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Speaker 1: Casey.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you're aware of everybody's pretty pissed

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Speaker 2: off about these data centers.

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Speaker 1: There seem to be popping up all over the state.

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Speaker 2: Now, of course we've highlighted here recently, there's been a

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Speaker 2: huge pushback in Indianapolis Franklin Township over this proposed Google

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Speaker 2: data center. It looks like, at least right now, the

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Speaker 2: citizens there may be defeating that measure to put that

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Speaker 2: monstrosity there in Franklin Township.

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Speaker 1: But these things are coming up all over the place,

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Speaker 1: Yes they are.

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Speaker 2: And you know, we opened our show today talking about

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Speaker 2: the hypocrisy of the governor who on one end comes

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Speaker 2: out and claims to be so concerned about utility costs,

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Speaker 2: and yet one of the first actions of his new

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Speaker 2: IEDC board was to prove incentives for these data centers,

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Speaker 2: which are going to suck all this power shill cause

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Speaker 2: people's power bills to go up.

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Speaker 1: It's a big shell game.

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Speaker 2: But people everywhere are starting to catch on to these

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Speaker 2: data centers the potential harm they bring. In one of

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Speaker 2: the areas where people are really organized, where they're really

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Speaker 2: fighting back, is in Monrovia, where there's a proposed data

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Speaker 2: center out there and joining us on the WABC hotline.

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Speaker 2: You talk about experience, because look, this is coming to

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Speaker 2: a community and here you you need to know how

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Speaker 2: to organize. You need to know how to fight back

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Speaker 2: against these things, like the people in Franklin Township is

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Speaker 2: Alec Willis. He's a part of a group called Protect

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Speaker 2: Morgan County. He joins us on the WIBC hotline now, Alec, Hello.

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Speaker 3: Hey, Rob, thanks for having me on today.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so tell us about your group Protect Morgan County

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Speaker 2: and your fight against this data center out there in Monrovia.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So, honestly, it's been a great effort recently. I

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Speaker 3: didn't become aware of this actually until May, and that's

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Speaker 3: when the Morgan County correspond to introduced me to Chris Lamberson,

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Speaker 3: who had been leading this grassroots movement. And that was

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Speaker 3: when I met him and we established a renewed effort

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Speaker 3: to somehow just compel the cancelation of this data center

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Speaker 3: going up in Morgan County, and not only that, just

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Speaker 3: continue to protect Morgan County from these officials who are

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Speaker 3: just completely disengaged with the voters at a local level.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let me ask you about this.

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Speaker 2: So what do you know what the data center is, Like,

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Speaker 2: do you know who's behind it? How big it's going

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Speaker 2: to be, those sorts of things.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's going to be three hundred and ninety acres,

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Speaker 3: which is pretty substantial. And they haven't come out and

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Speaker 3: said specifically, but I've gotten word from a resource, you know,

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Speaker 3: resource that knows what they're talking about. I'm not going

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Speaker 3: to say who it is, but they've confirmed that it's Google,

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Speaker 3: And of course the officials have signed non disclosure agreements

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Speaker 3: to not have to disclose that. But we've confirmed that

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Speaker 3: it's Google.

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Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, so there would there?

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Speaker 2: Would you got the one in Franklin Township and you're

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Speaker 2: seriously this would be a second, allegedly a second Google

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Speaker 2: data center.

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Speaker 1: Yes, does that have a nickname? Is it like Project

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Speaker 1: you know, Sunshine, Project Tahoe, Project Cornfield.

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Speaker 3: Well, we should probably give it a nickname, but as

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Speaker 3: far as I'm aware, it doesn't necessarily have a nickname yet.

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Speaker 2: Alec Willis is our guest. He's at the group Protect

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Speaker 2: Morgan County. They're fighting a proposed data center out in

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Speaker 2: the Monrovia area. Okay, so tell us about sort of

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Speaker 2: you mentioned the elected officials. Is this a County project.

