All it takes is the shadow of a Wal-Mart to get people upset. Here’s a frontline report from residents in Palmer, Alaska: “It was about 4 weeks ago that a newspaper story stated one of Wal-Marts developers had an option to purchase land within 1/4 mile from town. Palmer is nestled in the most beautiful mountain scenery imaginable, with a quaint downtown with shops, gifts, bakery, sewing, quilts, doctors, nutrition, coffee house, bookstore, etc. The news shocked us all, so we set out on wild rampage to see what we could do. We attended the first council meeting to voice our opposition. We quickly formed a small citizens group, called People of Palmer, and our first meeting was soundly hijacked by the self invited mayor. He literally got his wife to invite him under the pretense he was on our side, then proceeded to steal the entire 1 1/2 hour meeting. When it was all done he revealed several things, one of which was that he was all for the new Wal-Mart. We had another meeting, more guarded this time. We have given each other jobs, calling citizens, inquiring about attorneys, petition drives, calling and emailing the council members every day, writing letters to the editor. The Wal-Mart developer has not submitted an application to build yet, so we feel our time is short. They are flooding the television airways with their “good neighbor” ads now. Palmer does have what is called an LRE (Large Retail Establishment)ordinance but we are hoping we can get the town council to enact a moratorium while we do what we can to revise this LRE. It seems our biggest task is simply educating the general populace about the evils of Wal-Mart and the large box store mentality.”
For more information about the stop Wal-Mart effort in Palmer, Alaska, contact People of Palmer [email protected] and their website, www.peopleofpalmer.com
