September 4, 2025 • 10 mins
Alec Willis, who is part of a group called Protect Morgan County, joins Kendall and Casey to talk about their fight against the proposed data center in Monrovia, IN.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Casey.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I don't know if you're aware of everybody's pretty pissed
off about these data centers.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
There seem to be popping up all over the state.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Now, of course we've highlighted here recently, there's been a
huge pushback in Indianapolis Franklin Township over this proposed Google
data center. It looks like, at least right now, the
citizens there may be defeating that measure to put that
monstrosity there in Franklin Township.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
But these things are coming up all over the place,
Yes they are.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And you know, we opened our show today talking about
the hypocrisy of the governor who on one end comes
out and claims to be so concerned about utility costs,
and yet one of the first actions of his new
IEDC board was to prove incentives for these data centers,
which are going to suck all this power shill cause
people's power bills to go up.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's a big shell game.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
But people everywhere are starting to catch on to these
data centers the potential harm they bring. In one of
the areas where people are really organized, where they're really
fighting back, is in Monrovia, where there's a proposed data
center out there and joining us on the WABC hotline.
You talk about experience, because look, this is coming to
a community and here you you need to know how
to organize. You need to know how to fight back
against these things, like the people in Franklin Township is
(01:09):
Alec Willis. He's a part of a group called Protect
Morgan County. He joins us on the WIBC hotline now, Alec, Hello.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, Rob, thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, so tell us about your group Protect Morgan County
and your fight against this data center out there in Monrovia.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah. So, honestly, it's been a great effort recently. I
didn't become aware of this actually until May, and that's
when the Morgan County correspond to introduced me to Chris Lamberson,
who had been leading this grassroots movement. And that was
when I met him and we established a renewed effort
to somehow just compel the cancelation of this data center
(01:48):
going up in Morgan County, and not only that, just
continue to protect Morgan County from these officials who are
just completely disengaged with the voters at a local level.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Okay, let me ask you about this.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So what do you know what the data center is, Like,
do you know who's behind it? How big it's going
to be, those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, so it's going to be three hundred and ninety acres,
which is pretty substantial. And they haven't come out and
said specifically, but I've gotten word from a resource, you know,
resource that knows what they're talking about. I'm not going
to say who it is, but they've confirmed that it's Google,
And of course the officials have signed non disclosure agreements
(02:31):
to not have to disclose that. But we've confirmed that
it's Google.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wait wait, wait, so there would there?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Would you got the one in Franklin Township and you're
seriously this would be a second, allegedly a second Google
data center.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yes, does that have a nickname? Is it like Project
you know, Sunshine, Project Tahoe, Project Cornfield.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, we should probably give it a nickname, but as
far as I'm aware, it doesn't necessarily have a nickname yet.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Alec Willis is our guest. He's at the group Protect
Morgan County. They're fighting a proposed data center out in
the Monrovia area. Okay, so tell us about sort of
you mentioned the elected officials. Is this a County project.
Is is it a city or town project somewhere? Who
are the dirty, rotten, no good people that are giving
(03:19):
you guys pushback in terms of trying to defeat this monstrosity.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, I'm glad, yes, actually because you know, at the
beginning of this it's always been a bipartisan movement. But
we actually reached out Senator Bank's office and they were
able to confirm that this has nothing to do with
the data centers that Senator Banks and President Trump has
brought to Indiana and that you know, in their opinion,
(03:45):
it was specifically a local project that the local officials
have been working on. So this is the Morgan County
Plan Commission and the Morgan County Council and commissioners that
have brought this in, you know, against massive opposition.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Do you know why, Because Morgan County has always been
pretty good, at least in the past about protecting the
taxpayers or the one county that didn't opt into the
food and beverage tax. They've always been pretty good about
the idea of Hey Warren and largely agg community property rights,
all those sorts of things. Do you have an idea
of why that they appear to be so wed this
(04:21):
to this data center.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah. So from our understanding, you know, there's Morgan County
Economic Development Corporation and it's led by an executive director,
Mike Ellinger. And obviously, you know, we paid the county
paid seventy five thousand dollars a year. I think it
is to them to advise on the economy. And he
(04:44):
is from my understanding, he's the one that kind of
introduced us to the county and he's not even from here.