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Speaker 2: Is is it a city or town project somewhere? Who

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Speaker 2: are the dirty, rotten, no good people that are giving

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Speaker 2: you guys pushback in terms of trying to defeat this monstrosity.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad, yes, actually because you know, at the

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Speaker 3: beginning of this it's always been a bipartisan movement. But

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Speaker 3: we actually reached out Senator Bank's office and they were

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Speaker 3: able to confirm that this has nothing to do with

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Speaker 3: the data centers that Senator Banks and President Trump has

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Speaker 3: brought to Indiana and that you know, in their opinion,

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Speaker 3: it was specifically a local project that the local officials

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Speaker 3: have been working on. So this is the Morgan County

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Speaker 3: Plan Commission and the Morgan County Council and commissioners that

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Speaker 3: have brought this in, you know, against massive opposition.

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Speaker 2: Do you know why, Because Morgan County has always been

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Speaker 2: pretty good, at least in the past about protecting the

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Speaker 2: taxpayers or the one county that didn't opt into the

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Speaker 2: food and beverage tax. They've always been pretty good about

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Speaker 2: the idea of Hey Warren and largely agg community property rights,

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Speaker 2: all those sorts of things. Do you have an idea

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Speaker 2: of why that they appear to be so wed this

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Speaker 2: to this data center.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So from our understanding, you know, there's Morgan County

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Speaker 3: Economic Development Corporation and it's led by an executive director,

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Speaker 3: Mike Ellinger. And obviously, you know, we paid the county

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Speaker 3: paid seventy five thousand dollars a year. I think it

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Speaker 3: is to them to advise on the economy. And he

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Speaker 3: is from my understanding, he's the one that kind of

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Speaker 3: introduced us to the county and he's not even from here.

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Speaker 3: In fact, a few years ago he said that Monrovia

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Speaker 3: was going to be a part of Indy. And so

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Speaker 3: that's that's kind of who had led the charge with

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Speaker 3: this and told it, you know, from my understanding, told

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Speaker 3: everybody that it'd be a great idea and championed it

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Speaker 3: from from the start.

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Speaker 1: So you've been partnering with Citizens' Action Coalition. How have

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Speaker 1: they been able to help you in the cause.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so Citizens' Action is a great resource. We've been

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Speaker 3: working hand in hand with Brice S. Gustufson, who, first

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Speaker 3: of all, they have so many resources and they've done,

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Speaker 3: you know, a lot of research and they've been able

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Speaker 3: to provide the information you know, from the start, whereas

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Speaker 3: you know we would have had to go back and

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Speaker 3: you know, do that all of all by ourselves. And

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Speaker 3: they're also helping down in Franklin Township also, and they

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Speaker 3: kind of lead from the front of like, you know,

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Speaker 3: this is not only are their negative effects you know

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Speaker 3: for water, for noise and all that stuff, but utility

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Speaker 3: rates are just going to go crazy, uh, you know

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Speaker 3: when they get this in the ground. And so they've

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Speaker 3: provided resources. For example, they've set up the booth at

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Speaker 3: the Monrovia Festival this weekend and plan on helping us

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Speaker 3: throughout this process. And Bryce has been a great resource

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Speaker 3: that we're grateful for.

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Speaker 2: Complements left with Alec Willis. He's with the group called

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Speaker 2: Protect Morgan County. They're fighting a data center out there

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Speaker 2: in the Monrovia area. So tell us about kind of

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Speaker 2: what you guys have been doing, tell us about where

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Speaker 2: the project is. Are you succeeding in your pushback? Where

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Speaker 2: are you guys at in terms of defeating these things. Look,

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Speaker 2: I think all these data centers right now, especially when

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Speaker 2: they're if they're in any way LinkedIn to the IDC,

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Speaker 2: need to absolutely be pushed back and defeated.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, So there's two Monrovii residents that filed

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Speaker 3: a verified positioner of review law too, you know, arguing

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Speaker 3: that the rezoning was arbitrary, disregarding the county's comprehensive plane,

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Speaker 3: et cetera. It's an ongoing matter. They have a discovery

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Speaker 3: emotion set for September twenty fifth. We're excited to see

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Speaker 3: what happens. We've also submitted a very targeted and detailed

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Speaker 3: public records request because from our point of view, it's

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Speaker 3: hard to fight something that you have no you know,

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Speaker 3: you don't have any information on. And I think, in

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Speaker 3: my opinion, that's what the goal of the non disclosure

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Speaker 3: agreement was, and so we filed for all these documents.

