The Christian County Board met on Tuesday evening in front of a packed house of over 300 people for nearly 3 ½ hours for their monthly board meeting.  Most of the board meeting was broken up into two sections; the main board meeting and data centers.  This story will focus on the data center.  A story later this week will discuss the rest of the board meeting.  Ken Loeber, who is one of the founders of Eagle Rock LLC, the company behind the proposed data center spoke to the board members answering questions for nearly 90 minutes from many who brought concerns from their constituents concerning the proposed data center to Bear Creek. 

District 4’s Jean Vandenbergh asked for people living near the project, how would the project benefit them. Loeber said, there would be several jobs created, along with money coming into the county, but did admit that people living in the area would have to think of what he called the  “greater good.”

Chairman Bryan Sharp asked about landowners property value, and if there had been any environmental impact studies done. 

Loeber told the board that no non disclosure agreements had been signed with any board members, nor had there been any talk with any city or county officials over annexing parts of the county. Loeber also said that while he wasn’t trying to “fastplay” it through, if things didn’t start rolling this summer, they might need to look elsewhere. 

Board member Vicki McMahon told Loeber that the board was not against innovation, but warned against fast movement.  Loeber said that he wanted everyone to make an informed decision.

When it came to public comments, one after one resident came up to voice their displeasure, many saying that no one had spoke to them at all about the data center and that they felt blindsided by how quickly things were progressing.  The feelings of anger, displeasure, and frustration over not having their voices heard, led Meredith Eisenbarth to skip many things that she had planned for the evening to be there in person. She encouraged the board to look at what other areas are doing saying that Nashville is concerned about moving animals because of changes to ecocenters, what does that do to humans. 

Debbie Daniels who owns a agritourism business near the proposed site says that industrial sites should be built on industrial zoned sites not farmland. 

A motion to visit a data center site in Altoona was brought to the finance board but failed.  We will have more on the Christian County Board meeting later this week. To hear the full audio from this meeting, click here.
 

 You can also see a stream of the full meeting here

Caption: Several residents hold up signs showing how far away they are from the proposed data center