After snubbing TIF request, the Missoula County proposes a moratorium on new cryptocurrency mines
Bonner mill site developer Steve Nelson stormed out of the conference room.
“Un-fucking-believable,” he could be heard muttering to himself.
For nearly a year, Nelson fielded complaints from area residents whose lives have been disrupted by the nonstop roar produced by the bitcoin mine, Project Spokane, leasing his property. He worked with the company to propose and test a $135,000 solution to the noise that would entail installing 424 new fan blades. And he figured the tax increment generated by the mill site could pay for it, as an “improvement of facilities or equipment for reducing … pollution,” per state law governing use of tax-increment funds.
But members of the Missoula Development Authority board didn’t just deny his request at their May 23 meeting. They delivered a stinging rebuke of Nelson and his partner, Mike Boehme, saying the men more typically celebrated as economic saviors for revitalizing the former Stimson mill site had in fact brought a “monster” to town.
Read more: http://missoulanews.com/news/after-snubbing-tif-request-the-county-proposes-a-moratorium-on/article_d8a3e676-643c-11e8-b7fe-37382e90c05c.html
