Cayuga County in New York State is relocating its primary data center to the Auburn Fire Station.

As reported by The Citizen, the city of Auburn will help Cayuga County to exit the current downtown office building, which has been officially closed since May 2024.

Cayuga County will pay $2,480 annually in rent for space at the fire station on Seminary Street. The data center will be used to host documents, employee information, financial systems, and public safety communications.

A vote is set to be held on the lease agreement during an Auburn City Council meeting today, July 17.

Cayuga County noted in a City Council memo that it needs "uninterrupted access to the data center to ensure reliable service delivery to residents, business continuity for county departments and the protection of sensitive information and public data."

The previous office building was closed down after testing found that it contained vermiculite throughout the building, which can contain asbestos.

The data center was located in the basement of that building, but in May 2025, the council said that further testing had confirmed the presence of asbestos in the basement; thus, the data center had to be relocated.

The memo further noted that the current location of the data center posed "a potential risk of contamination to high-value IT infrastructure" and that "a significant threat to the integrity and functionality of county technology assets exists."

In the UK, a man from Gloucester is currently engaging a legal team as he believes his terminal cancer is from working in a data center with asbestos.

The total expected cost of relocating the county data center is expected to be in the region of $343,000.

The Auburn Fire Station building was opened in October 2021. Cayuga County sits between Syracuse and Rochester in New York State.