Posey County commissioners have signed a non-disclosure agreement with an outside development company — without telling residents. Now farmers are being approached to lease their land, and a data center may be on its way before this community has had any chance to weigh in.

Data centers are major industrial facilities. They can place enormous demands on local water supplies, run cooling equipment around the clock, and generate persistent noise that affects everyone living nearby. For a rural farming community, those impacts deserve careful study, not a rush to approve.

Residents have raised concerns about water usage, air quality, and health risks to children. They are right to ask questions. And they are right to request what commissioners should have offered from the start: a two-year moratorium to conduct independent environmental and health impact studies, hold real public hearings, and get honest answers about who this deal benefits and what it costs the county.

The Area Plan Commission holds a special session on Monday. That is a starting point, not a finish line. Sign the petition now to demand that Posey County commissioners pause all data center development — and give this community the transparency and time it deserves.