CAYUGA, Ind. — While officials say there is no data center coming to Vermillion County, there are several in the community who are skeptical.
A Vermillion County Commissioners meeting will be held at 6 p.m. (Eastern) on Monday at the courthouse auditorium, 255 South Main St. in Newport.
On that agenda, there is an item about a data center moratorium. Many cities and counties in the country have created a moratorium for data centers.
Nolan Mihail is one of those who are skeptical about the decisions being made by the Vermillion Rise Board.
“Without an ordinance in place, data centers are not an approved use for any land in Vermillion County,” Mihail said. “The evidence that has come to light over the last several months, unfortunately, suggests the Rise board may have engaged in discussion or a handshake agreement with a data center operator as early as November 2025…”
He shared an email from the former president Willie Wyres as well as a video of the meeting on Oct. 1.
“Willie Wyres [is] freely admitting that they’d appointed and had been paying an executive director $25,000 a month in public funds without a publicly disclosed contract,” Mihail said about an email he acquired.
In the email shared, Wyres says to a ‘Rick’ that there was a contract drafted in May for a “Jerry;” however, it was not voted on and will not be “officially signed” until November.
“During the interim period, he was working without a contract on a handshake agreement while we negotiated the specific terms,” Wyres wrote.
In other documents shared from Mihail, including a “Consulting Services Agreement,” and a proposed ordinance he obtained amending the Vermillion County Unified Development Ordinance Regarding Data Center Siting.
The ordinance dictates that the Vermillion County Board of Commissioners has the ‘authority’ to amend the ‘County’s Unified Development Ordinance.’
Within that ordinance, it says, “The Commissioners adopted Resolution No. 2025-11 on Dec. 1, 2025, unanimously identifying the Vermillion Rise Mega Park as the County’s primary and preferred location for data center development… “
The ordinance Mihail provided also says the Reuse Authority is under ‘military base reuse authority,’ and the United States Army chose the site of the former Newport Chemical Depot in 1941.
“We can’t say for certain that illegal activity has transpired, but there is more than ample cause for an investigation, and our county leadership has consistently failed to act on this, and without a judicial review or formal investigation, it won’t be proven,” Mihail shared. “The rise board has avoided scrutiny simply because the checks and balances in place refuse to pull the trigger on an investigation. The optics are terrible and, at the risk of sounding conspiratorial, suggest legally and ethically compromised/arbitrary and capricious governance in Vermillion County and our district.”
The Newport Keysville Depot Reuse Authority met Thursday to approve several agreements that are tied to a solar project with Vermillion Rise Solar, but they explicitly said there are ‘no data centers’ even interested in setting foot in the area.
During meeting, the board elected a few positions: Joe Ellis was elected president, and Adam Wyland as treasurer. Ellis and Wyland were authorized as check signatories.
“There is no agreement with any data center user, none whatsoever,” Ellis said to a small crowd.
Ellis added, “The board has a fiduciary responsibility to listen to entities that come and talk to us, [it] doesn’t mean we do business with them.”
The board did approve the Vermillion Rise Solar road use agreement, as well as a decommissioning agreement correction.