I NEED A BEER. Zymurgy Brewing was the location of a recent community gathering focused on the proposed data center project in Dunn County. We could all use a beer after that story. (Photo via Unsplash)

While I'm a born-and-raised Wisconsin gal, I spent a couple years living in Minnesota while in school. There, studying journalism and working on the student newspaper, I primarily covered news: university budget cuts, COVID-19 updates and effects, protests on or near campus, etc. Upon graduation, I was burnt out, looking to pivot away from journalism. 

Obviously that didn't happen (see job title, publication you're holding / website you're reading, yada yada). At Volume One, it's impossible to be glued to or pigeonholed into one area or beat – it's a tiny-yet-mighty team and there's always more stories to tell than hands or time to write them. But that's a good thing. It means our community has homegrown (and transplant!) creatives, forward-thinkers, and folks who give a damn about making this place better.

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I FELT A PRICK OF PRIDE AS FOLKS ENCOURAGED EACH OTHER TO REMEMBER WE ARE ALL NEIGHBORS, ALL HUMANS.

Someone bought Mayor Knaack a beer while he answered people's questions, in true Midwest fashion.

MCKENNA SCHERER

MANAGING EDITOR

To that end, I have spent the past few weeks keeping up with WQOW's coverage of Menomonie City Council meetings, particularly about one proposal for a potential data center. Then I decided to go to a weekend community meeting over at Zymurgy Brewing to learn more. 

I was surprised to learn so few people had heard about the potential plan at all, or if they had, it had only been bits or pieces largely through social media. Even fewer knew how to go about learning more or just weren't finding answers. Lots of great, grassroot ideas were shared, and I felt a prick of pride as folks encouraged each other to remember we are all neighbors, all humans. Someone bought Mayor Knaack a beer while he answered people's questions, in true Midwest fashion. 

Just before and then after that meeting, I made a bunch of phone calls and emails to folks on City Council, part of the City, and more. I had about 50 tabs open on my home laptop, work computer, and brain 24/7. I dug around public documents, Reddit threads, and read other regional coverage on data centers that had popped up over the past few years for context.

The initial result of that was shared online and now in print, on page 10. Whatever your feelings are about the proposed project, I am a firm believer that people deserve accessible information about the things going on in the place they call home. This is a developing, not all-encompassing story, but I hope it's a good starting point. 

Read Volume One's article on the proposed Dunn County data center online.