Data center construction ‘hellish,’ town residents say

Sunday was the straw that broke the back, Town of Port Washington resident Kim Tydrick said.

Construction crews at the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus, who are allowed to work around the clock on weekdays but on weekends are only to work from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., were still working well into the night Sunday, she said.

At 9:45 p.m., she called Port Washington police to report it, she said. At 1:30 a.m. Monday, she called again and was connected to an officer, who said he had been to the site and didn’t think the noise was excessive.

When she told the officer crews weren’t supposed to be working at all that late, Tydrick said, he told her he didn’t know that.

And when she called later Monday morning and asked if Vantage or the crews had been cited or fined for violating the permitted work hours, Tydrick said, Lt. Kurt Knowski said they were not.

And that, she said, is wrong.

“The hours that are out of bounds should be out of bounds,” Tydrick said. “I guarantee you that if I were doing this in the heart of the city, I would be cited.”

The Sunday night work, she said, is just the latest indignity residents in the area are suffering from the data center construction.

“Even I could not have imagined how bad it was going to be,” Tydrick, who lives on Weilers Way about three-quarters of a mile from the construction site, said. “The whole thing has gone so far beyond what I imagined. The beep, beep, beep of backing up trucks 24 hours a day. You would think you’d get used to it, but you don’t. You wake up in the middle of the night and that’s the first thing you hear.

“Depending on the weather, the lights shine in our bedroom window. We call it the land of the midnight sun, but if you go out in the morning it’s like the sun is rising in both directions.

“The dirt and debris that flies from these trucks. They told us all the trucks will be covered. None of them are. It’s truly affecting the mental health of the people living here.

“At least they gave us Saturday and Sunday nights. But this — there’s no excuse. There is no consideration for us. It’s all very disheartening.”

Residents don’t know who to call when there’s an issue, Tydrick said.

“From the beginning, we’ve asked all these entities to give us a phone number, a point person to talk to, a hot line,” she said.

Tydrick isn’t the only one upset by the constant construction. On Tuesday, Dean Wiegert of the Town of Port asked the Common Council to end the 24-hour work schedule.

“Typical day ... I get home from a day at work and spend time outside accompanied by the dull roar of heavy machinery from the work site. The beeping of the backing equipment is continuous and incredibly annoying. As the sun sets, the incredibly bright lights ring my horizon from west to northeast.”

Wiegert said he went to sleep Monday to the noise of the construction site, only to wake at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday “with the beeping of the backing equipment clearly audible inside my house with my windows shut.”

An hour later, he fell asleep only to wake at 4:30 a.m. when, he said, “it was still going on.”

Wiegert said he’s emailed officials and filled out the city’s complaint form but has not received a response.

“I stand here telling you the 24-hour construction is hellish and I want you to make it stop,” he told the Common Council. “Please end the 24-hour work schedule.”

Port City Administrator Melissa Gossett said Tuesday she talked to Vantage about the incident on Sunday and the company is taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“There was a misunderstanding,” she said, noting this is the first time this has happened. “They will be correcting the hours.”

The city, she said, clarified its stance on the work hours — crews can work around the clock from 6 a.m. Monday through midnight Friday and from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekends. That, she said, gives residents a full night of quiet from Sunday into Monday morning.

“We expect them to do that now,” Gossett said. “They have been warned. If it’s not fixed, we will ask for (the hours) to go back to the Plan Commission to cut their hours.

“This is a big deal. We take this seriously.”

Mayor Ted Neitzke said Tuesday that he plans to talk to Vantage about how long the 24-hour construction will go on, noting that when the firm sought the extended hours they said it would be for a limited time.

“When is that ending?” he asked, noting Vantage said it needed the extra hours to make up time since permitting for the project took longer than expected. “They indicated they didn’t need it forever. How long will it take to catch up.

“I have every intention of following through on this. Our job is to hold them accountable. It’s our job to enforce that. I think they understand the risk.”

Mark Freeman, vice president of global marketing for Vantage Data Centers, on Tuesday apologized for the overnight weekend work.

“We reiterated to our general contractors that all work must strictly adhere to the permits we hold,” he said. “We are actively working to ensure such occurrences do not happen again. Our commitment is to be compliant as well as to be a good and responsive neighbor.”

In response to complaints about dust emanating from the site, Freeman said, Vantage has taken steps that include deploying water trucks and sweeper trucks and sending crews home on windy days, and it has asked the general contractors to provide additional mitigation plans.

As a “small token of appreciation for the community bearing with us,” he said, Vantage will partner with Car Tub Car Wash, 1427 W. Grand Ave., to provide complimentary car washes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28.

He said concerns about the project should be sent to https://www.vantagedclighthousecampus.com/contact-us/.