The couple said they feel there should have been more communication from the city regarding data center plans.
“Nobody in the town knew about it,” Tonya said.
“We feel like this has all been underhanded ... they don’t want us to argue, because they know we’re going to argue,” she added.
Mayor Ryan Perry said Trenton followed Ohio laws when discussing the project and making zoning changes.
“It’s obvious at this point that that’s not adequate, because when we were reading all of these and having public hearings, we had nobody in our council chambers,” he said.
Perry said the city is making an effort to improve communications, including monthly citizen roundtables, a newsletter and email alerts.
“(Roundtables) will give everyone a chance to ask the questions that they want asked and maybe dispel some of these things that I’m hearing,” he said.
The Hahns are concerned about possible noise and light pollution; high energy and water use by the center causing higher bills for residents; and displacement of wildlife.
Trenton City Manager Marcos Nichols told the Journal-News “all projects have to meet codified ordinance standards” in regard to environmental impact, and the city’s code also has noise requirements.
Perry said the data center will use Trenton’s city water “100 percent” of the time and will have to get rid of the water through the sewer system, “just like any other wastewater.”
Perry added having a data center in a city is a “lot safer” than having one in a township, because “there’s a lot more restrictive laws on how the water is to be handled.”
Trenton’s water treatment plant has a 5-million-gallon per day capacity; it could handle up to 6 million gallons with minor improvements, according to Perry. Daily usage now for the city of Trenton is estimated at 1.5 million gallons per day, Perry said.
The city also applied to the Ohio Water Supply Revolving Loan Account for a new 1.5-million-gallon water storage tank in April 2025. The total project cost is $7,639,110, which the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency intends to finance at a 3.22 percent interest rate.
An Ohio EPA review found that the proposed project “should not result in significant adverse environmental effects.”
Perry did not know the exact number of gallons the data center is expected to use, but a typical 100 megawatt data center translates to 1.1 million gallons of water per day.
“We’re just going to have a very substantial water user, and they’re also going to be buying water from the city at a business rate which a little bit higher ... so if anything it should freeze or decrease our dependency on citizens’ water bills,” Perry said.
The water treatment plant was built with extra capacity “anticipating future growth,” he said.
Perry said he “can’t answer for energy bills,” noting that Duke Energy has been upgrading its power grid.
The mayor said he supports the data center because “it brings industry to the city, and it doesn’t add a whole lot of traffic to our roads.”
“This company is buying a substantial amount of land, they’re going to be purchasing a substantial amount of water from us, paying a lot of taxes and to the school district ... and all of this is happening with minimum impact from traffic,” he said.
The Hahns disagree, saying there is no “benefit” to Trenton residents from a data center.
“I don’t know how you sell this to the people of Trenton that this was anywhere near in their best interest,” Carl said.
“You cannot prove that enough revenue is going to be generated to incur the costs that you’re asking the citizens to incur,” he added.
The Hahns moved to Trenton 23 years ago and raised their three children in the city.
“I moved to this area because there’s peace, there’s quiet, there’s calm, there’s beautiful scenery, there’s animals everywhere ... and I love that,” Tonya said. “It’s a small town, and I’m not sure what’s so bad about keeping a small town a small town.”
Councilwoman Sharon Montgomery, who is running for re-election, said, “We want the best, but in order to pay for the best, we have to have things come to our city that will take care of that.”
Councilmembers Floyd Croucher, Calvin Woodrey, Jennifer Combs, Ray Nichols and Dale Perry did not respond to requests for comment on resident concerns about the data center.
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