Menomonie citizens’ opinions are split on the upcoming 324-acre data center set to be built off I-94 and onto County Road B. The data center has been in the works for a long period of time, but it only became fully aware to the citizens this past summer.
When the citizens of Menomonie heard about the potential data center being placed on the outskirts of town, protest signs gradually began to show up outside small businesses, in people’s yards, and all over local social media pages. These signs say “No Data Center” with a red prohibition circle over the phrase. Along with a protest group forming on Facebook, citizens have access to a multitude of ways to express their opinions about the data center.
This “No Data Center” Facebook group has expressed how they feel about the possible data center coming to the town. Citizens who are a part of it have begun to convey some of their concerns about the building.
“Whenever a data center moves into the community, they have to consume so much electricity to operate,” an anonymous community member said. “That in order for the energy providers to operate, they have to spread the cost of it to everybody, not just the data center.”
Data Centers are starting to become very prominent here in the US. The country currently has over 5,400 data centers all over; it presently has the most in any country across the globe. The number is rapidly growing due to the high demand for AI services. The vast majority of these centers reside in California and on the East Coast; however, they seem to be booming in the Midwest as of late.
According to the City of Menomonie website, the construction of the data center would take up to 1,000 workers daily; it will also take roughly 4-7 years to build. Once it is built, there will be approximately 50-75 full-time employees, which will be high-income jobs, along with 200-300 contract employees (ex., security, landscaping, and skilled labor). In addition, the water usage is quite high. The data center would utilize roughly 75,000 gallons of water a day. When compared to places like UW-Stout, which uses approximately 103,415 gallons a day, and ConAgra, which uses substantially 118,712 gallons a day, 75,000 gallons might not seem drastically high. However, it’s still a huge use of the county’s water.
There are two phases involved in the placement of the data center; the City of Menomonie website does not specify what they entail. Phase I will use roughly $28 million – $90 million, and Phase II will take anywhere between $22 million – $73 million. In total, the construction alone will cost relatively $50 million – $163 million. However, this is not even half of what the company is willing to invest in the center. They are putting approximately $1.6 billion into the entire project, including the cost for development of the building.
“[It’s] Possibly useful for tax revenue although they [Balloonist LLC] get such a great deal on taxes.” Said Randy Knaack, mayor of Menomonie. “It’s not fair to the average tax payer I don’t think because the average tax payer pays a lot of money in taxes and [Balloonist LLC is] getting such a good deal from the government that they don’t pay a personal property tax… if they build a 1.7 billion building but are only taxed on a hundred million how is that fair for the average tax payer.”
In the conversation with Knaack, the city council’s vote was also brought up. He claimed that he was not in favor of the data center, however the city council voted otherwise. After talking with another city council member, a different opinion was expressed about what actually happened during that vote.
“The city council voted to annex the land into the city and to rezone it light industrial.” An anonymous city council member said. “The land owners requested that, and they sold the land to a middle company, and so they will now try to find someone who wants to use the land/buy the land from them, or develop the land.”
As of the publishing of this article, there has still been no further development on the data center. The plans are still in progress but nothing has been done to the land yet.
