Minooka Getting A Data Center: Citizens Start Reacting To The Proposed Location

MINOOKA, IL — How do you feel about the village of Minooka adding a data center that will be built along Ridge Road and Holt Road? On Tuesday, Minooka issued a Facebook bulletin urging everyone to attend a public meeting to discuss the project. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Sept. 24 inside the Village Hall Community Room.

The announcement indicates that a data center is proposed on more than 300 acres of farmland near Holt Road and Ridge Road. The data center developer will be at the public forum.

"Come learn more and stay informed about the future of our community," the Minooka announcement reads.

Minooka's Village Hall Community Room is located at 121 E. McEvilly Road.

Residents of Minooka offered a lot of opinions on the topic, on the Minooka Facebook page.

"Energy bills will skyrocket, and our water resources will be severely depleted and contaminated. We cannot have this in our community," suggested Carli Ann.

"We were told that the water should not be a huge problem. It is on a closed loop system similar to what a radiator is like in people's homes. Once it's filled, it should not continue to deplete the water supply," responded Laura.

"Between the data center. Solar farm. And distribution center. Property taxes should go down. Our water bill should go down. And these projects fund will a park district, right?" wondered Mike.

"These data centers are the reason that your ComEd bill is doubling, we don't have the electrical grid capacity to power all these data centers," proclaimed Nathan.

"Absolutely not people, I hope people fight this," wrote Dee Lynn.

"Data center is a whole lot better than trucking company. Though a lot of those coming because of the new rail system. Gonna be like Elk Grove Village used to be, gonna suck out here," feared Paul.