An effort by the Mercer County city of Burgin to annex land into its city limits for a potential data center has embroiled the small community in a contentious debate over the impacts of such a project, something that’s also raising strong concerns from local leaders of the county seat.
People packed inside the Burgin Independent School building on July 9 for a special-called Burgin city council meeting where city council members voted 3-2 to advance an ordinance to annex from the county more than 1,000 acres of land — roughly doubling the size of the city — for a potential data center development.
The council didn’t take public comment from those in the audience during that meeting. Burgin resident Bethany Corea, who attended the meeting, told the Lantern dozens of people were turned away from entering the building.
“A lot of people in Burgin and Mercer County, but primarily Burgin right now, just feel like the process is being rushed, that their voices aren’t heard,” Corea said. “What it feels like to us is the local officials are going, ‘We don’t care what you think. More tax money.’”
Corea, 40, a former volunteer firefighter and a volunteer with the community group We Are Mercer County that’s advocating for a data center moratorium, said she’s also strongly concerned with the community having enough firefighting capacity for a large data center.
Burgin has now canceled another special-called meeting planned for July 20 because, according to a post on the city’s Facebook page, the first special meeting was “not legally accurate as we have not had a first reading of the ordinance.” Voicemails and emails to Burgin city council members Melinda Wofford and Travis Irvin on Friday were not returned.
Meanwhile, the Mercer County Fiscal Court and the city commission for the county seat of Harrodsburg are also taking action related to data centers. The city of Harrodsburg sent a letter to Burgin on July 14 objecting to the process it went about scheduling the special meeting for the second reading of the ordinance.
Harrodsburg City Attorney Norrie Currens told the Lantern that the city of Burgin didn’t give a 14-day notice, as is required by state law, for the annexation of property on which Harrodsburg’s municipal water utility has a water line. Currens said their city, which supplies water to the city of Burgin, has concerns about having enough water supply for a potential hyperscale data center.
“If they annex this property, they have a duty to provide services to those to that area. They have to provide police fire protection, water, sewer, all the things. They are moving forward with the annexation without ever having discussed with the city of Harrodsburg supplying water to the location in question,” Currens said.
The Harrodsburg Herald reported the county fiscal court at a July 14 meeting is also moving forward with considering a temporary moratorium on data center construction in the county, a move that would not affect property within the city limits of Burgin.
In addition, the county’s planning and zoning commission is also holding a public hearing on July 23 on a draft ordinance to site and regulate data center construction in the county. Burgin does not have any planning or zoning body.
Corea, who’s running for Burgin city council this fall, said herself and other volunteers with We Are Mercer County plan to advocate for a stronger planning and zoning ordinance at the county level.
She said while whether Mercer County should be the location of a large data center is up for debate, she’s personally concerned about the potential water usage and environmental impacts from a data center, especially for a place that her family moved to a rural lifestyle.
“You’re taking away what makes Burgin, Burgin,” Corea said. “So much of the citizens here, so many of them feel that way.” way.
