Residents in Stoughton, Wisconsin are battling off an out-of-state developer who wants to ruin a 185 acre field of dreams to build yet another Wal-Mart supercenter. They’ve encapsulated their message to Wal-Mart into one Norweigan expression: “Uff-da”, which the local paper describes as “an expression of disgruntlement.” The developer needs to annex the land from Pleasant Springs, and get the zoning changed to commercial. More than 200 residents gathered this week to organize against the engineering company that is fronting for Wal-Mart, McClure Engineering, a company based in Illinois. Citizens have organized the Uff-da Wal-Mart Supercenter Committee to fight the annexation. Ironically, Wal-Mart already has a store on the west side of Stoughton, but its ‘only’ 40,000 s.f. They want to replace it with a store nearly five times larger on a 25 acre parcel of cornfield. According to Leslie Davis, a former Dane County Supervisor, “In Stoughton we have one of the few remaining vibrant downtown areas in Dane County. The city, volunteers, business people and private property owners have worked hard for over 30 years to maintain and improve our downtown. One 10-minute decision at Wal-Mart headquarters in Arkansas will change Stoughton’s future forever! And we’re not even invited to the decision-making table. So much for Wal-Mart being community friendly.” To show how “friendly” the store can be, the engineering firm has promised local residents that the facade will not be the usual blue and grey concrete exterior. “We’re looking at brick materials for the facade and improved entrances,” he said. “We realize we need to put the best foot forward, that this needs to be a better-than-average facility.” said a spokesman from McClure. Residents hope that Wal-Mart puts its foot forward, and just walks out of Stoughton, leaving the community a better than average place to live.
For local contacts in the Stoughton Uff-da campaign, contact [email protected]