MONROVIA — Monrovia, meet Google.
The long-awaited meeting between the trillion-dollar company and the one square-mile town took place last Thursday at Monrovia Middle School. Representatives from Google set up informational booths inside the gymnasium, and members of the community flooded the room all evening with their questions.
Whether those questions were answered is subject to debate.
“The people here are all very nice for the most part, but I don’t feel enlightened at all,” said Monrovia resident Pat Scheer.
“It feels more like an optics effort,” added Scheer’s son, Nick.
Those two, like so many other Morgan County residents who dropped by the gym, wanted their questions answered about Google’s planned data center in Monroe Township, just across the road from the town limits of Monrovia.
The county has been working with Google to bring a data center here since early 2024, though it would be more than a year after that when local residents would actually learn who their new corporate neighbor might be. For much of 2025, residents knew of the data center plans simply as ‘Project Louie,’ not officially learning Google was behind the effort until the fall.
County officials who had knowledge of the data center plans were required to withhold Google’s identity from the public, as they had signed non-disclosure agreements prohibiting them from talking.
All the while, county residents have continued to express outrage and frustration about the data center project ever since it was announced, with many residents voicing opposition to living near a data center on the grounds of expected property-value loss, environmental degradation, lack of transparency and perceived diminishing quality of life.
The county, on the other hand, believes Google will be a boon for Morgan County, as a large corporate entity will help make up for the loss in property tax revenue that resulted from 2025’s Senate Enrolled Act 1. County officials have defended offering Google various tax incentives and signing NDAs at the company’s behest by arguing that had the county not done those things, Google would not have come to Morgan County.
Since Google announced itself as the entity behind Project Louie, the company has expressed its desire to step foot on the ground in Monrovia and meet its new, long-term neighbors.
The “Information Fair” at Monrovia Middle School featured Google employees discussing issues like air quality, noise pollution and more, and it was widely attended by local politicians from throughout the county, who mingled with local residents and took questions themselves.
‘Not even a light post’
Among the local officials at the Google Fair were nearly all members of the Monrovia Town Council, and The Correspondent spoke with council president Tammy Everett about what it has been like for her to navigate the data center issue through her first year as a member of the town council.
Everett said characterizations that she or the town council do not want Monrovia to grow — promulgated by data center broker Mike Dellinger, the head of the Morgan County Economic Development Corp. — are “unfair,” adding that she and the other council members simply felt blindsided last year by news of a data center moving in next door.
She said the council is now being included in conversations with Google, which she believes is a positive step forward, but also wondered why Google seemed to be spreading its wealth everywhere except Monrovia.
“(Google) is spreading a lot of goodwill, but it’s goodwill 30 minutes from here,” Everett said, referring to the company’s monetary donations to organizations like Martinsville’s Youth Development Center and Churches in Mission. “You know, do something for Monrovia. We just haven’t seen a lot of benefits yet. Not even a lightpost, yet.”
Everett said she wasn’t surprised by the lack of attention to Monrovia, as the county had neglected the town for years, in her opinion.
“We’re the red-headed step child of the county,” Everett said. “We don’t get the attention we deserve, but in all fairness to the county, we haven’t demanded it either. We’re fine being left alone. You know, we’re used to it taking 20 minutes for a police officer to show up when we need help.”
Carrie Syczylo, co-owner of Farm House Brew in Monrovia, feels the same.
She said she hears people complaining about the data center in the coffee shop every day, describing a population she said is experiencing a “loss of hope.”
Syczylo referenced the two ongoing lawsuits against the county over the data center, both of which seek to halt construction, as the plaintiffs allege the data center will lead to irreparable loss of property value. She said there could potentially be a bright side if the county prevails in court.
“If they don’t lose the lawsuit, Google could totally enhance our rural lives,” Syczylo said. “They could be game changers for our fire department, our police department, our schools. We have to start envisioning a future with Google present.
“We need roundabouts, a community center, sidewalks, parks,” Syczylo continued. “Main Street could be the heart of the community. We can give our youth a reason to come back home. Google can help us get there.”
‘Not what I envisioned’
Multiple residents told The Correspondent that the science fair style event was not what they hoped for, instead wishing the Google event had been more like a town hall meeting.
