Festus, Missouri — Remember That Name.

A town of 12,700 people just fired half its city council for ramming through a hyperscale data center against the public's will. Here's the timeline every Birmingham elected official needs to read before the next vote:

March 30, 2026 — Hundreds of Festus, Missouri residents packed the high school gym demanding the council reject a $6 billion, 360-acre Clayco/CRG data center. After two hours of near-universal opposition from constituents, the council voted 6-2 to approve it anyway.

April 7, 2026 — ONE WEEK LATER — Every single incumbent up for reelection lost. All four of them. One eight-year incumbent was beaten by more than 40 points.

Voter turnout was 129% higher than the previous municipal election.

April 9, 2026 — Residents filed suit alleging illegal spot-zoning and Open Records Law violations. Recall petitions are now circulating against the mayor and the remaining yes-voters.

The new council members ran on one promise: transparency and stopping the data center. They won in landslides.

But it doesn't stop in Festus. It's happening all over the country.

New Brunswick, New Jersey killed their data center deal and built a public park instead.

Prince George's County, Maryland paused all data center projects.

St. Charles, Missouri — one hour from Festus — passed a moratorium and is now considering a permanent ban after Clayco tried there first.

Bloomberg found that roughly half of the data centers slated to come online in the U.S. this year are now delayed or cancelled.

Here in Birmingham, Nebius wants to drop a 300 MW AI data center 1,127 feet from the Greater Birmingham Humane Society's planned campus, carefully chosen and designed for serenity and healing.

Yet, Nebius' own sound study admits it cannot measure the frequencies that animals actually hear.

The Nebius AI Mega Factory would emit 1 BILLION Btu of heat every hour of every day.

The electromagnetic radiation could be enough to hamper migratory birds who sense the Earth's magnetic field—when it's not blocked by an AI Mega Factory.

Meanwhile in Independence, Missouri, Nebius is building its own dedicated power plant so as not to burden ratepayers and there it chose a 1,200-acre purpose-built commerce park location.

Birmingham gets the grid load, the deficient study, and a site that is in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

But Festus proved something important every elected official would be wise to ponder.

When elected officials stop listening, voters remember. They remember by 40 points.

To every Birmingham City Council member, every ZBA member, every elected official watching the Milan Parkway proposal — your constituents are watching too.

The voters know the Nebius development runs counter to zoning and the Oxmoor Covenant.

And they have phones, and they have neighbors, and they vote.

Ask Festus.