It’s a tradition like no other. Several entities — Merriam-Webster and Oxford University Press among them — pick a term and proclaim it the Word of the Year.

We’ve had slop, rage bait, six-seven, brain rot, rizz, authentic, goblin mode and gaslighting blow up in recent years.

Based on news mentions during the first half of 2026, it appears that the leader at the turn for this year’s Word of the Year is data centers.

They’re a hot topic because they’re popping up all over the country as our collective love affair with tech and all that comes with it continues and intensifies.

But the NIMBY — “not in my backyard” — crowd draws a line at the prospect of data centers going up in their communities.

Some residents have pressured local leaders to enact moratoriums to prevent companies from constructing data centers in their cities, townships and villages. A citizens-led initiative to place a statewide moratorium on data centers failed to get enough signatures in time to be included on the November ballot.

The concerns are myriad, but chiefly concern the fear that electricity and water rates will spike once a data center is up and running in an area. Data centers can increase demand on the electrical grid and use large amounts of water for cooling. Some communities with data centers report a constant hum and persistent noise, even up to a mile away.

But data centers are not without benefits, including economic growth and community investment, digital innovation and connectivity and infrastructure and energy modernization. Those who tout data centers also point to the possibility of improved strategic and national security.

While some communities in the Mahoning Valley have either proactively passed moratoriums to keep data centers from locating within their boundaries and others are considering such a ban, officials from other towns — like Hubbard and McDonald — are gathering information in attempts to learn everything they can about data centers.

We commend leaders in Hubbard and McDonald for keeping an open mind, even in the face of relentless online bashing of data centers and what’s wrong with them. Representatives of both Trumbull County towns traveled last week to New Albany, a Columbus suburb about 15 miles northeast of the city.

There may be no better place to see data centers in action and the effects from them than New Albany, which is home to 40 finished data centers across 15 companies, with 28 more announced or under construction. The city’s “IT and Mission Critical Cluster,” a high-availability infrastructure designed to host applications and services that cannot experience downtime without severely impacting business operations or safety, according to a presentation from New Albany officials.

Hubbard Councilwoman Robin Zambrini, D-2nd Ward, Councilman Jerry Crowe, D-at Large, and economic development and government officials, visited New Albany. The trip came about a year after Hubbard became one of the first communities in the area to place a ban on data centers. That doesn’t mean the city will necessarily lift the ban. It’s about looking into the pluses and minuses of data centers and how other municipalities have dealt with them.

“We don’t want to say no to all business; we have empty buildings, we have had business come in, but we should have standards,” Zambrini said. “Very specific standards, and tell them, ‘This is what we want, if you come to town.’ We have the power to say that.”

The McDonald contingent was made up of Mayor Ray Lewis, Councilman Brian Bosheff and Tom Colarich, a member of the board of zoning appeals.

“They told us not to do moratoriums because that not only tells data centers — but other companies — they are not welcome,” Lewis said. “They did recommend we have zoning guidelines in place for regulating data centers before someone submits a site plan. They told us should a data center want to locate in the community there needs to be regulations.”

Officials from Hubbard and McDonald, as well as Hubbard Township, detailed what they experienced in New Albany during meetings last week.

That’s how representative government should work, especially at the local level. Instead of putting an imaginary fence around their communities because some online opinions were picked up by the NIMBY folks, more local officials should explore what has happened elsewhere, whether it’s in places that have data centers or in others that kicked the tires and ultimately passed on bringing them home.

New Albany is growing at a pace that this region hasn’t experienced since perhaps the 1940s, so what works there might not be able to be duplicated here. But we’ll never know if we don’t do our homework.

Lewis may have said it best for a region that is sorely in need of an influx of people, business, growth and — yes — money.

“I want the village to be prepared if a business wants to locate and develop in McDonald,” he said. “I do not want to be the community that misses out on what could be the biggest opportunity we ever saw in this Valley.”