LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. (WTVF) — Opposition to data centers is gaining traction across the country, including right here at home in Middle Tennessee. We're still listening to your voice to get answers from elected officials who are dodging your questions.
Several communities have even gone to great lengths to ban the facilities temporarily by implementing moratoriums, including McMinnville, Coffee County, and Metro Nashville. Now, members of one community say they're trying to do the same.
Last month, we introduced you to Elle McCann, who lives in Lawrenceburg.
She, along with several of her neighbors, have come together with concerns over a proposed data center in the Flatwoods community of Lawrence County.
So far, they've started a petition for a town hall for city leaders to address concerns with the community, which is now up to around 6,000 signatures.
No town hall has been called.
Another petition is gaining traction among neighbors that would put a moratorium on data centers across the county for 18 months.
"We're just trying to get answers still and that second petition has almost 6,000 signatures in just one week," McCann said.
We're told despite several requests for meetings with city officials, there have been no responses from Mayor Blake Lay's office to be more transparent about data center plans that are already in the works. McCann says it comes down to patience.
"They're just kind of expecting to just wait us out, that it's going to die down and then they can continue forward with what they want to do, which is to build the data center to get tax revenue," she said.
NewsChannel 5 has also tried reaching out to the Mayor's office to sit down with us and tell us what's going on, along with what the plans for the data center look like.
Mayor Lay's office said initially that they would do a Zoom interview with us, back on April 28.
His office then needed to shift times around, but eventually cancelled the interview, due to the Mayor's schedule filling up, because of his other job as a full-time real estate agent.
We waited a few days to try again - again, with no luck. His office has completely stopped responding to us. Our emails have gone unanswered since May 15- more than 5 weeks ago.
Tiffany Charbonnet, who also talked with us, attended a Lawrenceburg City Council meeting at the end of May and didn't mince words when she told leaders how she feels - as talks surrounding the data center seem to be turning more and more private:
"The fact is we don't trust you. At your mayor's talk, I asked you this question and said multiple times that you never had answered my question and I still never got an answer," Charbonnet said.
McCann said the lack of communication with city leaders has become a pattern: the beautiful gazebo in the center of town square was recently demolished, and she only found out about it through a Facebook post - with no reason was given as to why it was torn down.
"There was different issues with it, but there was again no transparency about that beforehand. So I think it's just a continual behavior of them doing things and not being used to have to account for the decisions that they've made. We're putting in the action I think it's really just the leaders that are not liking that we're standing up for ourselves," McCann said.
The next step for the data center is a meeting coming up on July 9 at 1 p.m. to talk about permits for the data center. We'll be sure to stay on this story and let you know what happens in that meeting.
Want to share Your Voice? Email us at YourVoice@NewsChannel5.com
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