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GREAT ASSET
Congratulations, Christian County. This will be awesome for all residents and businesses in the county and surrounding areas (“Area data center updates,” June 11). Don’t let out-of-town carpetbaggers come in and spread lies about data centers. Today there are more than 4,500 operating all over the U.S. without issue.
However, like all developments, there are potential risks which you should address in the development agreement – power, water and noise, along with the relatively small number of direct data center jobs. But for every data center job, there will be at least four to five additional jobs needed to support the facility.
Steve Foster
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
TOO MUCH HYPE
A data center will completely pummel property values. We need to be thinking of our neighbors that will be most heavily affected. Never mind the noise and light pollution, effects on aquifers and rising energy costs.
I’d really like to see a breakdown of where this “money for Christian County” will actually be spent. Where are the proposed contracts? What local businesses will be utilized in the building and operation of the facility?
Look past the hype and do your due diligence. Talk to members of communities that have these things near their homes.
James Williams
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
TOO RISKY
These data centers are all being built on the speculation of being needed. Think of how quickly technology changes and how quickly your cellphone becomes outdated. Look up an iPhone or computer from 2006. This is gambling, not with house money, but our communities’ futures.
Kyle Snyder
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
PEOPLE DON’T WANT IT
As a retired union sheet metal worker, I should be for the data center proposed to be built in Sangamon County, but I am not. Why? Because it is another case of a large industrial project being thrown into an area that the people living there don’t want. Who wants an industrial center in your backyard? Why should they be burdened with all the negative things that come with it while big money gets all the benefits?
My neighborhood fought a solar farm a few years ago that is soon to be built right next to our subdivision. We fought a good fight but eventually lost out. Why? Well, the biggest reason was that the unions in Sangamon County got to several of the county board members and influenced their vote. I know this because I was told this afterward by a highly influential Sangamon County political player.
With that said, I can tell you that it will most likely happen again with the data center. I can also tell you that as a past elected union official, the unions in Sangamon County could care less about what the people living close to the proposed data center think about it. The unions only care about three things: How many people they can put to work there building it, how many people they can put there after it is built, and the third and most important thing is how much money they can rake in on union dues from all the work being done. It is just the way unions operate.
I wish I could tell the people fighting it that it won’t be built, but I think that it is a done deal.
Steve Jones
Springfield
This article appears in June 25-July 1, 2026.
