As we told you last week, a massive data center is in the works for northeast Kentucky, and it's being led by the same company who's behind another center.

And Hancock County that's in western Kentucky.

Last night, elected officials hosted a town hall to bring residents up to speed with the controversial development.

Our Emily Prince was there and talk with a lot of folks on all sides of the issue.

Issue a. Bit.

Hundreds of Northeast Kentucky residents packed the Boyd County Community Center last night for a lively town hall about a new, massive data center proposed for the area.

The Maryland based company Tera Wolf wants to build the largest data center thus far in Kentucky.

The development would occupy nearly 300 acres at East Park Industrial Center, which is made up of five counties.

Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence.

Because of this location, all five counties would share of the tax revenue brought in by Tera Wolf.

Greenup County Judge Executive Bobby Hall said the industrial site has sat vacant for 20 years.

My guess is that 95% of the people in this room, they have probably never driven out and looked at this, might have land at an industrial site.

On the industrial park.

But many of last night's attendees are skeptical of the project, some even angry.

The judge executives of the five counties signed a non-disclosure agreement to not share any details of the development with the public.

The news of the data center was announced just last week after Tara Wolf purchased the land.

We don't trust these people and what they did was just wrong.

They need to.

Our community should be able to to know about this and make decisions that made decisions without it.

So that's not what we elected them to do.

Boyd County Judge Executive Eric Chaney addressed the lack of transparency.

Indiana never crossed my mind that I was doing anything wrong, which I didn't.

Never crossed my mind that it would ever even appear that way.

Residents were given the opportunity to speak and asked questions during the three hour long town hall.

Many had environmental concerns, as some data centers have been linked to high electric and water usage.

A Lawrence County High School teacher said she tried to do her own research on how much water the system would initially require.

An internet search for this information.

Returned the following result.

That information has not yet been disclosed.

So at the Mercy Center, development has been so carefully planned out.

I'm curious as to why that basic information has not been made available to the public.

Cheney said that Tara Wolf's data center would operate on what's called a closed loop cooling system, meaning it continuously circulates water, which should reduce the amount needed.

He reassured the crowd that the region had a well equipped water and power supply.

He also said that according to Tara Wolf and demands from the state ratepayers, utility bills should not be affected.

A Green of County commissioner spoke in favor of the project, saying he was optimistic about the potential jobs and tax revenue.

Well.

This is Appalachia, and I believe that a lot of times we don't have a lot of hope with, industry coming in or businesses and, looking at some of the, tax money that this company will bring local governments.

It does bring you hope.

It is still to be determined how many jobs will come from the development, and how many of those would be permanent after construction is complete.

But to answer the question, they didn't know.

They don't know the environmental impact that this is going to cause.

There's not even been any studies done, the.

Boyd County Judge executive said.

Despite criticism and even some calls to resign, he stood by his decision.

Sometimes you're the hero and you kind of die of the villain.

That's how I feel right now.

But I stand by the project, I stand by what we've done, and I'll keep being as transparent as I've always been for the people.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Emily Prince.

Thank you.

Emily.

Representatives from Tara Wolf are expected to visit the region on June 17th and host another community town hall.

Leaders said if all goes to plan, the first phase of the data center would open in 2028.