By Kyle Jackson and Grace Holmes
Editor’s Note: The Collegiate staff has been discussing the impact and significance of recent data center developments across Michigan, and we believe this is a national issue that cannot go unreported. The newspaper has begun a data center series, including coverage of public hearings in Gaines Township, AOC’s public comment during a hearing with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Assistant Administrator for Water, Jessica Kramer, and has also published an article informing readers about the increasingly quick installations of data centers. The Collegiate then heard of the noise complaints from residents living near a data center in Dowagiac, Michigan, a city in Cass County, as well as the class action civil lawsuit made against Hyperscale Inc. for not following the noise ordinance, and decided it was time to visit the locals at Dowagiac’s City Council meeting on Monday, July 13. Additionally, the staff wanted to hear what Hyperscale had to say as well. Read on for our continued coverage.
The citizens of Dowagiac, Michigan, live about 45 miles south of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and many say their lives were disrupted when Hyperscale Inc. built a data center on Louise Ave., a road that many locals call home. Now residents say their lives have become disrupted as constant noise can be heard in their backyards. Many have been open about a decreasing quality of life and say they can no longer enjoy time outside and worry about surrounding wildlife.
At the City Council meeting, though, the residents of Dowagiac left a loud and clear message for Hyperscale Inc.: “Be a good neighbor and to stay silent.” Hyperscale claimed to want to do just that, but locals are yet to be convinced.
The Monday meeting took place in the auditorium of Dowagiac Middle School after being moved from its original location due to spacing concerns. Despite the meeting starting at 6 p.m., the lot already began to fill by 5:15 p.m., and local resident David Alm had set up a protest table by the main entrance.
“It’s almost like I’m a peasant and they are a king,” Alm said to reporters, expressing his disenchantment with the city officials’ handling of the data center controversy. “I kind of forgot that we put them there.”
Unlike prior meetings, this one featured Hyperscale CEO Will Horne, who spoke about his personal background as well as the land the data center is located on. Horne was accompanied by the marketing director of Hyperscale, John Stewart.
Horne’s appearance at the July 13 meeting was in response to an open letter Mayor Patrick Bakeman wrote requesting more information from the company.
“Really, we’re here to listen to the community and hear what your concerns are and your grievances,” Horne said. “I don’t know if it will solve anything tonight, but you have our commitment that we’ll work with you.”
Horne read from a prepared statement that included details for the transformation of the five-year-old data center from cryptocurrency mining to a focus on AI computing technologies and advanced robotics. He said that Hyperscale has signed a long-term contract with a California-based company.
Horne also shared that the data center initially started with three jobs and has now expanded to 25 jobs.
“…we have aspirations to grow significantly more than we were at today,” Horne said. “And I say that because jobs are important to the economy. They’re not the most fundamental thing. It’s important. Family is (the most fundamental), but everybody knows that (if) there (isn’t) an opportunity to have a good job, people go elsewhere.”
Horne’s specific number included a workforce of 500 people. Such roles would include engineers, data specialists, operations staff, and “lower staff.”
During the prepared statement, Horne said that he sympathized with locals about the noise, comparing his own living situation next to a highway in Washington State.
Horne stated that he, using a decibel app, and other hired experts measured the sound outside of the data center while it was fully shut off and found that the area where locals were complaining about noise the most, Louise Avenue, was the same decibel level, despite the facility being shut off. Horne did not present any findings, simply recalling the event.
A class action lawsuit was filed by residents against Hyperscale Inc. in May 2026, and is still pending.
Horne also announced that if people close to the center wanted, Hyperscale is willing to purchase homes for a “fair price,” stating that it would be a way for locals to not feel trapped by the data center operations.
Horne reconfirmed the goals of Hyperscale and said, “Everything I just said is happening. It’s not hypothetical.”
While public comment was to follow Hyperscale’s presentation, several audience members interrupted to shout out things like “liar” and “get out of Dowagiac,” and to ask questions about the legitimacy of Horne’s claims.
In response, Mayor Bakeman jumped in to quell the crowd, saying, “Let the man speak.”
After Horne completed his presentation, community members who signed up to talk were invited to form a line to the stage, and was informed that each person was allowed three minutes to speak before the microphone would turn off.
Twenty-seven community members signed up, and more than a dozen spoke during the meeting.
The first to speak was Monica Luke, a Dowagiac resident, who was speaking on behalf of her out-of-town aunt, Ruth Ausra.
“Our home is currently two miles from the proposed site of the expansion. Dowagiac is our hometown, where we have chosen to build our business and raise our children,” Luke said. “Our children are raising our grandchildren here.”
Luke continued reading Ausra’s statement, critiquing the city’s actions and urging city officials to push for a community vote to decide choices concerning data centers and other major changes.
