A town hall meeting was held on Monday at the Montgomery County High School gymnasium by a new group that has citizens who are not in favor of having data centers built in Montgomery County.

The meeting lasted for over an hour and had five people as guest speakers. They were Stacy Bax, a Democratic candidate for District 61 State Representative; John Wells, a Democratic candidate for Missouri Senate 10; Lynn Thompson, CEO/general manager for Consolidated Electric of Mexico (Audrain County); John Coffman, consumer advocate attorney with the Consumer Council of Missouri; and Steve Jeffery, attorney for Preserve Montgomery County.

“I understand this is an important topic for our communities, especially like Montgomery County,” said Wells, who is running against Republican candidate Mike Deering for state senate in the November election. “We’re talking about economic development for this community. While nobody wants to see unfair growth, there are some good things that come along with the data centers that are coming to our communities.”

This is the second town hall meeting that was held at MCHS this year regarding the issue with data centers. The first meeting was held on Jan. 29 and was hosted by Preserve Montgomery County LLC.

Monday’s meeting was hosted by Protect Montgomery County’s Future, a new group that was formed in early September. There were more than 60 people in attendance.

The group gave out invitations for two upcoming events during the meeting. The first one is the Peoples Meeting on AI Data Centers, scheduled from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. on Sept. 16 at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. The other is the Data Center Bus Revolt Tour, which plans to make a stop at Ridgley Farms at approximately 5 p.m. on Sept. 22.

“I’m not your representative yet, but if you send me to Jefferson City, I will be,” Bax said. “I will make sure that your voices are heard. Not after the fact, not when it’s too late, but now when it still matters.”

A question and answer session was held after the meeting, and six people participated. One of them, Jennifer Thomas of Truxton, was for the data centers, saying that they are important buildings for the community.

“Technology is going to happen, even if you stand up and say no,” Thomas said. “It may not happen in your backyard, but it’s going to happen somewhere. It’s going to be happening in places where people are standing around and not paying attention.”

Two data centers are being built along the Interstate 70/Highway 19 interchange outside of New Florence. Google and Amazon have invested a combined total of $25 billion in those data centers.

Bax, who is running against Republican candidate Bruce Sassmann for District 61 representative in the November election, said she first started hearing about data centers coming to Montgomery County a year ago.

“I attended town halls and I listened,” Bax said. “What I heard from this community is clear. People were upset and rightfully so. This deal was done behind closed doors without community input, without a real conversation about what it would mean for the people who already live here. The more I learned, the more concerns I had.”

Editor’s note: A print version of this story will be published in the Sept. 23 issue of the Montgomery Standard.