Thursday, March 02, 2006
Village No Longer Needs Proposed Wal-Mart Building Site
Story on WNBZ radio website here. It seems the village of SL has plenty of sand on a 220 acre piece of land located across from the sewage treatment plant. They are now applying for a mining permit to take sand from the site. This means that the old sandpit area can be freed up for purchase by whomever (Wal-Mart). And guess what? It just so happens that the 220 acre site is perfectly suitable for a housing development. That means future housing development at the old sandpit site no longer need concern us. Funny how things just happen to fall into place, especially when no really knows what is going on.
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maybe the property is suitable for housing, but who would want to live there? Howard Riley in his commentary said it well. "Debbie McDonnell even suggested at this same meeting that some of the property could be used for affordable housing, although no one seems to know what affordable housing means. It will be affordable all right; wait until the wind changes and your little piece of paradise is located right behind the sewage treatment plant." Howard is right when he says no one seems to know what affordable housing means. Does anyone want to venture an idea here?
Personally, I am so saddened by all the accusations, mud slinging and name calling I have seen lately. And it is all because we have no place to buy clothing, household items,etc. Who could have imagined what the loss of Ames would do to this community? I heard many times that "Ames ain't got nothing." But many of us shopped there, and Ames managed to sell lots OF NOTHING over the years.
The unfortunate thing here is that many small department stores have gone out of business. Ames, Woolworth, W.T. Grant, Newberry's and many others are gone. Why? Some because of mismanagement and financial troubles. Others because the Wal-Marts and K-Marts of the world forced them to close as they just couldn't compete.
It is also unfortunate that we are such a small community that even the Target's, Kohl's and Hacketts won't come. But there is a solution to all this.
In 2004 the Enterprise had an editoral about a "community based department store." If we had pursued it back then, we would already have it. This concept is successfully working in Powell, Wyoming and other communities. We didn't get named the 1998 All America City for nothing. Why don't we try this concept instread? I bet it wouldn't take long to get it going, and it is certainly better than mud slinging, name calling, and a divided community.
I agree - it seems like a perfect fit for this community. How does one go about starting the process to get one here? I guess the reality is that until we know what is going to happen with Walmart, there isn't much sense in pursing it (i.e. who would invest in a community store w/ w-m coming to town?)
Also, from what I've heard, HAcketts wants in here but they won't build a store (they want to rent/buy an existing structure).
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