# City of Conway The City of Conway is the municipal government of Conway, Arkansas, the seat of Faulkner County. In this corpus it is the host jurisdiction for the [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] [[Project Stratus]] data-center project, the largest custodian of project-related records (via the FOIA-2026-126 production of May 26, 2026 — see [[2026-05 City of Conway Produces Project Stratus Records]]), and a signatory to the April 1, 2025 Project Stratus MOU. The City has commitments under the MOU on property-tax abatement, franchise fees, infrastructure permitting, and the relocation of Lollie Road. ## People - Mayor [[Bart Castleberry]]. - City Clerk/Treasurer [[Denise Hurd]]. - City Attorney [[Charles Finkenbinder]]. - Office of the Mayor Chief of Staff [[Felicia Rogers]]. - Council members (8-0 on Project Stratus): [[Andy Hawkins]], David Grimes, Drew Spurgers, [[Shelley Mehl]], Mark Ledbetter, Spencer Hawks, Theodore Jones Jr., [[Shelia Isby]]. - Planning Department staff: [[Anne Tucker]], [[Lauren Hoffman]], [[Ryan Robeson]], [[Rebecca Alexander]]. - Transportation Department engineer: [[Kurt Jones]]. - City finance: Tyler Winningham. ## Roles in this corpus - **FOIA custodian.** Filed FOIA-2026-126 on May 19, 2026 received complete production on May 26, 2026 — 303 files. The production is bundled with FOIA-2026-129 (a parallel "all documents" request from an unidentified other requester). The City Clerk's Office separately disclaimed custodianship of [[Conway Corporation]] records (Item 4 of the request) on May 20, 2026. - **Party to the Project Stratus MOU.** Signatory alongside [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]], [[Conway Corporation]], and [[The Conway Foundation]]. Commits to support a net 65% property-tax abatement for 30 years via [[Act 9 Industrial Revenue Bond]] (vehicle to be issued by separate ordinance), to cap permit and administrative fees at CPI growth, and to enact franchise-fee ordinances for the project's water (4.25%), wastewater (4.25%), medium-voltage power (2.5%), and high-voltage power (0.75% via Entergy) usage. See [[Project Stratus MOU and April 1 Special Council Meeting]]. - **Adopting authority for the project's land-use ordinances.** Adopted O-25-37 (296.21-acre annexation, designated I-3), O-25-38 (39.50-acre annexation), and O-25-39 (rezone of the Adams Property A-1 → I-3) by 8-0 vote on April 22, 2025 — see [[2025-04 Conway City Council Adopts O-25-37 O-25-38 and O-25-39]]. - **Future ordinance authority.** The MOU contemplates Council adoption of: (a) the Entergy high-voltage franchise-fee ordinance; (b) the grey-water cooling rate ordinance after a third-party rate study; (c) the [[Act 9 Industrial Revenue Bond|Act 9 IRB]] authorizing ordinance and lease/leaseback; (d) the Lollie Road relocation/right-of-way exchange ordinance. None of these are yet enacted as of the FOIA-2026-126 production. ## Notes The MOU's City commitments are the City of Conway's principal documented role in the data-center buildout; see [[The Conway Data Center Project]] for the deal terms. The City of Conway's records-custody scope is distinct from [[Conway Corporation]]'s — the Conway Corporation is a separately-incorporated municipally-owned utility that handles its own FOIA responses (see [[2026-05 Conway Corporation Interim FOIA Response]] and its still-pending rolling production). The City of Conway's FOIA-response routing on Project Stratus has been unusual: the substantive cover letter for FOIA-2026-126 was issued by the **Office of the Mayor** (not the City Clerk's office), explicitly using the formal subject line "Proposed Conway Data Center | Project Stratus | Forgelight Ventures." This routing pattern suggests Mayor's Office control over the Project Stratus narrative; see [[City of Conway FOIA-2026-126 Cover and No-Response Letter]]. The May 12, 2026 regular City Council agenda — the meeting that 97 of 204 unique constituent emails demanded include a Project Stratus item — did NOT include any Project Stratus item, indicating the Council declined to re-open the project to constituent comment 13 months after the rezone adoption. See [[Project Stratus Public-Comment Correspondence Record]] and [[Conway City Council Agendas and Minutes on Project Stratus]].