The Shalersville Township Board of Trustees hosted representatives from Bitdeer, a global company specializing in infrastructure, bitcoin mining, data center development and advanced computing, last Tuesday evening at Shalersville Town Hall to present their case of the benefits of building an artificial intelligence data center.
Prior to Bitdeer’s presentation, Trustee and Vice Chairman Ron Kotkowski made a motion for the Board to establish a citizen’s advisory committee about the data center in which he would serve as chairperson.
The motion carried unanimously.
Trustee and Board chairman Frank Ruehr, Jr. presented background information on the ongoing matter of a data center potentially being constructed in Shalersville. He said that last year, the Board had removed data centers as an approved use and made them a conditional use with a list of conditions. He added that the Board had placed a six-month moratorium on the construction of data centers in November 2025 and the Zoning Commission had recommended stronger and more specific conditions at a recent zoning meeting and extended the moratorium an additional six months to gather more information.
Bitdeer Chairman Paul Hanson told the residents about Bitdeer’s most recent data center, located in Massillon, in which Bitdeer has invested $300 million in a 180,000 square foot facility and provided more than 50 local jobs.
“We immerse ourselves in the community,” Hanson noted. “We build our sites specific to the land conditions.”
Bitdeer’s Chairman said that the company projects having 150-200 employment opportunities for residents and offered assurances that the company understood the concerns of noise problems and noise controls. He added that Bitdeer’s Massillon facility had done a good job at reducing the number of decibels that went beyond the property line.
Attorney Lenny Asaro of Taft Stettinius & Hollister spoke on behalf of Bitdeer’s willingness to comply with the existing conditions in Shalersville Township’s zoning code. He said that an important point was that Bitdeer would be responsible for assuming the cost of the infrastructure and the public utilities needed for the project, namely water & power.
“In the event that any upgrades would need to be made, they would come at the cost of Bitdeer and no one else,” he said. “That is a main provision designed to actually protect the Township, and make sure that this project is developed in a way that is consistent with the needs of the Township.
Asaro provided updates about Bitdeer’s plans for exterior lighting, saying that Bitdeer was taking measures to ensure that the project would be designed and constructed in a way that respects the adjacent properties near the facility.
He said that Bitdeer would adhere to the noise guidelines and that the no noise on the property would exceed 50 DBA (A-weighted decibels) and would retain consultants and experts to evaluate the noise and guarantee the noise levels would be at an acceptable level.
“The testing of generators for the operations of the data center can only be at certain periods of times, and those time periods are from 8 am – 5 p.m., so not to be disruptive to adjacent property uses and particularly adjacent residential,” Asaro informed the residents.
Geis Companies Vice President of Design Brendan Kline said that the project would be delivered in two phases.
According to him, the first phase would consist of two technology centers built south of Beck Road, between Beck Road and the Interstate, which would each total 53,000 square feet and stand 30 feet tall, including a main office. He emphasized that Bitdeer intended to keep the noise and mitigation away from neighboring properties and push the sound back into the facility.
“Another measure that we are working on is creating mounting and landscaping to make sure the edge of the property is well-landscaped and has additional protection that will help with noise and aesthetics,” Kline noted. “There also will be an electric substation on the property.
Kline added that phase two would on the remaining property north of Beck Road and would be the construction of 12 additional technology halls, which would each require 53,000 square feet and stand 30 feet tall. He said that the initial designs for the halls would be that they are inward facing so that the noise and equipment would be screened by the buildings.
Kline said that Bitdeer estimated the initial decibel reading from the property would be in the range of 43-48 DBAs and as it currently stood, the northern edge of the property’s DBA reading hovered between 52-53 DBAs.
Engineer Kevin Noble of Scheeser Buckley Mayfield provided the residents an overview of Bitdeer’s plans for water usage.
He said that the chilling process that data centers use was called a closed loop system.
“It doesn’t require any additional water put in there,” he added. “The system is a propylene glycol system. You buy pre-mixed solutions which is brought in by a manufacturer that has already made that mix, put in a system and once that system is in, it is called a closed loop you don’t need any more done to it.”
Noble said that the data center would require 3,000 gallons of water daily at the Shalersville location, which was the equivalent of how much water a school consisting of 500-1,000 students would use daily.
Bitdeer Project Manager Jeremy Scahns told the residents about Bitdeer’s research of electromagnetic fields.
“We didn’t know the answer to how that affected humans, so we did a study,” he said. “We commissioned a third party to come into our Massillon facility and they went all around the entire site and took readings of EMF.”
According to the company’s research, a maximum reading of 5,000 EMF was allowable for the site and the company’s most recent EMG measurement readings were recorded at 291.
President of Great Oaks Engineered Solutions Tony Clark reiterated that Bitdeer would be solely responsible for all of costs of infrastructure, including transmission lines.
“If something happens with the project, it will be completed with no cost to the ratepayer or the taxpayer,” he said.
He assured the audience that Bitdeer’s project would not raise resident’s electric bills, as those costs were set by PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization and the Public Utilities Commissions of Ohio.
“That is an independent capacity market that happens every three years,” he noted. “Those rates are determined based on upcoming loads, PJM or PUCO, whatever the project they are planning for it, it is part of the flow.”
Clark said that the facility will have fully redundant back-up generators in the event of a power outage. He added that Bitdeer would pull power from the public transmission lines for the facility.
Bitdeer Associate Director of Public Affairs Eric Heis provided examples of how much benefit a data center could bring to a community, citing how at Massillon, the facility had been 75% completed and had already created 45 local jobs, recruiting people who lived within five miles of the site.
He added that the Massillon facility had already partnered with STEM Education and local schools to share what a massive server and HVAC looks like and what future jobs students might be interested in
“We want Portage County residents to build careers,” he added. “That is a big part of who Bitdeer is. We are looking at 50 jobs for phase one, these job positions that we are planning in Shalersville are jobs that exist in Massillon. The 45 people that work at Massillon were trained onsite. They all live within five miles; we didn’t bring them in from Cleveland or somewhere far away. They are trained onsite because they understand how computers work and we trained them there.”
He said that Bitdeer was not asking for incentives from the State of Ohio or the community. Heis noted that Bitdeer could guarantee major community benefits, such as no tax abatement and how the additional tax revenue could benefit the local schools, fire department and the Township by adding money into existing property tax revenues.
Hanson stressed that Bitdeer valued being a community member, and each year they set aside budgets for community engagement and partnerships.
“We have spent $35,000 in Rockdale, TX for the local volunteer fire department,” he said. “Last year in Massillon, we helped support the 4th of July community foundation as a fireworks supporter to put on the events for July 4th. Each year our donations can be separated, or we end up with long-term commitments to certain groups, but we are always evaluating where the next step is so we can be community members.”
Following Bitdeer’s presentation, the representatives fielded two hours of questions from a skeptical audience of Portage County residents.
The Board will reconvene for its next meeting on July 7 at 7 p.m.
