Stop Archbald Data Centers<\/a> know this, but are circulating a petition for the immediate recall and removal of Archbald Borough Council President Dave Moran, Solicitor Jay O\u2019Connor, Borough Manager Dan Markey and, Zoning Officer Brian Dulay. No crimes are alleged, but the petition accuses the targeted officials of siding with invasive data center developers at the eternal expense of their constituents.<\/p>\n\u201cThe petition is not a tool for legal removal of the council president or the borough employees,\u201d Kelsey said Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s just a way for people to express themselves to show that they\u2019re concerned with the decision-making that was used in pushing this overlay amendment through and looking at the downstream negative ripple effect that it\u2019s going to have on the town and the residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that there\u2019s no legal standing behind it, but it\u2019s about standing up to put a little bit of pressure on our local officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Archbald residents are standing in line to sign it. The petition is limited to borough residents and property owners and must be signed in person. A weekend gathering at the gazebo in High School Plaza Park across the street from the borough building drew scores of eager signees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response has been phenomenal,\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cWe received over 500 signatures and we only did the petition signings on Saturday and Sunday\u2026 There was a line of people waiting to get in there. So what we decided to do is hang on to the petition a little longer and announce some future dates, because people have the right to be heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis petition is just a really peaceful, powerful way for people to come out and say, \u2018I disagree with what happened here. This isn\u2019t the leadership that we were looking for in the circumstances that we were in.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Kelsey, 37, is a registered nurse. Her husband, John, 52, is a biomedical engineer. She grew up in Browndale, he was born and raised in Eynon. When they decided to build a new home in Archbald, Kelsey and John invested in his deep community roots. John has been a volunteer firefighter with the Eynon\/Sturges Hose Company since he was 16. His parents live up the street.<\/p>\n
Kelsey and John don\u2019t have kids, but Otis, a German shorthaired pointer, and Lila, a Black Lab-mix, are family. If they had known their dream home would be threatened by an invasion of hyperscale data centers, Kelsey and John might have built somewhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it was a good move at the time,\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cHis parents live right up the street, so we could help them when they need things. And now to think that all of this time and money and financial investment was made in a town that took this complete change in direction toward, like, an industrial revolution. It\u2019s a little upsetting, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelsey isn\u2019t exaggerating when she describes what\u2019s planned for Archbald as an \u201cindustrial revolution,\u201d although \u201cautomated suffocation\u201d might be more apt. Archbald is the target of a staggering six separate data center projects, including Wildcat Ridge, which would pave over 574 mountainside acres above Business Route 6 to build 14 structures each the size of a Walmart Supercenter. The mammoth \u201ccampus\u201d would consume up to\u00a0 3.3 million gallons of water and 1.6 gigawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n
Daily.<\/p>\n
Archbald will hold a public hearing Thursday at 5 p.m. in the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive, to consider a conditional use application for the \u201cProject Green\u201d data center campus, which would erect seven data centers at the Stavola Quarry off the Casey Highway. The use would at least match the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that we\u2019re called Stop Archbald Data Centers, but I want to make it clear that we\u2019re not anti-data center, anti-progress, anti-development,\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely for all of that, but when it\u2019s done safely and responsibly and considers all parties. The goal of our message is responsible zoning, so we\u2019re not trying to turn us into a concrete and industrial building jungle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have to have room for these, and we do, then put them where they should be, because right now they\u2019re encroaching upon not just schools, not just residential neighborhoods, but parks and conservation lands, wetlands, places that just should have never even been considered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Considering the wide political divides that roil Our Republic, Kelsey said she sees hope in the bipartisan opposition to invasive data center development. The more people learn about it, the more they unite in opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the issue that brings both sides together,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce you\u2019re awake to this, you cannot go back. You are here to stand up for what\u2019s right, to fight for your family, fight for your friends, fight for your town, fight for your neighbor. If we don\u2019t do it, who\u2019s going to do it? As people see us standing up, I think we are gaining momentum. We\u2019re like a snowball that\u2019s rolling downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair warning to invasive developers and the elected officials who serve them. Every avalanche starts as a snowball rolling downhill.<\/p>\n
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, has survived many bipartisan recall attempts. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 39 of the 50 states that form Our Republic, citizens are empowered to seek the electoral recall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,2116,182,3052,139,1559,1560,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-141552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-chris-kelly","tag-data-centers","tag-local-news","tag-midvalley","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}