Barber County Approves Google Data Center

McPherson County Bans Data Centers, Battery Storage

Sedgwick County Weighs Third Data Center Pause

Topeka Man Arrested in Lawrence Stabbing

Wichita Records Driest July–August Since Dust Bowl

Barber County Approves Google Data Center

SHARON, Kan. — Barber County commissioners voted 2-0 Monday, Aug. 31, with one commissioner abstaining, to approve an agreement for Google’s first Kansas data center, a roughly 1.7-million-square-foot campus near Sharon. The company calls the project Project Helium, and the agreement requires the air-cooled facility to meet noise limits and prohibits Google from drilling or building a new water well on the property. Google projects about 500 permanent jobs and thousands of temporary construction jobs, and it agreed to pay applicable property taxes and $5.5 million in community-benefit payments intended to cover county construction costs. Local estimates place the potential property-tax yield near $10 million annually, but Kansas allows qualifying large data centers to claim exemptions for up to 20 years, making actual collections dependent on the exemptions Google claims. Residents raised competing views about water, noise and the project’s scale, and the approval makes Barber County the first in Kansas to accept a Google data center as other communities pursue bans, pauses or separate power arrangements.

KWCH · KSN · KAKE

McPherson County Bans Data Centers, Battery Storage

MCPHERSON, Kan. — McPherson County commissioners voted 3-0 Monday, Aug. 31, to ban data centers and utility-scale battery-storage facilities on county land outside city limits. Resolution 2026-21 also bars hydrogen energy systems except at refineries and ends a 13-month freeze imposed while the county studied the issues, held public meetings, shared more than 90 research documents and drew about 147 people to an Aug. 10 planning board hearing. The planning board recommended the ban on a 5-2 vote Aug. 17, and six of seven residents who addressed commissioners Monday supported action, while the owner of an existing data facility urged consideration of economic development. The broader zoning rewrite requires builders of new or expanded industrial or warehouse buildings larger than 10,000 square feet to disclose projected electricity use and details about backup generators, fuel tanks and cooling equipment, while new industrial land uses will require a public hearing and county approval. The ban has no expiration date unless a future commission reverses it, placing McPherson County among the first Kansas counties to prohibit the industry as others choose regulation or project-specific rules.

McPherson County Bans Data Centers and Utility-Scale Battery Storage

After a year of freezes, hearings and petitions, commissioners voted 3-0 to shut the door on data centers across rural McPherson County.

citizen journalGreg Loving

Sedgwick County Weighs Third Data Center Pause

WICHITA, Kan. — Sedgwick County commissioners are set to consider this week whether to extend the county’s pause on large-scale data center applications for a third time, with the current moratorium set to expire Sept. 11. The proposal reported Aug. 28 would continue the pause through Dec. 24 after commissioners discussed but did not pursue an extension into February 2027. No vote had been reported as of the source brief, and county staff continued drafting zoning rules governing where the facilities may be built and what they must pay; the county also has separate pauses on battery-storage projects through March 2027 and solar projects through December. Commissioner Pete Meitzner said the county wanted to avoid signaling that it was rejecting data centers while it developed its approach. Because Sedgwick County includes Wichita and is Kansas’ second-most populous county, its eventual rules could influence how other counties address data center locations, taxes and demands on water and electricity.

KWCH · KMUW · HPPR · KAKE

Topeka Man Arrested in Lawrence Stabbing

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Lawrence police arrested Keisonn Smith Jr., 25, of Topeka, Sunday afternoon, Aug. 30, in connection with the fatal stabbing of McMillin Tutu, 20, of Kansas City, Missouri. Officers called to Seventh and Massachusetts streets about 2:40 a.m. found Tutu on a sidewalk with several stab wounds to his chest and abdomen, and he later died at a hospital. Police said the stabbing followed a fight that began inside a bar, and Lawrence investigators asked Topeka police to arrest Smith after evidence pointed to him. Topeka officers arrested Smith about 3:30 p.m., and he was booked into the Douglas County Jail; he has not been convicted, and the Douglas County district attorney will decide whether to file formal charges. The death occurred along Massachusetts Street, the commercial and nightlife corridor of a city of about 95,000, placing the case amid local debate over bar hours and late-night policing.

Lawrence Journal-World · Lawrence Times · KWCH · WIBW · KCTV5 · KSN · Kansas Public Radio

Wichita Records Driest July–August Since Dust Bowl

WICHITA, Kan. — Wichita recorded about three-quarters of an inch of rain at Eisenhower National Airport during July and August, the second-driest total for those months since records began there in 1888. Only 1936, during the Dust Bowl, was drier, with about one-quarter of an inch. Salina reached a record 107 degrees Sunday, Aug. 30, breaking a 1939 mark of 106, while heat advisories remained in effect across much of central and eastern Kansas through Monday as highs approached 105. Wichita also logged 39 consecutive days at or above 90 degrees, the sixth-longest such streak in city history. In the latest Kansas crop report, 31% of corn and 33% of grain sorghum were rated poor or very poor, while 61% of topsoil moisture was short or very short. The prolonged heat and missing rainfall left farmers with depleted soil moisture as winter wheat planting approached after the state’s smallest harvest in decades.

KSN · KSAL · KWCH · KCTV5 · KAKE · Ad Astra Radio

Sources

1. KWCH / KSN / KAKE / KWCH / KSN
2. KWCH / KMUW / HPPR / KWCH / KAKE
3. Lawrence Journal-World / Lawrence Times / KWCH / WIBW / KCTV5 / KSN / Kansas Public Radio
4. KSN / KSN / KSAL / KWCH / KCTV5 / KAKE / Ad Astra Radio

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