Chillicothe — The proposed data center at the former Chilpaco paper mill again raised passions in a Chillicothe Council session.
Chillicothe Council met at the Library Main Annex – since the CHS auditorium was unavailable – on September 28th, 2026. (Apologies for late reporting, but again health issues interfered.)
Kathy Dunn continued chairing the engineering committee, and its current task of collecting information about data centers – which included hearing from a lawyer specializing in them during her committee meeting.
But during that and the council session, some audience members spoke up in opposition to the “data hall” – sometimes out of turn and loudly.
Portia Boulger, founder of “Appalachians Against Data Centers,” spoke up during the committee meeting, complaining about council’s procedures as well as opposing the data center. The committee meeting was paused to allow another meeting to occur at its scheduled time, and then was resumed, allowing public participation – which included Boulger.
The city had hired the law firm of Bricker Graydon Wyatt to give legal advice on data centers. One of their attorneys who specializes in that subject briefed the committee for about 35 minutes, but was unavailable for questions from the public – which Boulger complained about.
The data center topic was again brought up in the council session, and a long line of public participants addressed both sides of the subject for an hour.
Afterward, I interviewed Kathy Dunn. Hear our 12-minute conversation in the following story.
Videos of the committee meetings and council session are available on the Facebook page of the Greater Chillicothe Ross County Film Commission, who again volunteered to cover council outside of their chambers. Auto captions can be turned on for the Facebook videos, but sometimes voices are too faint for that:
1) Engineering Committee and brief Safety Service committee meetings
The Engineering Committee started at 5:30pm, and paused for a brief Safety Service meeting at 6pm…then resumed to allow public participation.
Legal advisor speaking:
0:00 Reprise events leading up to now
1:45 Moratoriums are a pause
3:00 Ways to handle data centers
6:20 Who their law firm is
Q&A from council
35:20 Suspend Engineering Committee meeting, Boulger complains…Safety Service committee on speed limits for scooters and bicycles in Yoctangee Park
37:50 Restart Engineering Committee meeting for public participation, Boulger complains
39:20 Jim Boulger at mic – electrical capacity for data center?
46:50 – 50:46 Portia Boulger at mic
52:26 end
2) Finance committee meeting on lowering city property tax rate, starting at 6:30pm
3:40 Committee closes
5:22 ends
3) Council session at 7:30pm
2:40 Vote to go into executive session on “pending litigation,” Boulger complains
0:30 Return from executive session
…council business…
44:00 Public participation
…many speakers…
1:36:30 to 1:42:24 Portia Boulger speaks
…more speakers…
1:44:00 End public participation
…council legislation…
1:52:18 ends
