and things that would be impacted by the growth, (2:05) right? Exactly.

Yes. Perfect. And so some payments have begun and you’re expecting to see these (2:12) continue to just kind of trickle in.

Yes. Yep. Trickling in there.

So. Okay. Lincoln County (2:17) Commissioner Terri Bowers in studio this morning on the weekday wake up.

Commissioner, I also (2:22) noticed in one of the recent meetings the creation of the Lincoln Star Improvement and Service (2:27) District. Tell us what this is. Okay, it’s Criterion Management is developing this non-taxing (2:33) district.

All landowners independently choose if they want to participate. The goal is to diversify (2:41) Lincoln County’s economic base while we have the opportunity so we are not strictly reliant on coal (2:47) power, oil, and gas, which have large swings in production and assessed values. The Improvement (2:53) Service District will be a vehicle for outside investors to support items like an asphalt and (3:00) red diesel plant near Opal and bringing agriculture back to the county with a feedlot, a cell barn, (3:06) and a production facility near Sage Junction just to start.

Okay, and so this is intriguing. So this (3:14) is different from Lincoln County Economic Development. It’s a completely different group (3:18) then.

But is it is it being run within the county or is this a separate private group? You said it’s (3:24) a non-tax district, right? So how does… Right. We’d probably need to talk to our chief of staff (3:30) a little bit more regarding that. I’m not really exactly sure.

Okay. Yeah. Just something starting (3:36) up here.

So just barely getting going. Yeah. Still kind of in the works.

Commissioner Terri (3:41) Bowers in studio this morning. Commissioner, anything else you’d like to mention that’s (3:45) happening in the county? No, there’s a lot going on, but I would just like to thank all the (3:49) wonderful citizens that live here that make Lincoln County a great place to reside. (3:53) And I’d really like to thank all the county employees that do all that they do to make (3:59) it a wonderful place to live.

That’s Lincoln County Commissioner Terri Bowers and Commissioner, (4:04) appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you.

It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning (4:07) on SVI Radio.