Dear Editor,

Clunette is a place I am proud to call my home. My family has had its roots here for over 40 years. It has changed a lot in that time, but the true character of our community has stayed the same. If you come over to our side of town, you’ll see a lot of open fields, farmhouses and just plain good country folk.

Clunette is a quiet community. The most action we get out here is the farmers coming and going from the local elevator. We love those hardworking men, and we love our farms. We love our community and our way of life here.

The proposed data center just a mere two miles from the heart of Clunette threatens to forever destroy the quiet and tranquil life we share here. This is no place for an industrial complex. This is no place for Silicon Valley to pillage yet more of our natural resources in the name of progress. How far must technology go before they choke out every last bit of free, open and rich farmland in our communities?

I implore our elected officials to listen to the outcry of the community. Two hundred-plus people did not crowd the historic Clunette church in opposition to this data center for no good reason. Our local officials tell us all the time to get involved and speak our minds so that they can better represent us. Well, we are. If they do not hear us, it is because they are not listening.

I ask each of the county commissioners and planning commission members to come take a drive out here. Take a look and see the yellow signs saying No Data Center in so many of the front yards here. You can talk until you are blue in the face about money and economic development but ask yourselves one question: Would you want this thing in your back yard?

Evan McKinley