Wal-Mart to host meeting about Jefferson store plans on Jan. 8

Wednesday, December 26. 2012

Plans to locate a Walmart store in Jefferson will be unveiled by the company at a meeting in January. Walmart officials will host a town hall meeting at the Jefferson Civic Center at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 8. It will be in a “question and answer” format with interested citizens invited to attend. Wolverton & Associates, the company representing Walmart, has made an application for rezoning the Loggins property off Old Pendergrass Road where the store is proposed to be located. The application is available for public review at city hall.
The request will go before the Jefferson Planning Commission when it meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, at the civic center. The planners will forward a recommendation to the Jefferson City Council. The request will be on the Jefferson City Council agenda for discussion at the Feb. 11 meeting and for a vote at the Feb. 25 meeting. Both of the Jefferson City Council meetings will be at 6 p.m. at the civic center.

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#1 Steve Cromer on 12/27/12 at 02:54 PM [Reply]

test 10

#2 Redryder on 12/30/12 at 02:36 PM [Reply]

I sure hope this gets shot down. The last thing Jefferson needs is a Wal-Mart and all the trash that comes with. Small businesses have a hard enough time in Jackson Co as is.

#2.1 anon on 12/31/12 at 01:56 PM [Reply]

You don't believe in free market capitalism?

#3 Double B on 01/01/13 at 07:51 PM [Reply]

Multi billion Dollar company comes to town no matter what it will not be a free market. Just means more low paying jobs and people at the welfare lines. Wal-Mart what a great company they pay just enough so the employees can still get food stamps and medicaid. Plus crime will go up so you will need to hire 2 more officers. Yea this sounds like a real deal.

#3.1 What??? on 01/02/13 at 03:29 PM [Reply]

"Just means more low paying jobs and people at the welfare lines." I thought more jobs were good and more jobs would reduce the number of people seeking government assiatance.

"Plus crime will go up so you will need to hire 2 more officers." Do you have a crystal ball? How do you know this will happen?

Two more officers? That is a specific number. What data do you have to support that number?

So Double B, what type of economic growth would suit you and where should it be located? The only people I have had conversation with that complained about the prospect of the WalMart is mostly residents on Old Pendergrass that are afraid of the bright lights and potential traffic affecting their property values. I bet you live in Fountain Head don't you?

#3.1.1 Simple minds aprove on 01/02/13 at 04:35 PM [Reply]

During the last 20 years, Wal-Mart has moved into communities and destroyed them, wiping out stores, slashing the tax base, and turning downtown areas into ghost-towns. This is accomplished through Wal-Mart's policy of paying workers below subsistence wages, and importing goods, and always asking the town for tax incentives, then you have 100 part time works living in your town still on welfare.

#4 Double B on 01/02/13 at 04:16 PM [Reply]

Economic growth is not Wal-Marts it is companies that build things ship things. Wal-Mart is a company that leaches off of government subsidies. This is a company that will make millions off of jackson county just to underpay every employee it hires. www.ilsr.org/walmart-destroys-social-capital-study-finds if you want some of your facts about wal-mart. Walmart is not bring Jobs to Jackson County it will destroy them.

#5 JustPlainOldBob on 01/02/13 at 11:10 PM [Reply]

Walmart is huge machine no one can stop it. They are well oiled, precision, and will take NO for an answer.

Jackson County needs jobs GOOD jobs. These jobs are so low paying I wish they could unionize.

#6 tax,tax,tax on 01/03/13 at 03:38 PM [Reply]

get ready it's coming. even if the council had the guts to say no to Wal-mart, they will simply get sued for denying their application. WM steamrolls its' way into town and crushes any opposition !!!

#6.1 double B on 01/03/13 at 03:51 PM [Reply]

The key is how much of a tax incentive are the slick city boys going to con our back woods dummies into?

#7 Wool hooo on 01/04/13 at 07:33 AM [Reply]

I can't wait to get a store in Jefferson. I have lived here about nine years and one thing I have learned is it is not a big box that puts the 'little guy' out of business, it is the little guy.

If your store is not open when I leave for work, come home from work, or on the weekends how do you expect me to patronize you? Plus you may want to think about having some service. The hardware / lumber store wouldn't even cut a piece of wood for me a few years ago. Guess where I went...Home Depot.

I tried to patronize the Jefferson stores but sorry the service overall is horrible. I was excited to see Kroger a few years back now bring on Walmart!

#7.1 Agree on 01/05/13 at 11:43 AM [Reply]

Not only are the local stores service lousy but nothing is in stock.

