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No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

dispatch.com

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Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#31

Post by hakkoru »

guardiangod wrote: post #19
delfinom wrote: post #4

>The Amazon centers are property tax-abated for 10 years, providing instead 1.5% income tax on workers via a joint economic development agreement with Marysville. After construction, a small fraction of workers remain to be taxed, she said. Lol, gotta love the scam. Small town politicians must get some amazing bribes. >While under construction about a year ago, a worker at the Warren Road Amazon facility was crushed…

>You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Imagine that you work for a 3 letter US agency and is storing confidential data on AWS. Would you allow random individuals (yes even for emergency personnel) to have unfetter access to your computation and storage systems? What about health data? What about data belonging to other countries? Do you do a sweep for una…

I've never experienced it but I've been told that if an emergency responder needs to enter an area where classified information is stored you let them in, escort them, and security will debrief them and have them sign an NDA after the fact if they saw any classified information.

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#32

Post by BeFlatXIII »

guardiangod wrote: post #19
delfinom wrote: post #4

>The Amazon centers are property tax-abated for 10 years, providing instead 1.5% income tax on workers via a joint economic development agreement with Marysville. After construction, a small fraction of workers remain to be taxed, she said. Lol, gotta love the scam. Small town politicians must get some amazing bribes. >While under construction about a year ago, a worker at the Warren Road Amazon facility was crushed…

>You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Imagine that you work for a 3 letter US agency and is storing confidential data on AWS. Would you allow random individuals (yes even for emergency personnel) to have unfetter access to your computation and storage systems? What about health data? What about data belonging to other countries? Do you do a sweep for una…

…and why should the local fire department care about those concerns?

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#33

Post by organsnyder »

jcranmer wrote: post #22
ksec wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5. And last time I went to a Datacentre it may be an eye sore but it doesn't produce any noise at all. Do all DC in US produce noise like that?

> How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5. It's probably not legal, although this is an area of law that is generally delegated to the most local levels of governments, so the details will vary based on where exactly you're located. There's going to be a catch-all public nuisance ordinance this would fall under, although there may…

Yeah, this could happen very easily, especially in a small municipality. A hypothetical order of events:

A datacenter operator approaches the township, selling the town commissioners on a project that will make them an "AI hub". The town leaders don't know the correct questions to ask, especially regarding noise, but they know they'll be lambasted if they turn this down. And the developer claims they have a dozen other sites that are shovel-ready if this town gives them any hassle.

The neighbor probably gets a postcard in the mail letting them know about an upcoming development hearing. This postcard is easily overlooked among the day's junk mail, and it doesn't have many details, anyways. Or, perhaps the neighbor has an attitude similar to many rural residents, and figures whatever happens on their neighbor's property isn't their concern (these are large properties, after all).

Even if the neighbor does complain, they're one voice against the many that want to see new development in their town—perhaps the first in recent memory (other than the two Dollar General stores that drove their old independent stores out of business). And so much in small town government depends on interpersonal relationships; perhaps the neighbor isn't well-connected, or a town commissioner even has an old grudge against them.

All of this is happening with little notice from the public. The newspaper was bought out by Gannett a decade ago; it's now thrice-weekly edition is 90% wire service stories, with the local coverage consisting almost entirely of "hard-hitting" crime coverage written by a reporter who is also the only local reporter for three other papers.

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#34

Post by thepryz »

ramesh31 wrote: post #11
ksec wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5. And last time I went to a Datacentre it may be an eye sore but it doesn't produce any noise at all. Do all DC in US produce noise like that?

>How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5. Because the people who live there voted for the kind of people who would allow it to happen. And they'll do it again, every time.

Also exemplified by the Ohio nuclear bribery scandal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#35

Post by mjr00 »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #32
guardiangod wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Imagine that you work for a 3 letter US agency and is storing confidential data on AWS. Would you allow random individuals (yes even for emergency personnel) to have unfetter access to your computation and storage systems? What about health data? What about data belonging to other countries? Do you do a sweep for una…

…and why should the local fire department care about those concerns?

Because there are federal agents with rifles guarding the data center, and they're allowed to use deadly force if the local FD ignores their instructions.

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#36

Post by thepryz »

justaguitarist wrote: post #12
ImJasonH wrote: post #9

This link doesn't seem to work for me for some reason, but here's the same article in the local paper: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2025/09/08/ohio-to...

I wish the Dispatch was still local but it was bought out a while ago. They pretend to be but it's gone significantly downhill since.

I think you raise a good point. Everything from local newspapers, local TV news, HOA and rental management, and even community sports programs are increasingly run by national organizations that have no connection to the local community and no interest in the community aside from extracting money.

Focusing on just the media side of things, you already see how easy it is to spread propaganda and it's only getting worse with SkyDance's merger with CBS. Not sure I have any answers here, but it's definitely a problem we need to solve sooner rather than later.

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#37

Post by FireBeyond »

delfinom wrote: post #4

>The Amazon centers are property tax-abated for 10 years, providing instead 1.5% income tax on workers via a joint economic development agreement with Marysville. After construction, a small fraction of workers remain to be taxed, she said. Lol, gotta love the scam. Small town politicians must get some amazing bribes. >While under construction about a year ago, a worker at the Warren Road Amazon facility was crushed…

> "And we've struggled to gain access to emergencies. They'll stop us at the gate, and our medic units have been delayed. They're denying us access to patients.

> You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Repeat until Amazon runs out of employees dumb enough to continue doing so.

Absolutely. Ex-paramedic/firefighter. We responded to a cult facility once (think Nexium-esque but "bigger"). 911 call for chest pain. Stopped at the gate by armed guards. "You can't bring your ambulance in". Uh, yes, we can. "No. We can't allow you in, then." My officer at the time, to the head guard, "Are you the individual who called 911?" "No, I'm not, someone in there did." "Alright, so to be very clear before I call law enforcement out here, you are acknowledging you are interfering with emergency services performing their duty by actively preventing us from getting to our patient?"

We got let in.

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#38

Post by FireBeyond »

mjr00 wrote: post #35
BeFlatXIII wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…and why should the local fire department care about those concerns?

Because there are federal agents with rifles guarding the data center, and they're allowed to use deadly force if the local FD ignores their instructions.

What AWS datacenters are guarded by federal agents?

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#39

Post by thepryz »

hakkoru wrote: post #31
guardiangod wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Imagine that you work for a 3 letter US agency and is storing confidential data on AWS. Would you allow random individuals (yes even for emergency personnel) to have unfetter access to your computation and storage systems? What about health data? What about data belonging to other countries? Do you do a sweep for una…

I've never experienced it but I've been told that if an emergency responder needs to enter an area where classified information is stored you let them in, escort them, and security will debrief them and have them sign an NDA after the fact if they saw any classified information.

This is largely correct. However, staff also need to be trained and drilled on security policies and procedures. That's often lacking, especially if security is outsourced to third party contractors.

Re: No more data centers: Ohio township pushes back against influx of Amazon, others

#40

Post by mjr00 »

FireBeyond wrote: post #38
mjr00 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there are federal agents with rifles guarding the data center, and they're allowed to use deadly force if the local FD ignores their instructions.

What AWS datacenters are guarded by federal agents?

The ones hosting classified data used by federal agencies. https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/
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