The Truesdale Board voted to approve the new Boone Ridge Manor subdivision at their May 8 meeting following a presentation from Cochran Engineering on the housing development during a previous meeting. 

The Boone Ridge Manor subdivision is being constructed between Pinkney and Water Street and will include 64 new homes. The development is to be predominantly custom built homes. 

Construction is not set to begin until fall of this year. 

The board also heard from Chris Callan of Cascades Plastics about their second annual volunteer initiative. Last year, employees did highway cleanups and Callan was inquiring about whether they would be able to do the same this year. 

“We’re looking to replicate that in 2024 and build it out even more, so if there’s something that we can do besides the highway cleanup, we want to know about it,” Callan said. 

He was also interested in other volunteer opportunities for the group, and asked the mayor and board members to reach out if they had any other ideas. Mayor Jerry Cannon offered volunteer opportunities at Railroad Days as a possible solution. 

While Callan was open to the idea, Railroad Days will fall outside of their volunteer week dates and would not necessarily be a part of the company initiative. Callan was still open to providing volunteer services. 

Cannon went on to say that he has been conducting preparations of his own for Railroad Days and planned to meet with several longtime Truesdale residents to interview them on the town’s history. 

“We’re going to spend that morning of May 14 interviewing lifelong Truesdale residents for the history portion of Railroad Days,” Cannon said. 

He felt it was important to acknowledge the town’s history and invited other board members to join him for the interviews if they were interested. 

Alderman Mike Thomas reported from his meeting with the Warren County Economic Development Council and said that Gary Carter had been approached by a developer looking to lease his land to build a datacenter. 

“He has 1 acres there and he was contacted by a representative for the Economic Development Council, and there is a datacenter firm that’s interested in utilizing 10 of those 15 acres for a modular data center,” Thomas said. 

The land is located near the Heritage Hills subdivision and the datacenter would likely be used to mine cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. 

Thomas said Carter reached out to him and while he thought it seemed like a sound business decision, he wanted to make sure it would not adversely affect his neighbors and wanted the developer to go before the board before they moved any further. 

City Clerk Elsa Smith-Fernandez updated board members on the Planning and Zoning Commission’s work on the city’s new comprehensive plan and zoning code. The city has been working with PDAG Planners to update their regulations, work that seems all the more necessary as development continues to reach the area. 

Dustin Loeffler, the owner of GG Sports Park, had spoken at previous board meetings about his desire to construct a motocross track on property that he owns adjacent to the paintball complex. 

Loeffler had previously made himself available at a public hearing where there was intense feedback, both in support of and against the development. 

Loeffler told board members that he was not going to move forward with development yet and would ask for their approval at a later meeting.