QTS Public Comment
This is the page for public comment and testimony regarding QTS, a hyperscale developer owned by BlackStone. To have your own public comment posted officially to the page, please submit your testimony to the Public Inquiry Project, or email ward@publicinquiryproject.org with your public comment, documents, video, pictures, and anything else you would like included. We will review your submission and add to our page if it meets our mission.
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June 21, 2026
Bryan
January 20, 2026
Winona
Good evening, Trustees.
As I speak tonight, I want each of you to ask yourselves one simple question:
Is this what you ran for?
When I read the Village’s 2023 Strategic Plan, I was struck by its emphasis on public engagement, transparency, and open communication. It spoke about encouraging residents to participate in local government and to run for Village Board. It described trust and partnership between the Village and the community.
But that vision does not match reality.
I have reviewed open records involving Village Board leadership, staff, and QTS representatives. What I found was deeply troubling. A significant amount was planned, coordinated, and decided without the knowledge or involvement of six trustees.
So when residents express outrage about a lack of transparency, of course they are upset. There was not even one iota of transparency within this Board.
Emotions are high in our community, and understandably so. But accountability matters, not just words used to placate. Residents should stop attacking the Board as a whole and instead recognize which trustees are trying to serve in good faith, without full access to information or the capability to making decisions without full competency of what is actually happening here.
The Pre-Annexation Agreement is incomplete, underdeveloped, and dangerously one-sided. It answers few questions while exposing the Village to serious financial and legal risk. It leaves DeForest responsible for nearly every demand of QTS. This agreement should not be approved. The Village cannot afford it.
And frankly, is it any wonder that so few people want to run for Village Board?
Why would anyone volunteer to serve when real decision-making appears concentrated in the hands of the Village Administrator, the Community Development Manager, and the Village President, while the other six trustees absorb the public backlash for decisions made without them?
Why step into a role where secrecy overrides collaboration and corporate interests are quietly accommodated?
I want to be very clear about this next part.
I will stand up for the six of you.
Months of correspondence show your names absent. You were not included, copied, or meaningfully consulted. When resident concerns were raised, they were treated as inconveniences to be explained away to a corporate partner, rather than issues to be brought before the full Board.
That speaks volumes.
So I ask you again:
Is this what you ran for?
Because this community deserves better.
And so do you.
Thank you
Alliant and QTS approached landowners, had them sign NDAs which hid their intent to have the land annexed by DeForest in order to develop a 1600 acre data center campus with 12-15 data centers being the end goal. They shrouded the whole project in secrecy and lies.
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