TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Temple Mayor Tim Davis addressed neighbors Wednesday morning with an open letter about local concerns over data centers. On social media, the message was met with some praise, but mostly criticism and more questions from residents as a recall effort for some council members continues.
Watch the story here:
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Anger over data centers has turned into a plan to kick out city government.
Now, the mayor is sending out an open letter saying the idea is misunderstood and that some of what you've been hearing simply isn't true.
“Talks about bold choices bringing thoughtful growth, well, there was a bold choice, it wasn't very thoughtful, though,” Jason, a resident, said.
Temple neighbors and social media are offering mixed reactions to the open letter from Mayor Tim Davis. In the middle of the firestorm over data centers, Davis has offered up the letter, but many of the people i spoke with still want answers.
“It's a weird mess, you see, both like compliments like, hey, thank you for asking hard questions, doesn't want to answer them, and then kind of criticizes the public for speaking out. So. He is clearly aware of the disdain for this,” Emmanuel Perez said.
The letter addresses concerns over how much water a data center will use. Davis says it wouldn't be as much water as local restaurants already use every day. As for electricity, he stated that's a matter for the state of Texas and he says if data centers come to Texas, the impact on electricity in Temple will come regardless of where in the state they end up.
“The electric deregulation has led to power outages and poor management of the electrical grid and the state of Texas environmental protections. They're woefully misguided and lacking. So that doesn't really answer any of the questions that we have,” Jerilyn Melton said.
Davis also addressed claims that he and members of the city council are profiting from the data center project. He calls that blatantly false and he says all of Temple will benefit from tax money the data center will bring.
“The city's going to get eight million dollars. We're going to get $12 million. We're going to get all this revenue from these data centers, what it failed to emphasize. We're trading 700 acres of land for 40 permanent jobs. And. If you look at it through, uh? Just basic math on a land-to-job ratio. This is not a good deal,” Kevin Brown.
Neighbors like Jason said they just want a pause on the project until more information can be made available.
“Doing something like this reeks of environmental ruin, and people would like to know that it's not for personal gain,” Jason said. “If we had a Venn diagram of things you need and things that data centers serve, there's just two circles right there. They don't overlap at all.”
According to leaders of the "Stop Temple Data Center" group, the recall petitions already have almost half the signatures they'll need to move forward with a recall.
