Monday Update - OCB Meeting Tomorrow (August 18th @ 5:30pm)

Good morning everyone - the sun has finally made an appearance!  

This update will be brief: please try to attend tomorrow night’s Ogle County Board meeting.
Time?  5:30pm
Where?  Historic Ogle County Courthouse, 3rd Floor
What is on the agenda?  OCB Agenda

Three minutes is all that you get to address the board during public comment.  Be sure to make them count!

We are also sharing information regarding fire safety/hazards/concerns around data centers and their buildout to round out this update.  Continue to learn and to share with those around you.  This isn’t political.  This is about having a say about what happens to our land, to our water, and to our futures here in Ogle County.  

National Fire Protection Association® (NFPA®): Fast, Furious, Immense. The race to cash in on artificial intelligence has triggered a data center building boom that is quickly becoming the largest infrastructure effort of our time. Now, an army of safety professionals is working to understand these complex, sprawling facilities, even as the systems inside continue to evolve.
Trying to understand and mitigate the hazards of these unique facilities has been anything but straightforward, Brune said. “It’s been all trial and error and will continue to be, because none of these projects are cookie-cutter,” said Brune, a former president of the Arizona Fire Marshals Association and Goodyear’s fire marshal since 2019. “There’s always something different or new in each one of these, whether it’s a new cooling system or some other equipment they’re putting in.”A variety of safety professionals in cities and towns around the world are now racing to better understand and mitigate the potential hazards of these unique facilities. Those workers include not only authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) like Brune, who review and approve data center plans, but the countless engineers who design the projects; the electricians, pipe fitters, and other professionals who wire and maintain them; the code officials who write and enforce the rules; and ultimately, the firefighters who will be asked to respond when something inevitably goes wrong.

Gadget Review: Amazon’s Data Centers Keep Catching Fire – Small-Town Fire Departments Pay the Price Ohio data centers won 100% tax breaks while local fire crews absorb millions in costs and hazardous 30-hour blazes.
Firefighters in Jerome Township, Ohio roll up to an Amazon data center with lights flashing and full gear ready. Then they wait. Facility security can hold crews at the gate for up to an hour while Amazon grants authorization to enter, according to Daily Dispatch reporting. Whatever’s burning keeps burning. Two Amazon data centers under construction in this small township have generated 84 emergency calls since 2021 — roughly two per month, often requiring lights-and-sirens response, according to Data Center Dynamics. This isn’t a statistical blip. It’s the invoice for America’s AI boom, and small-town fire departments are picking up the tab.  Amazon reportedly secured 100% property tax abatements for ten years on each Jerome Township site, according to Daily Dispatch. The township still funds every emergency response. In nearby Hilliard, three data center campuses surround roughly 37,000 residents, and approximately $2 million in tax revenue has reportedly been diverted from emergency services since construction began around 2015. Jerome Township Fire Chief Douglas Stewart put it plainly: data center responses “That taxes our resources every time we go.”

Here’s what Ohio’s data center boom actually costs locally, by the numbers:
84 emergency calls to Jerome Township since 2021 — roughly two per month, often lights-and-sirens
$50 million in damage and 30 hours of firefighter time in the April 2025 Amazon site fire alone
~$2 million in tax revenue reportedly diverted from emergency services in Hilliard since construction began around 2015
100% property tax abatement for ten years, per site, granted to Amazon in Jerome Township
10–35% electric supply price increases for many Ohio consumers in June 2025, partly driven by grid upgrades for data center demand

Amazon data centers in Jerome Township, Ohio, called emergency services 84 times since 2021 Firefighters say two data centers are calling for assistance around twice a month.
Some of the emergency calls have even been related to incidents that caused fatalities. The Warren Road site saw an employee crushed to death during construction, and another fell to his death at the Industrial Parkway site, as per previous reports from The Dispatch.  The Industrial Parkway also suffered a fire in April 2025 that occupied firefighters for 30 hours and caused $50 million in damage. A separate fire at an AWS data center in Indiana also occurred in April.  According to The Dispatch, not only are calls to the emergency services frequent, they are often held up from assisting by security guards and told to wait for up to an hour outside the facilities.

Time and time again, taxpayers and communities like ours are getting the raw end of the deal when it comes to data centers.