Kerr County Disaster Coordinator Retires March 31st

Houston Public Media reported:

Kerr County’s emergency coordinator, Will Thomas, said he was ill and asleep as floodwaters began to rise and didn’t participate in early response calls on July 3. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha also said he was asleep as the river rose, while Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who oversees emergency management, said he was out of town.

And no first responder went to their home and knocked on the door?

William "Dub" Thomas is retiring effective March 31, 2026.   County Judge Rob Kelly, also retiring, said they would miss Dub and that Dub cannot be replaced.  I would say as Emergency Management Coordinator Dub was critical to the "asleep, asleep, out of town" leadership approach to the County's flood disaster response on July 4, 2025.

The first disaster was the abject failure to respond, to set up a command post and coordinate efforts in a timely manner.  The second was a failure of communication regarding actions not taken and not holding responsible people accountable.  The third was a failure to drill for flash flooding under Dub's tenure (as the County could produce no documents of such).

The County and Dub are yet to release their "after action" report on the July 4th flood disaster.  Conducting such evaluations are a basic in the emergency response arena.   It could happen in the next four days, but I doubt it.  This transitioned to an accountability avoidance/liability minimization exercise long ago.  

These are the words that welcomed Dub to his role with Kerr County in 2015:

This is very important, the position that Dub has as Emergency Management Coordinator. The City has an Emergency Management Coordinator; now the County has an Emergency Management Coordinator. These are the guys that are literally in charge if there's an emergency, a major fire,  major flood or whatever. And as the Sheriff pointed out the other day, the document is this thing, so Dub helped to  prepare that. So, I think this county, with Dub in place, and with the city there, it's taken us a year to redo this thing, but I think this county is going to have the best emergency management plan probably in the state. So, welcome, Dub.

Those words did not hold up so well.  All hat (plan), no cattle (implementation-flood drill or actual response). 

Update 3-30-26:  Hill Country Community Journal reported:

Thomas was authorized to purchase his county service weapon, a Glock 45, for $100 under a state law permitting such sales to honorably retired law enforcement officers.

SA1 Data Center Has Layers

Chamber Executive Michael Looney informed the Development Corporation that the data center project needed work locally (on the 380 economic development agreement) and at the state level (approval for the plan to provide power/electricity for the project).  

Looney also talked about the recent Economic Summit, which had a panel on the data center project.  Mayor Tom Thompson moderated the panel with three representatives from Emergent Data Centers. 

Looney did not mention the data center at all in the Economic Summit section of his report.  

Emergent is actively marketing the San Angelo data center project to potential users.

Their documentation cites major solar generation projects in the area and the opportunity to contract directly for that power.  Meta is buying the power produced by Apex Clean Energy's solar farm in Tom Green County.  Apex is backed by Ares Management.

Looney also informed the Development Corporation that Peregrine Energy's battery farm would begin construction in Q4 2027.  Council gave that project an 85% tax abatement for three years.  Peregrine is backed by KKR.

Doral Renewables is behind another solar farm in the area.  Doral is backed by Apollo.

Skybox projects in other areas have been funded by BlueOwl, which has had a rough go of late.  Looney has frequently cited private equity (Ares, KKR, Apollo, Blueowl) as being very interested in our area.  There is currently a private equity funded spec building project in the Industrial Park.  

City Council took up leasing the land for the proposed Skybox/Emergent data center for $1 million per year beginning November 1, 2026.  The City already has a letter of agreement with Skybox for the possible sale of the land.  The State of Texas needs more than a letter of agreement to provide power via ERCOT and AEP, thus the lease.  

All lease proceeds will go towards the purchase price.  

Emergent's CEO offered the following during the Chamber's Economic Summit:

"It's the Skybox project and Emergent is the developer."

"We're looking for a home to build a campus for one of the Big Five (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google) .... one will lease the building from us.... We will be building for the next seven years."

As for the specific usage and the servers purchased, that will be determined by the eventual occupant.  

The public should know that there are three potential recipients of subsidies and tax breaks, Skybox, Emergent and the final occupant.  The 380 agreement is under negotiation between the City and Skybox.  

Once Emergent is successful in landing one of the Big Five, that company may request subsidies and/or tax breaks as their investment will be magnitudes greater than the buildings themselves. 

This data center project has layers.  Critical elements remain that need to be addressed for it to move forward.   

A Texas State Senator (Red Team) called for an immediate pause in data center development.  Issues cited include water, power and transparency.  The Senator called for the pause so "rural areas can evaluate effects on critical resources and infrastructure."

Update:  An Ohio Senator (Red Team) called out The Carlyle Group, another PEU, for accepting a  "$4.5 million state tax break for a data center expansion project in Northeast Ohio. Despite Carlyle’s investment, the project will only create ten new jobs."

Update 3-21-26:  ConchoValleyHomepage did a story on City Council's approval of the land lease to our possible data center.  

Skybox Backing Out of Land Purchase?

Skybox Data Centers may not buy that 350 acres northeast of town for $17.4 million after all.  City Council has a possible lease of the land to San Angelo Data Center Campus Power LLC on its closed agenda for their March 17 meeting.

One year ago this same City Council approved a letter of intent to sell the land to Skybox Data Centers for $50,000 per acre.  This has not happened.  

Data center financing has become more problematic given the obscene sums of money required.  BlueOwl, a funder of other Skybox projects, has had a difficult run this year.  That means less capital for projects.  Asking the city to avoid the $17.4 million land sale and provide a reasonable lease amount could save big money on the project.  It also takes away a financial plum for pursuing the project.

Mayor Tom Thompson has said that people need to wait for the 380 (economic development) agreement, which many assumed would be after or in conjunction with the land sale.  

The big money behind these projects, solar/battery, data centers, often want to get out within 5-7 years with a handsome profit.  If the city keeps and leases the land, in ten years it may have a giant eyesore for which it is responsible.  Time will tell, unless there is a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).  An NDA could keep all but a few people in the dark forever.  

Update:  Chamber Executive Michael Looney spoke at the Development Corporation and shared that the 380 economic development agreement with Skybox needs a lot more work and that the state needs to respond to the project's power request/proposal.  Apparently, things are on track and a property lease enables progress to be made while those two fronts, the 380 and state power approval via ERCOT and AEP.

Skybox is the owner of the project and Emergent Data Centers is the developer.  Members of the Emergent Team were interviewed by the Mayor at the Economic Development Summit put on by the Chamber.

Gas Price Up $1 per Gallon

Sam's Club Gas price:

Feb. 27 - $2.33 per gallon

Day 1 of attack on Iran by U.S. and its 51st state Israel:

Feb. 28 - $2.59

Afterward:

March 4 - $2.93

March 9 - $3.13

March 11 - $3.33 per gallon

As of this morning San Angelo has experienced a $1.00 per gallon rise which is a 43% increase.  That happened in less than two weeks.  

Update 3-14-26:  The President flip flopped on his gas price stance.  What once was bad is now good....

Update 3-19-26:  Sam's Club gas price as of this morning is $3.70 per gallon.  The administration said gas prices should return to normal in a few more weeks.