LETTER: Data center worker has good paying job as city prospers

To Ozaukee Press:

My family has spent generations in Port Washington. As a proud 1999 Port High

grad, I now live right down the road in Grafton, and I’ve been lucky to get a job working on the Lighthouse data center project as a laborer. 

I have great pride in my hometown. I want to maintain the small-town feel, but it’s also important to me that Port Washington grows responsibly to provide jobs and opportunities for the next generation. That means not only preserving our city’s crown jewel—the lakefront—but also ensuring a tax base that allows the city to cover our community’s needs.

I realize the Lighthouse campus has sparked public debate, but it’s my view that the project is bringing good paying jobs, a long-term boost to our tax revenue to fund critical community services and creating strong community partnerships.

The project itself is located right off the interstate, ensuring our lakefront and downtown remain untouched. Additionally, with new tax revenue, there will be money for public services without raising residents’ taxes by a single cent. Oracle, Vantage, and OpenAI have demonstrated their commitment to the community by donating $225,000 to the Port Washington-Saukville

Education Foundation.

And nobody can deny the economic impact on our local businesses. Unlike a mall or big box store, the data center campus will not compete with existing small businesses. Instead, thousands of construction workers and dozens of contractors are shopping and dining at local Port Washington stores and restaurants. Once construction is done, the data center campus will have about 1,000 ongoing jobs onsite that will continue bringing business to our area.

The area of Port Washington where the

Lighthouse campus is being built is perfect to ensure the community sees benefits without impact to our downtown or lakefront. Claims that it will drain the lake and increase our electric bills are just flat out wrong. The data centers at the Lighthouse campus will not only use closed-loop cooling systems—which means water is recycled—but Oracle has already promised to cover all the costs of its electricity usage, and the state has mandated that promise be kept.

I’m personally proud to be a Port Washington Pirate, proud to be a laborer and proud to be involved in a project that will better our community.

Ben Huston

Grafton