LETTER: No, Mr. Mayor, data center miseries won’t bring benefits 

To Ozaukee Press

The data center disruptions are not “temporary” and they do not bring “long lasting benefits,” contrary to what Mayor Ted Neitzke wrote in his op-ed opinion piece in last week’s Ozaukee Press. 

The mayor  stated that there have been “some significant changes and disruptions,” which woefully undervalues the upheavals. These disturbances have affected the Town of Port Washington, Belgium, Grafton, Fredonia and Saukville, as well as the City of Port Washington.

The lives of the people near this monstrosity have had significant environmental, financial and quality-of-life changes, none of which feel “temporary” to them as trucks come and go day and night through the county, bogging down travel.

Writing that the “project is bringing in new visitors from across the county and around the world” is a falsehood. No one is visiting this area because of the data center. Tourism is up in Port Washington because of the charter fishing, the festivals and the restaurants. And on Mondays, our downtown is bare.

Neitzke stated that he “wanted people to submit their questions to us and get the facts instead of relying on social media.”  I find this very ironic, as neither he nor the Common Council have offered open meetings for citizens to “get the facts” about the data center. There have never been easily accessible public information meetings regarding the data center and proposed projects.  Often the council went into closed sessions.

We Energies is proposing a residential electric rate hike of roughly 14%. These increased utility rates are the direct result of data centers driving up the energy demand, which strains the grid capacity and forces utilities to invest in costly infrastructure. Yet, the mayor wrote that the data center will “pay for significant infrastructure improvements that benefit all of us.” The data center is not paying for these increases; we the citizens are.  Tax breaks for data centers do not deliver the promised economic benefits, such as high-paying jobs; they reduce local tax revenues, while shifting financial burdens onto communities and schools.

Pat Morrissey

Port Washington