It’s been a month, and no, I have not received an apology from the Grant County Quorum Court. Maybe tonight. The court meets again at 6 p.m.

At last month’s meeting, Justice of the Peace Scott Wells asked County Judge Randy Pruitt for an update on the proposed data center. The project is seldom on the court’s agenda, but for the last several meetings a JP, usually Wells, has asked about it. By one estimate in emails I obtained, it could cost $8 billion to $12 billion.

Bill Margrave, a Grant County resident, then asked Pruitt whether citizens could have a copy of the “ask” list of community projects that had come up.

“It has been all over … everywhere,” Pruitt said.

Justice of the Peace Mike Nevens then looked at me and said, “You’ve gotten it twice, haven’t you?”

What is “it”? A chart that calls for nearly $57 million in up-front payments and $12.4 million a year to entities in Grant County, all tied to the tax abatement a data center could receive.

I wrote a letter to Pruitt and Nevens about that moment. You can read it here:

At that meeting, Pruitt also told Margrave there are five people he no longer talks to, and that Margrave is one of them. I wondered if I was on that list. I’m not, apparently. Pruitt has answered my questions, and you’ll find his answers below.

First, the citizens of Grant County deserve to know exactly what this “copy” is that Nevens told everyone I have.

I first published the chart in a July 24 story you may have missed. It was part of a presentation at an Association of Arkansas Counties event, where Pruitt, Nevens and George Murray were on the agenda. Murray is a Grant County resident who has advised Pruitt on the project, though I’m still not sure whether that was through an official or unofficial committee. The story included a downloadable PDF of the presentation. The story is still up. The PDF is not. You can read it here:

I took the PDF down in late August after I found an email from Murray in an inbox I don’t often check.

In that email, Murray threatened to send me a cease-and-desist letter and to sue me for publishing the presentation. He said he created it, he owned it, and he had the metadata to prove it. He sent it from a Grant County Facts email account.

When I pointed out that I had received the presentation from Pruitt’s office under FOIA, Murray called me a “social media influencer.” I’ve been called worse. Trust me.

I know how hard it is to build a slide deck, and I didn’t want a fight over it. So, yes, I took it down.

My parents taught me to be polite, so I asked Murray if he wanted to grab coffee. He declined. I’m paraphrasing because I don’t want to use his words, but he said he has not been treated very nicely in Sheridan and was rethinking his decision to move to Grant County.

Hey, I get it. I haven’t always been treated nicely either, but I shrug it off and keep pedaling, as my mom always told me to do.

Pruitt later told me Murray hasn’t advised him since early July.

All of that got me thinking. So I dug into the treasure trove of FOIA documents I received from Pruitt’s office in mid-July and started asking around Sheridan about the chart. That’s a story for another time.

I’m not going to show you the chart, because I don’t want to be threatened again. But since Nevens told a room full of people that I have it, I feel obligated to tell you what’s in it.

What’s in the chart

The two-page document is titled “Tax Abatement Investment Table” and carries the heading “Sheridan Data Center Project Investment Considerations.”

It lists 15 numbered categories of spending. Each has a location, a description, a one-time lump-sum amount, a yearly amount, the length of the yearly payments, and an “abate percent” column. Every entry in that last column reads “TBD.” The bottom of the column reads “45% Max.”

In total, the chart calls for $56.9 million in one-time payments and $12.4 million in annual payments. The yearly line items I added up come to $12.15 million. The $250,000 difference matches the AI center’s equipment money, which the chart lists roughly every five years rather than yearly.

A note under the totals says the one-time money would be due when the Act 9 agreement is signed. That agreement is the bond and payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal used to grant the tax abatement. The annual money would be due every Jan. 1.

A second note says the yearly operating payments would rise 3.5% a year starting after the third year of operation. Most of the annual payments would last for the “abatement duration,” meaning as long as the tax break is in effect.

The items, in the order the chart lists them:

•       Grant County Unified Community Resource Council: $500,000 up front and $250,000 a year. The chart describes it as a Sheridan nonprofit that recently lost about $250,000 in yearly state and federal funding.

•       Sheridan Fire Department: $4.65 million up front and $900,000 a year, across five line items:

–      $3 million for a new west-side fire station with an emergency medical bay and dispatch

–      $1 million for a new fire truck

–      $650,000 for a training facility the chart says would serve all Grant County fire departments

–      $475,000 a year to staff and operate the new west-side station

–      $425,000 a year in operations support for the existing station

•       Little Creek water pump station upgrade: $3 million up front and $400,000 a year.

•       Sheridan waterworks and wastewater upgrades, including 24-hour wastewater discharge: $3.75 million.

•       Four-field Little League baseball and softball complex in Sheridan: $5 million.

•       “AI Vocational Technology Center” in Sheridan: $3 million for a building, $250,000 a year for staffing, curriculum and operating costs, and another $250,000 roughly every five years to replace outdated computer equipment. The chart says those replacements would coincide with upgrades at the data center.

•       Sheridan airport: $8 million for runway expansion and renovation.

•       Sheridan 24-hour emergency medical facility: $3 million up front and $750,000 a year to co-fund or offset the cost of an emergency room.

•       “Resident Inconvenience Program”: $2.5 million in lump-sum compensation to homes surrounding and next to the site, plus $350,000 a year into what the chart calls a property value protection fund.

•       “Local Infrastructure Assistance Program”: Five communities would get immediate improvements and yearly contributions to offset infrastructure costs. The program totals $9.7 million up front and $1.55 million a year.

–      Sheridan: $4.7 million up front and $550,000 a year

–      Prattsville: $1.2 million

–      Poyen: $1.2 million

–      Leola: $1.5 million

–      Tull: $1.1 million

–      Prattsville, Poyen, Leola and Tull would also each receive $250,000 a year.

•       Poyen High School: $1.5 million in renovations, which the chart describes as work Grant County cannot currently afford.

•       “Grant County Property Tax Reduction Program”: $7.5 million every year in a lump sum intended to lower county residents’ tax bills. It is the largest annual item.

•       Local hiring and purchasing targets: 25% local content for building the data center, covering labor, contractors and suppliers, and 20% for its ongoing operations, covering staffing and supply contractors. No dollar amounts are attached, and the chart says the calculation is still to be determined.

•       Sheridan High School baseball and softball complex: $12 million. It is the largest one-time payment.

•       Grant County Inclusive Support Family Empowerment Foundation: $300,000 up front and $200,000 a year. The chart describes it as a new county charity supporting young people with Down syndrome and autism.

That’s the chart.

Is it final? I didn’t know, so I asked Pruitt. His answer came Oct. 6:

“The give/get list is a working document to be used as a negotiation tool,” he wrote in an email. “This list could change if negotiations move forward. You have the most updated copy.”