The debate over a data center project in Festus took a dramatic turn earlier this month when residents voted out every city council member seeking reelection who had approved the project.
The electoral message became national news, with Politico describing it as "the latest example of growing public backlash against cities agreeing to host hyperscale data centers over the objections of residents."
The proposed site of the Festus data center would cover 360 acres only a few minutes' drive from Erica Carter's home. In November, she attended her first town meeting about the plan.
At the time she had never heard of a data center. Some of her neighbors were already organizing to oppose it.
"One of the townspeople kind of led the meeting and explained what a data center was," she recalled. "He said, 'We're going to need people speaking to the media, people going to town meetings, people organizing groups and running petitions and organizing talks and all these things.' And I thought, 'Oh, gross. This is not for me. I don't want any part of any of this.'"
She said her mind changed when she witnessed a presentation on the project by Clayco CEO Bob Clark.
"I became very angry," she said. "I had a bad feeling in the bottom of my stomach, like this man is not telling the truth about the things that he's trying to sell us on."
Carter wasn't the only Festus resident to feel that way. On March 30, hundreds packed a high school gym to demand the city council reject the data center. Instead, the council approved it 6-2.
Days later, four of the council members who had voted for the data center lost their reelection bids. Last week, as the election backlash reshaped Festus' government, a fifth council member resigned.
After months of debate over the data project, Carter said she anticipated that the election would send a clear message.
"The general consensus is we don't want this. So it wasn't a surprise. We had more than double the turnout for our municipal election," she said. "[The incumbents] made their bed, and they had to lay in it."
Despite the election results, the data center in Festus is moving forward. Standing in its way is a lawsuit filed this month by a data center opposition group of Festus residents called Wake Up JeffCo. The lawsuit alleges the city council violated open meeting laws. It seeks to reverse key decisions the previous council made to advance the project.
The lawsuit also includes copies of text message exchanges between unnamed city officials discussing the data center plan months before its details became public. In one exchange, an official referred to the project's opponents as "a sideshow of uneducated people."
That and other text messages — as well as months of secrecy — are examples of Festus elected officials' disregard for its citizens, said Steve Jeffrey, who represents Wake Up JeffCo in its lawsuit.
"The public gets very upset," he said. "They get very angry. And as demonstrated a couple of weeks ago in Festus, angry people make angry voters. And angry voters extract their vengeance at the polling booth."
In this episode, "St. Louis on the Air" goes behind the headlines of the Festus data center debate and the national attention. Along with Carter and Jeffrey, STLPR reporters Kavahn Mansouri and Katie Grawitch share insights from their reporting and interviews.
To hear the full conversation about the Festus data center with resident Erica Carter, attorney Steve Jeffrey and STLPR reporters Kavahn Mansouri and Katie Grawitch — including an update on a data center project in St. Louis — listen to "St. Louis on the Air" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
"St. Louis on the Air" brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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