Source: https://nwindianaliving.com/communities/hobart-indiana/
Over the winter break, I sat down with Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun to discuss the recent deal with Amazon to build a data center in Hobart. This plan will have the data center located at 61st St. and Colorado St. While some time has passed, this article really is an important piece of what our county and towns are facing at the moment. All of the information here was accurate as of December 23rd, 2025. I encourage you to look at the Town of Hobart Facebook page and the NWI Times, as well as other credible news sources, for more information on this topic.
Before starting this article, it’s important to know who is making decisions for Hobart and who he is. Mayor Josh Huddlestun has been serving Hobart as mayor since the end of 2023. He has lived in Hobart his whole life and has served two terms on the city council. His prior careers were banking and construction before becoming mayor.
In recent years, technology has adapted and quickly changed from what it was. We now have AI in our daily lives; some of us have accepted this into our futures willingly, and others have stayed away from it. No matter where you stand with AI, it is important to see the impacts nonetheless and understand what is going to happen in Hobart over the upcoming months to understand how the community and surrounding areas will be impacted by the new data center. Mayor Huddlestun says, “Technology has advanced, and so has [sic.] The data centers have advanced as well, and there are different types of data centers. So I think there’s a lot of misinformation about data centers.”
Mayor Huddlestun has taken this development seriously and researched the impacts– he’s visited some data centers in VA and OH with his council to be better informed. When I asked about risk and reward, the Mayor said, “I think from a standpoint of risk reward, you know there’s a lot of things, like as a mayor you can’t just look at you know this particular project, you have to look at the city as a whole.” Some of the positives he points out are, “You have significant investment from a development standpoint, that provides revenue to our city; which we can use those funds to pave roads, fix flooding, hire more police and fire, build things, like community centers, and create that opportunity for our kids where they have quote-un-quote, ‘The choice to leave but choose to stay’, because we have so many opportunities here.”
While some people are excited for this project, some are concerned and wondering how this will affect their daily lives. I asked Mayor Huddlestun why Hobart was a chosen location for a data center, and he explained one of the reasons was that “There’s high tension lines right there, there’s infrastructure in the ground already.” The Mayor has kept the residents’ questions and worries in mind during this development. The Mayor shares how, “Identifying within our ordinates the things that we can mitigate, any of those risks, which we’ve done, and that’s not just for data center development, that’s for every development.” The question of whether residents’ electricity rates will rise was answered by the Mayor with, “They’re gonna pay for their own power,” referring to GENCO. As for what the data center will run on was not released at the time, but Mayor Huddlestun said, “They will run on however NIPSCO is able to provide them the resources for the generation.” For the question about where the water is coming from, Mayor Huddlestun says, “The water is going to come from Indiana American Water, so it’s not gonna be pulled from wells.” Which should bring some peace of mind to Hobart residents.
Mayor Huddlestun has an optimistic view on this project; this will bring lots of funding into Hobart. As for the negatives, who knows what we can expect? The generators used in Hobart will be Tier 4 generators, which are the safest tier for generators for data centers, in keeping our air clean. With this project, the Mayor stated, “I would encourage people to not just believe what they read online or what YouTube video they watch but actually go out and visit, and see and touch and feel and do a lot of homework yourself, because I think there’s a lot of misinformation, and I think that once people go out and see them, I think they’ll have a different perspective of actually what the data centers are and what they’re not.”
Many of us still have questions, and this by far didn’t cover all of the plans, because at the time, most of the logistics were being talked out and still in the works. With all of these changes happening rapidly, remember to stay up-to-date and check credible sources for more updates on the data center. If you or anyone in the community has questions about the data center, reach out to Mayor Huddlestun or the City of Hobart with questions. Whether you’re for or against AI, these data centers are here for now, and it’s best to educate yourself in the meantime. As for me, I don’t believe AI and data centers are for the better; I think they’ll cause environmental damage and damage to our creativity. However, no matter how you feel, don’t forget to look at the facts.
