Residents voice concerns on Dowagiac data center during state representative's town hall

A Dowagiac Data Center expansion could be coming. WSBT continues to update you about Hyperscale Data's interest to grow their current location in Southwest Michigan. On Friday, a Data Center Townhall was held by Michigan State Representatives, Brad Paquette. Many area residents voiced their concerns from environmental impact, noise, water to electric usage. Residents were also concerned about the lack of transparency. Those were just some of the concerns residents brought forward as unknowns about Dowagiac's potential data center circulate. “The goal of this is just to ignite further gatherings and also give us some insight as to what we can do to be helpful to drill down into what is true and untrue about data centers,” said Brad Paquette (R), Michigan State Representative. Friday’s town hall included topics on the economic impact of data centers, differences in the types and to hear directly from residents about their concerns. Leadership from Hyperscale Scale Data Inc. was also invited: They were called 5 times and emailed twice by Representative Paquette but he received no response. “Yeah, full transparency is the main, main ask. And that's what we're trying to dig into,” said Paquette. “That's something that we're really just trying to get the ball rolling here and the conversation's going. So, this is just the beginning from our end on trying to help.” A little over a month ago Dowagiac's mayor Patrick Bakeman called on Hyperscale Data to announce its growth plans in the city. On Friday, he received a response from the company and posted on Facebook. "Forty-five days ago I asked Hyperscale Data, Inc. to contact me directly within 45 days. The company’s CEO Will Horne has now done that and I am sharing this update today as those discussions begin moving forward. A meeting is currently being scheduled, with the expectation that we will meet within the week as the date, time and location are finalized." During the meeting, the phrase "data centers aren't for most communities..." emphasized Michigan seen is as "behind" by some on data center development and related legislation compared to nearby states like Ohio and Illinois. “I think to develop a data center that is responsible, that is sustainable, that lessens as much impact as possible, that communities, local governments, et cetera, have to go in with sort of a long-term planning process," said Jean Hardy, Assistant Professor Department of Media & Information MSU. Representative Paquette is planning more data center discussions. “And what I've known and felt across the state in particular is that most people are opposed to data centers being in their community. And that is a lot on the data center regard because if they're not good neighbors, if they can't be responsive if they can't meet meetings like this then people are gonna be even more energetic against them,” said Paquette Dowagiac City officials were also invited and were unable to attend Friday’s meeting. It's unclear when official plans will be shared by Hyperscale. _________________ Stay up to date by following our social media: WSBT 22 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WSBTNews WSBT 22 on X: https://twitter.com/WSBT WSBT 22 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wsbt/ For more information, visit https://wsbt.com/ Have a news tip? Send it directly to our newsroom: wsbtnews@wsbt.com WSBT is an IN based station and a CBS Television affiliate owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today. Sinclair owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 163 television stations in 77 markets, after pending transactions. Sinclair's television group reaches approximately 38.7% of US television households and includes FOX, ABC, MyTV, CW, CBS, NBC, Univision and Azteca affiliates.