After completing Ausra’s statement, Luke presented her own thoughts on the matter, beginning by professing that she is for AI, but against the data center being in her hometown.
“I, like them, am terrified. What’s going to happen to our water? What’s going to happen to the animals in our city? What’s going to happen?” Luke said. “I hear the noise right now. What happens when it’s 30 times louder? And it’s worse… Am I going to have a headache every day? Am I going to be so debilitated that I can’t go to work anymore?”
Other speakers also brought up concerns about the noise, natural concerns, and pointed out flaws in Horne’s presentation and actions.
“If you’re meeting the neighbors, you’re not going out far enough,” community member Lisa Malloy said in response to Horne’s who claimed to listen to the city’s concerns.
Alm, the local who set up the table outside the middle school doors before the meeting, was quick to disregard Horne’s presence in favor of talking directly to the city officials while displaying a sign featuring a QR code residents could use to report complaints about the data center.
Alm proceeded to criticize the actions of the city officials, claiming that they don’t care as much as they should and that city officials were not reading the statements he sent out as well as being late when providing the meeting minutes.
“Welcome to Dowagiac, Michigan. We’re Dowagiac Chieftains not dummbasses!” Alm exclaimed.
This was later countered by City Clerk, Patty Patano, who explained that the meeting minutes are required to be sent out by a specific deadline, and the current meeting minutes had met that requirement.
Another speaker, community member Gerald Dodd, shared that he currently lives 66 feet away from the current data center on Louise Avenue. For him, the primary concern is the noise that the data center is causing.
“You said that the noise was bad on a highway,” Dodd said. “If you live in what we live in, Mr. Stewart knows, he was there, he heard it, it’s terrible. It’s not like the highway. I grew up in the automotive business, turning brake drums behind big diesel trucks, and that singing noise coming off of those drums is closer to what you would experience.”
Dodd continued, explaining, “We have property in the back that’s all woods. We can’t go back there and enjoy it. The animals have not come up into the yard, except for squirrels and birds. My wife does gardening. We have no butterflies or bees. They’re just a fraction of what used to be there.”
Dodd also stated that he has lived in his home for 56 years and would only sell it to Hyperscale if they paid him three times its value.
Additionally, Dodd and other speakers claimed that they don’t hate AI, believing that humans just need to learn how to grow with it. This sentiment was common among those in attendance.
After public comment, the city officials were prompted to briefly address the audience. The majority of them simply thanked the people for coming out and speaking.
Once the meeting was adjourned, Horne answered questions from reporters and shared that there isn’t communication between Hyperscale and the city.
“When we have a building permit that we want to submit… we submit it to the city manager’s office, and that’s really about the extent of it right here. I wouldn’t call it a relationship. I would call it a regulatory body we have to deal with,” Horne said. “We have to dot our I’s and cross our T’s when we’re dealing with them. They certainly do not just rubber-stamp anything.
“They make sure that, as I think you guys can see, we go through the effort of really listening to the critiques of the county and the city and make sure that we take that into consideration when we are submitting our permits. We hope that we submit good permits. I guess we’ll see.”
Horne also said he was unaware of the security situation around the data center, which residents have described as “aggressive,” including security officers recording license plates of surrounding cars.
After Horne exited the auditorium, Mayor Bakeman took his place and responded to a question regarding the lack of communication between Hyperscale Inc. and the city.
“I’m probably the easiest guy to find around, so I’m available all the time. They can talk through our city administrator, or they can talk to me. We are prepared to talk,” Bakeman said. “This community has always had a long record of working with businesses, and that’s what we want to continue to do, but we don’t want it to come at a cost to a neighborhood. We have to protect the neighborhood, and that’s something that’s very important to me.”
Bakeman said that he is willing to work with local businesses, so long as said businesses don’t negatively affect the local quality of life.
“If they can get the noise down and they can bring jobs,” he said. “I think that would be the best scenario for everybody.”
The Collegiate interviewed Dowagiac City Manager Kevin Anderson about the challenge of finding a balance between ensuring the city continues to move forward and progress with business while also maintaining the community members’ happiness and fairly responding to their concerns regarding the data center operations.
Anderson highlighted how the city is constantly dealing with various situations during this time of year. Everything from money constraints to construction, and even droves of Freedom of Information Act requests that the city needs to address.
“To try to manage all of the things you need to do on a day-to-day, when something like this comes forward, and you hear the expectations of the public, the expectations of the public are ‘drop everything and work on it,’” Anderson said. “And those aren’t unfounded because it’s an important issue in the community.”
Additionally, Anderson shared that, similar to community members, often city officials rely on press releases for new information about the data center.
“…I don’t want to be ignorant, but these companies are not obligated to share information with us.”
Anderson shared that a lot of the problems facing the city internally are finding a “balancing act” of work within the community, thanking the staff currently employed, and expressing how he hopes that a mutually accepted solution is found.