“I thought it was gonna be more like the (Morgan County) commissioner meetings,” Scheer said. “We’ve gotten very little information, and some of the Google people have been very dismissive of our questions.”
“This is not what I was expecting at all,” said Monrovia resident Brad Willett, whose property sits right across Antioch Road from the data center construction site and was recently flooded as a result of changes made there. “I’m hoping I can at least have a one-on-one conversation with someone who will give me straight answers.”
Willett said later in the evening that he eventually did get a one-on-one conversation with Google representative Broderick Green, but that the conversation did not feel genuine.
Willett said the construction site being so close to his house has been difficult to adjust to, and he claims that since the news of a data center coming to Morgan County was announced, his property values have depreciated by more than $100,000.
“This is not what I envisioned when I bought my house,” Willett said.
He said that construction crews have “destroyed” Keller Hill Road, and that the lights at the construction site have become a major issue.
“It’s like there’s a full moon outside my house all the time,” Willett said. “Is this what I’m gonna have to live next to for the rest of my life?”
The Correspondent also had a one-on-one with Green, who was the only Google representative the company would allow to speak about anything on the record. Green was asked to speak on some of the concerns expressed by Monrovia residents, who perhaps unsurprisingly brought him tough questions throughout the night.
“Ultimately, we organized this meeting because we want to understand where the community is at,” Green said. “People are very curious, and they certainly have a lot of questions.”
Willett had wondered if Google was eventually planning on buying his land, and many residents have expressed fear that the company would continue to expand its footprint in Monroe Township. Green, however, said he was unaware of any plans for Google to buy more land in Morgan County.
Green was also asked about the criticism that the company had not done much for Monrovia specifically. He first said that Google wanted to build a relationship with all of its Morgan County neighbors, and that’s why the company had provided money outside of the town.
But Green also pointed to funding given to the Monroe-Gregg School District, which the company recently announced would be used for “investment to expand AI professional development for teachers and AI education for students,” according to the data center website.
“We really do want to partner with the local schools,” Green said. “And I don’t see why we wouldn’t help the other schools (in the county) with the same thing.”
An additional $200,000 was also recently donated to Monrovia High School’s agricultural and FFA programming.
On background
While Green was the only Google employee who was allowed to speak on the record, some other Google employees were willing to answer questions “on background” at the fair’s various booths, meaning the information can be used for this story, but employee names cannot be shared. Ultimately, though, some employees were more forthcoming than others.
One booth at the fair offered information about Google’s air permit application currently under review by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The permit is necessary because Google plans to have more than 150 diesel backup generators at the data center campus, and these generators emit nitrogen oxide, which can damage human lungs.
When asked what he would say to people concerned about the health impacts of these diesel generators, one Google employee simply said the company planned to follow all federal and local guidelines on air quality.
An informational handout at the fair had this to say about the diesel generators planned for the site:
“(Nitrogen Oxide) is a common man-made emission; for example, cars or any fuel burning engines emit NOx,” the handout reads. “At this location, the maximum potential to emit for NOx may not exceed 250 tons per year. However, actual NOx emissions are projected to be less than 50 tons per year.”
The handout goes on to say that the reason for this gap between expected emissions and maximum allowed is because backup generators are “rarely needed” and require minimal monthly testing.
Another booth was concerned with the potential for noise pollution, a topic frequently mentioned at protests and public meetings concerning data centers. Many data centers are said to be quite noisy, and are sometimes associated with negative health effects due to the noise.
“We go to great lengths to limit the amount of noise at our data centers,” one Google employee said. “We often will work with local vendors to upgrade their equipment just so we can mitigate noise in the area.”
One reason Google tries to mitigate noise, the employee said, was because there will be a number of Google employees who work on the data center campus, and their safety was necessarily a priority for the company. This employee said he would have no problem living next to a data center, and as far as complaints about other data centers go, he simply said not all data centers are created equal.
An informational handout at the noise booth reiterated what the employee at the air booth said.
“Google is dedicated to being a responsible and responsive member of the communities we call home, including Morgan County,” the handout reads. “This means strictly following all federal, state and local regulations.”
