An advocacy group representing rural Missourians says a survey of Montgomery County voters shows the vast majority oppose construction of data centers there.
Missouri Rural Crisis Center officials say they sent their survey to all registered voters in the county, and 85% do not want data centers. Just 10% of respondents were in support and 5% unsure.
At an anti-data center rally announcing the results Tuesday night, lifelong Montgomery County resident Tammy Ridgley said the community's stance is clear.
“Amazon told us early on that they only went where they were welcome,” she said. “From my standpoint, the survey results that were announced today, and everyone that’s still opposing this, presents a pretty good picture that not everyone in the community wants these data centers here.”
Protestor James Gordon said data centers don’t fit his idea of the future.
“When I hear especially silicon valley tech executives and private venture capitalists talking about the future they want to build, it has a lot of what I don’t want and little of what I do want.”
The data center would cover nearly 1,000 acres and Amazon officials say it’ll employ 400 people but Gordon said he’s more worried about the jobs that will be lost.
“They seem to want to build out the infrastructure that’s going to replace workers, replace farms and farmers, replace nurses and teachers, and I want a future that has all those people in it.”
At the same time as the press conference Amazon was holding an open house event where people could ask questions and see a demonstration model of its center, for which county officials have approved billions in tax breaks.
Google also has plans to open a data center in Montgomery County. The Amazon data center does not yet have an opening date, but Google hopes to open its facility in 2028.
