Published: June 18, 2009 01:02 am      

TOWN OF LOCKPORT: Yahoo! public hearing is June 30

TOWN OF LOCKPORT — The public will get to see the details of a proposed Yahoo! data center at a 4 p.m. hearing June 30 at the town hall.

The well-known California Internet services company has applied for site plan approval on a 190,000-square-foot regional data center in the town’s industrial park.

Although the project still has to be approved both by town officials and the Yahoo! board of directors, representatives from the Internet data giant were in Lockport on Wednesday to provide some details for the planning board.

If approved by both the town and Yahoo!, construction could start in August.

Scott Noteboom of Yahoo! and Orest Ciolko of Wendel Duchscherer presented the site plan in front of the planning board. The project would be constructed in two phases, with the first phase expected to be completed in September 2010 and create 75 jobs. The 30-acre piece of land is situated at Junction Road and Enterprise Drive and would have a 6-foot-tall fence around the entire property.

“Through all of our research, we’re very interested in doing the project in your area,” Noteboom said.

Drawings of the proposed site were provided as part of the presentation. Looking overhead, the data center lays diagonally across the site and consists of 10 separate sections connected by hallways. In between section five and six will be a central office building. The first

phase, which is five sections and the central office building, will make up about 108,000 of the 190,000-square-foot project. While there is no official timetable, Noteboom said the goal was to have both phases completed in two years.

Noteboom said one advantage of having the data center in Lockport is that the weather eases the overheating of computer servers. Usually one of the bigger challenges Yahoo! faces is dealing with heat and keeping buildings cool. Western New York’s climate and wind patterns would help the data center stay cooler, saving electricity.

“Our challenge here is a little more on the cold side,” Noteboom said. “These buildings are designed to breathe, and we’re running the cooling system on outside air.”

Ciolko said a substation is part of the site plan proposal. Details are still be figured out about the approximately 150-foot structure, including design of the building and location. Compared to earlier plans, the substation will be smaller than expected after the company talked to New York State Electric & Gas Co.

“We’ve gotten some more information from NYSEG, and we’re working with them,” Ciolko said.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.