Dubois County Democrats host public town hall in St. Anthony

The Dubois County Democratic Party will host a free public town hall in St. Anthony on July 22, giving residents a chance to raise concerns about property rights, solar energy, data centers and property taxes. The event, billed as “Your Community, Your Say,” is part of the party’s “Big Tent” community conversation series and is being promoted as open to everyone.

The format is meant to draw in homeowners, landowners, farmers and business owners from across the county, not just regular political attendees. Party materials say the evening will include a non-partisan panel and open Q&A, putting the emphasis on questions from the audience rather than prepared speeches.

The choice of St. Anthony is notable. The community is an unincorporated place in Jackson Township and part of the Jasper Micropolitan Statistical Area, outside the county seats of Jasper and Huntingburg. Dubois County’s 2020 population was 43,637, and the party is taking the discussion into a smaller community that sits in the county’s southern footprint.

The topics on the agenda are already active around Dubois County. The Property Rights Alliance says it represents farmers, homeowners and business owners in Dubois, Martin and Daviess counties who are worried about losing land to the proposed Mid-States Corridor highway project. Local reporting has also tracked residents speaking to county commissioners about the AES Crossvine Solar Battery Energy Storage System, while Huntingburg Common Council members have discussed whether development rules need to be updated for data centers and battery storage systems. Dubois County has also enacted a one-year moratorium on commercial solar applications.

Those disputes carry direct financial and land-use implications for local residents. Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute has a fact sheet on data centers, and the Purdue Center for Regional Development says solar projects can boost local government revenues and reduce local tax bills. At the same time, Citizens Action Coalition is calling for a moratorium on AI data-center build-out in Indiana, reflecting how quickly the debate has spread beyond a single project or one township line.

For Dubois County residents, the town hall offers a rare public forum where countywide development pressure, farm ground, utility questions and property taxes will all be in the same room. With the meeting framed as part of a broader Big Tent series, the party is signaling that the conversation in St. Anthony is meant to continue beyond one night.