Grove City should control data center growth
Grove City residents are right to demand a vote on projects that would reshape their city. A 300-acre data center campus is not a new storefront. It significantly impacts land, water and power use, and changes the character of the neighborhoods people call home.
Those who will have to live with the results should have a say before the deal is done.
Business groups are concerned that a referendum will “chill” development. It seems like what they really fear is restored balance. Small cities and towns have been asked to approve billion-dollar facilities after closed-door negotiations they are poorly equipped to contest. Construction jobs are temporary.
Once a data center is running, a large campus often employs only a few hundred people, sometimes only dozens per building. If Grove City is going to host this industry, residents deserve an honest count of durable jobs, who will pay for grid and water upgrades, and what happens if the promises to pay are broken?
Putting a clear threshold on the ballot is not anti-growth. It is crucial self-government. Citizens have had enough of being told after the fact about the biggest projects in town.
Chase Burge, Dublin
We don't need another Ted Strickland
Let's not forget, the last time a Democrat was governor,
Ted Strickland, huge businesses like NCR, DHL Express, The United States Playing Card Company and Beam Global Spirits, and others left Ohio and took thousands of jobs with them due to a poor business climate, higher taxes and government interference.
It's taken Republican governors John Kasich and Mike DeWine decades to rebuild Ohio's business climate and bring in businesses: Anduril, Intel, Resilience, Beehive Industries, Hickman Pharmaceuticals and Vertiv, to name a few, which we are seeing now, will drive Ohio's economy for decades to come.
CNBC has named Ohio the top state in the country for business.
When Ted Strickland left office, he left 89 cents in Ohio's rainy-day fund.
Rick Lash, Reynoldsburg
Presidents shouldn't be afraid of questions
Just to be clear, the president and Republican senators on news shows believe that only journalists who report what the president wants can be allowed in the White House – which is owned by the people of the United States. Let’s think about this.
Trump banned three news sources after they reported Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch, funded a large part of Trump’s billionaire son’s private family wedding party. This seems to cause a conflict with Republicans’ campaign slogans of calling Democrats Communists.
But the most important outrage should be that our country’s freedom of the press was paid for in blood by our founders and other warfighters.
Many presidents have had to handle questions and comments they did not like. Wow! What kind of leader suppresses freedom of the press and our constitutional rights? Just to name four: Russia, North Korea, China and Iran.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, tried to say suppressing journalists was okay because Trump's position shields him.
Presidents are elected and must follow the Constitution and answer citizens' questions. We all want accurate reporting. However, their favorite news source, Fox, paid a settlement of $787.5 million for lying about the news they reported to the public.
When will this president ban them?
Jean Gawronski, Powell
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: We've had enough. Grove City's fight to control data centers won't stop growth | Letters