You can't expect me to buy from you when everytime I need something it's "don't have it in stock but we can order it"

Time for Wal-mart and Lowes to move in and the $ folks spend outside the county to stay here because right now you can't get what you need.

#8 commonsense on 01/04/13 at 11:16 AM [Reply]

You can't move "close to everything" then get upset later when you are "close to everything". I chose "far from everything" and I have to accept I am "far from everything". That's how this works.

#9 Double b on 01/04/13 at 01:38 PM [Reply]

I agree our local stores operation hours are out dated. I'm not apposed to a big box store. What I don't want is for our county to give them tax breaks or free anything. In Athens they gave up $75 million to cat and won't see a return on the investment for 25 to 30 years pending they don't shut the company down. The also need to punish any company making a profit for every employee on food stamps.

#9.1 anon on 01/05/13 at 06:10 AM [Reply]

I haven't read anything about incentives offered to WalMart for locating in Jackson county. Where are hearing this?

#9.1.1 Double B on 01/05/13 at 10:34 PM [Reply]

I'm not reading it anyplace, that is the normal Wal-mart tactic they use. In most cases they wont build in an area without tax incentives or some type of local government kick backs, this is just facts. As far as Windstream goes why would they fix anything they have no competition. I for one would pay double for my internet if it were faster. I work from home and rely on internet and I find myself hooked up to my phone more than I am on my DSL.

#10 goodsideeffects on 01/05/13 at 04:44 PM [Reply]

I am hoping if Walmart comes other good things will come with them. Like an internet service provider that actually works. Windstream is having so many problems nationwide and is slower than dial up speeds from the 90's! There are 2 sites trying to work on this if anyone wants to join DSLreports is one and the other is WindstreamCommunications Facebook page.

#11 LCG on 01/06/13 at 09:58 AM [Reply]

As for a Wal-Mart, I would prefer a Target. But more to the point of Windstream. There are other options. It is called Hughes net. I switched and so have others in my neighborhood and we could NOT be more happier. I have nothing with windstream. No internet and no home phone. I have hughes net internet and pay less and have WAY faster speed and for a home phone. I have verizon home which is cheaper and best thing is, it does not go down when it rains. Switched months ago and could not be happier. Look at hughes net and wild blue to. Both are good.

#11.1 double B on 01/06/13 at 05:11 PM [Reply]

Hughes net is not an option that have a 2g cap that might be good for a phone but try working from home on that type of bandwidth. Most people that use internet for more than 1 hour per day can not work on 2 to 5gigs of data. I would love to be able to use Hughes net but laughed so hard when I saw the data limits. I also was going to pay $400 a month for a T1 connection but you can not get one in this area.

#11.1.1 double B on 01/06/13 at 05:37 PM [Reply]

was trying to type 20GB and 15GB. This still is not enough for anyone that is more than a casual internet user. My family does not have cable we use netflix and Hulu plus our work then we have 4 kids on the internet. Telling people Hughes net is a good choice is crazy they will have overages every month and pay out the wa-zoo. The service is great for a single person or old person that only checks email and facebook but this is the digital age and bandwidth is king. We need to change the franchise agreement our county has with windstream (if we can?).

#11.1.1.1 lcg on 01/06/13 at 06:34 PM [Reply]

Then not sure what you are looking at. I work from home and run three vpn connections, two in country and one out of country and have five other computers going while I am running three vpn connections, in addtion to online game playing with xbox 360 and internet game playing via computer and we still have NO issues with hughes net. In addtion, I have NEVER ran over any limit which by the way if you get the right package will reset daily or monthly. I have never been charged more than what I was stated from day one at anytime. On windstream, I could only run one vpn and when others were online it would kick you off. So, to say that hughes is not a better option than windstream-- laughable. You would rather stay with somthing that really sucks and limits your ablily and complain about it then to try for something better. Oh well, choose to stay with them and they will continue to stay the way they are because you will not go. I LOVE hughes. never been kicked off and never had any issues with anything.

#12 Tigerfan on 01/06/13 at 05:25 PM [Reply]

For the people of Jefferson who don't want a Walmart ... stay out of here commerce's store and quit assuming they bring trash. That is the talk of the Jefferson crowd who thinks they are better than someone.. news flash.. your not.... you go to the restroom just like the rest of us. Go ahead and depend on your local stores and when you get tired of waiting or not getting what u need then ride to athens or somewhere but stay away from commerce because were not good enough for ya!

