One week late, Forward Township data center meeting draws massive, passionate crowd
The nationwide debate over data centers finally spilled over into Butler County on Thursday night, Oct. 1.
Hundreds of Forward Township residents near-unanimously voiced their frustration and anxiety over a proposed data center to be located on a former farm on Prospect Road.
Ultimately, the planning commission voted to table the project after a meeting which lasted over three hours, with more than two hours dedicated to public comment alone.
The meeting on the Misty Hollow Data Center Project was originally scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 25, but was abruptly postponed due to a larger-than-expected crowd which exceeded the municipal building’s capacity of 100.
Though this Thursday’s meeting was moved into the nearby maintenance garage, which can fit a maximum of 200, it still wasn’t enough. Dozens of attendees were forced to watch from outside the building and listen through loudspeakers.
With TV cameras and people holding signs outside, the atmosphere didn’t resemble a municipal government function.
“We focus so much on our nature around here, whether it be for the farmland or the animals or the crops. That is our number-one selling point around here and that is just not going to be effective once this data center gets put in,” Jessica Flower, who spoke during Thursday night’s meeting, said. “It would definitely impact all of our lives.”
One of the hundreds of attendees was Rick Telesz, who is running for the 8th district seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. While Telesz didn’t speak during the meeting, he said he was there to support Forward Township residents.
“I’m here to represent the people,” Telesz said. “I want to let them know I’m on their side.”
A group of people protestering the proposal placed a table outside the garage with signs reading, “Screaming, cussing, name-calling, (and) disruption do not help our cause!”
However, that sentiment was ignored as soon as lead developer Allen Sherwood took to the podium. Throughout his lengthy opening statement on the potential benefits of the data center for the community, he was repeatedly heckled, jeered and shouted down by attendees, despite repeated warnings by planning commission Chairman Steve Longwell.
“I believe Misty Hollow has the potential to be something very significant for Forward Township and Butler County,” Sherwood said. “But none of those potential benefits mean we should ignore the people who already live here. We want to be responsible and we want to be respectful of this community. That’s why we’re going through this public process.”
Sherwood was followed at the podium by engineer Jason Kubiak, who provided a visual presentation of the overall details of the data center proposal, including power and stormwater requirements. Like Sherwood, Kubiak was also repeatedly heckled.
The mood of the meeting grew even more sour when Kubiak was peppered with questions by planning commission members about the logistics of the preliminary data center plans. For instance, when one member asked about how the developers planned to address community concerns about low-frequency noise and vibrations, Kubiak answered, “I don't have answers yet because we're not that far in,” drawing another shower of boos.
Underscoring the tension of the night, multiple Pennsylvania State Police officers were on hand at the township building to maintain order.
The public comment portion of the meeting lasted nearly three hours and saw a variety of responses from Forward Township residents, though they were near-unanimously against the data center proposal. Residents cited concerns, such as over potential pollution, noise and loss of property values, among others.
Multiple residents threw scorn on the planning commission, the supervisors and the township as a whole for even giving the data center proposal concideration.
“I built my house here 30 years ago and you gave me way harder of a time for my plans than you’re giving them now,” said Brian Kephart, who lives less than a mile from the planned data center complex. “What they’re giving you now is a cocktail napkin of a plan. That’s all there is up there. If you guys showed up with a plan like this, you’d all lose your jobs.”
“My concern is the permanent conversion and irreversible damage of the land itself,” said Ashlyn Flach, who lives just over a mile away. “How would you feel if you and your family and your loved ones lived 6,864 feet away from what you are proposing to build? I look to all of you and say, be better.”
Ryan Morton was especially animated over the data center’s plans for a glycol-powered, closed-loop cooling-system. Morton said he works at a nuclear power plant and works with glycol regularly, but under strictly controlled conditions.
“Do you know what ethylene glycol is? It’s antifreeze. The same thing that poisons countless people, animals, dogs, you name it,” Morton said. “I work with ethylene glycol. I have to wear so much equipment for it. ...You’re telling me you’re not gonna leak ethylene glycol into the system? You’re a joke. You’re a liar and you know it. You sold your soul.”
