Madison County Chairman Slusser reflects on data center issue
by Randy Pierce • Prior to the public hearing held in Troy last week concerning the possible development of a data center in the city that was attended by Madison County Board Chairman Chris Slusser, he had addressed the issue in another public setting where he elaborated on the preparations that had gone into being ready to address the issue.
When present at a meeting of the county board grants committee, Slusser began his statement about data centers by saying, “I think that when you see the public comment right now, it is very negative and it’s interesting” while adding, “I have the same concerns that everyone has that are voicing their opposition.”
With his remarks following a presentation about this topic by Cathy Hamilton, the county’s economic development contractor, at that committee meeting, Slusser explained it was six or seven months ago when “we started diving in and doing a lot of research to find out what they (data centers) are and what they aren’t.”
This included a tour of what he called a “Google hyperscale center” in a community called Papillion in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, which led him to comment, “I was shocked.”
“It was not what I expected,” Slusser continued, “It was nicer than I expected, it was very quiet. I always heard there was noise and a humming sound – we just didn’t hear that.”
“We kept laughing because the only thing we could hear on the campus was our bus. Even when we got far away from the bus, that’s all we could hear in the distance – the bus that took us there.”
He further stated the companies, like Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, building these centers “are very socially responsible so they’re trying to make as little impact as possible.”
Since they require a lot of power, there is a constant effort on their part, Slusser noted, to seek ways to use nuclear reactors or any kind of renewable energy with one of them having a goal of being “carbon neutral” by a certain date.
The soundproofing is such that Slusser and others on the tour could not hear the servers when they were in the lobby of one of the buildings despite the fact that people where the actual production occurs require ear protection and the data center floor is so secure, with the intent for operations being kept secret from competitors, that “retinal scans” are necessary to get inside.
Along with being very well landscaped, Slusser said one site visited was so quiet because the company running it did not want to have a negative impact on the community.
Posted videos, he commented, showing noisy data centers often depict older or smaller ones which were created before they city they are in implemented regulations to address such problems.
Slusser mentioned how Google and Meta have such centers across a road from each other in Papillion in an area where there was no development previously, the result being, “They can’t even keep up with the growth, which is a good problem to have. They can’t build the sewers fast enough to keep up with all the new companies coming in and this was a city that had struggled for many years and is doing very, very well now.”
The companies locating at such sites, according to Slusser, pay for all of the needed infrastructure, roads, water service and power which in turn ends up making it attractive for other businesses to move into the same area.
In the past, a few of these kinds of companies, Slusser went on, were “using a million gallons of water a day, sometimes more than that, which actually isn’t that much more than, like your average nice golf course uses on a day in the summer or [commercial] car washes,” which are using 500,000 gallons in total between all of them in Edwardsville, but he added that Troy has already put into place a [requirement for a] closed-loop system that recirculates water, leading to that issue being “taken off the table” there.
Where power is concerned, Slusser said Southwestern Illinois Leadership Council Executive Director Kyle Anderson has provided great support in determining that there is a grid running all the way from the province of Manitoba in Canada south to Louisiana and east Texas that can be used for anything of such magnitude in this area but with some change in user rates, showing “fluctuation a little bit” regarding the impact to be realized no matter where a data center would go, including some place like Mississippi. So, if that happens, Slusser said, it means “we don’t get any of the jobs or the (property tax) revenue.”
Sharing that he lives three blocks from the fence of an oil refinery and does not feel any impact from it, Slusser added, “So I would not have any problem with a data center, I can tell you that.”
Slusser additionally commented, “If they’re built at a scale like we’ve seen in some of these other places, they’re talking $70 million to $75 million in one property tax bill for one data center here. It’s absolutely amazing how much. We didn’t believe it when we first started. It’s all good.”
“City councils are going to do what they feel like they need to do,” he said, offering that Microsoft has made a public statement that they are not going to ask for any financial incentives from local government units and will pledge to fund all of the infrastructure costs, “They don’t want to be a burden.”
Slusser estimated that school districts and cities affected by the presence of a data center within their boundaries “can take some additional revenue, 10, 20, 30, 40% more and still cut property taxes in half for everybody in their community.”
The City of Troy, according to Slusser, which is facing an obligation concerning $100 million in bonds, “could pay that off pretty quick and still have their property taxes cut in half at the same time” with the help of revenue produced by a data center but he qualified this by saying, “Now if someone doesn’t want it, because I get a lot of e-mails from people in Troy, I’m fine with that.”
“I signed up for this and I want people to be engaged,” Slusser continued. “I don’t care if Troy decides to reject it. If they reject it, I think that’s a potential missed opportunity for them.”
Stating he wants these kinds of developments in Madison County “because I see the jobs,” Slusser said the estimates concerning employment include between 2,000 and 2,500 laborers for construction at each location, calling them potential five to six-year buildouts, then more for trades work related maintenance, ongoing plumbing, electricians, mechanics and heating, air conditioning and ventilation specialists.
Those who counter those numbers by claiming the construction work is only temporary would be answered by Slusser saying this is always the case concerning any such projects those laborers would be involved in but they still welcome the opportunities to earn the income generated.
