Councilman Wants Grocery Store Moratorium in Response to Wal-Mart Plan
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Controversy continues to swirl over a proposed neighborhood Wal-Mart and fuel station in East Montgomery. Montgomery city council members were scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss a possible moratorium on grocery stores.
But the meeting was cancelled this afternoon because there weren’t enough signatures to hold it.
Residents I spoke with in East Montgomery were ready to head down to city hall tomorrow to have their voices heard. But now that the meeting is cancelled, they’re feeling more frustrated than before.
A special called meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon regarding a proposed Wal-Mart was cancelled shortly after it was called. Three city councilman are required to sign off on a request for a special called meeting in order for it to be held and just two of them did, Arch Lee and Glen Pruitt
“I actually thought I had four signatures,” Lee says. “People had conflicts and what have you and they just felt like they couldn’t sign it.”
Pruitt has been spear heading the fight against a proposed neighborhood Wal-mart and fuel station in East Montgomery. He represents many people who could be impacted by it. The special called meeting was to discuss a possible moratorium on grocery stores, in an attempt to stop the neighborhood Wal-mart from coming.
“All we were going to do is we were going to introduce it and it would get carried over until April 7th,” he explains. “All I wanted the council to do was listen, just listen and vote your conscious. If you wanted to vote for it, great. If you didn’t, great. But at least listen to their concerns.”
They’re concerns people like Donnie Sasser have. Sasser owns Two Blessings Gift Boutique in the PepperTree Shopping Center off of Vaughn Road. His business is just a stone’s throw away from where the proposed Wal-Mart will be built. And he’s not happy about it.
“My main concern is for my customers, for their safety and the traffic issues they’re going to be dealing with on a daily basis.”
Many people in the community know Sasser, whose been very vocal in his opposition of the Wal-Mart. He’s calling on city leaders to listen to those who have concerns.
“They need to listen to those, hear their concerns and actually act in their best interest rather than just simply signing off on something because it is what it is.”
Pruitt is now working to get a third signature so that he can hold the meeting.
“We all want development,” he says. “Absolutely, we want development. Development is great for the city. But not at the cost of the people.”
