By Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com
Every household in Hazle Township would get $10,000. That’s free money. No strings attached. All residents would have to do is give a thumbs up to a hyperscale data center in their backyard.
In this former Pennsylvania coal community where 17% are living under the poverty level, that money could go a long way and arrive in short order as soon as the first building of the data center receives a certificate of occupancy.
But something extraordinary happened. Hazle Township residents started saying “no.” Lots of them.
“Get it out of here. That’s all I have to say. We don’t want it,” said Hazle Township resident Bob Kusiak.
There seemed a devious overtone to the offer, fellow Hazle Township resident Brian Malloy said, adding “it’s like bribery.”
The tech industry sees data centers as an inevitable consequence of the information age. And they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths nationwide to secure new sites, from backroom deals to NDAs, from paying premium prices for land to running dark money campaigns, all the way to forcing their way into reluctant areas with lawsuits. But in northeast Pennsylvania they’ve tried more carrot than stick.
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