NILES — The Niles Senior Center was packed Wednesday with residents, including some carrying signs protesting the construction of a potential data center in the city.

Before Wednesday’s regular meeting, city officials heard from Paul Hanson, a senior project manager for Bitdeer, a Singapore-based technology company with a focus on cryptocurrency and AI cloud infrastructure.

Councilman Edward Stredney, D-at Large, said the property where Bitdeer aims to build a facility is at 1047 Belmont Ave., which was purchased in 2025.

“A couple weeks ago, the mayor (Steven Mientkiewicz) came to me, the law director (Phil Zuzolo) came to me, and mentioned this property wanting to annex in — primarily for a data center,” Stredney said. “I told the mayor at that time we needed to have a committee meeting.”

Hanson said the city’s water and sewer facilities would benefit the potential facility, as will the city’s building codes and construction monitoring.

Hanson said Bitdeer has a 221-megawatt site in Massillon, which he says should be completed in July. Hanson provided a letter from Massillon Mayor Jamie Slutz detailing the city’s partnership with Bitdeer.

“We not only look to build as an employer, but as a community partner; we are very diligent in hiring local engineering services,” Hanson said. “Local contractors, creating construction jobs; in Massillon, at full scale of construction, there were over 300 jobs that were brought there from local contractors.”

Hanson said they also hire locally, noting Bitdeer has many positions they can train on-site for those without computer science degrees. He said their facility is a “golden opportunity” to increase the area’s good-paying, high-salaried jobs.

Hanson said the facility is still in the preliminary design phase since its 2025 acquisition, adding that Bitdeer officials have been “working diligently” with FirstEnergy, the site’s power provider.

“This power that’s coming to this site is only dedicated to the site; it does not affect any of the residents,” Hanson said.

He said the location was an industrial site before Bitdeer’s arrival, and there’s a substation located on the property, resulting in FirstEnergy performing a “dynamic load study” to verify the company could provide what Bitdeer needs for the site’s construction.

“Their load study was approved, and the power that we will need to energize the site is expected to be delivered by the end of 2028,” Hanson said. “Now and between that timeline, we need to come up with our design and our construction and start construction, which we’re hoping to start this fall.”

Hanson said Bitdeer plans to build its own substation instead of utilizing the existing one to avoid causing problems upstream or downstream.

Hanson said they plan for a 300-megawatt data center, explaining that Bitdeer is requesting to use local municipal water for its cooling systems — 90% water, 10% glycol.

“We are a non-polluter; if we were to have any kind of rain runoff or anything — everything is captured into our own drainage systems that go into a retention pond, so we will not be going back into the river systems,” Hanson said. “We do not go back into the ground; it’s non-pervious — you’re on asphalt, so everything runs off from asphalt into sewer drains that go back to the retention pond.”

COUNCIL COMMENTS

Councilman Jimmy Julian, D, at-Large, asked if Hanson had a rough estimate of the facility’s daily water usage.

“We’re expected to use less than 500,000 gallons a day,” Hanson said.

Councilman James Sheely, D-3rd Ward, questioned what happens to the facility’s water that doesn’t evaporate.

Hanson said the water goes back to a holding tank under the facility and the water will continue to be used until it evaporates, and it gets refilled afterward.

Sheely said he asked because he wants to ensure it is a closed lip system, as he doesn’t want anything cycling through to enter the waterways.

“We have to watch out for the best interests of our residents and be good neighbors as well,” Sheely said. “Yes, there’s an industrial area; my concern is noise, and I see the decibel levels. What about infrasound, low-level frequencies that can affect people and animals as well?”

Hanson said it wasn’t about the decibel levels, but the frequencies, which cannot be heard outside the facility’s fenceline.

“We’ve got other videos that we can share; you can hear the machine slightly in the background, but the birds are chirping louder than the machines,” Hanson said.

Hanson clarified that the potential Niles facility will only have data servers and will not be trying to mine cryptocurrency.

Stredney asked if the city’s emergency services would need or be required to handle an emergency at the facility.

Hanson said Bitdeer partners with local services and does fire drills at their facilities, adding that they encourage local fire departments to set up fire training.

“We’ll shut one of our buildings down, they’ll either put a dummy there, or they’ll put a person there — they’ll black out in night conditions,” Hanson said. “We’ll run drills there; we like to do annual training because a lot of the fire departments have a lot of volunteers or new firefighters.

“We like them to be very familiar with the sites and be able to understand the capabilities. All of the buildings are marked clearly, and at any time, the fire marshals will come in and inspect.”

Aaron Johnstone, D-2nd Ward, said that based on Hanson’s reaction to being asked whether he had spoken to anyone from the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, he hadn’t yet.

Mientkiewicz said they’ve only spoken with MVSD about the desired peak capacity and the required volume.

