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THE WET HEN
Let the feathers fly!
By GreeneSpeak Editor & Publisher Cindy Bailey
Selected from the print edition
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OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF GREENESPEAK PUBLICATIONS IN WAYNESBURG PA
CINDY BAILEY, EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Contact Cindy at: 724-344-7980 or cindy@greenespeak.com
THE WET HEN
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[Posted May 10, 2008]
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WAL-MART, WHERE ART THOU?
(Selected from GreeneSpeak, March 2008 print edition)
By Cindy Bailey, GreeneSpeak Editor/Publisher
The publisher of this newspaper had the distinct honor of covering the kissy-face ceremony back in 2001 in which our then-commission chairman Dave Coder proudly announced that the road to everybody’s favorite Wal-Mart development would be dubbed “Murtha Drive.” That was because Jack had allocated a whole million dollars in federal money to help with the road.
This was in the days before our leaders had come up with that idiotic mascot, “Bituminous Billy,” so Jack was presented with a dopey basket of coal-related items. So at least our fine Congressman got about what he paid for. And Coder? He got to brag about his personal prowess in bringing retail development to Greene County. HA.
There was a whole lot of fooling around for the next three years or so, and the publisher of this newspaper also got to sit in on the baloney being spouted by the ever-popular LeRoy Kline of Delta Development who was eventually kicked off the projected due to lack of getting anywhere with it while simultaneously accepting checks from the county coffers.
So the cold potato was passed onto McHolme Construction and Jack tossed a little more chum into the stagnant waters to the tune of $2 million for his namesake. And as the Tribune-Review noted, the political gods smiled on Dave and his new cohort Pam Snyder, because they were able to announce in the waning days before the election in 2003 that McHolme had purchased the property from the county for the ungodly sum of $666,652 (notice all those sixes in there?). Back then they were bragging that the development would being “350” jobs to the county. And the people wept and paid homage to the Great Wal-Mart Gods with their vote,s birthing the deformed Greene Team right on the floors of the county precincts.
By mid-2006, someone finally pestered the Wal-Mart people, convincing them to purchase the tax write-off property for about half that, $277.994. And lo, trucks began to move dirt in July 2006. By early 2007, PennDOT said they would put more than $7 million into the kitty. And the Greene Team proclaimed that local taxpayers would be happy to pay $152,000 for “construction management services.”
So the boys pushed the dirt around on that hill, which someone aptly described as an “eco-scar,” for months as the people hoped and prayed and wept. Then the Head Cheese, our own Fast Eddie, arrived in Ruff Creek last fall with his entourage and said he would help out those po’ folks at McHolme with another cool $5 million in corporate welfare.
And all the people sighed. And Eddie smiled warmly when he said that the $12 million in public money that has heretofore been donated to the project wouldn’t really pay for even half of the boondoggle, which he estimated would really cost $35 million, although by now, Eddie said there would be “800” jobs out of the deal.
And then recently people noticed that the dust had settled and nary a block had been set. And for at least seven years, while we’ve been covering this story (if it IS one), we are always told that a grand opening is expected within a year. Frankly, it’s getting old reporting on this. It’s getting old seeing taxpayers’ money being wasted on ribbon-cutting-grandstanding sessions.
Our Rolodex is getting ridiculous. We have about a dozen names of Wal-Mart reps we’ve talked with over the years who have passed this buck onto some other dumb cluck. And everywhere we go, someone wants to know the latest on Wal-Mart. Well, the latest on Wal-Mart is always the same: GRAND OPENING NEXT YEAR. Do the math: $12 million plus a negative $23 million does NOT equal the cool $35 million even Eddie admits it will cost for roads/infrastructure.
For this article, we contacted Brian McGurk of McHolme and James Davis of Wal-Mart, who both say the project is STILL ON and is scheduled to open (you guessed it) “next year.” So please, if you want to know anymore about it, contact Davis, who is very friendly and helpful in a noncommittal sort of way, at 570-586-4268 or James.Davis@wal-mart.com. Maybe YOU can pester Wal-Mart enough to get somewhere. But hurry before he abandons his post like all the rest. We have real stories to (un)cover. At this point, we cry, “U-N-C-L-E!”
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