by Joseph Schultz
The weather outside was cold, Thursday, but emotions at the Dorr Township Board meeting were hot with yet another “Torches and Pitchforks” session opposed to a Microsoft data center
The meeting had to be moved again to the auditorium to accommodate the crowd. It was the second time in a week that the meeting had to be relocated due to the crowd size.
Trustee Chandler Stanton stated he had received many calls about the data center issue and wanted a discussion added to the agenda. Supervisor Jeff Miling replied they could do that, but the township attorney “advised us not to talk about it, because we don’t know anything about it.”
When the vote on Stanton’s suggestion was taken, only Miling and Trustee Patrick Champion voted against it. Champion maintained that the township’s policy was to have a seven-day notice before something was added to the agenda.
Stanton then started to ask questions of Miling about the data center, but the supervisor told him he was “out of order.” Miling explained that officials were not yet dealing with Stanton’s added agenda item.
Most of the public comments that followed were from people who were worried about what harm a data center could do to the water, electricity, property values, lighting and noise.
Courtney Cardosa told the board the Planning Commission did not follow the master plan when the land that Microsoft purchased was rezoned. She presented a report to the board, and asked for review the planning commission’s zoning decision. Cordoza also requested a moratorium (pause) on all industrial zoning.
The notable exception in the public comment section was from retired deputy Supervisor Jim Martin, who held up his smart phone and stated that it was a data center. Martin went on to say, “We’re “getting the cart before the horse” on the issue.
The crowd shouted and heckled as Martin insisted the data center would provide “future jobs for our kids.”
Miling had to gavel the public uproar, reminding them to be respectful of the one addressing the board.
When the meeting agenda got to the data center discussion item, Stanton asked Miling to shed some light on an escrow account, and a meeting Milling had with Microsoft. Miling and Clerk Debbie Sewers explained that there was no escrow account yet, but only an escrow folder. Bills incurred by the Planning Commission for the data center are placed in this folder.
She said when Microsoft presents a site plan to the township, they will open an escrow account to pay for those bills.
Miling said that he had three meetings with companies interested in the property. One company wanted to build a warehouse and the other wanted to build a canning factory.
Representatives from the Allegan County Road Commission, Dorr-Leighton Wastewater Authority, Dorr-Leighton Water Works, LLC, and Dorr Fire Chief Gary Fordham also were were in attendance for those meetings.
In the meeting with the canning company, the company asked the Water Works if their system could handle them using 1.5 million gallons of water a day. Water Works representatives said that they could not.
In the meeting with Microsoft, Miling said that he could not recall what water volume Microsoft asked the Water Works about, but that the Water Works representative said that they could handle the amount Microsoft was asking about. The amount was not very much, due to Microsoft using a closed-loop system to keep the operations cool.
Miling explained that the closed-loop system was similar to a car radiator, or the cooling system in an air conditioner.
Microsoft told the Waste Water Authority that only human waste, and waste water from floor cleaning operations would be coming to them. Miling stated that Microsoft would be paying for the installation of the sewer and water pipes.
Miling also promised that Microsoft would be improving 14th Street not for the engineering for the road, but would pay for having it done.
No one from Consumers Energy was at the meeting with Microsoft. According to Miling, Microsoft had met previously with Consumers Energy, and got assurances from the utility company that they could supply Microsoft’s electrical needs.
Microsoft was represented by Lakeshore Advantage, which gave Miling a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to sign. The supervisor said that he was unfamiliar with NDAs, and did not know that as a public official he was not suppose to sign one. Once the purchase of the land by Microsoft was announced, Miling was no longer bound by the NDA.
The only thing Microsoft officials asked Miling about was how they could help the community. Miling told the Microsoft representative about the River to River trail project, and asked that some land be set aside for it.
Miling acknowledged that he is not a fan of Microsoft, but that if someone legally buys land, they ought to be able to use it.
All while Milling was explaining the meeting with Microsoft, he was peppered with questions and threats of lawsuits from the assembled public, to which he insisted, “We are following the Master Plan.”
Newly appointed Treasurer Sheila Reitz said that they were “debating hypotheticals” about the data center. Champion told the public, “We are doing our job.”
Stanton made it clear that he was “not aware of the meeting occurring (with Microsoft).”
Stanton made a motion to have a workshop at the township hall at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb 5. Stanton wants to have a discussion about data centers, and if they should have a moratorium on certain businesses. The motion passed 6-1, with Miling being the only no vote.
I live directly across the street from the property for the proposed Dorr township data and I was at that January meeting. I can vouch for this article. This is exactly what happened. They didn’t include the strange conversation about what to do with the retired Depty Supervisor’s stuff that was still in his office or the one where Township Supervisor Jeff Milling said he didn’t want documents moved to the new township location from the old township location because he’s concerned about them “blowing all over town” like the only option for moving them would be the back of a flat bed truck or something, but this information is SOLID. You can trust it.