(Photo by Amber Phipps) The Washington County Commissioners respond to questions from the public Thursday about holding a public meeting on a potential data center being constructed in Waterford.

The weekly Washington County Commissioner meeting was brief Thursday with discussions about child support enforcement agency collective bargaining agreements, injection wells and data centers.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Washington County Commissioner Charlie Schilling said there has been no updates regarding a public meeting on the potential data center in Waterford.

“I will stress that we have been continuously offering to the developer that we need to have a public meeting and we need to have questions answered,” said Schilling.

Marietta resident Steve Arnold asked why the commissioners didn’t sign the injection well moratorium.

“It’s unconscionable that you would put money for economic development or whatever ahead of protecting our most valuable resource that we have in Washington County,” said Arnold. “What kind of economy do you think we’ll have if our aquifers become contaminated?”

According to Arnold, Steve Hutchinson, who is a trustee of the Warren Community Water and Sewer Association, spoke with the head of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources who said there was no guarantee injection well brine wouldn’t infiltrate aquifers.

“ODNR has verified that brine from injection wells here in Washington County has migrated up to five miles and ruined a significant number of oil and gas production wells,” said Arnold. “Your constituents want and deserve your support in helping to protect our water.”

Marietta resident Barbara Stewart said subsidizing data centers through tax abatements is “a slap in the face” to tax paying residents of Ohio.

“The billionaires of Silicon Valley can well afford to pay their taxes,” she said. “If the commissioners weren’t offering generous tax breaks, likely these companies would have opted to build their data center elsewhere and if not, at the very least, we would not be subsidizing billionaire tech titans.”

Stewart said she is concerned about the pollution the data centers could cause as well as the jobs AI could replace.

“As AI and the robotics that AI makes possible become even more sophisticated, they will replace both factory and white collar jobs,” she said. “AI and robots work 24/7, 365 days a year and don’t require health insurance or retirement benefits.”

The commissioners approved the collective bargaining agreement between the Washington County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Local 772B Ohio Council 8 AFSCME AFL-CIO.

AFSCME Ohio Council 8 is a labor union that represents public and private employees who work within the city, county, universities, health care and more.

Washington County CSEA Director Kimberly Lowers said the collective bargaining agreement came together within a few hours.

“There were not a lot of changes in the agreement,” said Lowers. “Wages were one of the big things that we negotiated.”

Lowers said employees at the CSEA were one of the lowest paid agencies in Washington County for Job and Family Services. She said they do receive federal and state funding which has allowed them to not draw from the county general fund.

“I’m hoping to be able to maintain our budget with just our federal and state (funding) and not have to make an ask this year,” she said.

Lowers said they’re still working on getting the wages up for the CSEA employees but it’s been a “slow process.”

“I appreciate your work on this Kim,” said Schilling. “When you consider the impact that CSEA could have on the county general budget where it does in other counties compared to ours … you go through a thoughtful process when it comes to drawing down as much federal and state funds as possible to make your budget work.”

Washington County Veterans Service Commission Executive Director Darren Shearlock said flags have been lowered to half-staff in honor of the three individuals from Ohio who died in combat overseas recently.

“When people are driving around and you see those flags at half-staff, that should be a reminder to everybody to keep their families in your prayers,” said Shearlock. “The veterans are the people who stand between us and foreign disasters attacking our soil.”

Shearlock reminded the public of the upcoming veterans resource fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 27 at the Armory in Marietta.