In fact, a few years ago he said that Monrovia
was going to be a part of Indy. And so
that's that's kind of who had led the charge with
this and told it, you know, from my understanding, told
everybody that it'd be a great idea and championed it
(05:05):
from from the start.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So you've been partnering with Citizens' Action Coalition. How have
they been able to help you in the cause.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, so Citizens' Action is a great resource. We've been
working hand in hand with Brice S. Gustufson, who, first
of all, they have so many resources and they've done,
you know, a lot of research and they've been able
to provide the information you know, from the start, whereas
you know we would have had to go back and
you know, do that all of all by ourselves. And
(05:36):
they're also helping down in Franklin Township also, and they
kind of lead from the front of like, you know,
this is not only are their negative effects you know
for water, for noise and all that stuff, but utility
rates are just going to go crazy, uh, you know
when they get this in the ground. And so they've
provided resources. For example, they've set up the booth at
(05:56):
the Monrovia Festival this weekend and plan on helping us
throughout this process. And Bryce has been a great resource
that we're grateful for.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Complements left with Alec Willis. He's with the group called
Protect Morgan County. They're fighting a data center out there
in the Monrovia area. So tell us about kind of
what you guys have been doing, tell us about where
the project is. Are you succeeding in your pushback? Where
are you guys at in terms of defeating these things. Look,
I think all these data centers right now, especially when
(06:26):
they're if they're in any way LinkedIn to the IDC,
need to absolutely be pushed back and defeated.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, of course, So there's two Monrovii residents that filed
a verified positioner of review law too, you know, arguing
that the rezoning was arbitrary, disregarding the county's comprehensive plane,
et cetera. It's an ongoing matter. They have a discovery
emotion set for September twenty fifth. We're excited to see
what happens. We've also submitted a very targeted and detailed
(06:55):
public records request because from our point of view, it's
hard to fight something that you have no you know,
you don't have any information on. And I think, in
my opinion, that's what the goal of the non disclosure
agreement was, and so we filed for all these documents.
We made sure we're very particular about it so that
they couldn't use that as an excuse and word from
(07:15):
the county, we're supposed to get those documents back, and
that kind of doesn't necessarily set and stone our path forward,
but you know, it decides where we go from here
in terms of the information we get back or don't
get back. But we see and we've seen the progress
the movement is growing in membership. Every single day we
have people inquired that didn't know about it. The day before.
(07:38):
We're raising funds every single day and just just great
progress in my opinion, because a lot of people still
even on the roads that this data center is going
like setting up by yesterday at our weekly meeting, we
had a couple of people show up that hadn't even
heard about it and they live on that road. So
(08:00):
it's growing every day. Who is a lot of progress?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
This is what I can't figure out.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Who is for this other than the company that wants
to go there, Like, is there anybody.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Coming out in the community saying, oh, this will be
so great?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And what reason are your elected officials who are ignoring
the public giving you for doing so?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah? So not really, to be honest, I mean, there's
the members of the county have said a few positive
things about it. I had talked to a commissioner and
his his reasoning was, well, you know, I talked to
chamber of commerce in one of the communities that one
of these were being built, and they had positive things
to say about it. And I'm like, well what positive things?
(08:42):
And he had, well, they helped us buy you know,
helped us buy a few things for the municipality. I'm like, okay,
so is that it that's pretty much it. Like the
problem is is is what thinking what in the world,
Because if there's not much positive effect, then why trouble
ourselves with this data center? And there's way more negative
(09:04):
And I would say at the meetings that we've had,
the opposition to support is probably thirty to forty to one.
I mean it's not even close.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, okay, Alec.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
If people want to know more about what you guys
are doing out there, everybody needs to pay attention to
all of these communities, even if you don't live in them,
because these people, if they don't succeed in one place,
they'll come to a community near you. These are coming
to a community near you. How can people learn about
what you guys are doing out in Morgan County.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, So go to our website protect Morgan County dot org.
Visit it. We have information, we're updating it every day.
We just went live with it this week, so there
will be updates to it. There's going to be PDF
of information on it, and there's going to be once
we get these records from the county, we're going to
(09:52):
be uploading those. We have an opportunity for you to
donate to the cause because there will be you know,
a movement without money is just going to die. So
we do need support there from people who care about
this to keep it going and go visit that. We
also have a Facebook page and most importantly, we'll be
at the Monrovia Festival. I do want to say that's
(10:13):
a great festival. First of all, you know, not a
lot of people are talking about it in the Indian area,
but you should come out. It's this weekend, starts on Friday,
goes through Sunday. We're going to be in the parade.
