fgazette.com Community news site for Union Parish Louisiana
Penelope Hull doesn’t care that the road in front of her elementary school leads to what will be the largest data center in the world. She just misses the playground in front of Holly Ridge Elementary School.
It’s shut down this year because it faces the roads where, every day, thousands of dump trucks and 18-wheelers thunder toward “Hyperion,” Meta’s $27 billion data center being built less than a mile away.
Holly Ridge is a town of fewer than 2,000 in Richland Parish, in the northeast corner of the state, where nearly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line. Before Meta broke ground last December, the town’s two-lane roads were quiet, scenic routes mostly used by locals.