“As we all know, MVSD, currently at peak demand, pushes around 30 to 35 million gallons per day to Trumbull and Mahoning County,” Mientkiewicz said. “MVSD, as we all know, has a peak demand of 60 million gallons per day that they can pump to Trumbull and Mahoning County.”

Johnstone said the MVSD is trying to repair a 100-year-old dam, noting that residents would be the only way they’d be able to fund it.

Hanson said Bitdeer engages with local government entities to see what their needs are and tries to meet them.

“People don’t want us here because they don’t know us; they don’t understand that we are good people, and we try to be a part of the community,” Hanson said. “But if there’s a need for our support as we’re getting ready for construction or for us to be viable, we partner with them and help with that same thing with water treatment facilities.”

Johnstone said if council moves forward with the data center, MVSD representatives need to be brought in, as both the MVSD and Bitdeer have a mutual interest in water.

Johnstone urged council to consider a six-month moratorium on data centers, as Bitdeer officials proceed through the annexation process.

“Not in a sense that we are telling you ‘no’, but not in a sense that we are telling you ‘yes,” Johnstone said. “We need to have discussions about what we want this to look like moving forward, as we entertain that.”

PUBLIC COMMENT

Nearly two hours of public comment kicked off the council meeting that followed — primarily residents speaking out against the data center.

Daniel Babcock, a North Bentley Avenue resident, questioned where the resources for the center would come from.

“As far as I know, you’re going to steal my water, and you’re going to steal my electricity — so where’s the water coming from to cool this place?” Babcock said. “Who’s going to put up the electrical bill? Because I’ll tell you this much, from this point on, in the past, the community pays for his (Hanson’s) electric; their bills are getting raised, and so we’re all a town of poor people. Is it coming from Meander? Is it coming from the Mahoning River?”

Babcock said Bitdeer would still be stealing from the community, regardless of whether they are using an ounce of Niles’s power.

“You’re still using our transmission lines and our power — you’re stealing from us,” Babcock said, noting residents were going to get higher electrical bills based on research he has done on other communities with data centers.

“That’s the first thing they tell the community, ‘Oh, it’s not going to raise your electric bill — but it always does, in every single spot,” Babcock said.

Warren Avenue resident Drew Six asked city council to do its research on data centers.

“Don’t listen to what those men said; they’re salesmen, they want you to buy their product,” Six said. “PBS just had a special on this; they interviewed the people, the residents that live near the data centers — and how unhappy they are.”

“Nobody is going to buy their property. You want Niles to grow, nobody’s going to move here,” she continued. “I’m getting ready to buy another house — I’m putting it off. I don’t want to buy a house where there’s a data center.”

Six noted a Sunday CBS segment saying that more people have left the country in 2025.

“More people are going to leave Niles than are going to enter. It might be the death of some small cities, these data centers,” Six said. “One more thing, Youngstown put up noise barriers along the interstate; when they interviewed them (residents) on the news, the noise, they said, was worse — it multiplied it.”

Six said sound barriers Bitdeer may put up will not make their presence any healthier for the community or the surrounding wildlife.

“Please, do your homework,” Six said.

Jessica Gardner, another Warren Avenue resident, said one of the city’s key phrases in its mission statement is that it provides “affordable living and a safe and high quality of life.”

“The problem with this motto is hypocrisy; Niles is implementing a strong beautification program. We’ve painted railroad bridges and added the Niles Greenway (Trail),” Gardner said. “We have a new playground, splash pad, public square and the riverfront revitalization, which is still under construction.”

“The addition of a data center will reverse all positive impacts of the program, eliminating affordable living and safety and (a) high quality of life.”

With construction like Kimberly-Clark’s incoming facility on Warren Avenue, Gardner said the city will be surrounded by “cancer-causing pollution.”

“As a cancer survivor, I find this unacceptable. Consider the destruction of our environment. The data center will be located only two miles away from the new river revitalization site and the public square,” Gardner said.

Gardner noted an Ohio Captial Journal article stating the wholesale price of electricity has gone up 267% from five years ago — because of data centers.

“Every day, customers are eating those costs,” Gardner said.

WEATHERSFIELD TALK

Weathersfield resident Jeff Shiley questioned the proposed data center for the old Ohio Edison power plant at Tuesday’s township trustees meeting. He said the center is situated in both communities, with the front portion of the property in Niles and the rear part in Weathersfield.

“That would be a huge revenue for the township to lose,” Shiley said.

Shiley is concerned that if the data center locates at the property, Niles may want to annex it into the city.

Weathersfield Trustee Chairman Steve Gerberry said the situation has not reached any discussion on annexation.

He said when there was annexation from the township to the city with other properties, the property may be in Niles, but the township, through an agreement, receives the property taxes.

Gerberry said this was the situation with properties off state Route 169.

He said the township will wait and see if it gets to that point.

“We have no authority to prevent this,” Gerberry said.