Posted in Agendas, Animal Welfare, Aunt Blabby, Barrington Hills Park District, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Bicyclists, Big Red, Commercial Horse Boarding, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), E-bikes, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, Horizon Farm, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, Massbach Hounds, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Simple Minds, Unions, Village Director of Administration, Well Water Quality on June 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Equestrian Commission/Riding Club will be meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the agenda can be viewed here.
Posted in Agendas, Land Use, Plan Commission, Property Taxes, Public Hearing, Real Estate, Village Attorney, Village Director of Administration on May 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Village Plan Commission will hold a special meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
PUBLIC HEARING
PUBLIC MEETING
A copy of the agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.
Posted in Aunt Blabby, BACOG, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Board of Health, Building Department, Clown Car, Conflict of interest, Data Center, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, ePacket Agendas, Ethics, Finance Committee, Folds of Honor, Fox River Valley Hunt, FRVPC, Insurance Committee, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Lennie, Massbach Hounds, Minutes, One Barrington Hills, Organizations, Plan Commission, Plum Farm development, Police Pension Board, Police Reports, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Resident Spotlights, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Roads & Bridges Committee, The Land We Love Run, Topics Of Interest, Transparency, Tree Preservation Ordinance, Unions, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Engineer, Village President, Village Treasurer, Yabba Dabba Doo, Zoning Board on May 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening beginning at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of their agenda, including info on listening to the meeting, can be viewed and downloaded here.
*No bio provided
Posted in AI, Chicago Reader, Clown Car, Data Center, Deception, Ethics, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, New Normal?, One Barrington Hills, Plum Farm development, Politics, Property Taxes, Real Estate, Transparency, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village President on May 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
What you need to know about the hyperscale data centers coming to the Midwest | Credit: Illustration by Shira Friedman-Parks
By Siri Chilukuri | Chicago Reader
The explosion of proposed data centers across Illinois has sparked a fierce, bipartisan backlash and even legislation to curb the long-lasting effects on people’s air quality, water quality, and energy bills. In town halls from Pekin to Joliet to Chicago’s southeast side, people have packed rooms and spent hours discussing the impact of potential developments on their communities. As residents grapple with project proposals, it’s never been more important to understand the impact of data centers.
Everything from the emails you send to the photos you save on your phone is stored in a data center. For decades, data centers have been central to the architecture of the Internet, especially the digital lives we lead today. But the rise of artificial intelligence, in particular generative AI—which uses computer models to produce text, images, videos, and more—is driving the development of facilities that use more energy and water than ever before. The size of these so-called hyperscale data centers, and the profit motives driving the rush to get them online quickly, can cause pollution.
Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, has been working with utility customers for decades on issues of affordability and climate change. The CUB is an advocacy organization for Illinois ratepayers, which has been watching the rise of data center projects in Illinois and learning more in the process about what they actually do. For Moskowitz, the distinction between next-generation hyperscale data centers that have roiled communities and the existing data center infrastructure is an important one to make. At the most basic level, “a data center is a physical facility containing equipment to store, process, and disseminate digital information,” Moskowitz said. “A hyperscaler is basically a large version of that. Generally, we think of hyperscalers as gigantic facilities, largely deployed to process artificial intelligence.”
Even the term “hyperscale” is imprecise, though, according to Helena Volzer, senior source water policy manager at the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “There’s really no hard and fast definition of what hyperscale even means. It just means a large facility,” Volzer said. Economists at the University of Virginia expect an average hyperscale data center to be about 300,000 square feet by 2030.
Hyperscale data centers are energy intensive not just because of their massive size but also because of what they process. The power used by generative AI is staggering—the computational power needed to train the large language models that power chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, and the power needed to perform basic functions once they’re up and running far outpaces the demands of existing data centers. One Goldman Sachs report estimates that AI will spur a 165 percent increase in data center power consumption by 2030.
“What makes the data center problem unique is the fact that these facilities are being built in a specific location, or specific locations, and they are being built en masse,” said Yury Dvorkin, an engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University. “[If] you put a lot of electricity demand in a very constrained location, what happens is that it’s harder for the grid to deliver power in that specific location.”
Report continues here.
Related: “Illinois lawmakers begin days of deep dives on data centers,” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 4),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Follow-up),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 3),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 2),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 1),” “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board”
Posted in Aunt Blabby, BACOG, Board of Health, Building Department, Clown Car, ePacket Agendas, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, Insurance Committee, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Little Duck Butt, Minutes, OMA, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Police Pension Board, Police Reports, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, Taxes, The Land We Love Run, Tree Preservation Ordinance, Unions, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Engineer, Village President, Village Treasurer, Yabba Dabba Doo, Zoning Board on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their regular monthly meeting this evening beginning at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of their agenda, including info on listening to the meeting, can be viewed and downloaded here.
Posted in AI, Audio Recordings, Clown Car, Comprehensive Plan, Crime, Data Center, Deception, Dumb and Dumber, ePacket Agendas, Ethics, FOIA, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Disconnection, Land Use, Lennie, New Normal?, Newsletter, OMA, One Barrington Hills, OP/Ed, Open Meetings Act, Perjury, Plan Commission, Politics, Privacy, Property Taxes, Real Estate, Simple Minds, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Transcripts, Transparency, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Government, Village President, Zoning Board on April 3, 2026| 3 Comments »
Village of Barrington Hills board members (l-r) JC Clarke, Laura AB Ekstrom, Brian Cecola, Marsha McClary, David Riff and Jessica Hoffmann. Not pictured: Thomas Strauss.
