CLINTON TOWNSHIP, PA — "You hear that?" asked Clinton Township resident Jay Vaught. 

A crowd of several hundred people fell silent. For a moment, all anyone could hear was the tranquil silence of the quiet outdoors. 

"Those clowns move in, you won't anymore," he said. 

The assembled crowd had gathered on the evening of Thursday, May 7 to oversee a proposal for a data center and a power-generating facility that was proposed to the Clinton Township Planning Commission. Due to the size of the expected crowd, the meeting was held in a pole barn on the Clinton Township municipal campus. Even with the sizable space, the audience overfilled the room, crowding around the open vehicle bay doors, looking on. 

The audience heard few details about the proposal that night. The applicants had submitted their proposal to the township on April 30, less than the 10 working days in advance required for the planning commission's review, so the commission voted not to hear a presentation of the proposal until its June meeting. 

The spotlight, then, fell on members of the public, who offered information, expressed concern and gave impassioned speeches about the effects data centers can have on an area's environmental quality and community character. 

Community impressions

A mix of Clinton Township residents and concerned citizens from the broader region made up the audience at the meeting. 

During a normal month, "it's three or four people [at the meeting], and tonight we had like 200, I'd say 250 total," planning commission chair Brandon Cole told the River Reporter. The commission moved it to a larger space, anticipating an increased crowd. "It was last minute, but I think we did as good as we could for what we had," he said. 

Chelsea Waisanen, who lives in the Clinton Township village of Browndale, told the River Reporter that she had only found out about the proposal a few days before the meeting. She and a neighbor, Anna Stocker, had gone doorknocking to spread the word, she said. "I'd say we didn't get enough people."

"It is such a big thing to happen," Chelsea Waisanen said. "I mean, it's not like we're talking about, we're going to put in just any business. This is not run-of-the-mill stuff; this is crazy stuff."

"It's going to pretty much wreck our entire landscape," she said. If it went through, she added, she was convinced that she would not want to live in the area anymore. 

Several long-time residents told the board they had moved to Clinton Township to get away from development happening elsewhere, in New York City or New Jersey. 

Resident Mike Daily, formerly from New Jersey, said the proposed data center would be going in half a mile from his home. "We didn't move up here to have everything taken away from us," he said. 

Resident Bill Waisanen emphasized the peace and quiet currently present in Clinton Township. Data center developers would come to the area and destroy that peace and quiet simply for profit, he said. 

"They will come; they will raze the earth," he said. "This was a place I wished to leave to my son—the peace, the quiet that Jay mentioned. That quiet—I work in a machine shop all day, surrounded by compressors, everything. To come home to that [peace], I can't even explain how much that means. But that will be gone."

Misplacement

The data center project was identified by members of the public as proposed for a parcel of land connected to the Linde Corporation. Linde is a utility-oriented pipeline construction company that does business regionally and internationally, led by president Scott Linde. 

The parcel of land in question sits with a hunting camp on one side and with Camp Freedom on the other, according to area native Katie Zefran. Camp Freedom provides outdoor adventures including hunting for disabled veterans and first responders, providing therapeutic programs to those in need. 

One of the most utilized areas of Camp Freedom's property is a high-fenced area used for hunting. That area is right along the border of Scott Linde's property, Katie said. 

Placing a data center on that property would harm the animals and degrade the environment at Camp Freedom, she said. "Do we care about our veterans, or do we care about data centers?"

James Zefran, a former planning commission member and a former board of supervisors chair in Clinton Township, brought the planning commission a policy paper from Trout Unlimited, a non-profit that advocates for healthier rivers and fisheries. That policy paper encourages responsible siting, including the location of data centers away from headwaters and other critical water habitats. 

The Linde parcel happens to be one of only two areas in Wayne County identified as "exceptional value waters," said Zefran. Roger's Creek runs through that parcel, he said, ultimately making its way to the Lackawanna River, the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay. 

A work in progress

Prior to the application, Clinton Township had already been working on an ordinance to address data centers. 

Township solicitor Jeffrey Treat began preparing an ordinance after a December 2025 request from the board of solicitors. At its meeting of Thursday, April 30, the board voted to send a draft ordinance to the planning commission for review, and to put a six-month moratorium in place, to give the township time to review and adopt that ordinance. 

The data center application under consideration came in the same day the moratorium got passed. The River Reporter asked Treat if the developers could argue their project came in before the moratorium or the ordinance, and so wouldn't have to follow them. 

"That's what they're gonna argue, probably," Treat responded. 

Treat told the River Reporter he had early inklings that a project might be in the wind. "When Scott Linde was sitting in our meeting in February, I knew what he was up to. Scott Linde said, 'I'll give you a new bridge. I'll pay for it.' A bridge. Why? The bridge is what he needs to put the data center in," Treat said. 

According to the minutes of the February 11 board of supervisors meeting, Linde asked the board about the weight limits on the PA247 Bridge over the Lackawanna River and a bridge located on Flat Rock Road. "Linde also indicated he is willing to work with the township regarding the bridges," read the minutes. 

The planning commission voted during its May 7 meeting to send the proposed ordinance to the Wayne County Planning Commission for review, a usual step in the review process for municipal ordinances. Both township and county planning commissions will offer comments on the ordinance; final decision-making power on the shape of the ordinance rests with the board of supervisors. 

The draft ordinance can be found on the Clinton Township webpage at clintontwpwayne.com and linked to this article. Members of the public can submit comments to the board of supervisors; there will also be public hearings advertised to occur in advance of the board adopting the ordinance. 

The ordinance, as currently drafted, requires a 1000-foot buffer for all structures within the property, with evergreens planted along the edges of the property to screen it from outside view. The ordinance also requires evidence of adequate water and sewage disposal service, including a water resources impact study required for all data storage center projects anticipated to withdraw 4,000 gallons or more per day over a 30-day period, as well as an environmental impact assessment. 

Residents present at the May 7 meeting spoke on the inadequacies of the current draft and called for the ability to comment on it and strengthen it. 

Resident Anna Stocker called Browndale "one of the most beautiful places in all of Pennsylvania."

"Put it somewhere else," she said. "A thousand feet differential between where this might go and where homes are going to be located is not far enough. I'm thinking miles and miles and miles away from the nearest person in a house, in a home, farm, anything. It cannot stand."

"You have the ability to say no," said Bill Waisanen. "This sadness that is spreading across Northeastern Pennsylvania—it's not just us! It is everywhere! You have the opportunity to be the vanguard, to say no, it ends in Browndale. That's it. We don't want you here."

Editor's note: This article has been updated as of 11 am on Monday, May 11 to correct the spelling of a name.