Several weeks ago, the City Council approved a set of regulations covering data centers.
At the time, Mayor Gary Moore said he had received no communications from any company wanting to locate a data center in Kewanee. But the council felt the regulations should be set up, in case that changes.
Now that has changed.
At Monday’s council meeting, Pawel Nowak of Nowak Securities told the council that his company is planning to locate a “small retail data center” in one of the former Walworth buildings.
The buildings are on a lot whose address is 324 N. Main St. The lot is large, extending east to Grace Avenue, where the foundry buildings are.
Nowak said his company wants to locate the data center in part of one of the buildings and hopes to create retail space in the rest of it.
He said the data center will be able to support banks, schools, hospitals and other clients.
In other communities, residents have been concerned about the impact of data centers on the local water supply, and about the noise and pollution they create. The ordinance passed by the council addresses those concerns.
Nowak said the center his company is planning will have a cooling system that won’t consume water.
As for the noise, he said, “The type of system that we use is pretty much as quiet as the conversation we’re having here today.”
Moore said when the council was discussing the data center ordinance, Kewanee residents had a lot to say about the matter. “A lot of it wasn’t very positive,” he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of pushback,” Moore told Nowak. “I’m going to warn you about that right now.”
