Near the end of the June 16 regular meeting of the Van Buren Township Board, when speakers were again criticizing the board over its decisions concerning a proposed large-scale data center, trustee Bryon Kelley confronted a speaker.
He said his family has received death threats and people are talking online (in a Stop Data Centers group on Facebook) about throwing things at his family. He said people are threatening the board members and threatening their families.
Kelley said after his 20 years of serving the community, it disgusts him that people here in the boardroom accuse board members of taking money.
“People who claim to be part of the community, put online to go to this house at this address and they have two children,” Kelley said.
He said members of the audience treat the board members “like crap” and make threats against his family.
Speaker Monique Kurkowski went on to say that township staff were “courting data centers” as far back as 2024. Kelley stopped her comment by asking her if she was in the group “threatening” him on Facebook.
She said she is on Facebook, and many people are on Facebook. She asked him to look her in the eye as she said she is not threatening anybody and her first principle is to “do no harm”.
As others in the audience got up to speak against the board members with various charges, board members spoke back.
“If we don’t say anything, we’re wrong,” said clerk Leon Wright. “If we do say something, we’re wrong… This board has done a fantastic job,” Wright said. “It listens to the people.”
Clerk Wright had said the problem is a misconception by the public. He said he has gone through a recall before.
Jenn Smith, earlier in the meeting, had announced she was going to recall the whole board. She also said the public “got f—ed ” by the development agreement. “We are completely getting screwed,” and the board is putting their lives at risk, she said.
This article has been edited for clarity and to correct an error.
I would like to point out that this is an illogical article. I wasn’t even there for any of the discussion mentioned above and the context was taken out turn completely. If you’re going to quote someone, at least get it right. I was talking about the development agreement, and that I’ve discussed and shown it to many other professionals, including developers and professors and that they all agree “We got fucked”. The Board got upset with my very accurate description, so I said “we are completely getting screwed.” Enjoy your retirement Rosemary!