photo by: Shawn Linenberger/Journal-World

Speakers provide public comment — mostly in opposition — to a proposed data center project outside of Tonganoxie.

More than a thousand people piled in — or near – the Administration Building on Wednesday at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds to share comments and concerns about the proposed Project Bluestem hyper scale data center and power plant proposed on more than 1,000 acres south of Tonganoxie.

Heated comments filled the muggy building at times, but Leavenworth County Commission members listened to residents’ pleads to not let the center become a reality. County commissioners who attended the meeting said they shared several of the concerns that residents had raised, but commissioners stopped short of saying they would oppose the project. Commissioners said they were going to do additional research.

Top concerns mentioned by multiple residents included: noise pollution, energy usage, water usage, property valuations, and environmental concerns created by the amount of heat the projects generate.

Commissioners Mike Stieben, Vanessa Reid and Jeff Culbertson listened as a continuous line of residents shared their thoughts on the issue. Commissioners Willie Dove and Mike Smith were not at the nearly three-hour forum.

Around 65 people spoke at the forum.

Project Bluestem is the proposed 600-watt data center on what currently is Tailgate Ranch, which is south of THE Tonganoxie Business Park and near the Tonganoxie/Eudora interchange on Interstate-70. The site is about 15 miles from Lawrence. Earlier this year, Cloverleaf told the Journal-World that the center could require up to 1.2 gigawatts of power. That’s almost the equivalent of how much energy it takes to power San Francisco.

While the project has become the dominant political topic in Tonganoxie — the area is full of ‘no data center’ yard signs — the project is still in the early stages of the county’s application process. A moratorium that had prohibited data center applications has been allowed to expire, but county officials have not given a specific timeline for making a decision.

There were 200 chairs set out at the administration building, with another 550 stranding room spots available, per the fire marshal. People signed in and went through a security checkpoint, but there was overflow due to the capacity limitations.

— Shawn Linenberger is the editor of the Journal-World’s sister publication, The Tonganoxie Mirror.