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Speaker 3: We made sure we're very particular about it so that

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Speaker 3: they couldn't use that as an excuse and word from

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Speaker 3: the county, we're supposed to get those documents back, and

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Speaker 3: that kind of doesn't necessarily set and stone our path forward,

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Speaker 3: but you know, it decides where we go from here

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Speaker 3: in terms of the information we get back or don't

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Speaker 3: get back. But we see and we've seen the progress

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Speaker 3: the movement is growing in membership. Every single day we

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Speaker 3: have people inquired that didn't know about it. The day before.

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Speaker 3: We're raising funds every single day and just just great

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Speaker 3: progress in my opinion, because a lot of people still

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Speaker 3: even on the roads that this data center is going

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Speaker 3: like setting up by yesterday at our weekly meeting, we

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Speaker 3: had a couple of people show up that hadn't even

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Speaker 3: heard about it and they live on that road. So

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Speaker 3: it's growing every day. Who is a lot of progress?

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Speaker 1: This is what I can't figure out.

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Speaker 2: Who is for this other than the company that wants

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Speaker 2: to go there, Like, is there anybody.

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Speaker 1: Coming out in the community saying, oh, this will be

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Speaker 1: so great?

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Speaker 2: And what reason are your elected officials who are ignoring

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Speaker 2: the public giving you for doing so?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? So not really, to be honest, I mean, there's

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Speaker 3: the members of the county have said a few positive

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Speaker 3: things about it. I had talked to a commissioner and

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Speaker 3: his his reasoning was, well, you know, I talked to

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Speaker 3: chamber of commerce in one of the communities that one

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Speaker 3: of these were being built, and they had positive things

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Speaker 3: to say about it. And I'm like, well what positive things?

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Speaker 3: And he had, well, they helped us buy you know,

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Speaker 3: helped us buy a few things for the municipality. I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 3: so is that it that's pretty much it. Like the

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Speaker 3: problem is is is what thinking what in the world,

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Speaker 3: Because if there's not much positive effect, then why trouble

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Speaker 3: ourselves with this data center? And there's way more negative

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Speaker 3: And I would say at the meetings that we've had,

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Speaker 3: the opposition to support is probably thirty to forty to one.

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Speaker 3: I mean it's not even close.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Alec.

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Speaker 2: If people want to know more about what you guys

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Speaker 2: are doing out there, everybody needs to pay attention to

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Speaker 2: all of these communities, even if you don't live in them,

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Speaker 2: because these people, if they don't succeed in one place,

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Speaker 2: they'll come to a community near you. These are coming

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Speaker 2: to a community near you. How can people learn about

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Speaker 2: what you guys are doing out in Morgan County.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So go to our website protect Morgan County dot org.

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Speaker 3: Visit it. We have information, we're updating it every day.

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Speaker 3: We just went live with it this week, so there

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Speaker 3: will be updates to it. There's going to be PDF

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Speaker 3: of information on it, and there's going to be once

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Speaker 3: we get these records from the county, we're going to

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Speaker 3: be uploading those. We have an opportunity for you to

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Speaker 3: donate to the cause because there will be you know,

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Speaker 3: a movement without money is just going to die. So

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Speaker 3: we do need support there from people who care about

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Speaker 3: this to keep it going and go visit that. We

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Speaker 3: also have a Facebook page and most importantly, we'll be

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Speaker 3: at the Monrovia Festival. I do want to say that's

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Speaker 3: a great festival. First of all, you know, not a

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Speaker 3: lot of people are talking about it in the Indian area,

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Speaker 3: but you should come out. It's this weekend, starts on Friday,

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Speaker 3: goes through Sunday. We're going to be in the parade.

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Speaker 3: You can also come out and support us that.

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Speaker 2: Way, maybe that parade may be brought to you by

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Speaker 2: or that festival may be brought to you by Google

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Speaker 2: before too long.

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Speaker 3: Alick, Yeah, well I would rather donate my own money

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Speaker 3: than have Google donate to something like that.

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Speaker 2: All right, yeah, Protect it's Protect Morgan County dot org.

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Speaker 1: Correct, Yes, sure, all right, Protect.

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Speaker 2: Morgan County dot org. Alec, thank you for your time,

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Speaker 2: good luck. Let us know how we can help.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Rob.

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Speaker 1: It's Kennily Casey on ninety three WIBC