Duluth Indivisible to host people’s forum on Hermantown data center
Panel of Experts to Address School Financing, Legal Issues, Environmental Impacts, and More at July 9
Duluth Indivisible will host a free public forum on the proposed Hermantown data center on Thursday, July 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 5454 Miller Trunk Hwy, Hermantown. The event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is encouraged at bit.ly/di-july-2026.
The “People’s Forum on the Hermantown Data Center” will feature a panel of experts covering a range of topics related to the proposed development, including legal considerations, energy and environmental impacts, health impacts related to noise, and the experiences of other communities that have faced similar proposals. The panel discussion will include questions prepared by the organizing team, questions submitted in advance by community members, and — time permitting — questions from the floor. The event is co-sponsored by the Stop the Hermantown Data Center group.
Confirmed panelists include:
Prescott Balch — Balch spent his career developing software in the financial industry, finishing his career at US Bank. After successfully resisting a data center proposal in his hometown of Caledonia, WI, he has been helping communities across the Upper Midwest understand both risks and rewards with their proposals. His goal is to help communities make fully informed decisions. (https://www.widatacenterfacts.org/)
JT Haines — Northeastern Minnesota Director, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA). Haines is an attorney and previously served as a public-sector union representative to Duluth.
Hudson Kingston — Legal Director, CURE MN (prior to 2023 known as Clean Up the River Environment). Kingston has worked in the Midwest and Washington, DC on litigation and policy related to climate change, water pollution, public health, pesticide regulation, impacts of mining, public records and government transparency.
Cindy Olson — Olson served as Finance, Funding and Management Specialist (2004-2012) and Executive Director (2012-2025) of the Arrowhead Regional Computing Consortium, a consortium of public-school districts, where her focus was Minnesota public school finance, state reporting, budget analysis and audit assistance.
Rebecca Gilbertson — Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She completed her Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Kentucky and postdoctoral training in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Florida. She teaches, conducts research and speaks about the interaction between brain and behavior. Her work includes the impacts of noise on health.
David Schneider — Schneider is a computational scientist with extensive experience in industry, government, and academia. He worked at IBM, the Center for Supercomputing Research and Development at the University of Illinois, the Theory Center (now the Center for Advanced Computing) at Cornell University, the US Dept. of Agriculture and the University of Saskatchewan School of Environment and Sustainability where he is professor emeritus. He uses AI tools extensively as a consultant.
“Residents of Hermantown and the broader region deserve the chance to hear from independent experts — people with no financial stake in this development,” said Lee Stuart, co-convener of Duluth Indivisible. “There have been a lot of promises made about this data center, but there has also been a troubling lack of transparency, including nondisclosure agreements and shifting and mis-information. Our goal is to give the community an opportunity to hear from people who will not financially benefit from this project and instead gather accurate, unbiased information so residents can draw their own conclusions.”
The public is encouraged to attend and to register in advance at https://bit.ly/di-july-2026. Media are welcome to cover the event.
