# Quorum Court flooded with calls ahead of tonight's data center vote (Arkansas Times) > *Tier-3 news archive. Arkansas Times preview of the 2026-06-09 Pulaski County Quorum Court agenda meeting: constituent calls overwhelmingly supporting the moratorium, and acting county attorney Hamilton Kemp's letter arguing the county lacks authority. The original HTML is preserved alongside this extract.* ## Source metadata - **Publisher:** Arkansas Times (arktimes.com) - **URL:** https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2026/06/09/quorum-court-flooded-with-calls-ahead-of-tonights-data-center-vote - **Byline:** Elizabeth L. Cline - **Published:** 2026-06-09T21:36:43Z (afternoon of 2026-06-09 CDT); modified 2026-06-10T13:23:35Z - **Archived:** 2026-06-11, by Invoke-WebRequest (HTTP 200, 278,115 bytes) - **Wayback snapshot:** https://web.archive.org/web/20260612170017/... — Save Page Now succeeded on the 2026-06-11 submission (snapshot timestamp is UTC); the availability API had shown no prior snapshot. ## Extract The Pulaski County Quorum Court faces a critical vote tonight over the future of hyperscale data centers in the county. Specifically, the JPs will vote on whether to consider a proposed 12-month moratorium on data center development in the unincorporated county. The moratorium proposal, originally written by Wendell Griffen, is aimed at giving the county more time to understand water and electrical consumption impacts of the facilities, which are typically large, as well as time to develop proper regulations. A similar proposal narrowly failed last month. In the weeks since, a grassroots campaign urging the county to pause data center development has intensified, and justices of the peace say the debate has translated into a flood of constituent outreach. Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood, a co-sponsor of the moratorium, said she's fielded dozens of calls since the last Quorum Court vote on May 26, all from people supportive of the proposed ordinance. She said their concerns range from water use and electricity demand to noise pollution. "Their main concerns are that these centers are going to come in, they are going to destroy our water supply. They're going to take too much of the power grid and put back the cost onto the citizens of Pulaski County. And the noise level, too," Blackwood told the Arkansas Times. Justice of the Peace Dianne Curry, who voted "no" on the moratorium at the last Quorum Court, said she's likewise been inundated with calls, emails and texts from concerned residents, a majority of whom support the moratorium. Curry said that while she's sympathetic to their concerns, she is also concerned that a moratorium would violate state regulations. "You know, my stance on that is that even if it were to be approved, it would be against state law, so to me that would be a detriment to the accountability part as a justice of the peace," she said. Curry is referring to an ongoing debate over interpretations of the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 to Clarify the Regulation of the Digital Asset Mining Business, also known as Act 851, which, despite its broad-sounding name, is focused on digital asset mining facilities like cryptocurrency and other virtual currencies. Curry said that she and other JPs have received advice from acting county attorney Hamilton Kemp that the county does not have legal authority to move forward with a moratorium. The Arkansas Times reviewed a letter from Kemp to the Quorum Court, in which he points to Act 851, as well as to a 2023 legal opinion from Attorney General Tim Griffin. Kemp argues that under this statute, data centers are authorized to operate in Arkansas and that counties therefore lack the authority to suspend development through a moratorium. "I don't agree with him," Blackwood said of Kemp's legal interpretation. Griffen, the Democratic candidate for county judge, said last week the purpose of the ordinance was not to stop data centers from being located in the county but to make sure they go forward in a way that is responsible and transparent. Justice of the Peace Kathy Lewison also confirmed that she's received multiple emails, among them concerns over so-called "discrepancies" surrounding the moratorium, a reference to Act 851. "We want to do a moratorium, and we don't know if it's legal or if it's not," Lewison told the Arkansas Times. Given that Act 851 does not include hyperscale AI datacenters in its definitions and is narrowly aimed at cryptocurrency and data mining facilities, other lawyers have interpreted the Act differently. John Wilkerson, general counsel and legislative director of the Arkansas Municipal League, who did not respond to request for comment, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that his interpretation of Act 851 was that it only applied to data mining. "Now I guess there's a legal argument in there somewhere that says that Act 851 applies to data centers, but I don't see it," Wilkerson said. [...] The uphill battle for the moratorium sponsors will be convincing the other JPs that the moratorium is neither a ban nor a violation of any law and that it is worth the potential lawsuit. "This is not a ban, it's a moratorium, a pause," Blackwood said. Blackwood has a plan to try to quell pushback surrounding Act 851 tonight. She pointed to a revised version of the moratorium, which works to comply with 851's language not to discriminate against specific industries. It also clarifies that the proposed moratorium is not a ban on data centers but a pause. As of Tuesday afternoon, there appeared to be yet another version of the ordinance, which the Arkansas Times had not reviewed. [...] Tonight's moratorium proposal will need a two-thirds majority to pass. Blackwood said she was counting votes all morning. If the measure passes, it will be placed on the agenda and be considered by the Quorum Court at the June 23 meeting. The fears over Act 851 appeared to start at last month's Quorum Court meeting, when attorney Kemp claimed that the proposed moratorium was an illegal ban on data centers. "[Kemp] was the one who stated that, and it did scare people," said Blackwood. Google is developing a $1 billion data center at the Port of Little Rock, and AVAIO Digital Partners is developing a $6 billion data center near Wrightsville in Pulaski County. The proposed moratorium would apply to any future development in unincorporated areas. It's unclear if it would apply to the AVAIO facility proposed for Wrightsville. The Pulaski County Quorum Court will meet tonight at 6. ## Notes - Tier: 3 — established news outlet (Arkansas Times). - Anchors: the Quorum Court was flooded with constituent calls ahead of the June 9 meeting (Blackwood: dozens of calls, all supportive; Curry: inundated, majority supportive); acting county attorney Hamilton Kemp's letter to the Quorum Court citing Act 851 and a 2023 AG opinion from Attorney General Tim Griffin, arguing the county lacks authority for a moratorium. - **Citation anchor for AG Opinion 2023-060:** the body text says only "a 2023 legal opinion from Attorney General Tim Griffin," but in the preserved original HTML the phrase "2023 legal opinion" is hyperlinked to `https://opinionstorage.blob.core.windows.net/opinions/2023-060.pdf` — i.e., the article itself identifies the opinion as **AG Opinion 2023-060** via the embedded link. - Cited by: (populated by wiki pages that reference this archive)