Op Ed: Bait and Switch, a Menomonie Data Center Controversy, By Rachel Tilseth

The data center issue began in February 2024. It all began when the city of Menomonie signed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with Balloonist LLC, a shell company for a big tech company, more than a year before the $1.6 billion project was officially announced to the public in July 2025. The city signed the NDA, which is a fairly common practice. However, did the city really know what it was getting into? After all, the $1.6 billion price tag was used as bait by big tech to lure the city into its web. I, like many locals, first heard about this in July, were leary of the alluring price tag and sprang into action, and with the mayor at our side, to protest the data center proposal. At this time, we were unaware that the data center proposal had been in the works for well over a year.

We had no idea that Mayor Randy Knaack kept the city council and the public in the dark regarding the proposed $1.6 billion data center for over a year by utilizing non-disclosure agreements (NDA), allowing land annexation/rezoning without full disclosure of the project’s details, and especially who the big tech giant was behind it. It was all done by controlling information through early-stage negotiations. Balloonist LLC kept it all secret to avoid early pushback by the public. It’s a controversy that has yet to be disclosed and solved. Most of all, who knew what and when?

You see, a mayor does not personally have to sign an NDA; a city administrator, or authorized staff member, can sign it on behalf of the city. The question I want to know is if they signed the NDAs on behalf of the city, and the mayor is the head of the government. Does that mean the mayor is privy to the information contained in the NDA? All I heard was that the city administrator and the public works staff signed the NDAs, that the mayor claimed he did not sign one because he refused to do so.

Yet, after it was disclosed to the public, the mayor rang the alarm bell, alerting the public of the dangers a data center would pose to the area residents; he joined forces with the public in opposition to the project. All of a sudden, rumors flew that a councilmember had received a job offer from Balloonists, verified by the mayor, which turned out to be not true. There was a lot of fervor flying around about who was at fault and who could be trusted.

Not all of the Council members were aware of the full scope of the NDA. Councilmember Matthew Crowe stated in a September 2025 press release that he and other city council members did not sign the NDA and were not aware of its full scope until after news of the potential data center project “Balloonist LLC” became public, more than a year after it was signed. It appears that the mayor and the city council were clearly not on the same page concerning very important details for the project.

Was the Balloonist’s sales pitch to blame for the lack of transparency? After all, it seemed a pretty sweet deal! In 2025, the Menomonie City Council, led by Mayor Randy Knaack, initially approved the annexation and rezoning of over 300 acres of farmland for a project backed by “Balloonist, LLC” by leveraging a “sales pitch” focusing on economic development, while keeping the developer’s identity secret through a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The sweat “Sales Pitch” had a lot of promises, including the mayor initially framing the project as a $1.6 billion investment that would create up to 1,000 construction jobs and 50–75 permanent, high-paying, “six-figure” jobs. By this time, July 2025, the public wasn’t buying all the hype either and wanted to know who the big tech company was behind the sweet deal.

To the dismay of the public, despite concerns about water, noise, and farmland loss, the council approved the rezoning from Agricultural to Restricted Industrial in early August 2025. Some council members indicated they voted for the annexation based on the promise of future tax revenue and industrial park development, rather than explicitly for the data center itself.

The project faced scrutiny over its potential to consume 75,000+ gallons of water per day and the high, long-term costs of infrastructure upgrades. Under intense public pressure from the community, the mayor changed his mind. It was rumored that the mayor met behind closed doors with some members of the public to resolve the issue that had been ongoing for over a year. By this time (September 2025), several councilmembers began to ask for transparency because they had no idea what the mayor’s pause meant.

Data Center Without Disclosure, the Menomonie Resistance

Following intense community pressure, Mayor Knaack shifted (switched) his position, stating, “When [they] give their sales pitch, it’s a pretty good sales pitch… But when you start digging deeper into it, at what cost to the community?” In September 2025, Knaack drafted a memo to halt the project, putting it on pause.

As of right now, the city is working on an I-4 ordinance. Because the new ordinance defines data centers separately from warehouses, the current proposal by Balloonist LLC is paused. If they wish to proceed, they must start the application process over and apply to have the land rezoned under the new “Data Center Industrial District” classification. The public is waiting for the city’s I-4 ordinance to be revealed at public hearings so they can weigh in on it.

In conclusion, the full lack of transparency should give the public cause to not trust the city government. Who’s to blame seems to be the question of concern now. Clearly, the city council was not fully informed about the deals in the proposal, and why was that? Do city staff sign NDAs on behalf of the city, allowing the mayor to be privy to the information in them? What were the mayor’s reasons for switching his position and putting the data center proposal on pause? At this point in the process, will the mayor and the city council work more closely together, allowing for full transparency in Menomonie’s city government?

Tilseth is a freelance writer, filmmaker, and Environmentalist living and working in the Menomonie area.