Mason County

I'm Lucy May.

Mason County, Kentucky residents finally know which company is behind a data center development that's been two years in the making.

And Trenton, Ohio residents attended an Amazon science fair to learn more about a data center project there.

Joining me now to tell us more is WVXU investigative reporter Nick Swartzell and WVXU environment reporter Isabel Nisley is back with us too.

Has the project gotten all the approvals, the county approvals it needs to move forward? It

seems so.

This week, the Mason County Fiscal Court approved a development and community revenue agreement, as well as some industrial revenue bonds for that project and some other kind of like pieces that kind of pave the way for this to go forward.

Well, the Mason County judge executive has been a big supporter of this project, as I understand from your previous reporting.

McDaniel is also making stops in Bowling Green, Louisville, Lexington, and other cities to drum up support for Amendment 1.

We have big data center news today out of Mason County.

Yesterday, the county judge executive revealed Meta is the company behind a planned hyperscale data center.

Meta is the owner of both Facebook and Instagram.

The Kentucky Lantern reports Meta will invest billions of dollars in the nearly 3,000 acre project.

It will pay millions of dollars to the county and to local schools and will receive a 40-year tax break.

A group called We Are Mason County says people should have been told before now that Meta was behind the project.

Kentucky's measles numbers just took a big jump.

Yeah.

when you look at what decisions other counties are making, I think that those counties that are embracing the possibility that these very significant investments can find a home in in those counties are making the right decision, okay? I'm from Maysville, Mason County.

Mason County is an area that is entertaining and talking about the possibility of a data center.

Mason County is very different from Woodford County.

So probably the right decision by Woodford County to perhaps have a countywide ban.

certainly the right decision by Mason County to be open to the possibility.

It is a negotiation.

It is something that involves local officials.

That is Ida Huddleston.

Last summer she and her daughter turned down more than $26 million for their land in Mason County, Kentucky.

All they had to do was sign.

The offer came from a company working to build one of the hundreds of data centers going up across this country, but she said, "No thank you." The Atlantic's George Packer traveled to Clinton, Iowa, where he met a lot of that same sort of resistance.

They're going to look down the road to one of these rural counties, maybe, you know, 50 miles away and see the price per acres.

They're like the one they're putting in Mason County out in Maysville and say, let's go there because it's just a more economical, more economical fit.

So, Why data centers are a concern for our residents because, you know, people just read the news and hear it online.

I tell everyone our land is too expensive, I think, from an economic standpoint.

The free market protects us from that threat, in my opinion.

Who knows? Crazy things happen.

But, you know, they're putting a big one down in Mason County and Maysville, which they went through a lot of rounds and rounds and rounds about that.

And, you know, they got the land, I think, for 30-something thousand an acre.