LORDSTOWN — Village officials are waiting on a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court on a complaint filed by a company wanting to locate a data center in the village and they want to be prepared for the ruling.

Mayor Jackie Woodward and councilman Mark McGrail, chairman of council’s data center moratorium committee, attended a program on data centers hosted by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. They said council needs to have a speaker come to a future meeting to provide information on data centers.

Solicitor Matt Ries said it is important council and village officials be prepared for the Ohio Supreme Court ruling.

Bristolville LLC is fighting the village in court because it wants to locate a data center in Lordstown. The company’s attorney claims they submitted their application in October prior to council placing a ban on data centers in November, which was later changed to a moratorium in January.

McGrail said while the moratorium is in place, officials need to gather information to be best informed on data centers. Woodward said if a decision needs to be made in the near future, the village “needs to have all the hard facts.”

She said she wants to hear more about abatements that data centers may seek.

“I have heard speakers who are very forthcoming in providing information on data centers. We can have a speaker come here and we should know what questions to ask them when they are in front of us,” Woodward said.

“We need to get all the pros and cons. It is important that we have more information rather than less,” McGrail said.

Ries said a presentation would be beneficial to council, especially after the Ohio Supreme Court makes a decision, whether it is in favor of the township or not.

“We need to be informed and ahead of the game at the table on data centers instead of trying to play catch up if we have to comply with an order from the (Ohio) Supreme Court. There are a number of things the Supreme Court could do,” Ries said.

In other business, officials discussed the Kunkle building off state Route 45 and are awaiting a call from the Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center’s engineering division, who have expressed interest in demolishing the structure at no cost to the village as a way to gain experience.

Woodward and Council President Jessica Blank said they have spoken to Army National Guard officials about the demolition idea and are waiting to see what is decided. Blank said there has been discussion to use the property as a possible police gun range.

RECORDING MEETINGS

In other matters, Woodward said in addition to video recording council meetings, plans are to also record meetings of the board of public affairs, board of zoning appeals and planning commission. She said meetings would not be livestreamed, but recorded and then posted on a YouTube channel for public viewing.

The village is also in the process of transitioning from the domain lordstown.com to lordstown.gov for village email and the website. Woodward said the village can apply for funding to help with the transition process, noting there is a mandate that the village do the transition by summer.

Road Supervisor Martin Nelder said plans are to continue the veterans flag program where flags in honor of local veterans are placed in the village from Memorial Day to Labor Day. He said the two-sided flags are $80 each with orders being taken at the road department.