Latest details on potential data center development in Fulton County

FULTON COUNTY, Ind. — ABC57 visited a data center open house Monday, held by Decennial Group, the company looking to bring a 500-megawatt hyper scale data center to the small town of Akron.

Decennial is hosting a number of similar Q and A sessions in order to communicate with concerned Fulton County residents about their proposal.

Many residents remain skeptical though, with concerns over water and electric usage, as well as environmental impact.

County Commissioners confirm that no official plans have been brought to them, and the proposed development came as a surprise to them during last week’s meeting.

Decennial says they contacted a local realtor to begin scouting land in the area in early January, and word got out to the community prior to Decennial approaching the county about the proposal.

No land has been purchased for the project at this time.

Those in the community who are a part of “No Data Centers in Fulton County” plan to request a moratorium on data centers at tomorrow night’s plan commission meeting.

The plan commission is expected to review ordinance changes that they approved last summer that allowed for data centers in the county.

Developers tell ABC57 the likely next step if approved, is to begin securing land for the 300-acre project.

Decennial’s hope is to bring in 100-150 jobs once the center is online and $100-150 million in revenue for the county over the next 15-20 years. Their goal is to assist with the county budget, which currently sits at $16 million. The expectation is that the center could draw in half of their annual budget each year for that same time span.