While private negotiations reportedly have been going on for years with Hermantown city officials — including, troublingly, elected officials — Hermantown residents and the rest of the Northland only learned in September that a massive data center was proposed and was being planned behind their backs.

Considering concerns all over the country about water use, electrical use, pollution, and the dearth of permanent local jobs in spite of generous public handouts for such facilities, we can’t be blamed for having serious reservations here, too.

So, we can appreciate and welcome the 15-day pause on permit requests and other work ordered by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, as the News Tribune reported last week , on Oct. 30. The pause is to determine whether a more-stringent envir

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