Homeowners in Lawton, Oklahoma have literally “woken up” to the fact that their city officials have been doing some real estate wheeling and dealing with a Wal-Mart superstore in their backyards. Here’s a frontline report from a surprised resident in Lawton: “Just before the holidays I attended a town council meeting as did many other neighbors. Evidently our town officials made available to Wal Mart the extra land they needed to complete their deal. (This was done anonymously/secretly). We filed a petition opposing the project by the deadline 12/27. I’m not sure the outcome, but also don’t know what else we can do. While visiting a friend in Oklahoma City this last week end, I learned she read in HER LOCAL PAPER, the Daily Oklahoman, nearly a month ago that Wal Mart was moving in on 67th and Cache Rd in Lawton. We never had such a article in our paper and only found out about the deal by rumor and word of mouth due to some supposed “leak” from town officials…How can Wal Mart get away with this? Is there more we can do? We just bought our dream home a little over a year ago…and now if Wal Mart moves in, the parking lot will be caddy corner from my back yard, the lights will illuminate my bedroom/bath all night..the streets will be widened and we will probably loose property to the road even though there is no “easement”.
For further information about the brewing battle in Lawton, email [email protected]. For more Oklahoma war stories, search this newsflash database using the word “Oklahoma”