SALEM TOWNSHIP, PA — “An initial investment of at least 20 billion dollars,” says Governor Shapiro during a presser on Monday in Columbia County.

This is how much Amazon will be paying to build two brand-new AI-assisted data centers in Pennsylvania. 

One of the data centers will be built in Salem Township near Berwick. Shapiro says there is a potential for hundreds of jobs in the area.

Sharon Wickham of Salem Township says, “The amount of jobs is amazing; I think it’d be really good for the community. I like that.”

Salem Township has a significantly lower population density than one of its nearest neighbors, the borough of Berwick, where there are a lot more restaurants, stores, and houses. 

Berwick Borough Manager Damien Scoblink says, “Our businesses specifically, they’re going to see a lot more people just in general, our restaurants. People like to eat, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Our small shops are going to have more people in and out, our housing is going to see improvement.”

One concern that some in Berwick had was the traffic, which they say is a small price to pay for a potential for large economic growth.

“You have to take what you can get. I mean, yeah, there’s going to be a lot of construction, but it’s going to be basically on Route 11, it’s not going to affect townspeople, I don’t think,” says Wickham. 

Robert Evans of Berwick says, “As long as they do something about the routing of the traffic to make it flow a little easier, they don’t have a lot of tie-ups and hold-ups everywhere. I see no problem with it.”