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There is nothing wrong with opposing Silicon Foundation's proposed data center and energy technology campus in Warwood.
There is nothing wrong with questioning the company's plans, challenging its claims or demanding answers from Wheeling City Council.
In fact, residents should do all of those things.
But there is a right way to participate in the public process. What happened at Tuesday's City Council meeting crossed that line.
A standing-room-only crowd came to hear Andrii Garanin of Silicon Foundation publicly discuss the proposal for the former Centre Foundry property. Local attorney David Croft, representing Silicon Foundation, also addressed council about potential agreements intended to limit what could be developed there. Council members asked questions. Residents later had their opportunity to speak.
That is exactly how the process should work.
Unfortunately, when Garanin and Croft left the meeting before the public comment portion began, members of the audience loudly booed them.
We can do better than that.
Those who oppose this project have legitimate concerns. They worry about electricity rates, noise, water, the potential for future expansion and whether what begins as one kind of operation eventually becomes something much larger. Residents who live near the site have every right to worry about what a major development could mean for their homes, property values and quality of life.
They also have every right to be skeptical of assurances offered by a company seeking to invest more than $100 million in the community.
But skepticism is not strengthened by hostility.
Booing Garanin does not refute his argument. It does not expose a flaw in his data. It does not prove that a company is being dishonest. And it certainly does not help persuade those who remain undecided about the project.
If anything, it does the opposite.
The strongest opponents of the Silicon Foundation project will be those who arrive armed with facts, ask difficult questions, identify inconsistencies and insist that promises made today are put into legally enforceable agreements tomorrow.
That is how citizens hold powerful interests accountable.
Tuesday's meeting actually produced information that residents did not have before. Garanin said the project would remain within the site's existing 69-kV electrical connection, would not draw water from or discharge water into the Ohio River and would not create excessive noise or lighting. Croft discussed a proposed agreement that he said would prevent the facility from becoming a high-impact data center, while city officials outlined another potential safeguard involving expansion of the city's TIF district.
Residents should scrutinize every one of those statements.
Ask for documentation. Demand independent verification. Insist that protections be enforceable. And if the answers do not withstand examination, say so -- loudly, clearly and repeatedly.
But do so respectfully.
We have watched public discourse across this country deteriorate to the point where disagreement too often becomes personal animosity. Wheeling does not need to follow that path.
We are neighbors. When this debate ends -- regardless of how it ends -- we still will see each other at the grocery store, at church, at school events and throughout our community.
Passion is welcome. Opposition is welcome. Tough questions are essential. But civility matters, too.
Those who booed Garanin and Croft on Tuesday should remember that.
We can oppose a project without demeaning the people on the other side of the argument.
Wheeling should expect nothing less of itself.