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CENTERVILLE - At Wal-Mart, they sell everything from sh-- to Shinola.'' And that, says Harry Weir, is the problem.
The small-town ambience around here is going down the road. And Wal-Mart is taking it there,'' said Weir, a 50-year Centerville resident, outside a public hearing here Wednesday evening.
Weir and his wife, Eloise, were thrown out of the meeting after they hoisted signs that begged the Centerville Planning Commission to Just Say No'' to Wal-Mart.
The remaining 125 residents in attendance, however, followed commission protocol. One after another, for 2 1/2 hours, they marched to the microphone to politely voice their displeasure with the proposal to build a 209,000-square-foot Super Center at 400 West and Parrish Lane:
Too much traffic. Too much noise. Too much crime.
The commission is scheduled to vote Aug. 11 whether to issue the retail giant a conditional-use permit.
Wal-Mart spokesman Eric Berger told the panel that Wal-Mart's grocery stores within supercenters have the impact of reducing grocery prices. It's the competition of the marketplace,'' he said, noting that average households in Wal-Mart market areas save about $500 a year.
Resident Garry Flake braved boos to add that Wal-Mart is projected to bring a 12 percent to 13 percent increase in revenue for the town. We can improve roads and parking with that money. It will keep taxes down. Let's let Wal-Mart come in and work with them,'' he said.
Supporters, however, were few. Jean Jensen reminded the commission that a poll of 400 Centerville households in early July revealed 73 percent were against the Super Center. The poll was commissioned by Centerville Citizens First, a group formed to stop Wal-Mart.
The store also would drive down real estate values and diminish Centerville's small town flavor, Jensen told the commission.
The planning staff has announced Wal-Mart is what they want to see, Jensen said. But if this is progress, we don't want it. And we don't need it. And you're the ones to stop it.''
Centerville planners had earlier unveiled an economic development report it commissioned from Salt Lake City-based Lewis, Young, Robertson and Burningham.
The report predicted the Wal-Mart Super Center would bring $9 million to $11 million into city coffers during the next 15 years, said Community Economic Development Director Cory Snyder.
But Wednesday evening George Fisher unveiled a new study by economist Thomas Muller that challenged the city's report. Commissioned by Centerville Citizens First, the report said the city's review was based on faulty and incomplete information and questioned its objectivity.
Muller's report says that Wal-Mart typically drives down wages and the number of jobs in its market area. And retail sales will be reduced at surrounding businesses that will not be able to compete with Wal-Mart, the report states.
The [city's] report ignores the fact that a decline of 25 percent or more in competitive business, such as supermarket, usually means that such a business would have to close its doors.''
But for Centerville resident Brock Place, economic studies in favor or against Wal-Mart are not the point.
My concern is that the city officials and mayor are not listening to the overwhelming sentiments of the community, Place said. That ought to be respected, no matter what the economic development study says.''
If the Planning Commission grants a conditional-use permit, the proposal to subdivide the area would have to be approved by the City Council before the project could go forward.