Joe Wilson LV City Commissioner

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

Joe Wilson LV City Commissioner I have been a Leavenworth resident since 1985, veteran, small business owner, and community advocate.

I’m serving on the City Commission and my goals are to support public safety, local business, and fair, transparent government that works for everyone.

We’re at Dillons today with Rotary, gathering donations for Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. Stop by and say hell...
10/03/2026

We’re at Dillons today with Rotary, gathering donations for Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. Stop by and say hello! If you’re able to bring something, the most-needed items include peanut butter, canned meat, hearty soups, beans, pasta, rice, cereal, oatmeal, canned fruits and vegetables, juice, hygiene items, bath tissue, and bottled water. Every donation helps.

This week I want to talk about AI. There’s a lot of excitement about what it can do, and a lot of concern about where it...
10/03/2026

This week I want to talk about AI. There’s a lot of excitement about what it can do, and a lot of concern about where it could lead. I think both sides deserve a fair look.

AI is already helping people with everyday tasks. It can sort through information quickly, translate languages, help people with disabilities communicate, support medical research, and take some repetitive work off someone’s plate. For a small business or nonprofit, it can be a useful tool when time and staff are limited.

But AI isn’t a person inside a computer. It learns patterns from examples and uses them to produce an answer or carry out a task. It can be helpful, but it can also get things wrong, make up details, or reflect bias in the information it learned from. People still need to use their judgment.

There are real questions about jobs, too. AI may take over some tasks people do today, and that could mean some jobs change or disappear. It may also create new kinds of work, but that won’t automatically make things easy for workers who are affected.

And what about AI taking over the world? That’s not something we can say is going to happen. Today’s AI doesn’t have human feelings or ambitions. Still, some well-known researchers who helped build modern AI, along with leaders of major AI companies, have warned that more advanced systems could bring serious risks. They don’t all agree about how likely those risks are or how soon they could happen, but their concerns are worth understanding.

So I’m not looking at AI as either the answer to everything or a reason to panic. It’s a powerful tool, and how people develop and use it will make a difference. This week, I’d like to break down what AI is, what it can do well, where it can cause harm, and what questions we should be asking as it becomes a bigger part of our lives.

Continuing my series on data centers, I want to move from water and electricity to another question I hear frequently:Wh...
09/27/2026

Continuing my series on data centers, I want to move from water and electricity to another question I hear frequently:

What does the community actually get in return?

Kansas has already made a decision to compete for these projects. SB 98 provides a 20-year sales tax exemption on qualifying data center construction and equipment. To qualify, a project must invest at least $250 million within five years and create and maintain at least 20 new Kansas jobs.

That is a significant incentive, so we should also understand what taxpayers and local communities receive in return.

We have an example right here in Leavenworth County with the proposed Project Bluestem near Tonganoxie. Depending on the final size and valuation, a project of that scale could generate substantial annual property tax revenue for local taxing entities.

Those property taxes could support the county, schools and other local services. SB 98 also does not exempt the electricity consumed by the facility from sales tax.

There are legitimate questions on the other side. Twenty years is a long sales tax exemption. The minimum employment requirement is only 20 permanent jobs, although an actual project could employ more. We also need to understand who pays for roads, electric infrastructure, water and sewer improvements associated with a project.

The real question is whether the long-term public benefit matches the incentives and infrastructure demands. That means looking at the full picture, including tax revenue, jobs, infrastructure costs, resource use and what protections are in place for the community.

Had a great time at the CASA Superhero Run today. Around 150 people came out to participate and support CASA, and there ...
09/26/2026

Had a great time at the CASA Superhero Run today. Around 150 people came out to participate and support CASA, and there were plenty of superheroes running around.

I got into the spirit and wore a Superman costume, and my son Danial came dressed as Spider-Man. It was a lot of fun seeing all the costumed runners, families, volunteers, and supporters out there together.

CASA does great work for kids and families in our community, and events like this are a good reminder of how many people are willing to show up and support that mission.

Thanks to everyone who organized the event, volunteered, participated, and came out to support CASA.

I’ve talked about water use and data centers, but another major part of this discussion is electricity.There’s no questi...
09/16/2026

I’ve talked about water use and data centers, but another major part of this discussion is electricity.

There’s no question that large data centers use significant amounts of power. Some individual facilities can require hundreds of megawatts, so I think it’s fair to ask what that means for the electrical grid and for the people already paying electric bills.

I’ve spent some time looking at what Kansas and Evergy are actually doing about this, because there are protections already in place that should be part of the conversation.

