LETTER: Port officials ignored impact on residents in data deal OK

To Ozaukee Press:

I am wondering if I was the only reader to get a sardonic chuckle from the article “Another data center tops out” in the July 2 issue of the Press.

In the article, Victoria Tyson-Bloyd, vice president of construction for Vantage Data Centers, is quoted reminding the workers to be “mindful of the impact” they are having on the people living around the site.

  She feels the worst of the dust and disruptions are over, but now they are going to install a truck wash to “remove debris from vehicles before they leave the site.”

This is ironic for me, as on Saturday a rock hit my windscreen while I was driving down LL just past Lake Drive. I will need to spend my time, probably three-fourths of a day, driving to and from Pewaukee (dictated by my insurance company). There will be expenses for gas and the insurance deductible for a replacement windscreen.

I know my windshield is very small potatoes compared to the noise and dirt, traffic and disruption the people living much closer to the construction site have had to endure since the onset of this project. But the  point is, why wasn’t the truck wash, street sweeping, pavement wetting, etc. in place from the get-go?

These  are issues of management, not the workers’ responsibility. Vantage reportedly operates 53 data centers and is developing 63 more across five continents, so they cannot plead ignorance of the process.

I suspect Vantage, like any other for-profit enterprise, will only do what is required of it.

The City of Port seemingly did not ask for enough when negotiating this deal. I imagine the residents of Knellsville, the towns of Port, Belgium, Fredonia and the surrounding rural areas were not on their radar at all.

Barb Wooten

Town of Port Washington