Standing-room-only crowd attends Sarcoxie meeting on data centers

SARCOXIE, Mo. - A meeting in Sarcoxie to discuss data centers and their impact on people living nearby brought out between 175 and 200 people Thursday night.

Geronimo Power, a company based in Minnesota, announced in March that it planned to build a hyperscale data park with multiple data centers on land just southwest of La Russell in eastern Jasper County. The company also announced plans for a 2,000-acre solar farm and battery stations for rural Jasper and Lawrence counties north of La Russell to partially power the data center park.

Earlier this year, the city of Joplin annexed 540 acres of the Wildwood Ranch area on the west side of town along Central City Road and rezoned property to industrial to accommodate a possible data center in the area.

Residents groups have been formed to oppose both projects, worried that they could threaten water supplies in the area, increase electricity costs, possibly affect health and lead to lower property values.

Members of both groups organized the meeting at the Gene Taylor Community Building in Sarcoxie.

Amanda Calderon-Kidston, with Joplin Citizens Against Wildwood Ranch Data Center Site, said she worked with Rhys Hine, with the group Say No to Data Centers: Keep Jasper and Lawrence Counties Rural (Missouri).

"The intention was to offer information about what a data center is and how it affects not just property values but the health of the people in the community," Calderon-Kidston said. "We wanted to continue building this community, continue presenting information and getting everyone organized and on the same page."

The speaker lineup included Richard Jones, a real estate agent, who warned their could be an adverse impact on property values for those who live near a big data center.

April Jones, a nurse, discussed possible health concerns that could result from living near a data center and power generating project, including noise and light pollution.

Also speaking was James Gordon, who represented the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, a group that helps fight threats to Missouri agriculture. He explained that his group in the past has led the fight against concentrated animal feeding operations, and today, they are shifting their attention to focus on data centers moving into rural Missouri.

Jasper County Eastern District Commissioner Jimmy Morris said he's been speaking with Hines and others about different options and county ordinances that are in place currently and may be considered in the fight against data centers.

Hannah Langowski came with her husband, John Langowski, from Fair Play in rural Polk County.

"It's beautiful, we live here for a reason," Hannah Langowski said of living in rural Missouri. "We don't want to see this taken over by other things. The data center, the solar farm, this is all concerning to us. I really would like to see more solutions next time. I'm hoping in the next meeting we can hear what we can do at a local level. I think we all know as a community, everyone that I've talked to is opposed to this, we don't like it. We don't want to see our rural beautiful areas taken over by this."

Linda Heman, of La Russell, said she was concerned about the future of her community in eastern Jasper County if the data center and solar farm are built.

"I think it could be the death of La Russell," Heman said. "I love my house, but how long can I live there? I'm hoping I'm dead by the time these things come in. Harvey's Cemetery, where all my people are buried, where I was going to be buried, is right across the road from where this was going to be. Do I still want to be buried there? I don't know."

Hine said he was pleased with the turnout and the way the meeting went.

"The presenters did a very good job and presented a lot of good information, so overall I'm pretty pleased with tonight," Hine said. "I think the takeaways were now it's time to move on to the next steps. What do we need? What are the action steps in order to to help keep data centers from going in? I think we have to be on the same page where we all are focused on the same goal and going about it in the same way, so we're unified and working together."

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