Several hundred residents packed into the Montgomery County High School gymnasium on Jan. 29 to discuss potential avenues aimed to stop the data center projects in Montgomery County.

The event was hosted by the group Preserve Montgomery County LLC and featured three speakers and a public comment portion. Residents were able to ask questions of the presenters as well as voice their concerns regarding the proposed data center projects.

Missouri attorney Steve Jeffery of the Jeffery Law Group, LLC presented an analysis of the cost-benefit analysis and tax abatement proposal between the county and Amazon Web Services. In his presentation, he focused on the amount of revenue that would be lost to county taxing entities over a five-year period and over the life of the agreement. Specifically, Jeffery said that county entities would lose $127,918,946 in tax revenues for the first five years of the agreement, while the county would lose $244,078,163 for the total period of 2028-2052.

For comparison, Jeffery pointed out that based upon Amazon’s 2024 financial statements the company produced $637.9 billion in revenue, with $311.6 being profit. He said that paying the abatements would be the equivalent of a fast food dinner for a family of four with an income of $50,000 per year, and that Amazon could easily make their abatement payments.

Jeffery told the assembled audience what legal options might be available to them with respect to the data center. He suggested that the approval of deals with Amazon could be submitted to the voters of the county for their approval and county residents could challenge the Jan. 17 agreement between the county and the developer on the project.

Jeffery also spoke about the possibility that residents could possibly file a claim for anticipatory nuisance and talked about the Missouri Sunshine Law. 

Hydrogeologist John Bognar, the former chair of the Missouri Geologist Registration Board, spoke at length regarding questions he had regarding information from Amazon Web Services and the aquifer flowing under Montgomery County. The proposed AWS site would use approximately 50 million gallons of water per year according to the company’s estimates. Bognar said the information used by AWS is based upon data from a 2020 Missouri water plan, the aquifer recharge rate is from 2007-2017 and the information should be updated. The analysis should also consider population and other economic growth in the region, he said.

Bognar also referenced a Geosyntec summary of aquifer assessment provided as part of AWS’ information submitted to the county regarding water use and voiced concerns that drilling wells to a depth of 1,500 feet would not affect nearby residential wells.

Residents were then able to ask questions, but most of them voiced their concerns about the proposed data center projects and their effects on residents. Around 20 residents spoke up regarding their concerns.

Resident Sylvia Kueny said she was raised in Montgomery County and that she has visited industrial sites around the world working in the engineering field.

“If a person wants to live in a place surrounded by concrete and the buzz of equipment there are a lot of places in the world you can go,” she said. “But there aren’t very many places where you can walk through a cornfield, sit in the woods, watch the wildlife around you and drink clean well water without any concern of its safety or availability.”

Kueny said a data center is an industrial site filled with computers and very few people. She said the proposed centers would permanently alter the community.

“Is this the type of change you want to see in this community?” Kueny said. “If it is not, I urge you to ask yourself how you can get involved to have a say in your community.”

Local farmer Walter Gerding, who grew up on a family farm in Mineola, said he was told by commissioners that the mega site was a long-term plan that would take 50 years to come to fruition and would consist of several smaller businesses. Now, he has found out that the commissioners refuse to listen to county residents. He doesn’t want large corporations destroying any land in Montgomery County, including his own.

Resident Bill Dreyer said his life has been complicated by the data center plan since Feb. 25, 2025. He talked about going to an Ameren open house showing transmission line maps cutting across less than a mile from his family’s land. He believed that the mega-site is the worst economic development model possible.

Montgomery County native Faye Edwards said that county officials should have split into teams of those for and against a proposal to seek out information in support of their position and then come together to discuss their findings. She felt they received information in favor of data centers, but that no one went out to do research against data centers.

Sabrina Cope concluded the meeting with a comment about what residents could do moving forward, such as contacting county officials to tell them that they do not want Amazon in the county.

Both Project Green and Project Spade received site plan approval in November 2025. Project Green has also been issued a dirt disturbance permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and according to officials with Northpoint Development LLC, the developer of the project, equipment is already being moved to the site in anticipation of beginning construction this spring.