The Mercer County Fairgrounds were overflowing with cars and people on a mild evening in February. Not for a horse show or a livestock auction, though.
As you drive around the county of 23,000, you see them everywhere: Yard signs that say, emphatically, “No Data Center.”
Laura Sullivan lives in the area. In the past, she was an organic farmer, so she knows about the importance of water. That’s something data centers need in huge quantities to cool the servers.
“My bigger concern is the water,” she said. “The water is a massive issue with these things. It's huge. It's just huge. You know, where's that going to come from?”
Data centers also gobble up a lot of electricity. Residents who are customers of Kentucky Utilities just saw state regulators approve a rate increase.
Mary DeLima, who owns a horse farm, could barely get in the door to hear presentations to and by county officials, who say they haven’t taken a position on the project.
“I think it's going to bring down property values and increase our electricity,” she said.
A data center would bring property tax revenues to the community. DeLima said she’s not convinced the tradeoffs would be worth it.
“They're trying to say that it's going to increase, that the tax money that it will bring in will help improve the community, but I don't believe that that's going to trickle down to us,” she said.
Mercer joins a growing list of Kentucky counties, including Oldham, Simpson and Mason, where data center projects face pushback from residents. State lawmakers have taken steps to attract such facilities, however. Neighboring states, such as West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee, are competing for them.
Details are scarce: It’s not clear what company is behind the data center proposal or where it would be located. Many residents believe it would be built near the historic Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, which is close to KU’s E.W. Brown power plant and the Kentucky River.
Zach Workman, who’s lived in the community for a decade, took a break from the crowded hall where members of the public conveyed their concerns to local officials.
“As far as a data center being here in Harrodsburg, Harrodsburg is not prepared for it,” he said.
From the numerous people wearing blue T-shirts expressing opposition to the data center, including Workman, you get the impression that no one in the community is in favor of it.
“I haven't heard anybody come out and say, ‘Oh, this is good for us. We need to do this,’” he said.
Sindicate Dunn, however, is keeping an open mind. He owns a catering business, and to him, the project sounds like an opportunity.
“They’re going to have construction companies there,” he said. “Guess what? They're going to be eating. So for five years, it's going to help our business cater lunch out there to them, cater large dinners out there to them, lodging, people's going to be able to stay. It's going to bring a five year economic boost to the community.”
Dunn also said the need for data centers stems from the growing use of artificial intelligence. He calls them storage units for our digital stuff.
“So if you don't want a data center,” he said, “don't create characters on Chat GPT.”
Though they’re not on the same page on the data center, Dunn and Workman say they’re still friends.
LG&E and KU is a financial supporter of WEKU.
