Photo by Eric Ayres W.Va. Del. Shawn Fluharty speaks before a crowd assembled for a town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Warwood Veterans Association to discuss the proposed data center eyed for the former Centre Foundry & Machine Company property in Warwood.

WHEELING – Citizens packed the house Tuesday night at the Warwood Veterans Association when an impromptu town hall meeting was held to share concerns about a new data center proposed for the former Centre Foundry & Machine Company property.

W.Va. Del. Shawn Fluharty organized the event following growing public concern about the development, which surprised many residents and public officials this week. Silicon Energy LLC acquired the industrial site along W.Va. 2 in Warwood earlier this spring for $1.5 million, and South Carolina-based engineering firm Stokes Energy Inc. announced on social media it had been named the Prime Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractor for the data center project.

Fluharty noted he was originally scheduled to stop by the Warwood Veterans Association to drop off a check, but in light of the controversial news in the neighborhood, he asked the association if he could instead hold a town hall to discuss the issue.

Hundreds attended the impromptu town hall, which was organized in less than 24 hours, with word about it being spread via social media.

“When I heard it was coming into Warwood, it just hit a little different,” Fluharty said. “Look, we’re not here to say ‘data centers are all bad’ or ‘data centers are all good.’ It’s a matter of getting the facts, understanding them and trying to reach a community conclusion and not have things forced upon you, and right now that’s exactly what’s happening.”

No new answer about the proposed data center came out of the town hall, which at times shifted focus to W.Va. House Bill 2014, which was passed last year to put regulations regarding data centers. Fluharty voted against the bill.

“It takes away all local control,” he said. “I can’t emphasize that enough. It concedes all that power to those in Charleston who probably couldn’t find Warwood on the map. Local ordinances do not apply. Noise ordinances do not apply to high-impact data centers.

Fluharty noted that the HB 2014 legislation sets out qualifications deeming 90 megawatt facilities as “high-impact” data centers that require certification in the West Virginia Department of Commerce. The proposed Silicon Energy facility is planned for phased development that begins with a smaller capacity but later expands to a 100 megawatt facility in future phases.

“We have so many unanswered questions – the impact locally, the environmental impact, the impact on utilities – all these things are so unclear because there’s no requirement for transparency,” Fluharty said. “I don’t care what party you are or what your belief system is, I think we can all agree that the community should have a say about what is going on in their own backyards.”

Only 30 percent of tax revenue comes back to the host county under HB 2014, and there are no requirements for community hearings, Fluharty noted, questioning whether there will be any long-term or even short-term local jobs created.

Data centers have become extremely unpopular across the country, Fluharty acknowledged. But little is known about the business proposed for Warwood.

“We have no idea what exactly they’re building,” said Ward 1 Wheeling City Councilman Tony Assaro, who represents the Warwood neighborhood. “I can’t say that it’s something that’s not going to bother us much or if it’s something that’s going to be horrendous.”

Assaro noted that as local government officials, they cannot do much about the mysterious development at this point.

“As a neighborhood and a resident, and as a guy who sits on his porch and doesn’t want to hear something humming, we can do something ourselves,” Assaro said. “I don’t know what yet, but I’m going to research it and I want to get together with all of you if we decide to. But first we have to know what we’re dealing with. Right now, we don’t.”

The councilman said that once plans and additional information becomes available, the community needs to come together again.

“Then we can decide if we like it or decide that we don’t,” he said. “I have to be fair. But I don’t like the approach that was taken. I think it stinks. I don’t like us being surprised. It caused a lot of angst among our residents. We need to know, and we’re going to find out.

Wheeling Vice Mayor Jerry Sklavounakis said that finding out about such a development via a company’s LinkedIn page was not a good way to move this forward.

“It’s a horrible way to move this forward,” Sklavounakis said. “Obviously this is a very important issue for not only Warwood but the city as a whole. But council is in the dark on this. This is unacceptable, and we’re going to do whatever we can to make sure our community is safe.”

Citizens shared concerns about the facility’s electricity consumption, water use, impacts to the neighborhood and other possible effects of such an industry in the mostly residential neighborhood.

“From everything that I’ve read, I don’t think it’s good,” said Warwood resident Carlo Schirripa.

“I don’t have any thoughts because I don’t know enough,” said his brother Joe Schirripa, also of Warwood. “I need to see both sides. There’s a compelling argument here against, but I don’t know what the argument is for, and I’ve never read House Bill 2014. So I need to do that. We all want to come to see what’s happening. Nobody wants something that’s bad for their community, so I think that’s why this was such a great turnout.”

During the town hall, Fluharty spoke repeatedly against HB 2014, which was supported by his opponent in the state senate race for the seat currently held by W.Va. Sen. Laura Wakin Chapman, who attended the town hall. At one point, the crowd requested that she have an opportunity to answer why she voted for the bill.

“If she wants to hold one, she can have a town hall – I had one,” Fluharty said, seeking questions from the crowd.

But many of those on hand insisted on giving Chapman the opportunity to speak, and he eventually handed her the microphone.

“This company, as far as I could tell, did not participate in the certification process,” she said, asserting that the bill does provide regulations on data centers.

She explained her support regarding the Department of Commerce permitting process, but was shouted down much of the time that she spoke in front of the crowd, many of whom applauded Fluharty’s position.

After the town hall, she spoke individually with many of the residents who wished to discuss the matters further.

“I think that town halls are great, and I was happy to attend. I wanted to hear directly from the people it affects most, and that’s the people of Warwood,” she said, noting that unfortunately, no one could provide much information about the development.

“I’m hoping that the company will come in and have a town hall so that questions can be answered,” she said. “I don’t know that this data center is going to come in. I don’t have enough information to say whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. But I will say that I don’t like that it’s not been transparent. I don’t like that we don’t have any answers and I don’t like that we found out through a social media post.”

Chapman proposed that she and Fluharty join local officials to form a fact-finding task force to get answers from company officials about the proposal.

“The community deserves the answers,” she said. “We can’t just sit back and have something negatively impact the community. They live there and work there, and it matters to them.”