Commissioners,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today-not just for myself, but for the many residents of Pampa who care deeply about our future.
Pampa is not just a dot on the map; it’s a town built by generations of work, sacrifice, and belief in a shared dream, but today that dream flickers. We can see it in the empty houses, overgrown lots, buildings too far gone to be saved. Those remaining carry the weight of memory, decay, and hope.
Now we face a proposal that mirrors a familiar pattern; a data center coming to Pampa, bringing few jobs, but asking much-our water, scarce in the Panhandle; our electricity, enough to require its own power plant; our natural gas, drawn from the very earth we share. In return, they don’t want to contribute to Pampa and they seek a tax abatement-asking to opt out of the very responsibility that keeps our community functioning. We’ve seen this before-not with data centers, but with vacant properties, buildings left to decay, and duties shrugged off, leaving a local government to foot the bill. Weak commitment and unpaid taxes don’t just strain our budgets-they chip away at the civic fabric, dull the sense of belonging, and leave those who remain feeling a little more isolated.
How long do you keep your smartphone-three years? Five? This facility relies on fast-aging technology whose utility may fade long before its presence does. In another life-before my wife, born and raised in Pampa, brought me here-I designed the very servers these centers depend on, so I know firsthand how quickly they age. Through her and her father, who also grew up in Pampa, I came to know-and care deeply about-this community. That’s why I’m standing here today: because this place means something to me and my family.
Let’s be honest: this proposal resembles resource extraction more than community investment. The model is built to consume without contributing, just as too many absentee property owners already do. You’re being asked to approve this in 30 days. Such pressure should not shape decisions with decades-long consequences.
Not long ago, Pampa residents voted to raise their own taxes to renovate our schools-a bold investment in our future, and a call for partners who believe in this town. But the project now before you offers access to our resources with little promise of return. These facilities are leased by the richest companies in the world-Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Google. Trillion-dollar giants, drawing vast resources, but leaving little behind. They have the means to invest in communities like ours-but choose not to. Instead, local governments are asked to subsidize the project, while distant clients reap the rewards.
This center would consume more electricity that all of Pampa combined-every home, business, school, church, and restaurant-while growing our population by barely one percent. Its scale far outweighs its contribution.
The resulting tax revenue could fund our schools, repair our roads, and renew our town. But the owners ask for a tax abatement-stepping back from the very responsibilities that make growth possible.
Pampa deserves partners-not extractors. If a data center can’t operate without shirking its duty to contribute to our community, maybe it doesn’t belong here. I ask you: what legacy will we leave behind? Is growth so dear, or investment so sweet, that we would trade our water, our power, our land-and the heart of the town-for a venture, powered by short-lived technology with no intention of belonging, whose permanent mark may resemble the Hughes Building-or the Worley Hospital, now 97 years old: windows shattered, doors boarded, hollowed out by time, and abandoned. These were once pillars of Pampa-paying taxes, providing healthcare, anchoring generations in Pampa’s promise-yet even they could not withstand the ravages of time. What then should we expect from a project that arrives with no community ties, demanding local sacrifice, serving distant clients, and no plan to strengthen the community it joins, demanding an answer in 30 days? Thirty days..really?
