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A place to learn

Amidst data center debate, U R Energy seeks to inform with planned educational facility near Marshalltown

By Robert Maharry 7 min read

These days, almost everyone seems to have an opinion on data centers, whether negative, positive or somewhere in between, but Jarrod Ulery of Le Grand is no stranger to any of these conversations. The master electrician built Marshall County's first bitcoin mining facility near St. Anthony and is now actively involved in potential deals through his new company U R Energy, which is headquartered at a property on Quarry Road that he and his daughter Blair Ulery Paxton, the company's Chief Operating Officer, purchased 2 1/2 years ago.

Jarrod, a GMG High School graduate, has previously worked for Alliant and Consumers Energy, and he characterized many of the opinions he hears about data centers to be "misconstrued" and "not factual" -- joking that much of the information presented comes from places like Google and Facebook, companies operating some of the largest data centers in the country.

"If data centers aren't the future, or if data centers aren't welcome in communities, then what else is? What is gonna keep these communities going, because manufacturing is hit and miss," he said. "Marshall County can't supply the amount of water for any type of manufacturing other than a data center."

Jarrod and Blair's long-term goal for what they refer to as "HQ," the business headquarters not far from the land on Shady Oaks Road that has suddenly become the flashpoint of the local data center debate, is to create a Technology Learning Center in the house on the property while operating several mini data centers, a community garden and a greenhouse.

"People can come. They can taste it, they can touch it, they can hear it, they can stand on the ground, they can stand on the ground. They can bring monitors in," Jarrod said. "They can do all those things to say 'Look, maybe data centers are not bad. Maybe they don't cause cancer. Maybe they don't cause my kids to pee their pants.'"

Blair shared her vision for the site in a subsequent email.

"We believe Marshall County has an incredible opportunity in front of it. Energy, agriculture, technology, education, economic development and community development don’t have to exist alone. We want to demonstrate how those pieces can work together. That’s ultimately what HQ represents to us," she said. "It isn’t finished. It isn’t supposed to be. We’re building it as we go, learning from what works, changing what doesn’t, and continuing to invest in the vision. Some of the ideas on this map may take years to fully develop. Some may change completely. And there will undoubtedly be people who question whether all of it is realistic. But we’ve never been particularly interested in doing things simply because they’re easy."

Through his past work, Jarrod has worked on wind turbines, and he understands why people complain about having to live next to them, but that doesn't mean he'll suddenly start to spread unfounded rumors about the structures causing changes in behavior or affecting health.

Blair, an East Marshall graduate and current Le Grand city councilwoman, pointed out the irony of so much of the anti-data center information coming from social media apps and search engines.

"The hard part for me is people having all these opinions and saying 'Well, we don't need those here.' Well, let's take a step back and look at what you actually do use within a day and I'll tell you if that includes a data center or not. And if not, we can just start going through what you can and can't use throughout the day," she said. "The information is misunderstood. There's not a resource that people can go to to get actual factual information themselves from their own ears and eyes, and that would be something that we would really want to do."

Jarrod touted the University of Iowa's new Data Center Decision Tool as an excellent resource, and, speaking of another hot-button social media topic from recent weeks, he indicated that U R Energy doesn't "hide behind" non-disclosure agreements and is serving as a brokerage firm for clients all over the world.

"I would never, ever bring a company in here that would negatively impact the environment or our neighbors here," he said, noting that his own neighbors are curious about the HQ project.

He also alluded to the fact that he is actively involved in a potential project about which much more will be known after the Aug. 24 city council meeting, and Jarrod told the T-R he fully supports a short-term moratorium while city leadership works to develop new rules and regulations.

"We need time. We need the city to get things in place," he said. "I think Marshalltown is doing a great job because they've called around to a lot of other communities that are doing this, so they're not really recreating the wheel, necessarily."

With investors pouring millions and even billions of dollars into these projects, Jarrod said the tolerance for risk is low, and if a community isn't welcoming, they will eventually look elsewhere.

"We've always been forward about everything that we've done. We've come to the right people. This was never discussed behind closed doors," Blair said.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) hyperscale facilities have become especially controversial in the data center debate, Jarrod predicted that five or 10 years down the road, the technology will be as ubiquitous as cell phones and the internet, and it's already been heavily integrated into many aspects of everyday life.

"We're still gonna need control. We're still gonna need people to input, right, until AI gets so smart that we don't need human interaction," he said. "Are we heading that way? Who knows. I wish I had a crystal ball that shows me, because I would buy all those stocks. But again, I really think it's like the internet. I really do... it's coming. People know it's coming, and they're either gonna adopt it, use it, they're gonna strive to work towards it, whatever they do in a career, or they're gonna be the complete opposite and they're gonna be out of a job."

He also pointed to the difficult realities of modern agriculture -- stagnant commodity prices coupled with soaring input and machinery costs -- as reasons farmers might be interested in selling their land to data center developers, typically at rates well above market value. Blair, who previously worked for the West Marshall School District and then became a daycare provider after her first child, said U R remains a small family operation intent on finding the right clients, and Jarrod urged the public to trust the process and the local elected officials who are asked to make difficult decisions.

"Understand that they're looking for the best for their communities. They're not looking to harm. They're just trying to make money. They live in the community and so do we, but in order for these communities to survive, they need growth," he said. "Marshalltown has some great opportunities, and there's a lot of power coming to this area. Why not take advantage of it? But take your time, educate, and listen to everybody. Go to the meetings, be heard, but also be respectful, and let us do our due diligence. Let us do our jobs and bring in economic development into the community so that we can grow and thrive."

Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.

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