You can also come out and support us that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Way, maybe that parade may be brought to you by
or that festival may be brought to you by Google
before too long.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Alick, Yeah, well I would rather donate my own money
than have Google donate to something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
All right, yeah, Protect it's Protect Morgan County dot org.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Correct, Yes, sure, all right, Protect.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Morgan County dot org. Alec, thank you for your time,
good luck. Let us know how we can help.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, thank you, Rob.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It's Kennily Casey on ninety three WIBC
Casey.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I don't know if you're aware of everybody's pretty pissed
off about these data centers.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
There seem to be popping up all over the state.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Now, of course we've highlighted here recently, there's been a
huge pushback in Indianapolis Franklin Township over this proposed Google
data center. It looks like, at least right now, the
citizens there may be defeating that measure to put that
monstrosity there in Franklin Township.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
But these things are coming up all over the place,
Yes they are.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And you know, we opened our show today talking about
the hypocrisy of the governor who on one end comes
out and claims to be so concerned about utility costs,
and yet one of the first actions of his new
IEDC board was to prove incentives for these data centers,
which are going to suck all this power shill cause
people's power bills to go up.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's a big shell game.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
But people everywhere are starting to catch on to these
data centers the potential harm they bring. In one of
the areas where people are really organized, where they're really
fighting back, is in Monrovia, where there's a proposed data
center out there and joining us on the WABC hotline.
You talk about experience, because look, this is coming to
a community and here you you need to know how
to organize. You need to know how to fight back
against these things, like the people in Franklin Township is
(01:09):
Alec Willis. He's a part of a group called Protect
Morgan County. He joins us on the WIBC hotline now, Alec, Hello.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, Rob, thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, so tell us about your group Protect Morgan County
and your fight against this data center out there in Monrovia.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah. So, honestly, it's been a great effort recently. I
didn't become aware of this actually until May, and that's
when the Morgan County correspond to introduced me to Chris Lamberson,
who had been leading this grassroots movement. And that was
when I met him and we established a renewed effort
to somehow just compel the cancelation of this data center
(01:48):
going up in Morgan County, and not only that, just
continue to protect Morgan County from these officials who are
just completely disengaged with the voters at a local level.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Okay, let me ask you about this.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So what do you know what the data center is, Like,
do you know who's behind it? How big it's going
to be, those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, so it's going to be three hundred and ninety acres,
which is pretty substantial. And they haven't come out and
said specifically, but I've gotten word from a resource, you know,
resource that knows what they're talking about. I'm not going
to say who it is, but they've confirmed that it's Google,
And of course the officials have signed non disclosure agreements
(02:31):
to not have to disclose that. But we've confirmed that
it's Google.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wait wait, wait, so there would there?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Would you got the one in Franklin Township and you're
seriously this would be a second, allegedly a second Google
data center.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yes, does that have a nickname? Is it like Project
you know, Sunshine, Project Tahoe, Project Cornfield.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, we should probably give it a nickname, but as
far as I'm aware, it doesn't necessarily have a nickname yet.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Alec Willis is our guest. He's at the group Protect
Morgan County. They're fighting a proposed data center out in
the Monrovia area. Okay, so tell us about sort of
you mentioned the elected officials. Is this a County project.
Is is it a city or town project somewhere? Who
are the dirty, rotten, no good people that are giving
(03:19):
you guys pushback in terms of trying to defeat this monstrosity.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, I'm glad, yes, actually because you know, at the
beginning of this it's always been a bipartisan movement. But
we actually reached out Senator Bank's office and they were
able to confirm that this has nothing to do with
the data centers that Senator Banks and President Trump has
brought to Indiana and that you know, in their opinion,
(03:45):
it was specifically a local project that the local officials
have been working on. So this is the Morgan County
Plan Commission and the Morgan County Council and commissioners that
have brought this in, you know, against massive opposition.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Do you know why, Because Morgan County has always been
pretty good, at least in the past about protecting the
taxpayers or the one county that didn't opt into the
food and beverage tax. They've always been pretty good about
the idea of Hey Warren and largely agg community property rights,
all those sorts of things. Do you have an idea
of why that they appear to be so wed this
(04:21):
to this data center.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah. So from our understanding, you know, there's Morgan County
Economic Development Corporation and it's led by an executive director,
Mike Ellinger. And obviously, you know, we paid the county
paid seventy five thousand dollars a year. I think it
is to them to advise on the economy. And he
(04:44):
is from my understanding, he's the one that kind of
introduced us to the county and he's not even from here.
