Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Protesters were said to be outside the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance office downtown Monday night — 24 hours before another potential vote by the Sangamon County Board on a data center project planned for near Waverly.
Two weeks ago, the County Board voted to table the proposal. Tuesday night, they would have to vote to remove the item from the table, and then take a vote.
Monday night’s “pop-up” protest was organized through 50501 Springfield, one of the groups that’s been behind local “No Kings” protests.
SSGA has been the primary supporter of the data center project, going so far recently as to sending out text messages and digital ads with the potential labor represented by construction.
So, what’s in it for the alliance, CEO Ryan McCrady?
“Nothing, other than the fact that it improves our economy,” said McCrady, on the WTAX Morning Newswatch. “It’s not a financial move for us. We don’t do zoning for dollars at the Growth Alliance. What we’re trying to do is, there’s a lot of information out there right now on this data center project, and data centers in general. A lot of statements have been made about the jobs not being real.”
McCrady says it was important to use every avenue to get that word out.
Those against data centers have long said the construction jobs won’t last long, and other jobs within the data center are few. They’ve also claimed environmental impacts will be many. An official with CyrusOne, which is wanting to build the data center, says they’ve learned from previous projects, and have listened to the public.
“There’s been a lot of thought put into the design of this campus based on previous experiences, and the evolution of the technology in general,” said Bradd Houtt, Director, Location & Power Strategy, CyrusOne, on the WTAX Morning Newswatch. “With respect to noise, we’ve got barriers at the chiller and generator level to address noise and keep it from cascading outward. That’s an improvement over previous designs in the past.”
Through various names, CyrusOne has been in operation for 25-plus years. Residents have expressed concern that, at some point, CyrusOne is going to leave the area. McCrady disagrees, claiming they have long been in other communities they’ve been in — and that’s why he supports this project, because there are other types of developers who are akin to property flippers. McCrady claims CyrusOne isn’t one of those.
There also have been concerns about stress on the power grid — the sort of thing Gov. JB Pritzker claims can be helped by simply paying their share of the power bill, instead of some sort of sweetheart deal.
The Sangamon County Board will meet Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Bank of Springfield. Their meeting will once again be there in order to accommodate the large crowd that is expected. Meetings are open to the public.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The comments from McCrady and Houtt came during a regularly-scheduled interview with SSGA on the WTAX Morning Newswatch, part of an agreement that allows the alliance to advertise on Capitol Media Group stations. While a marketing firm submits questions to host Will Stevenson, he is not bound to any agreement to ask or not ask only those questions. He maintains editorial control over the program. However, Monday’s interview went considerably over the time normally allotted, so that he could ask the questions he wanted to ask, and make sure there was time for answers.
