For Kim Hicks, the choice to build on McKee Road 26 years ago was deliberate. She and her husband wanted rural life — space for their boys to grow up in the woods, to splash in Kindle Creek, to know their neighbors. Earlier this week, she stood before the Columbus City Council and asked them not to take it away.
“Building the data center in the middle of one of the few rural areas we have left will be a poor decision,” Hicks said. “The proposed data center will destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful nature, and displace the wildlife that lived there. And it will bring noise and light to our communities.”
Hicks was one of dozens of residents who filled council chambers to speak against Project Ruby, a proposed large-scale data center planned for a roughly 900-acre site in the Upatoi area of Muscogee County. A Change.org petition opposing the project has collected more than 3,200 signatures…