Post Bulletin reports...

 Like most cities, Pine Island has a host of issues on its plate. Housing growth, property taxes, zoning, street repair and improvement.

All of it pales in comparison to the data center, a proposed project that would bring tech giant Google to town in a development known as Project Skyway.

With the election coming Nov. 3, three positions — two on the city council, one for mayor — are on the ballot, and how Pine Island residents vote could determine whether the much-debated data center continues to move forward or sees the brakes pumped.

Six candidates — two for mayor, four for city council — are fairly evenly split over the data center issue.

Since Project Skyway first came before the Pine Island City Council in February 2025 with a vote for orderly annexation of land that would become the Project Skyway site, the council has voted 5-0 to move the project forward.

But with three of those five positions on the ballot, the anti-data center contingent, if it sweeps all the seats, could have enough seats on the council to generate 3-2 votes against the development.