TRENTON, Ohio — The people of Trenton and the prospective developers of a roughly 880,000 square foot data center project participated in a marathon question-and-answer session Monday.
The prospective developer, Prologis, heard from city staff and residents of both Butler and Warren counties about potential positives and negatives of the proposal.
Barry Blankenship lives within a half-mile of where construction crews are currently working south of Kennel Road, east of the intersection with Woodsdale Road.
Crews are now moving earth, and Blankenship has been monitoring the progress since October. He talked to us about his concerns in February and met us once again before the public forum got underway Monday.
WATCH: Prologis pitches their data center to the public
Blankenship said transparency has been a problem since he became aware of the project, and said a public forum after site preparation began was too little, too late.
"I think it is. What I would have liked to have seen is get all the citizens together and say, hey, let's take it to a vote," he said.
During the meeting, a speaker asked everyone who opposed the project to stand, and the vast majority of people in the room stood from their seats.
We asked Brett Skyllingstad, Prologis vice president of data center preconstruction, his thoughts on that moment.
"You know, there's a lot of misinformation about data centers," Skyllingstad said.
The Prologis team told people in the crowd they would pay for 100% of the power they use, including the costs to upgrade area infrastructure.
Skyllingstad said their design requires water cooling for only 3% of the year; they would pull water from the municipal system and all water used to cool the facility would be disposed of in the city's sewer system.
He also compared the noise level heard at the property's edge at peak decibel levels to that of a "quiet urban" area.
Trenton City Finance Manager Matthew Misisklis also spoke about a series of new tax streams for the city and school district if the project moves forward.
The final development plan will still have to go before the City of Trenton's Planning Commission before it's approved.
Blankenship said that's where his attention will turn.
"My expectation is that they listen to us, our concerns, and, if we are going to get it, it's as safe as possible," he said.
The data center hasn't been placed on a planning commission meeting agenda yet, though city officials told us it will.
You can view Prologis's full presentation here:
