Steve Lindsey: Tonight we have a familiar face back in the studio. A man whose guitar can cut through noise the way truth cuts through spin. Blues man Jake Davis returns to the show and it couldn't be at a better time. Because while Jake knows how to tell a story with six strings, the city of Trenton, Ohio is tangled in a story of its own. One involving a massive data center project, a 10 minute planning meeting, and a whole lot of residents who feel like they weren't invited to the party. From concerns about water use and air emissions to questions about transparency, rushed approvals, and who's really footing the bill? This project, Project Miele, has stirred up a fight that's growing louder by the week. Residents are organizing, public records requests, and demanding answers about everything from diesel generators to utility costs. Tonight, Jake is with us in studio. We are going to talk about the blues, but we're also gonna talk about the kind of blues the community feels when decisions get made behind closed doors. Jake's here, the mics are hot. We're digging into controversy of a small Ohio town. Jake, welcome to the show, my man.

Jake Davis: Good evening, Steve and Jerry. Thank you for having me back on the show.

Steve Lindsey: Dude, when we have a past guest calls and says, Hey, got somebody to talk about. We Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about what's going on up there, man. know that, you, you have. I guess, I guess, would it be easier to, for Jerry to tell about what happened up until Jake got involved a little bit or,

Jake Davis: Well, appreciate it. I can run it, I'd be glad to run it down. ⁓ So tonight I'm gonna talk about the project Miele Data Center developments in Trenton, Ohio and my experience as someone who's been closely following and investigating this project since early March. Project, yeah.

Steve Lindsey: Go ahead. Go for it, Jake. Could I interject one second? Some people probably don't know where Trenton is. Basically a suburb of Cincinnati, correct? Northside?

Jake Davis: ⁓ It's close to Middletown. It's a small rural agricultural town ⁓ I Would compare it to Cynthia Anna Steve. ⁓ It's very it's just a small town or like Nicholasville ⁓ Kentucky it just small rural town a lot of farmland out here and This project it's been a major development that's been proposed for this city since October of last year. The project involves a significant industrial data center facility, which has raised tons of concerns among the citizens for a variety of reasons, economic impact, zoning changes, transparency in our city government, and infrastructure demands. ⁓ The city council and relevant authorities approved multiple stages of this project over the past year, including the land sales and the zoning changes, often with limited public notice.

Steve Lindsey: Wow. How are they now is that, how are they able to do all of that process? ⁓ I think one of Jerry was at youth and said that they had actually purchased this land from the city. Purchased it from the city. think they announced it in early October of last year. Like Jake said, ⁓ 141 acres, they bought 7.75 million dollars they paid. And Jake mentioned transparency. I'm sure a lot of the hidden stuff was probably done at that time or even before. I believe there was an NDA as well signed. Is that right, Jake?

Jake Davis: There was an NDA that was signed by the city manager and the city attorney. ⁓ To my knowledge, the council themselves, ⁓ the mayor has stated that they have never signed an NDA as they're bound to executive session. But yes, there's one NDA which is included in some records that I've requested and. It pretty much proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that substantial communications and coordination had to have occurred prior, you know, to this development. And these are communications that I requested, ⁓ a month ago and the city up until yesterday has pretty much. They've tried their best to deny me those communications, but I've used the law against them and I obtained the emails part of my communications request yesterday, which I'm sure has a lot of answers, but it's also a lot of emails. So.

Steve Lindsey: I'm sure. So is this the, was doing some research when you, when you reached out to this and I, Ohio is one of the hotbeds. It's, one of the mid as far as data centers, there's about five states currently that are just getting obliterated with all these data centers. Texas is by far the biggest 140 are currently under construction right now. Uh, in Virginia, 136 are currently under construction.

Jake Davis: Mm-hmm.

Steve Lindsey: Ohio has 51 currently under construction. Arizona's 35 in Georgia, which I'm hoping they're putting all these in the swamp. 56 in Georgia. That's a lot of construction and a lot of, really does show the level of the national build out. This is, this is something that the country hasn't seen since what the, we started putting electricity in the entire country. It's huge. Absolutely.

Jake Davis: Yeah Yeah. Yeah, it is extremely huge. And the problem with it is a lot of these, they're just popping up and they're almost out of nowhere. ⁓ And a lot of the citizens in these areas had no public input on what they're trying to build in their backyard. Yeah, as far as Ohio goes to my knowledge, ⁓ this was an initiative proposed by Mike DeWine, our governor, who pretty much has come out and within the last year, I think when Trump won the election, ⁓ because Trump has also expressed making America an AI data center, well, an AI hub for the world, but DeWine has adopted the same philosophy for our state of Ohio as well. He has clearly said this will be an AI hub state.

Steve Lindsey: Yeah. So, on. Can I interject one thing going along with what he just said on March 20th of this year, a couple of weeks ago, right? The white house said that Congress needs to preempt state laws concerning AI that it views as too burdensome laying out a broad framework for how wants Congress to address concerns about AI without curbing growth. To Jake's point. Trump and the national, the federal government is trying to force this down our throats to the point that they're saying we've got some states that have enacted laws that we think is too burdensome on the AI industry. We need to preempt those laws. What in the world ever happened to our Constitution, which as Jake's father, Clay Davis, so strongly says, it should all be, the Constitution says that all rights, not specifically delegated to the federal government or reserve for the States. What happened to that part of the constitution? Right. No, don't disagree. So Jake, take us through what you, what you feel are the biggest issues with this particular data center. Cause I have some things that from general, everything that I looked up basically about data centers, which a lot of it, I didn't know is very generalized, but let's talk about Trenton specifically. What is. If you have, because you're a residence there, you have the ability to take, to pick it apart. What do you not like about this data centers and simply the way that it went about being implemented or what else tell me all about.

Jake Davis: Well, there's quite a few things that I've learned so far. ⁓ The city has produced a lot of documentation to me, emails, memos, and agreements. ⁓ They all contain critical details about the project's infrastructure, budgeting, and agreements with developers. And while I can't share all of it publicly yet, because I want to ensure that my facts are concrete and substantiated, the material already shows that there were many answers about the scale timelines and potential effects on the community. And just a couple examples that I can list you, it intends to use 24 million gallons of the city's water a year.

Steve Lindsey: I that.

Jake Davis: It also will run in the event of an emergency where there's no power or electricity. There are 121 diesel generators that this will operate on to power it, which will of course pollute our air and inevitably fall down on our residents. And then the noise of these things, ⁓ they're putting this right in people's backyard, ⁓ and our peaceful farm land where it's a quiet, sleepy little town. And we enjoy our quiet. We enjoy our peace. We enjoy the nature and, ⁓ we don't necessarily know one for the fact that we've never seen something of this scale in our natural environment. in human history, ⁓ how that's going to affect our wildlife, how it's going to affect, ⁓ just our natural resources. And I will say something that came to light in a council meeting. ⁓ friend Barry Blankenship had asked if the city had notified the Metro parks ⁓ prior to this ⁓ done, which are Metro parks or people get out there for all the reasons I just listed. And there's a lot of wildlife and our mayor told him that they had indeed contacted the Metro parks ⁓ The next day in our group page, a public records requested document was put out, which said basically from the Metro parks that they were never contacted. And... They were never contacted or given any input on the issue whatsoever. So there's a lot of things going on that raise a lot of red flags.

Steve Lindsey: One of the things, Jake, you just mentioned was the water consumption. And you had mentioned before we went on the air that that water that they use requires a certain specific way of cleaning that that your city doesn't have access to. Could you expound on that a little bit with the listeners?

Jake Davis: Right, so the city of Trenton already has hard water. ⁓ The ⁓ financial director has talked about ⁓ since then ⁓ upgrading to a more soft water, but it doesn't change the fact that these data centers put permanent nitrates in our water, which all of our water on earth is the same water. that's been here from the beginning of the beginning of the earth. And I mean, we drink the water that our ancestors drank. We drank the water that was here when the dinosaurs were here. And this, these data centers, they put permanent pollutants, dangerous pollutants in our water supply. And it requires reverse osmosis to my knowledge. to remove those ⁓ and I don't even think, I don't know if that even removes them. We don't know the type of pollutants ⁓ that these things are producing ⁓ and let alone how they will affect our water supply in a town which the water already. rusts out people's toilets and faucets and you know, so.

Steve Lindsey: Well, I used to live in Ohio. I think all of Ohio has hard water. Water softener pellets, we'd sell it by the pallet load. Speaking of water, I want to add some.

Jake Davis: Yeah.

Steve Lindsey: A normal, and the numbers I'm going to give you is for an average data center, so not specifically for this one. I can't imagine this one is that much better. A typical single 100 megawatt data center can use as much water as 2,600 households, depending upon the cooling design. The Triton Ohai data center is proposed to use somewhere between 100 and 240 megawatts. As of the latest census data, If Trenton data center is 240 megawatts, and they have said it will be up to that. If it is 240 megawatts, that would be the equivalent of 6,240 households. Now, Prologos has went to the city of Trenton and asked, can they handle their demands for water? And their city said yes. My question is how? Because we have just determined that this may need as much water as 6,240 households in a city that currently has less than 4,800. Wow. So it's got to do all of the houses plus another double plus more than double. So I don't know. I agree with what Jake is saying. I think the city is trying to push this deal through because they want the sale again. This land was sold to prologue by the city of Trenton. Correct.

Jake Davis: Yes, perlodges purchased it from the city of Trenton

Steve Lindsey: I think the city's trying to get their money no matter what. It's insane.

Jake Davis: it would appear that way and as far as what you just touched on ⁓ we are just as in the dark on that issue at the moment as you we've been trying and I mentioned my, friend Barry Blankenship who's been spearheading this movement here, him and his wife, Lori since they've been fighting since October and relentlessly and tirelessly. And one of their main biggest concerns is surrounding the water and the and we find a lot of inconsistencies that just they don't seem to make any sense.

Steve Lindsey: So I did, basically I wanted to know the dichotomy and I'm just going to be fair, Jake, one of the things we always do here is we try to present both sides of the story. Obviously that's what we, you know, to get to the root of things. So my first initial question when you sent this to me was, what's the difference between this and a, an automotive factory or, you know, a, a factory that makes shingles for a house. Where, where's the economic versus the environmental impact going? And here's what I came up with short term. ⁓ you get a construction boost. usually use, up to, know, hundreds of millions of dollars in building the cost. ⁓ the initial construction can use local construction to subcontractors, but the main contractors typically are from the pl- the company that's building it. And they would some come track subcontract out to local people. So when those people come in, there's gonna be temporary boost to hotels, restaurants, and local services, but those are all very short term. Once it's built and on scale, there's gonna be at most typically between 20 and 50 full-time workers. Most of those are high skilled technicians that are moved in by the company. They are not employed directly from the local folk, if you will.

Jake Davis: Yes. Mm-hmm.

Steve Lindsey: There is sometimes tax revenue, depending on how, and I'm sure you're gonna find this out and you're digging of all the paperwork that they've sent you. Sometimes they can generate some tax revenue, but a lot of times the states or local municipals will offer massive tax abatements, sales tax exemptions on equipment and long-term property tax deals. And if they bought the property from the city, I'm sure some of those were baked in to get it at a good price to get the equipment in there. And what it ultimately cost is higher utility costs for the residents because they consume huge amounts of electricity. Utilities sometimes are forced to build new substations and water transmission lines and water infrastructure. They lock in these long-term contracts from water and power as well. ⁓ and basically it's once it's up and running, it's 80 % self-contained where it doesn't help the local economy at all.

Jake Davis: Yeah. And then we're left with the, ⁓ you know, we're left with the question of what is it going to do to our economy in the event that people move away or businesses decide to take their business elsewhere because of how this is, ⁓ how the business has been conducted and the people never having an input to begin with. So that is a huge concern to me when I look at it from that angle, just the down the road, what our city is gonna look like when it potentially has the possibility of becoming a ghost town.

Steve Lindsey: Jerry, you were gonna say something with my numbers off a little? Well, in 2024, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce did a study on data centers in Ohio. Here's what it found. It found that the data center industry supported 95,000 jobs and added $12 billion to the state economy in 2024. Their projections for 2030 were 130,000 jobs and 20 billion. As far as tax revenue, you're right, there are a lot of tax incentives given to bring them in as thorough, to be honest with most major industries. They found that for every $1 of tax incentive that state and local governments were receiving $2.10 in tax returns, which amounted in 2017 to $430 million. In 2024 came to more than $1 billion. Since 2017, $5,005.2 billion have been added in tax revenue at the state and local level in Ohio. So there, there are, not saying it's worth it. I'm just saying there are some financial incentives to get these state and local municipalities to try to bring them in. I would only counter that by saying that in the state of Kentucky, they argued the same thing for bringing the lottery. They also argued the same thing about Toyota. Yeah.

Jake Davis: Yeah.

Steve Lindsey: and every other major industry. I'm not saying that it justifies. There's a ton of issues. Speaking of something that both of guys have touched on, I've got some numbers I want to run by you. Any idea how much the electricity rates have went up in the United States of America since 2020? Take a guess. 30%. You're damn close. 36%. Since 2020, electricity prices have went up by 36%. We know that data centers are not the only, but a significant reason for that. Here's why. The projection for 2028 is that data centers will use somewhere between 325 and 580 terawatt hours of electricity. That is approximately 12 % of all the electricity made in America. Gosh. 12 % of all the electricity is going to data centers. And that doesn't include what they're building currently.

Jake Davis: Okay.

Steve Lindsey: Well, that was projection for 2028. So it would, 12 % for this one little industry. You want to know, again, I'm not trying to say that's the only reason this is a significant reason why we have had a 36 % increase in electricity rates in the last six years. The, ⁓ project that they're in Trenton are they now we know we talked about that the diesel are the backup. Are they do they have another energy source that they are producing there on on on on standby? Is it solar?

Jake Davis: Yeah, it is going to be is going to be built right by the Duke energy power plant. They will be the power supply, which which also ties into our infrastructure and our power that we pay for. So yeah.

Steve Lindsey: Right. Oof. Gosh, man, that's terrible. If you could, if you could have, ⁓ five minutes, Jake, with the mayor or the mayor of Trenton, what would you tell him?

Jake Davis: Yeah. Yeah. This applies to him, but also the people that... I feel like the city kind of takes the stance ⁓ in a way just by the way they conduct themselves. But I also hear a lot of people ⁓ and see a lot of rhetoric that arguing ⁓ against data centers while using data centers is ⁓ just, it's a joke to them. ⁓ though the city hasn't said it. It's very obvious through their behaviors that ⁓ they think this is all a joke. And all I would say, and it wouldn't even be five minutes, but the idea that people cannot oppose data centers because they use them assumes that we had a meaningful choice in the first place. We didn't. There's a difference between dependence and consent. Yes, we are dependent on digital infrastructure, but we were also never given a direct say in how that infrastructure is expanded into our communities. So using something that's effectively mandatory in our modern society doesn't equal endorsing how or where it's built. It's like saying that you can't criticize utility companies because you use electricity. or you can't question road construction because you drive to work. People aren't arguing against the existence of technology. They're asserting their right to have a say in how it impacts their community. And those are not the same thing.

Steve Lindsey: I would a hundred percent agree with that. ⁓ You know, you were talking earlier about the fact that this has taken our farmland here in Kentucky. The big thing very recently, in addition to data centers, we have one that they're trying to install in Harrisburg, ⁓ Kentucky as well is solar farms. And for the life of me, I don't know why they have to take agricultural land to build solar farms when they can put them on top. of parking garages, parking lots on top of building. That's something that at least you can stack that on top of something else. I don't know why you can go out here in a beautiful pasture farm or corn field and put a big guy, hundred acre solar farm. just, you're not going to convince me that's a better idea. I don't know.

Jake Davis: Yeah, yeah, and I think that's a huge

Steve Lindsey: Jerry, what's your, ⁓ sorry, Jake, my bad.

Jake Davis: ⁓ you're good i was just gonna say i think that's a huge ⁓ way that the entire country's working out of there's so many other places they could be building these things

Steve Lindsey: Yeah. So Jerry, any final thoughts? think, ⁓ I agree with Jake. It's not that we don't want them, need them. The question where they, this is too close. I looked it up. They were 1.1 miles away from the closest school. They are less than 2000 feet away from the closest subdivision. There's got to be better places, where you can put these. This one has promised that they're going to keep noise levels at a decent level. And we know that government and industry never lies to us, right? So they obviously have to have to do that. If they do what they say and they keep it at 50 decibels or less, that's good, except for the emergencies. And then it gets really super loud. In many cases, some of these, there's one in Alabama that goes between 110 and 120 ⁓ decibels. And that I think is up to maybe three quarters of a mile away. It's destroying property value. So I agree with Jake there's, there's

Jake Davis: Never.

Steve Lindsey: The local citizens absolutely need to be a part of the decision process of where they should go. And this one, in my opinion, is too close to schools, too close to homes. ⁓ And that's not even getting into some of the other things we talked about, which I'd have to do lot more research. I'm sure Jake's already done it. But as far as the water use, can the water system handle it, the electricity use and all that? Yeah, I think we need more citizens like Jake who are involved. And when they find out like... that something like this is coming to their area. They begin to do some research and we need more people who are active and make sure that their voices are heard. So for that, Jake, absolutely congratulations. We will do our best to help spread the word and get the news out. Jake, what do you think? What is your, if you, if you could, I know you said what you would say to the mayor. ⁓

Jake Davis: Thank you guys.

Steve Lindsey: Where do you fall? I know you said that you're part of another group. Do you want to talk about your other group a little bit? Now's your platform, brother.

Jake Davis: So yeah, right now, so the group that I'm part of, it's an abbreviation of water, but it stands for the Woodsdale and Trenton Environmental Resistance. Currently the page, it continues to grow every day and... You know, we've found also that, you know, the, more of the city, especially before they started backpedaling and trying to change their behaviors and the way they were treating some of the residents and citizens with every bad thing they said or did one more person would show up to the council meetings and one more person would join the group. And so It's just a, it's a growing thing. And, ⁓ tonight they just had their first, ⁓ organization for the ballot initiative to, to try to stop this thing. And so now we have a petition that's going to be floating its way around, ⁓ being once again, spearheaded by Barry Blankenship and his wife, Lori, ⁓ they are representing. Butler County and ⁓ but this this petition is for the whole state. So I believe the entire state has to get I believe it's four hundred fifteen thousand signatures ⁓ to end up on the ballot in November to be voted on. So ⁓ if it passes this will be an issue. that the people will be able to vote on coming up in November, which we hope to make that happen.

Steve Lindsey: That's awesome. And just in closing, tonight wasn't about taking sides. It's about shining a light. Trenton, Ohio is facing decisions that will shape its future for decades. Every community deserves transparency, honesty, and a seat at the table. Whether you're for the project or against it, we're still trying to make sense of it all. The conversation is what matters. Keep asking questions, keep showing up, keep holding people in power accountable. And remember, local voices like Jake's are louder than you think. When a community speaks together, people listen.