Dodge County addressed changes in technology, including data centers coming to the county, during the Dodge County Board of Supervisors executive meeting on Monday with the hope of beginning to understand where this will lead in the future.
The executive meeting is one of the county boards meetings where it discusses information before possibly bringing it to the Dodge County Board of Supervisors.
Dodge County Board of Supervisors chair Dave Frohling brought the conversation to the group after hearing concerns from community members.
“They asked how we regulate the implementation of future data centers,” Frohling said. “We don’t want to do anything that is a knee-jerk reaction, but we need to have it on our radar because it is here, and we are going to have to deal with it.”
Meta Platforms — which owns Facebook and Instagram, among other social media and messaging platforms – is building a $1 billion, 700,000-square-foot facility on 830 acres north of Beaver Dam, between Highway A and Hemlock Road. Beaver Dam also on Monday OK’d selling 13 acres of city-owned property to Oppidan Investment Company for another, smaller data center.
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Meta Platforms is building a $1 billion, 700,000-square-foot facility on 830 acres north of Beaver Dam, between Highway A and Hemlock Road. Dodge County started a discussion about data centers during a committee meeting on Monday.
The Wisconsin County Association, which has its annual conference in September, will most likely be discussing data centers during a breakout session, Frohling said. The Wisconsin government is looking at the issues as well.
“I don’t know if there is a work group yet at the legislative level,” Frohling said. “I haven’t seen one.”
County Board member Dave Beal said the growth of data centers is linked to another concern: the lack of industrial park space.
“When a company buys up 500 acres, there goes the industrial park,” Beal said.
