TOADS, COWS and CHICKENS

Editor- If we ate toad we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Funny how things work out, frog legs, had ‘em. Toad legs? My dog used to chew on ‘em and get all foamy at the mouth. Must have tasted good, she did it more than once. They may mean more to us right now than cows or chickens. Just goes to show that all creatures matter somehow.

Rick

There is still a whole lot of good going on around here.

I’m Maggie, and after 40 years in administration, I know how important it is to keep people informed, organized, and connected. Rick and I created this publication to share honest, verified local news—and to shine a light on the good things happening in our communities.

From farmers markets and fall festivals to high school football, local businesses, and small-town gatherings, we want to help you find something worth getting out and enjoying.

Yes, there is plenty of chatter about data centers and all that stuff. We will keep you informed about what matters, but we also want to share the stories, events, and people that give us something to smile about.

After all, this is Texas, and sometimes getting there takes a little bit of a ride. Take the back roads, enjoy the scenery, and make a day of it.

We believe in paying it forward, thankfulness, and gratefulness. So hop aboard, share this with your friends, and please send us the local happenings you think people should know about.

Welcome, happy reading, and find something to be thankful for today.

Best regards,
Maggie

The Toad That Saved Marquez

The proposed BT Kahla Data Center and companion power infrastructure project, located near Marquez in western Leon County, has drawn local attention over environmental reviews and site impacts. Stripping away rumor, here's what the documented record actually shows.

The project location: the development footprint sits outside city limits in western Leon County near Marquez, targeting industrial-scale power and data infrastructure managed through entities like Belltown Power.

The environmental review: state filings show the site has undergone preliminary desktop environmental screening and wildlife habitat assessments. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department handles routine review windows for projects in this corridor.

The "11 endangered species" claim: local reports citing 11 protected species stem from generalized community discussion rather than a verified, public species inventory of the specific parcel.

The confirmed species factor: publicly indexed environmental reviews for this part of the county consistently flag the federally endangered Houston toad due to regional sandy soils and woodland habitat. General county-wide habitat maps don't automatically confirm that an animal is on a specific bulldozer footprint, though.

The bottom line: a definitive species list requires an unredacted copy of the developer's site-specific biological survey and formal TPWD review letters. Until those records are public, claims of a specific number remain unverified local debate.

BUT WAIT

There’s a lot more happening in our own backyard, and it's bigger than one project. Three separate proposals are on the table for Leon County right now: one near Oakwood, one near Jewett, and the big one — Project Kahla, a 1,500-megawatt facility planned near Marquez. For comparison, that's roughly the draw of a mid-size city, sitting on land less than a mile from the Navasota River.

The opposition isn't coming from outsiders. Jewett VFW Post 3542 has been organizing against it. Commander Daniel McCoslin has raised the water question directly — runoff from the site, he says, would reach the Navasota and eventually flow downstream toward the Gulf. Michael Rice, also with the VFW, points to a different risk: local volunteer fire departments aren't trained for lithium-ion battery fires, and the nearest hazmat team is over an hour out. Residents have also raised concerns about how the noise and lights would sit next to cattle operations and chicken houses that are the actual economic base out there.

County leadership has taken a side. Precinct 4 Commissioner Thomas Jefferson Foley sent letters to state and federal officials opposing the Kahla project outright. County Judge Byron Ryder went further, telling state officials directly that no incentives — no tax abatements, no PILOTs — should be offered for the Marquez site. Meanwhile, a state wildlife review released in March flagged multiple protected species and sensitive habitats on the Kahla property, though it stopped short of blocking anything. The developer, Belltown Power, says the project is still "in an evaluation and study phase."

Here's the part that changes the timeline for all three: on August 3, Governor Abbott ordered a full audit of every data center sitting in ERCOT's interconnection queue statewide. The number driving that decision is almost hard to believe — about 474 gigawatts of pending power requests, more than five times Texas' record peak demand, with roughly 90 percent of it coming from data centers. ERCOT has since delayed the transmission study that would have moved the first batch of projects forward. Nobody's saying Leon County's three proposals are dead. What it means is a state-level pause of unknown length, while regulators sort out which projects actually bring their own power and manage their own water, and which ones don't.

If you want a weekend that has nothing to do with power grids or wildlife reviews, Buffalo has one lined up. The annual Buffalo Stampede Festival runs Saturday, September 19, at Harriman Park, and the town builds a full day around it.

The parade kicks off at 9am on Highway 75 North near Community National Bank, but the real action starts earlier — check-in and lineup begin at 8am at Buffalo Upper Junior High, with judging at 8:30. Vendors start setting up at 7:30am under the pavilion.

Once the parade wraps, the day turns into a string of small-town contests worth showing up for on their own. The Mullet Contest checks in at 11:45am and starts at noon under the pavilion — always a good bit of theater. The Pet Costume Contest follows at 1pm, check-in starting at 12:45. Over at the baseball fields, the Home Run Derby checks in at 1:45pm and gets going at 2pm.

Past the scheduled contests, expect the usual festival footprint: food vendors, a car show, and the drawing for the Sweetest Tradition winner, all wrapping up at Harriman Park by evening. If you've never been, it's the kind of event where you can walk from the parade route to the ballfield to the pavilion and see most of the county in one afternoon.
It's a fair trade for a week that's had more county-commissioner letters and wildlife reviews in it than most. One Saturday, one park, no interconnection queue required.

Every fact in this newsletter was checked against a public source. Links are included so you can verify them yourself. About the AI: My nerves are shot to hell, and some days they have a different schedule than me, so "This newsletter is AI-assisted." We use AI tools to help draft and organize — but every word, every number, every claim has been physically verified by us against primary sources before it goes out. Double-checked. This is how we do it, and we stand behind every word.

— Rick and Maggie

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The Oakman Telegraph
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