Residents beg for relief from data center work

Port Washington residents this week continued to plead with city and town officials for relief from the 24-hour construction going on five days a week at the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus property, saying the noise, vibration, light and traffic from the site has made life untenable, with Port Mayor Ted Neitzke saying Tuesday that he is working with Vantage to help them find relief.

“Please hear us. Please help us,” Jayne Heun, who lives on Highway KW near the construction site, told the Town Board on Monday.  “It’s an untenable situation.” Kirk Deheck, who lives at the corner of Highway KW and Lake Drive, told the Common Council Tuesday he filed a nuisance complaint signed by 100 people with the city earlier in the day “to provide notice  the township’s patience has run out.

“The inability to sleep any day of the week and the inability of Vantage to manage to maintain and control and abide by the operating parameters set out ... is nothing but aggravating and disappointing, to say the least.”

The city, which initially approved work hours of  6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays in November, gave Vantage permission to work around the clock Mondays through Fridays and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays but said those hours could be cut if problems arose.

Port Mayor Ted Neitzke responded Tuesday, saying he’s told Vantage officials that the 24-hour construction needs to end before late May, when the company has planned to stop round-the-clock work.

“I’ve indicated to them that is too long and we will be coming back to them with an alternative date,” Neitzke said. “I’ve asked them to clearly define for us an end date of when they would need the 24 hours and what the major disruptions on the third shift will look like over time.”

In the meantime, he said, the city has asked Vantage to minimize the work done at night, “especially after 7 or 8 o’clock to ensure the neighbors are not continually impacted by that round-the-clock component.”

That includes working with neighbors to ensure lighting at the site doesn’t shine into neighbors’ properties and opening a direct line of communication so people can lodge complaints with the company and get answers to issues they have.

Vantage, he said, has hired a community engagement leader to do just that.

Vantage officials, he said, are looking to switch to a 12-hour a day schedule six days a week when the next significant phase of construction starts, with work on Sunday only if there’s an emergency, adding they are working on language that will define an emergency and define who will give the company permission for Sunday work.

Neitzke said that while he does not have a date when the 24-hour construction will end, he expects to have a plan to discuss with the Plan Commission on Thursday, March 19.

He noted that Vantage has provided the city with a project schedule that outlines what work will be done when, and this will be posted at City Hall. The map will be updated quarterly.

Neitzke’s pledges of assistance came as residents continued to tell officials how the construction is negatively impacting their lives and ask for help dealing with the situation.

Jayne Heun, who lives on Highway KW, showed the Common Council on Tuesday a fist-sized rock, presumably from a dump truck, that she said struck her siding during a snowstorm as well as a nine-inch rock she found in the middle of her driveway, noting she had to stop on the highway with dump trucks trying to circle around her so she could remove the rock before pulling in to her home.

Vibrations from the construction have caused a crack in her mudroom addition that’s been 1/4-inch wide for 22 years to increase to 1-1/4 inches, Heun said, forcing her to replace the door.

“My house is falling apart,” she said. “My doors and my walls on the east side are continuously vibrating. It feels like a train is running by.”

Kim Tydrick, who lives on Weilers Way, told the Common Council that town residents have no where to turn. The city has told people to lodge complaints on a website, she said, but “what good does that do? Are you checking your emails at 1 in the morning?”

Town residents pleaded with the Town Board on Monday, saying they need help.

“I think having town leadership support the town members would go a long way,” Lauri Deheck, who lives on Highway KW, said. “The 24-hour construction is such salt in the wound.

“Stop the 24 hours so we can live our lives better than we are now.”

Other residents offered accounts about the impact of the construction, with Mary Jansen-St. Peter warning the board, “I’m a little testy and bitchy. I haven’t slept.”

She said delivery companies looking for the data center campus have tried to deliver equipment to her house at all hours and said trucks are trespassing on her property.

“I’m used to hearing the freeway. This is two, three times as loud. It just shakes everything,” Dean Wiegert of Norport Drive, told the Town Board. “I’m going to go insane from the (back up) beeping of the equipment.

“People can’t sleep. People can’t live this way. Someone’s got to stop it.”

  Concerns about traffic and jake-breaking were also expressed, with Caleb Tydrick of Weilers Way telling the board, “The traffic is dangerous. Somebody’s going to get hit or killed.”

Town Chairman Mike Didier said in an interview that he plans to talk to Ozaukee County Highway Supt. Jon Edgren about the jake-breaking and ways to prevent and stop it.

He also plans to work with city officials to find a clear way for residents to lodge complaints during construction.

Kirk Deheck, who also sent his nuisance complaint to the town, asked town officials to issue a public statement opposing the 24-hour construction.

“You are our representatives. That is your job,” he said, noting the around-the-clock work was causing issues that range from excessive lights to noise to vibrations and traffic concerns.

“This is no joke. It’s all day and most of the night. We are collectively asking the board to do something about it.”

Didier, who said he toured the data center recently, said that would be something the board would need to consider, adding it could be an issue because the Town Board agreed not to act to oppose the data center work in return for an extension of its border agreement with the city.

Didier also said he was told Vantage has hired people to go door-to-door to get feedback on the project and address issues that arise.