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Logan County Board
New Data Center Proposal Largely Unpopular
[January 06, 2026]
On Monday, January 5th, the
Zoning and Economic Development Committee of the larger Logan County
Board met for their monthly meeting, the first one of 2026. This
meeting was held in the third floor courtroom of the Logan County
Courthouse. Normally, these meetings are held in the Blue Room of
the Logan County Safety Complex, but it was determined that, due to
the large number of people likely to attend the meeting to speak on
the proposed data center, they might need extra space. That extra
space was needed, as there were few of the well over one hundred
seats that were not taken.
Four of the five committee members were present. These were
Committee Chairman Michael DeRoss, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Joseph
Kuhlman, and Bob Sanders. Absent was Vice Committee Chairman Kathy
Schmidt. Many other board members were present, including Lance
Conahan, JR Glenn, Dale Nelson, Jim Wessbecher, Gil Turner, and
Kevin Knauer. Zoning and Economic Development Officer Al Green was
also present.
DeRoss forwent introduction of guests seeing as how there were so
many people in attendance. The previous month’s minutes were
approved and Green reported that State’s Attorney Brad Hauge said
there is no problem with the penalty violation on the zoning
ordinance that the committee has been working on.
This then led DeRoss to introduce the three people present to
present and answer questions on the data center. The three
representatives present from Hut 8 were Peter Goehausen, Director of
Energy Organization, and Greg Irwin, Senior Vice President of Energy
Origination.
Goehausen began his presentation by
asking people if they have photos saved on their phone. He stated
that when the phone’s storage is full, sometimes those photos get
saved to cloud storage, stating that this is where data centers come
into play. He stated that data centers allow people to continue to
live their current lifestyle. He also stated that it helps in
sectors such as agriculture when farmers use data input to help
raise their yields.
Irwin stated that Hut 8 is a publicly traded company based in
southern Florida. Hut 8 owns over 1GB of infrastructure across the
United States and Canada. There are sites in New York, Texas,
Alberta, and an up and coming one in Louisiana. They also have large
partners that become tenants in their data centers such as Google.
Here are some of the highlights of what was discussed:
● It was stated that this project would be three miles west of
Latham.
● This data center is supposed to be 500 megawatts.
● The data center land would be somewhere between 200 and 255 acres,
and the facility itself would be between 1 million and 1.3 million
square feet.
● It would cost somewhere between $4 and $5 billion to construct,
and the tenant that operates out of it would bring in billions of
dollars of data chips and machinery.
● There would be an estimated 200
full-time jobs across three shifts, as well as about 1,500
construction jobs. The construction jobs would last roughly 18
months.
● Hut 8 is looking to partner with Heartland Community College
Lincoln and other educational institutions in the area to create a
training program to help ensure that the jobs that are created stay
in Logan County.
● The water they use for their cooling system will be trucked in
from an outside source, but they did not have an answer for where.
The cooling system would be closed loop, meaning it would need to be
replaced every five to seven years, and would not be a major drain
on the local water sources.
● They are working with Ameren for their power. They are going to
cover the cost for any infrastructure upgrades that may be needed to
bring the power they need to their center. This should not lead to
an increased cost for locals on their energy bills for new
infrastructure, something Ameren charges a fee for.
[to top of second column] |
● Goehausen and
Irwin stated that Hut 8 is interested in partnering with the
community to help local economic development and claim to be
having conversations currently as to what that would look like.
● The noise pollution, according to a study Goehausen and Irwin
cited, should be no more than a whisper. The nearest neighbors
are about half a mile away and the pair stated they should not
hear it.
Many members of the board had questions for Goehausen and Irwin.
Kuhlman asked about how the Latham land was chosen and was told
Ameren informed Hut 8 that there is extra capacity on the lines
out there. Sanders asked about a secondary location and was told
there was not one. DeRoss wanted to know what the extra land
would be used for and was told that it would be for foliage to
help block some of the noise from the surrounding areas. Kuhlman
wanted to know if Hut 8 would be willing to work with architects
to make the facility look like something that would fit in
Central Illinois and was told that they could.
Wessbecher continued by asking where
they were going to get their labor, as there are no labor halls in
Logan County. He was informed that they would work with the
community to get local labor. Glenn wanted information on how they
can have such high paying jobs after investing billions of dollars.
He was told that the rent they are paid is very good, and partnering
with such “high credit” partners means that they can contribute some
of the cost to the project to help get it operational, sometimes
taking on over half of the cost. Turner asked about what happens if
the plans change and Hut 8 defaults before the project is up and
running. He was told that they could not promise anything, but after
the facility was up and running, everything would be contractual.
Leesman wanted to know if the company was going to be investing in
renewable energy like solar panels that would feed into their data
center and was told they were not. Knauer brought up an issue with
the local area where people are losing power and Ameren is not
fixing the issue. He asked if they would be willing to work with
Ameren on behalf of the people to try to get the issues resolved.
Irwin stated that they are willing to have those conversations, but
he is not sure what he is allowed to say on that.
After the board member’s questions, a ten-minute recess was taken.
When the recess was over, members of the community were encouraged
to come forth and ask questions or give comments, with a
three-minute time limit to get things moving. About two dozen people
spoke, and not one of them had anything positive to say about the
center.
Some of the people had questions regarding the center, and others
told Goehausen and Irwin that they did not want to see the data
center built. The questions ranged from what they would put in the
water in their closed loop system to how many backup generators
would be needed for their center. Some people got up simply to make
a comment explaining how the data center would affect them or their
family.
Keep on the lookout this week for more write ups from LDN regarding
this data center, going into more detail on the exact specs of the
project as well as more details regarding the public comments.
[Matt Boutcher]
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