Our Village Board of Trustees met Monday evening. This marked the third meeting since their December 2025 meeting when residents were blindsided to learn, “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board.”
The first speaker Monday night expressed their continued dissatisfaction with the Board as follows:
“All right. Good evening. My name is Aaron Becker. By now you probably know who I am.
I’m speaking tonight in regards to the Village attorney’s letter in response to my questions from January 27th,and I’ve got a couple other comments as well.
I really appreciate the Village responding in righting to my quick response. However, I ask respectfully and directly why several of my explicit questions and requests were not answered at all. They were just omitted, so… .
The response explains why it believes its past actions were lawful, but it does not confirm whether any of the safeguards I requested would be implemented. My question tonight is simple: was the omission intentional?
In the Village Summer 2021 newsletter, residents were told by Trustee Ekstrom, she’s not here today, and I’m going to quote her, ‘Most residents know that they can attend the Village Board meetings, many may not realize that committee and commission meetings are also open to the public. Our Village is a community above all else and having input from our residents reflected in our decision making is not only welcome but encouraged.’
I’ll say this much, I genuinely appreciate that perspective and I believe her. With that in mind, here’s some feedback:
Please confirm that all off-record communications with Brennan Development Group will stop.
Please stop project specific merit discussions absent of formal filings.
Please confirm that unsupported tax claims will not be repeated by the Village without substantiation.
Please confirm that records will be preserved.
Please do everything in your power to maintain true independence of the Plan Commission.
I’d also like the Board to reflect on some of the statements Board of Trustees members have made in the past. In the same Summer 2021 newsletter, residents were told by Trustee Strauss that quote, ‘We live in a special community, and the Board is committed to maintaining our heritage.’
And Trustee Riff said, ‘I would like to make certain that we remain focused on the budget, protect our residential zoning rights (or rather zoning laws), and ensure that our community remains safe and secure for all residents.’
So those are strong words. And they matter. So I’ll ask each of you as Trustee members, do you believe that based on all of the emails we have now seen and read that you have honored those commitments? That you are protecting our residential zoning rights. And that you are maintaining our heritage as a Village.
I’ll be honest, I don’t. I read all the emails. I don’t believe it.
You have to go to bed at night. You have to look yourself in the mirror and say that you believe you’ve protected the residential zoning rights with your actions and your words.
My wife spoke last month about actions and words and holding people accountable when their actions and words don’t align. And that’s what we’re here doing asking of our leaders for continuity between their actions and their words.
That’s all I’m asking. When you say you’re going to do something, follow through and do it. Please.
So, to summarize, respond to the five requests I had in the letter either acknowledging you made a mistake and how you’re going to fix it, or that you made no mistake.
Either way we deserve clarity we deserve responses to those.
That’s my comment. Thank you very much.”
The audio recordings from the March 30, 2026, Board of Trustees meeting can be found here.
Related: “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Follow-up),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 3),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 2),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 1),” “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board”
Posted in Aunt Blabby, Board of Health, Building Department, Clown Car, Conflict of interest, Deception, Dumb and Dumber, ePacket Agendas, Ethics, Financial Reports, Heritage and Environs Committee, Insurance Committee, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Legal Expenses, Lennie, Minutes, One Barrington Hills, Overhead, Plan Commission, Police Pension Board, Politics, Property Taxes, Riding Club Commission, Roads & Bridges Committee, Save 5 Acres, Simple Minds, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Engineer, Village President, Village Treasurer, Zoning Board on March 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their regular monthly meeting this evening beginning at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of their agenda, including info on listening to the meeting, can be viewed and downloaded here.
Posted in Aunt Blabby, Deception, ePacket Agendas, Ethics, One Barrington Hills, Open Meetings Act, Overhead, Property Taxes, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, Robert’s Rules of Order, Simple Minds, Taxes, Transparency, Village Director of Administration, Village Engineer, Village Government, WTF on March 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Village Roads & Bridges Committee meets this afternoon at 4 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the full posted agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.
Posted in Agendas, AI, Audio Recordings, Clown Car, Data Center, Deception, Dumb and Dumber, Ethics, FOIA, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Disconnection, Minutes, Newsletter, OMA, One Barrington Hills, OP/Ed, Open Meetings Act, Plan Commission, Politics, Privacy, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Simple Minds, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Transcripts, Transparency, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Government, Village President, Zoning Board on March 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
There was no mention of the data center discussions which began in October in President Cecola’s quarterly Village Newsletter distributed last week. So much for transparency.
Last week we published a series of editorials to enlighten residents on the, “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board.” We referenced Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) records we obtained, and several people have asked if they might obtain a copy.
Those records we were provided, edited only to eliminate redundancy such as multiple copies of the “Data Center Overview,” can be found here.
Related: “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 3),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 2),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 1),” “7 things to know about Illinois data centers,” “Data Center group concerned over pause,” “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board”
Posted in Agendas, Land Use, Meeting Minutes, Plan Commission, Tree Preservation Ordinance, Village Attorney, Village Code, Village Director of Administration on March 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Village Plan Commission will hold a special meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.
 | keensweets0d45ddb8ba on South Barrington Mayor Paula M… |
| Bridget Jordan on Hoffman Estates plan commissio… |
 | Karen Trzaska on Hoffman Estates plan commissio… |
 | Meeting Tonight on Hoffman Estates Plum Farm June… |
 | Marvin L Husby III on Hoffman Estates Plum Farm June… |
 | Meeting Tonight on Hoffman Estates Plum Farm June… |
 | joefargo3767 on Cell-phone ban, loosening fore… |