WISCONSIN SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART PLAYING CHICKEN, LOOKING FOR HANDOUTS IN SHELL LAKE

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Wal-Mart needs help from city, county to continue [Washburn County Register (WI)]

SHELL LAKE – A Spooner Wal-Mart may be at a standstill, after the Washburn County Executive Committee announced that the company said the project was “in trouble” due to budget issues.

The committee met Monday, Sept. 8, in the Elliott Building, Shell Lake, to discuss the matter. Chair Micheal Bobin said four Wal-Mart representatives met with the county, city of Spooner and the Department of Transportation last week. Bobin said the representatives told those present that originally $2 million of infrastructure improvements for the Spooner project were slated. Now, he said, the company told him the costs have escalated, raising the total to around $4 million. If the cost can’t be brought back down to around $3 million, Bobin said, the store may not come to Spooner.

“They threatened to cancel the project,” Bobin said.

Committee member Tom Mackie said the way he understood Wal-Mart’s representatives at last week’s meeting, they wanted $1 million from the city, county or both, or that they wouldn’t be going ahead with the project.

“Personally, I believe this is a game of chicken,” Mackie said.

Bobin said he still supports bringing Wal-Mart to Spooner and the county.

“This is not a back-off from our position,” he said.

At this time, however, Bobin said he felt the county had no extra money to put forward for the project. He said that the county is on a 2-percent levy freeze, and with the budget deficit for the coming year, there is no way the county can come up with the extra funds for Wal-Mart’s infrastructure improvements, as the company was asking for at the meeting last week. He said the county and city had understood Wal-Mart would be paying for everything in the project, an aspect that had been outlined in a memorandum of understanding just this summer.

Bobin said he would not speak for the Spooner City administrators’ feelings on the matter.

Vice Chair Don Quinton said he supported bringing Wal-Mart to Spooner, but was getting tired of “the game.”

Bobin said he was surprised the company had asked for more extensions, which will be their seventh and eighth since the project began in 2005, just one month ago.

Mackie said nothing is in writing either, but strictly verbal communication.

Mayor Gary Cuskey said later that day that after meeting with Wal-Mart last week, he understood they needed ideas to help reduce the cost of the project, as they want to continue, and said “they are over whatever they had budgeted.”

Cuskey said the city itself does not know yet what it can or can’t do.

“I don’t know of any plan at this point,” he said. “Our thinking caps are on. We would try to help development any way we can.”

Wa-Mart Public Affairs representative Lisa Nelson confirmed in an e-mail that the project is over its budget, and the company is looking for ways to make it work.

“Ultimately, we are looking to reduce the $4 million of off-site costs so the project meets the financial threshold required by our company for new stores,” Nelson said in the e-mail. “Our first preference is to reduce the scope of the off-site work that isn’t necessary for the store to open. TIF (a tax increment district) was discussed as one solution to help pay for public improvements that are not necessary for the successful operation of the store.”

Nelson said the company would do whatever it takes to help, without raising taxes for citizens.

“We have consistently said we will pay for the improvements necessary that impact the store - and we will - but the scope of some of the offsite work in the current plan is outside that definition,” Nelson said.

The executive committee forwarded the Wal-Mart update to the full board, and it will be on the agenda at next Tuesday’s meeting.

Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 11, 2008