Most surprising is the fact that it came as such a surprise.
It's always been my experience that big changes come with plenty of warning. Time to ask some questions. Maybe voice an opinion.
But, not this time.
First hint I got of the big changes on the way was last spring, when I took the frontage road along Interstate-80 from the Campstool exit east to Archer. The coffee's pretty good out at Sapp Brothers, and that's where I was headed.
Not far past the Lowe's Distribution Center were seven trailers, with cooling units mounted on top. I got a name off a sign – Clean Spark – and learned that it was an outfit that “mines” Bitcoin-like digital currency. It was just down the hill and across the tracks from where we live.
Not long after that, we noticed a noise that sounded like an approaching train, but constant. Turns out it was the cooling units at Clean Spark. When I talked to the manager there, he said they wanted to be “good neighbors.”
But not long after that, the sound was more like a jet engine. We talked to the mayor of Cheyenne, and after he interceded, noise-deadening walls were erected around the Clean Spark units, which helped.
We're not hearing Clean Spark lately, but three additional units have arrived, so we're not sure what the future holds.
Problem is, the first we heard about this company was when the units arrived. By the time we figured out who our new neighbor was, they were up and running.
That isn't how it worked in a Tennessee community this fall. There was a debate over whether Clean Spark was welcome, and the community came out against it. The company opted to locate elsewhere.
Point is, that community had a chance to weigh in ahead of time.
Meanwhile, here in Cheyenne, a little further east of Clean Spark, a huge new data center is being built by a company called Related Companies. The $1.2 billion project will entail 184,000 square feet of buildings on 115 acres, right over the hill from our neighborhood.
Again, the first I knew about the project was when earth-moving equipment started leveling the land. Already a done deal.
Now, over the years I've been a fan of bringing new businesses to a string of towns, even serving on an economic development committee in one small Colorado town. We'd have given our eye teeth for a fraction of the growth that's going on these days in Cheyenne and Laramie County.
The difference, though, was that scoring a coup like a new business or factory was always the talk of the town. Rumors that a new business was coming spread quickly. There was discussion at the doughnut shop. And updates from the city council.
I once lived in a community where a federal prison was proposed, exhaustively debated, and ultimately built, despite the will of the voters. For about two years that town debated the prison, and it was a rare week that some new detail didn't have the whole town talking.
Given that experience, I'm surprised that Cheyenne's current economic boom has arrived in our neighborhood with so little advance warning, so little talk, even among the close-in neighbors.
Maybe folks value economic development so much that they don't care about the changes that come with it. There have been times in my career when I might have agreed.
But if a $1.2 billion project going in within shouting distance comes as a surprise to the neighbors, isn't that a problem? And haven't we given up some of the local control we once enjoyed?
In one instance, the city even signed a non-disclosure agreement, promising not to reveal the name of one big company (Meta) building a huge data center south of Cheyenne, until it was formally announced.
Keeping secrets from constituents?
For now, Clean Spark is apparently trying to be that good neighbor they promised to be. And if the huge data center over the hill is as quiet as the Microsoft data center down the road, it won't be a problem.
(We'll all have to keep an eye on what these data centers do to our electric bills, though.)
Data centers are the current big thing, here and in other Wyoming communities. Suddenly, they're everywhere.
But, shouldn't the details of explosive development like this be pretty well known around town before the bulldozers arrive?
Don't you think?
Dave Simpson can be contacted at DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
