Hermantown Residents Press Google for Data Center Answers Amid Revenue Hopes

Google held its second listening session for Hermantown residents on August 19th to discuss its proposed data center. The company presented updated building designs and site plans, incorporating community feedback from a previous meeting in late June.

The development team emphasized that the data center will consist of three buildings and highlighted potential revenue for Hermantown. Tyler Huebner, part of Google's energy market development team, stated that the company is committing to paying $42.7 million dollars to the Hermantown School Foundation as a community betterment payment.

Huebner also estimated that the properties within the study area would pay around $448,000 dollars to the city of Hermantown annually, representing an increase of approximately $12 million dollars in tax revenue for the city. Additionally, Google is setting aside a $4.5 million dollar community betterment fund.

However, not all residents were satisfied with Google's transparency during the listening session. Jill Dryke and Amanda Dingmann expressed concerns that the company was not fully addressing their questions and providing adequate answers to their concerns about tree cutting and marsh filling.