PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — In the first Board of County Commissioners meeting (BOCC) following the primary election, Commissioner Catherine Grasso claimed Natelli Holdings will no longer be pursuing a data center project in Calvert County.
“Because of the result of their last election, Natelli knows they’re no longer in the running. We will not be playing ball with them,” Grasso said at the July 7 meeting.
“Natelli’s not done,” a person from the crowd called out. It was not clear at the time whether the person was a Calvert County government employee or a member of the public. Calvert County resident Sherri Verdon later reached out to The BayNet to identify herself as the speaker.
During a phone call with The BayNet, Natelli Holdings Vice President Thomas Natelli Jr. said they were still pursuing a project and hadn’t talked to any commissioners but declined to comment further at this time. Commissioner Grasso did not immediately respond to The BayNet’s request for additional information that led to her comments.
Grasso claimed that this was a result of the primaries, where her fellow commissioners Earl “Buddy” Hance, Mark Cox and Todd Ireland all did not move forward with the Republican nominations. Commissioner Mike Hart won his primary for District 1. Grasso and Hart both campaigned on anti-data center messaging.
Commissioner Hance expressed disappointment with the citizens of Calvert County, particularly online discourse surrounding data centers, calling accusations online “disgusting and disrespectful.”
Hance was interrupted multiple times by the crowd during his executive comments on data centers.
“Everyone who won in the election ran on no data centers. I don’t know what good a moratorium is, why don’t you just ask for a ban, that’s what you really want,” Hance said, to cheers from the crowd. Hance added that staff was no longer working on the text amendments since “there’d be no point” with a potential new anti-data center board coming in.
“The projects are dead,” Hance added.
The BOCC opted to put another data center discussion on the agenda for the July 21 meeting and is open to discussing a ban or a six-month moratorium.
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Hance and that large bully, Ireland, found out the hard way…Yes, that is correct you idiot. Calvert residents do NOT want data centers…Go cry to someone who cares.
Interesting when you go against your constituent’s desires, you get primaried out of office. Good lesson to learn for those working “in support” of the people.
With the data centers evolution into orbital data centers in the relatively near future, they never even talked about the lifespan of potential data centers and what happens to them when they reach the end of life due to better locations that don’t need cooling and can be run on solar outside our atmosphere. Coupled with the appearance of secrecy and it just doesn’t sit right with citizens. Add the three that were pushing for them, make folks wonder what benefit are they getting or will eventually get.
Data farms near residential areas. Just as bad as solar farms in open spaces. I still can’t believe they don’t erect/ elevate them over parking lots. Would provide shaded parking over largely unused space. A win win.