ARCHBALD — Attorneys for Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus challenged the impartiality of six of the borough’s seven council members and called for them to recuse themselves from voting on the sprawling development.
Brooklyn-based Cornell Realty Management’s attorneys introduced motions Tuesday requesting that Council President Louis Rapoch and council members Erin Owen, Madonna Munley, Lisa Osborne, Larry Marchetti and Larry West no longer participate in proceedings related to the 14 data centers proposed across 570-plus mountainside acres above Business Route 6 and extending up Route 247, or Wildcat Road.. Vice President Joseph Altier III was excluded from the motions.
“At the simplest level, it’s because of a conflict of some sort, a member of council should be recused or removed from active consideration of an application,” said Wildcat Ridge Attorney Edmund J. Campbell Jr. of King of Prussia-based Campbell Rocco Law.
Neither council nor Solicitor Jay O’Connor made a determination on the motions Tuesday; O’Connor told the developer’s attorneys he had just received the documents hours before the hearing and did not have time to review them.
A public hearing on the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus is held at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Attorney Megan S. Haines, representing the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus, listens to a question during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Council Member Larry Marchetti, left, questions representatives of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Security guards with representatives of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus stand watch during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
A security guard with representatives of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus stands watch as representatives return to their seats following a brief recess during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
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A public hearing on the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus is held at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Campbell also announced that Wildcat Ridge purchased the properties of three of its closest neighbors whose homes appeared in a sound study showing the noise impacts of the campus. The properties are 420 Wildcat Road, 430 Wildcat Road and 200 Woodlands Edge Drive.
For the remaining three-plus hours, the hearing focused on testimony from engineer Thomas M. Muscenti of Trinity Consultants in Pittsburgh, who disputed the findings of an air quality and public health assessment that served as the foundation of Stop Archbald Data Centers’ case against the project. The study, presented last month by Harvard University environmental health scientist and biostatistician Michael Cork, Ph.D., estimated that Wildcat Ridge’s 588 backup diesel generators, which could collectively produce more than 1.7 gigawatts of electricity, would cause anywhere from $3.3 million to $124 million in annual health damages across Lackawanna County.
Muscenti challenged the methodology of the assessment and its data, arguing it modeled several scenarios that wouldn’t be able to get permits and that the program used wasn’t applicable.
Council members, residents’ attorney Justin Richards of Elliott Greenleaf PC, Stop Archbald Data Centers co-founder Tamara Misewicz-Healey, Valley View School District Solicitor Kyle Callejas and resident Amy Gaughan questioned his report
The hours of debate between Muscenti and his questioners underscored a prevailing theme across hearings for data center and power-plant related projects in Archbald — residents and council members advocate for data and evidence proving a project will not negatively affect their community, while developers argue those protections will come through the project’s permitting, which occurs after the conditional use phase.
Copies of the motions reviewed by The Times-Tribune cite interviews and quotes from the council members published in local and national media; remarks during previous hearings; social media posts and Facebook membership of the Stop Archbald Data Centers group; and a signature in a petition calling for the resignations of multiple borough officials over their roles in a controversial data center zoning ordinance.
For example, the motion to recuse Rapoch references a pre-election interview with The Times-Tribune in October while he was running for council. Rapoch told the paper, “Nothing is happening except for data centers, which is not a good fit” and that he is “totally against” data centers “near homes and schools.”
The motion for Munley’s recusal includes a screenshot of her holding a “NO DATA CENTERS” sign in a televised interview with Fox 56 prior to her appointment to council.
A security guard with representatives of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus stands watch during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Attorney Justin Richards addresses representatives of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Engineer Thomas M. Muscenti, left, answers a question as Attorney Lucas Liben, right, covers his face with his hand during a public hearing on the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
An attendee holds up a sign reading “DENY” during a public hearing on the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
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A security guard with representatives of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus stands watch during a public hearing at Valley View High School in Archbald, Pa., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ISAAC DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO)
Osborne’s motion includes quotes from her remarks during a June 15 hearing when she asked whether council was supposed to approve the project “based on blind faith.”
The filing for West references an April article from The Washington Post describing him as a “local activist,” and his remarks during an April 13 hearing before he was appointed to council when he compared data center developments to “hidden scars” from coal mining.
Wildcat’s filing for Owen cites her remarks quoted in an October article from The Times-Tribune when she questioned “the impact of data centers on electricity bills, taxes, water consumption and noise” while calling it “frightening for the future,” as well as her remarks in a WVIA article from February when she said she chose to “stand in solidarity” with residents “opposed to new zoning laws for data centers.”
The motion for Marchetti attaches a complete copy of an 800-plus signature petition submitted to Archbald in April calling for the resignations or removal of multiple borough officials over their communications with data center developers. Marchetti signed the petition and was later appointed to council following a spate of resignations.
Wildcat Ridge attorney Lucas Liben of Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh contended that all applicants are entitled to due process under the U.S. Constitution.
“What those recusal motions all state at a high level … is that a reasonable observer — and that is the test — would not believe that those council members lack bias or lack impartiality, and because of that appearance of a lack of bias or a lack of impartiality, in addition to the actual presence of both bias and impartiality, that recusal is appropriate,” Liben said.
Tuesday’s hearing did not reach a conclusion or move to public comment, though about 400 community members filled the Valley View High School auditorium. In addition to a heavy police presence, which has become commonplace at data center hearings, Cornell Realty Management brought its own security, with at least two guards posted in the auditorium.
Check back for updates.