#12.1 what now on 01/06/13 at 05:44 PM [Reply]

Tigerfan it is not that we don't want a Walmart it is that we don't want to give them tax breaks and pay to build there big box store just for them to turn around and hire %75 part time workers and turn the burden back over to the tax payer. Also the Walmart is no longer in Commerce that land is in banks county and they pay taxes to banks county. Ask them how much they like having it there.

#13 windstreamsucks on 01/07/13 at 04:48 AM [Reply]

Hughes Net and Wild Blue both have just as bad reviews as Windstream?
Trying a new company can be expensive if they are worse and your locked into a contract.

#14 windstreamsucks on 01/07/13 at 08:46 AM [Reply]

Mike since so many citizens have speeds lower than third world countries and even slower than dial up, can you write a story on this? Other papers have.

Citizens in the Piedmont area are holding a meeting today over Windstream service and their government representative is coming to hear any concerns. Other cities are apparently doing the same. Does anyone here have any personal contacts so we can get a meeting set up locally? Canton GA seems to be the next city holding a meeting from things I have read.

I can't believe Windstream got billions through a bail out! Now the CEO is getting millions in cash and bonuses!

#15 Disbott3000 on 01/08/13 at 02:23 PM [Reply]

For those of us who do not want this Wal Mart, do not give up hope. Wal Mart wanted to build a store in downtown Athens last year, but the citizens raised a ruckus, a very loud and consistent one, to the point that they finally just backed out of the deal. We CAN stop them from moving in. We just have to make our voices heard and tell them repeatedly that we do not want them in our town. Say NO to Wal-Mart!

#16 Just in case on 01/08/13 at 04:08 PM [Reply]

Gun owners beware! Obama is thought to be trying to use crony capitalism (like he did with Obamacare) to get Walmart behind his gun control agenda. Remember how AARP, big Pharma, the AMA and others were used like the tools they are by Obama to screw the nation and, should Walmart get in bed with Obama be prepared to oppose any Walmart plans and boycott Walmart stores.

#17 Ready for Growth on 01/08/13 at 06:07 PM [Reply]

Personally, I am OK with Wal-Mart coming to Jefferson. I wish it were at I-85 instead of Old Pendergrass Road, but we do need somewhere to buy things without driving to Athens or Commerce so often.

Example, when my son needed new equipment for baseball season, there is no where in this sports crazy town to buy sporting goods. I had to waste time and gas money driving to Athens, and saw several of my fellow Jefferson residents there as well. More than one person said, "I wish we didn't have to drive here every time we need stuff for sports."

The local businesses who have been providing the personal touch and great customer service they are famous for will be just fine. People will keep going to those businesses because of the great service, and only go to Wal-Mart for the things they can't buy in those local stores.

The local businesses who will suffer are the ones with inflexible hours and who offer a low selection to choose from.

Along with Wal-Mart will probably come other businesses, stores, and restaurants. I would love to have a Lowe's, some clothing stores, and something to eat in Jefferson besides pizza (6 the last time I checked).

I do feel for the people who live in that area where the store is being proposed. But, you can't buy a house on an un-developed major highway like this, and tell me you never expected it to be developed. Sugarloaf Parkway was once a cow pasture, it's not like any of this should be a surprise. When a new major road is built, development comes in right behind it. There are plenty of places to buy a house in Jefferson, but they chose to live next to the bypass. However, I do understand their concerns. I wish this was going to be built at I-85, but whether it's Wal-Mart or someone else, that land isn't going to just sit there vacant for hundreds of years while someone pays taxes on it.

There is always good and bad with growth, but I think the good outweighs the bad in this case.

#18 anon on 01/09/13 at 05:09 AM [Reply]

There was a good turnout last night, I would guess 200 people. Most of them seemed to be from the surrounding subdivisions. At one point someone asked for a show of hands and there were more than half opposed, a handful in support, and easily a third that didn't voice an opinion. My wife told me not to say anything. The entrance being placed on Pendergrass Road was a surprise, I had heard it only be accessible from the bypass. Many people voiced concerns over the safety of the schoolchildren down the street. Have you seen the traffic generated by the schools? Wasn't anyone concerned about the safety of pedestrians when the decision to cluster all those schools so close together was made? Would be surprised if the Planning Commission or the Mayor and Council support the rezone.

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Wal-Mart to host meeting about Jefferson store plans on Jan. 8

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Wal-Mart to host meeting about Jefferson store plans on Jan. 8

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