In fact, a few years ago he said that Monrovia
was going to be a part of Indy. And so
that's that's kind of who had led the charge with
this and told it, you know, from my understanding, told
everybody that it'd be a great idea and championed it
(05:05):
from from the start.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So you've been partnering with Citizens' Action Coalition. How have
they been able to help you in the cause.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, so Citizens' Action is a great resource. We've been
working hand in hand with Brice S. Gustufson, who, first
of all, they have so many resources and they've done,
you know, a lot of research and they've been able
to provide the information you know, from the start, whereas
you know we would have had to go back and
you know, do that all of all by ourselves. And
(05:36):
they're also helping down in Franklin Township also, and they
kind of lead from the front of like, you know,
this is not only are their negative effects you know
for water, for noise and all that stuff, but utility
rates are just going to go crazy, uh, you know
when they get this in the ground. And so they've
provided resources. For example, they've set up the booth at
(05:56):
the Monrovia Festival this weekend and plan on helping us
throughout this process. And Bryce has been a great resource
that we're grateful for.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Complements left with Alec Willis. He's with the group called
Protect Morgan County. They're fighting a data center out there
in the Monrovia area. So tell us about kind of
what you guys have been doing, tell us about where
the project is. Are you succeeding in your pushback? Where
are you guys at in terms of defeating these things. Look,
I think all these data centers right now, especially when
(06:26):
they're if they're in any way LinkedIn to the IDC,
need to absolutely be pushed back and defeated.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, of course, So there's two Monrovii residents that filed
a verified positioner of review law too, you know, arguing
that the rezoning was arbitrary, disregarding the county's comprehensive plane,
et cetera. It's an ongoing matter. They have a discovery
emotion set for September twenty fifth. We're excited to see
what happens. We've also submitted a very targeted and detailed
(06:55):
public records request because from our point of view, it's
hard to fight something that you have no you know,
you don't have any information on. And I think, in
my opinion, that's what the goal of the non disclosure
agreement was, and so we filed for all these documents.
We made sure we're very particular about it so that
they couldn't use that as an excuse and word from
(07:15):
the county, we're supposed to get those documents back, and
that kind of doesn't necessarily set and stone our path forward,
but you know, it decides where we go from here
in terms of the information we get back or don't
get back. But we see and we've seen the progress
the movement is growing in membership. Every single day we
have people inquired that didn't know about it. The day before.
(07:38):
We're raising funds every single day and just just great
progress in my opinion, because a lot of people still
even on the roads that this data center is going
like setting up by yesterday at our weekly meeting, we
had a couple of people show up that hadn't even
heard about it and they live on that road. So
(08:00):
it's growing every day. Who is a lot of progress?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
This is what I can't figure out.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Who is for this other than the company that wants
to go there, Like, is there anybody.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Coming out in the community saying, oh, this will be
so great?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And what reason are your elected officials who are ignoring
the public giving you for doing so?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah? So not really, to be honest, I mean, there's
the members of the county have said a few positive
things about it. I had talked to a commissioner and
his his reasoning was, well, you know, I talked to
chamber of commerce in one of the communities that one
of these were being built, and they had positive things
to say about it. And I'm like, well what positive things?
(08:42):
And he had, well, they helped us buy you know,
helped us buy a few things for the municipality. I'm like, okay,
so is that it that's pretty much it. Like the
problem is is is what thinking what in the world,
Because if there's not much positive effect, then why trouble
ourselves with this data center? And there's way more negative
(09:04):
And I would say at the meetings that we've had,
the opposition to support is probably thirty to forty to one.
I mean it's not even close.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, okay, Alec.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
If people want to know more about what you guys
are doing out there, everybody needs to pay attention to
all of these communities, even if you don't live in them,
because these people, if they don't succeed in one place,
they'll come to a community near you. These are coming
to a community near you. How can people learn about
what you guys are doing out in Morgan County.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, So go to our website protect Morgan County dot org.
Visit it. We have information, we're updating it every day.
We just went live with it this week, so there
will be updates to it. There's going to be PDF
of information on it, and there's going to be once
we get these records from the county, we're going to
(09:52):
be uploading those. We have an opportunity for you to
donate to the cause because there will be you know,
a movement without money is just going to die. So
we do need support there from people who care about
this to keep it going and go visit that. We
also have a Facebook page and most importantly, we'll be
at the Monrovia Festival. I do want to say that's
(10:13):
a great festival. First of all, you know, not a
lot of people are talking about it in the Indian area,
but you should come out. It's this weekend, starts on Friday,
goes through Sunday. We're going to be in the parade.
You can also come out and support us that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Way, maybe that parade may be brought to you by
or that festival may be brought to you by Google
before too long.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Alick, Yeah, well I would rather donate my own money
than have Google donate to something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
All right, yeah, Protect it's Protect Morgan County dot org.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Correct, Yes, sure, all right, Protect.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Morgan County dot org. Alec, thank you for your time,
good luck. Let us know how we can help.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, thank you, Rob.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It's Kennily Casey on ninety three WIBC
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