The Supercomputing Center in Holyoke Is Coming

Just last week we were enjoying long, long days as the southern hemisphere moved into its summer. More than once we would be having dinner at 8 or 9 o’clock and the striking light outside made us swear that it was about 5. Today as I sit in Holyoke and look out over a light dusting of snow, I realize that yes, it will be pitch black at 5 pm, and no, we’re not headed toward any summer just yet.

I joined many friends from Holyoke at a party that we attend every year on River Terrace. Among the topics of conversation was the computing center that is going to be built somewhere in the Paper City. It will take advantage of all of the water in the canals which can be used to cool thousands of PCs that run in datacenters, plus the electricity that is made by hydropower and costs a third less than in other cities.

Nobody really knows exactly when this super computer facility will be built; or exactly where it will rise up. Parson’s Paper Mill and the buildings near Open Square appear to be the front runners, according to Jeff Hayden, of GCC who was once the city’s chief promoter.

Though I’m only a weekend Holyoker, I take full part in the revitalization here; attending the meetings, the functions and blogging it up to help spread the enthusiasm. I think we’ll look back on 2009 as the year that the city finally realized its potential, and started to really grow.

Along with this exciting news about the future, I heard some depressing stories of the present, about Holyoke’s treasurer. Apparently he had a shoebox full of excise tax checks never deposited, failed to send in premiums for teacher’s health insurance and played a lot of golf during the work day. Glad to see that he didn’t get re-elected, good riddance!