Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacher said he backs a one-year moratorium on data center construction amid growing controversy in the city surrounding a proposal to build one on the city’s old paper mill site.

“The problem I see in this situation is that we are acting reactively,” Zacher said on WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “We don’t know how to be proactive necessarily because nobody’s really ever done this; there’s no playbook on this.”

Last week, the city’s plan commission unanimously rejected a conditional use permit from New York-based PNK Group, which is proposing the 200-acre data center on the city’s old paper mill site. The recommendation is now before the full City Council alongside a separate proposal for a one-year data center moratorium.

“They kind of throw it in our lap,” Zacher said. “They know that we’re unqualified. .. (A)m I really qualified for this high level of a situation and negotiation and trying to figure this stuff out? And I think if the data centers were really being super real and fair about what’s happening, they would back off. They would give us some time.”

The city’s plan commission heard more than three hours of public comment last week on the proposal. A majority of speakers opposed the data center, including GOP state Rep. Scott Krug, who represents Wisconsin Rapids.

“It’s nothing against anybody in the trades,” Krug said. “There will be other projects, and we will get a chance to use that local labor and make sure that the IBEW and the electric workers and pipefitters and the steamfitters and all the guys who lost their jobs at the mill are going to have a chance in Wisconsin Rapids again. But it’s not going to be this one.”

GOP State Sen. Patrick Testin said four key state Senate races ahead of November are “tight” and “statistical toss-ups” in the battle for control of the chamber.

“That’s why we keep telling all of our staff that are up in these key races, we keep telling the candidates, keep working, keep knocking doors and getting their message out there,” Testin, who leads the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, told “UpFront.”

The four key districts include: the 5th in southeastern Wisconsin between Republican Mike Roberts and Dem state Rep. Robyn Vining; the 21st in the Racine County area featuring Republican Jim Croft and Dem Trevor Jung; the 17th in southwestern Wisconsin featuring GOP state Sen. Howard Marklein and Dem state Rep. Jenna Jacobson;  and the 31st in western Wisconsin featuring Dem state Sen. Jeff Smith and Republican Michele Magadance Skinner.

“We affectionately call them the core four,” Testin said. “When you look at the odds in the math, we have to win two out of those four to come back in the majority. And I believe that we are going to, at least, not win all of them, but I feel good with where we’re at.”

When asked if Republicans are urging candidates to distance themselves from President Donald Trump, Testin said, Senate Republicans can’t control what happens in Washington, D.C., or with the price of gas. But they can address taxes and other things that make life more affordable.

“I think despite the fact that there are some national headwinds, I think we are well positioned to come back in the majority,” Testin said.

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