Michael Sauers
April 6, 2026
An April 5, 2026 letter to the editor written by Kelly O’Brien, Executive Director at BIDA, Berwick and published by the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise is a classic example of obfuscation. Challenged by communities throughout the area on at least a dozen issues; actual need, no community voice in process, land use, electricity rates, water usage, permanent jobs, habitat destruction, property values, impact on wildlife, noise pollution, light pollution, disruption to community life, etc., data center cheerleaders/promoters/enthusiasts/stakeholders continue to promote and defend the outdated, top down version of economic development. This cart before the horse approach, which totally ignores the hopes and aspirations of communities, has given us the helter skelter industrial parks and developments we see throughout the area with their associated environmental and community impact problems (super fund sites, air pollution and river pollution are tip of the spear examples).
The top down economic development model ignores the majority of voices in any given community. Their ideas and opinions do not matter to the unelected and patronizing crowd that huddles for control. Monied interests, land owners, industries and speculators dominate. At the expense of all they pull in corporate welfare on the local, state and federal levels. This is where they need our highly compliant elected officials who act like the proverbial Japanese monkies; seeing, hearing and speaking no ill will towards massive developments. They react like pavlovian dogs when given the correct cues (taxes and jobs). Talk about crony capitalism, if nothing else this is anti democratic. All of this should be on the ballot.
Everything said by Ms. O’Brien is cherry picked, highly refutable and debatable. Full throated public airing and debate is necessary at universities, municipal meetings, state government and community forums. Don’t hold your breath. When was the last time you saw any elected official conduct a series of live town hall meeting where citizens can openly speak their minds. Behemoths like data centers and warehouses have been and are being shut down across the country.
Citizen run, open town hall meetings are successful. Over the years I have participated in stopping large top down projects such as Encina (local), New Jersey Steel in Hazleton, PennEast Pipeline (Carbon County) and a mega landfill in Foster Township, (Luzerne County). These are just a few examples. It can be done!
The last sentence conveys the true spirit of the letter. Do not demand stopping projects. Instead, fall in line with their definition of “true community advocacy”. I think that is bad advise.