Evergy has created a special Large Load Power Service rate for very large customers, including data centers using 75 MW or more.

These customers have to make long-term commitments, pay minimum monthly bills even if they don’t use all the power they reserved, provide substantial financial security and pay for infrastructure that is built specifically to serve them.

Evergy says these customers will also pay a premium rate designed so existing residential and business customers are not subsidizing their electrical needs.

Kansas has taken another step through SB 98. Qualified data centers cannot receive the economic-development electric-rate discounts available to some other large businesses, and the electricity they purchase is not covered by the sales-tax exemption provided by the bill.

Those are important protections.

But I still think there are reasonable questions we should ask before any specific project is approved.

How much electricity will it actually require?

Does the existing system have enough generation and transmission capacity?

What new power plants, substations or transmission lines would have to be built?

Who pays for infrastructure that benefits more than just the data center?

What happens if projected demand never materializes or the facility closes years later?

And perhaps most importantly, can we demonstrate that residential and small-business customers will not end up carrying costs created by these projects?

Evergy itself has said data centers aren’t appropriate everywhere. They need the right land, infrastructure and a community willing to support the project.

I think that is the right way to approach this discussion.

I’m not interested in simply saying data centers are good or bad. I want to understand the specific project, the amount of power it requires, where that power will come from and who is financially responsible for providing it.

What concerns or questions do you have about the energy side of data centers?

I’ve wanted to do a short series on data centers because there is a lot of information, misinformation, and fear surroun...
09/13/2026

I’ve wanted to do a short series on data centers because there is a lot of information, misinformation, and fear surrounding them.

My purpose is not to argue for or against data centers. It is to take the major concerns one at a time, separate what we know from what we assume, and talk honestly about the real risks, benefits, and unanswered questions.

Yesterday LV Fact Checker asked me about water use, so let’s start there.

Do data centers use a lot of water?

Some absolutely do.

Google opened its Council Bluffs, Iowa data center in 2007. In 2025, Alphabet reported that the site consumed about 1.35 billion gallons of water.

That is a big number and a legitimate concern.

But Council Bluffs uses evaporative cooling, which consumes water as part of the cooling process. Other designs, including closed-loop liquid cooling and dry cooling, can use considerably less.

You cannot take the water use from one facility and assume every data center will operate the same way.

One concern I hear locally is that a large data center could drain the water table or leave residents, farmers, and businesses without enough water.

I specifically asked about that in my discussions with KDHE.

There are different state agencies involved. KDHE deals with public water systems and related engineering. Water rights and water appropriation are handled through the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources.

The takeaway was simple: a large industrial user cannot just show up and take unlimited water. The source, available supply, existing users, and ability to sustain the demand all have to be considered.

That does not mean I am comfortable taking anyone’s word for it.

I want to know the actual annual and peak water demand, where the water is coming from, whether the source can support it long term, what cooling system is being used, whether there is any evaporative component, and what happens during drought conditions.

Those answers should come from engineering and water-supply data, not talking points.

I have also heard the claim that closed-loop systems have to be completely drained and refilled every year. I have not found evidence that this is a universal industry requirement. Maintenance varies by system and can include testing, topping off, or condition-based replacement rather than a complete annual drain.

So where do I land?

I think the concern is real, but I also think some of the discussion has gotten ahead of the facts.

If a project is going to use hundreds of millions or billions of gallons of water a year, I want that known before anyone makes a decision.

But I am also not willing to assume that every data center proposed in Kansas will use water the same way as Council Bluffs.

Show me the cooling design. Show me the water demand. Show me the source. Show me that it can be sustained without creating an unacceptable impact on the people already living, farming, and doing business here.

If the numbers hold up, we should recognize that. If they do not, we should recognize that too.

My goal with this series is simple: take the claims one at a time, verify what we can, acknowledge what we do not know, and have the discussion based on evidence instead of fear or salesmanship.

If you have a source that challenges something I have written, send it to me. I will read it.

Who wants BBQ?
09/12/2026

Who wants BBQ?

Leavenworth First Responders are out at the St. John Hospital Health Fair today, too. It’s a good chance to stop by, mee...
09/12/2026

Leavenworth First Responders are out at the St. John Hospital Health Fair today, too. It’s a good chance to stop by, meet some of the men and women serving our community, learn more about what they do, and visit with the hospital staff about the health resources available right here in Leavenworth.

Address

100 N 5th
Lansing, KS
66048

Telephone

+19132505528

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Joe Wilson LV City Commissioner posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Joe Wilson LV City Commissioner:

Shortcuts

Share